The Mystery of Godliness

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folks that are not able to be here. Back in December 26, 2021, it's been basically three years ago, but I'd like to give some fresh bread from this text this morning and a fresh application.
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Now the interpretation is the same, right? And I think it's profitable and it's always good for us to revisit scriptures and like John 3 .16,
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you know, it's a very familiar verse to all of us, but how many times at Redeeming Grace Church have we visited that wonderful verse?
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Well like this, this is 1 Timothy 3 .16. So if you have your
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Bibles, please turn to the epistle of 1 Timothy 3 and we're looking at one verse, verse 16.
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I'm reading the text from the NASB.
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Most translations is very similar, but the
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NASB says this of 1 Timothy 3 .16. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness.
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He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory.
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Praise God. Let's bow in prayer and ask our Lord to bless this time of worship as we continue to look to him as we hear his word.
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Our Father in heaven, we praise you, we thank you, we give thanks unto you for your unspeakable gift to your one and only son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, who came to give himself. You sent him,
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Lord, into this world of woe, darkness, to redeem sinners like us.
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Lord, it makes me think of the scripture that the apostle Paul says, through your spirit, it is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom
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I'm foremost of all. Lord, if the apostle Paul can say that, where does that place us?
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Lord, I pray to give each and every one of us here today ears to hear and eyes to see, a heart to perceive, the one true living
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Christ of God, your son, your beloved son in whom you sent, whom you are well pleased in, the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Lord, we pray that we would lift him up and lift him up alone, the one who lived, the one that was born, incarnate, came flesh, took upon himself flesh, tabernacled among us, lived a perfect life, crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended on high and glorified, and Lord, soon to come back again in power and glory with all the holy angels.
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Lord, may you be honored and glorified in all that is said here today, and we praise you for that unspeakable gift, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and we pray this in your name, amen. Amen. Now, I'd like to say at the beginning here that the text before us was more than likely sung as a hymn in the early church, the early apostolic church, as so many other scriptures that the
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Apostle Paul wrote through the inspired spirit, some such as Ephesians chapter 5,
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Colossians 3. The Apostle Paul actually commands us as believers to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in our hearts to the
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Lord. That was actually an integral part of worship in the early church, and it should be for us as well.
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In the Old Testament, even the saints of old had hymns of praise and worship called the
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Book of Psalms, the Psalter, comprehensive 150 chapters.
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You study the New Testament thoroughly, you see Romans chapter 8, verse 31 to 39 was a hymn of security for believers.
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It was a hymn. They sung it. The New Testament church sung this.
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You also have Romans chapter 11, verses 33 to 36. You can look that up in your time.
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It's like a benediction of praise, of doxology, as Paul is just pouring on theology.
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But good solid theology always leads to solid strong doxology.
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We're here just not for information, but for transformation. We're not here just to hear theology.
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We're here to pour on doxology and leads us to praise and worship to God. So you see this in Scripture.
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Even first chapter of Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 3 to 14 is actually no break there.
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If you read that, it speaks of God's redemptive purpose, the doctrine of election, that God has elected some to eternal life there and those before the foundation of the world in Jesus Christ.
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Actually, this section was a hymn of praise that was sung in some fashion by the early church.
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Other songs such as found in Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 through 17. Philippians, that great text there in chapter 2, verses 6 through 11, it speaks of the humiliation and the incarnation and the exaltation of Jesus Christ was really sung by the
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New Testament church. So you see many passages in the epistles that they sung these scriptures, talking about singing the word of God.
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They sung God's word. Hymns of praise. And here actually, this text,
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Paul speaks of a hymn, it's a hymn of common confession. And you will notice the text and whatever translation you have, that translators, they set this verse particularly apart on poetic format because it's recognized that this verse takes on a different character than the regular flow of the text and so is indented and put in poetic lines.
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One statement in each line, like line upon line, precept upon precept.
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Notice how the hymn goes. He was revealed in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in the glory.
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Glorious truth here. Six lines in each line, indicators here that this is very likely a hymn, common hymn of confession.
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Gospel is being sung. They were singing the gospel. Now there's much,
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I'm not going to go by this outline, but you can break it up like this and I found this in the commentary of my pastoral commentator,
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Phillips, Phillips commentator.
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And he says this, beginning at 1 Timothy 3, verse 16 to 6, verse 19, the apostle gives to believers within the church of the living
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God, the practical application of how to become an effective
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Christian. Now it's interesting to note here, and I'm going to say this with what
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Phillips says here, that Paul is already given the application. So the section from chapter 3 all the way to chapter 6, you have application.
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Paul always has this order when he wrote the epistles. No matter what epistle that you read, we read, the apostle
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Paul had an order. The order was always, theology was first, sound theology, doctrine, teaching, and then that was the first half.
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And then the second half, the order was always personal application, practical application to how we are to live out this theology.
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It's not enough just to hear the theology. There must be application. And Paul gives this.
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Again, this is Phillips, in chapter 3, verse 16 to chapter 4, verse 16, he speaks about walking with God.
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And beginning with chapter 3, verse 16 to chapter 4, verse 7, the mystery of godliness is the mystery of godliness is the truth that's asserted.
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And then there's three actually major points here.
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First of all, you have the mystery of Christ as person. All this is in verse 16.
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Then you have the mystery of Christ as people. And then you have the mystery of Christ as power.
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The mystery of Christ as person, the mystery of Christ as people, the mystery of Christ as power.
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And this is broken up in several sections. Under the mystery of Christ as person, you have the virgin's womb.
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Jesus comes to live a human life. The vacant tomb is next.
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He comes to live a perfect life. Under the heading of the mystery of Christ as people, you have the heavenly host, then you have the heathen heart.
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And then under the heading the mystery of Christ as power, you have his triumph on this globe and his triumph in glory.
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So that's a lot that's packed in all together here. But I'd like to give an introduction here of what we're about to see from verse 16, which is really loaded up.
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It's one of the phrases in this text that I have long pondered by a common confession.
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And it's underscored by the title of this message. Great is the mystery of godliness.
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Great is the mystery of godliness. So let me ask some questions here. What does
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Paul mean by great is the mystery of godliness? The NIV translation puts it this way, the mystery from which true godliness springs great.
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So what does Paul mean by godliness again? Does he mean by godliness something like sanctification or as in great is the mystery of how we are to grow in godliness or how that we can become more godly or godlike in Jesus Christ?
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In other words, is he thinking about the process of our growth, our spiritual growth? Or is he thinking about the subjective result of God's saving work for and in us to make us godly as in great is the mystery that we are or have become godly?
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Something objective, just not only subjective. Objective to us like our faith or the faith, in the faith, verse 9, which actually says holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience.
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Or the truth, in verse 15, he speaks about the church of the living
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God, the pillar and the ground of the truth. So what does
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Paul mean? Is he speaking of does the whole phrase, what does it actually mean? That godliness is the big mystery.
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It's something that's been concealed, now revealed.
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Or that godliness, is that godliness based on the great mystery?
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Now those are some questions I'd like to just bring before you to make you think about what is the text saying?
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Interestingly, not many commentators really camp on this question. I looked them up and it's not a lot of them.
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Maybe the answer seems so obvious to them, but I'm a slow learner.
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I need some light shed on it. One commentator by the name of J .N .D.
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Kelly says this, helps to some degree. Kelly says, as in verse 9 above, the mystery of faith that stands for the redemptive plan which has been kept secret from all ages, but now been revealed in verse 9, the mystery of faith, the truth in verse 15 might be paraphrased, the saving revelation which lies behind and finds expression in the
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Christian faith and life, end quote. So, that's extremely helpful, what the mystery means.
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The mystery is elsewhere, as Paul speaks of, is something that was once concealed, but now revealed.
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The mystery then is the saving relationship of God and Jesus Christ. That is the mystery that's revealed.
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So, actually it fits perfect with what the text says today.
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He who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, were believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
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That's the mystery that's revealed. That has been revealed to us, revealed to the church, revealed to God's people.
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But that our godliness, and you know the apostle
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Paul's point is not that godliness in itself is mystery, mysterious, it's not.
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But that our godliness and our piety and our devotion, you could say, or you could say our personal holiness, our living of the
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Christian life is based on some great mystery, meaning something that once was concealed but now been revealed.
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But it's God's revelation of redemption, His redemptive plan in Jesus Christ.
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The whole Christian life faith is wholly dependent and trusting on and derived from God's revelation and all in Jesus Christ.
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You see what it's saying? It's all in the person and works of Christ. That's what's important folks.
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That's the gospel. If you're going to talk about the gospel, you might as well say I'm talking about Jesus. Because He is the gospel.
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He is the good news. Take Jesus away from it, His person, who
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He is, His works, you have no gospel. Well here the verse, actually in verse
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Timothy 3 .16 points us to this direction by common confession that great is the mystery of godliness.
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He who, I want you to get this now. He who, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
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God manifest in the flesh. It's really in the person of Jesus Christ.
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It's a personal relationship with Christ. It's in the person of Jesus Christ.
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The whole Christian life is based on that one person. He is the way, the truth, and the life in which
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He said of Himself. And more specifically, He is that absolute truth, incarnate.
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I love Colossians chapter 1 verse 27, 28, and 29. Let me quote it to you. Paul the apostle says to them, to the
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Colossian believers, to them God willed to make known, notice what Paul says, to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
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Gentiles. Which is, and here it is folks, here is the revelation.
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Which is Christ in you.
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That's the revelation. That's the mystery that's been revealed. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
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And then he goes on to say, Him we preach. Notice what he says, warning every man.
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Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
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Notice verse 29. He says, to this end I also labor, striving according to His working, which works in me mightily.
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Now, that's the balance here. The balance of the Christian life is,
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Paul gave full effort and gave everything that he had and his power and his labor to the
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Lord. Refers to working to the point of exhaustion for the cause of the gospel.
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Striving, the word striving is there. That's the word we get agonized. He agonized to the point of exhaustion to give the gospel to the world, to the
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Gentiles. Like an athlete completing an event or running an event, at the same time he knew that his striving, his agonizing, his work was not in his own power, but it was in the power of God.
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He realized this. Now, the common confession of the early church was sung
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To understand a little bit what he's saying here, look at verse 15. Paul says, but in case
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I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God.
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In other words, how is a believer to behave? That's convicting, isn't it?
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Which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the support of the truth. So Paul is speaking of the church of the living
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God and the original translation here, I love the original here because in the original
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Greek it basically says the living God's church. Just not only the church of the living
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God, but the living God's church. And if you look at it that way, if you say the church of the living
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God, the church takes priority. But if you say the living God's church,
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God takes priority. Jesus is the head of the church, so it's His church.
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He is the head of the church. No elders, no pastors, no deacons, but Christ.
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Christ takes priority. He is to have preeminence in all things. So the emphasis becomes solely on the living
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God. It is the living God's church. The one scripture according to Acts 20, 28 says which
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Jesus is the head of the church, He purchased with His own blood. Verse 15 introduces us to His church in 1
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Timothy 3 .15, the living God's church. And it's not, by the way, a dead institution.
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It's not a club. It is not an organization necessarily, but it's a living organism.
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Not a lifeless building, but a living organism, the people of God, the household of God, the household of faith.
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And Paul says it is the pillar and the support of the truth. So the truth is paramount.
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That's why we say, chapter and verse here, look at what the word of God says.
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Check it as a good Berean, because truth is everything. The living truth,
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Jesus Christ, and the written truth, the word of God. That truth is and is substantial and it is centered in the one person, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 16, by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness.
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That's the opening statement. And I love what he says here, without controversy, without controversy. What does that mean?
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It means it's not subject to debate. In other words,
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God has spoken. The argument's over, as R .C. Sproul would say. In other words, it's beyond dispute.
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No questions. God said it, and he means what he says.
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And we are to submit to his word. It is the unanimous conviction of the living
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God's church, and the church upholds that truth.
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Should, anyway. Sad to say we see this being a great falling away among us today, is it not?
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And it's a tragedy. It seems like everybody wants to say something or do something away from the word of God.
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Pragmatism, worldliness has just overcome and invaded the church. Or what is called the church.
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As MacArthur says, the church of the tares is much larger than the church of the wheat.
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And that's the truth. But we see the invasion of pragmatism and carnality and trying to add this or take away that.
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But it should be from Genesis to Revelation, what does the word of God say? Thus saith the
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Lord. It's the truth. So what is the truth? It's the common confession.
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It's the common confession. Great is the mystery of godliness. And the word again, mystery, is a word that Paul uses quite a lot, quite a very few times in his writings.
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It basically means something that has been concealed, hidden, and now it's revealed. Here it is.
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It was behind the scenes. You could not know it. But now God says, here, look.
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This is the revelation and it's in His Son. Jesus Christ.
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This is why when God the Father did speak, and when you read this in the
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New Testament, every time the focal point, what does He say? A thunder. Some people thought it thundered.
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They couldn't hear. But God spoke at Jesus' baptism. This is my beloved
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Son in whom I'm well pleased. Another time on the Mount of Transfiguration, God spoke.
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And actually, to rebuke the apostle Peter, when Peter was getting his eyes off Christ, and he was getting his ideas here and here, and let's make a tabernacle for this, and Elijah, and Moses, and he was getting all kiltered being a
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Jew, getting focused on Elijah who represented the prophets, and Moses who represented the law, and here is
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Christ. And the Father comes and speaks, and there was a cloud that came, and He says, this is my beloved
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Son, hear ye Him. Beloved, we need to take heed to that.
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Hear Christ. The Father focuses all of His attention on His Son, Christ.
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Christ, and Christ alone. Well, J .M.
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Darby said this about this great mystery of godliness. Here's another rare commentary on that verse that speaks about the mystery of godliness.
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This is often quoted, he says, and interpreted as it spoke of the mystery of the Godhead, or the mystery of Christ as person.
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But it is actually the mystery of godliness, or the secret by which all real godliness is produced.
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The divine spring of all that can be called piety in man, godliness springs from the knowledge of the incarnation, the death, the resurrection, the ascension of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, what he's saying is this is how God is known, and from abiding from this flows godliness.
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You know, the spring is Christ. Christ. He is the fountain in which all godliness springs.
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Folks, we could forget about living a godly life outside of Jesus. It takes Christ by a common confession.
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I got one more quote here, and then we're going to dig in with the Word of God verse by verse here, and look at these lines, these six lines.
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But Spurgeon said this, how can I leave out Spurgeon, right? If you love
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Spurgeon, I know you're with me. He says this, observe that the comprehensive summary of the gospel here is contained in six little sentences.
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Spurgeon goes on to say, which run with such regularity of measure in the original
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Greek that some have supposed them to be an ancient hymn, and it is possible that they may have been used as such in the early church, end quote.
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The first line. And it actually gives us an outline, so I'm going to use my own outline.
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We're just going to look at it verse by verse. We already looked at, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, and that's, what is that mystery of godliness?
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It springs from the gospel. And he begins, the apostle Paul, by order of the
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Holy Spirit, begins with this line. The first line is this, God was manifested in the flesh.
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He was manifested, or he who was revealed in the flesh.
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Manifested in the flesh. He who, again, refers to Jesus Christ, God, in flesh.
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The second person of the Trinity. So here, our great confession, that all true
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Christians affirm and believe, we believe that Jesus Christ is God in flesh. The incarnate
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God. God with us, Emmanuel. The very essence of the incarnation, beloved, is that God, the
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Son, the second person of the Trinity, came in flesh, and His deity,
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He took on humanity. So He was not 50 -50, 50 %
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God, 50 % man. No, He was 100 % God, 100 % man.
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He was the God -man. And yes, that in itself is a mystery.
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He was manifested in the flesh. John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the
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Word was God. Verse 2, He was in the beginning with God. Verse 14, and the
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Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That word dwelt means He tabernacled among us, became,
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He was flesh, we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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Full of grace and truth. So John the Apostle affirms the deity of Jesus Christ all the way through his gospel, as we've been looking at testifying of the great truth that Jesus Christ is
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God, that God is... God and Jesus Christ is
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God, the Lord. 1 John 2, verse 23,
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He goes on to say this, Whoever denies the Son does not have the
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Father. And the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 1 John 4, 2,
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By this you know the Spirit of God, and every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
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How important it is. That's the common confession of the church.
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And it begins, God was manifested in the flesh. Paul says in Colossians 1, 15 -18,
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He, Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by Him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him.
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He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. In other words, all things hold together.
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He upholds all things by the word of His power, as Hebrews says. He is also the head of the body, the church, and He is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself would come to have first place, preeminence, in everything.
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You notice that? Everything. Not only among the church, and if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you are part of that church.
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So, in everything in your life, Jesus is to have first place.
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Charles Wesley sang it in the great hymn, Heart the Herald Angels Sing. We're going to be singing that in our conclusion, and I love the second stanza.
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It's one of the greatest hymns that's written about the incarnation of Christ, ever penned.
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Christ by heaven, highest heaven adored, Christ the everlasting Lord, late in time behold
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Him come, offspring of a virgin's womb, veiled in flesh, Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity.
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Jesus Christ, pleased as man with man to dwell,
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Jesus our Emmanuel. Heart the Herald Angels Sing, and by the way, that's not the original, that actually was an edited version from Whitefield.
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Thank God for George Whitefield. Glory to the newborn King. And I believe the original was the glory to the
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King of Kings. That would go well to the text as well. So the living God's church affirms and believes
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He who God revealed in the flesh was not created, not made, but rather manifest, revealed, made visible.
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Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, made visible. He dwelt among us in human form.
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The Holy Ones appear, the Holy One appeared in human flesh.
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Philippians 2, 6 -8. How can I not speak this to you beloved? Paul says,
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Who although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied
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Himself, taking the form of a bond slave, and being made in the likeness of man, being found in the appearance of a man,
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He humbled Himself, became obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross.
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1 John 1 -2. What was from the beginning that we, speaking of the apostles, we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.
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And the life was manifested. And we have seen and testified and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the
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Father and was manifested to us. Christ. The second line.
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That's the first line. God was manifested in the flesh. Can you imagine the early church singing this? Justified in the
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Spirit. Justified in the Spirit. In other words, another translation says, He was vindicated in the
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Spirit. That's our common confession. That basically says that Jesus Christ was vindicated, justified in the
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Spirit. What does that mean? What does that mean? It basically says, it indicates a declaration of Christ's perfect righteousness.
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This is the heart of the Gospel, folks. The great exchange. Christ takes in faith, and when we come to Him and repent and believe in the
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Gospel, there's a great exchange that takes place. It's not a single imputation, it's a double imputation.
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The great exchange is, He takes our filthy rags, and He gives us a garment of pure, clean righteousness.
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His righteousness. So that we will be able, judicially, to stand before a holy
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God, and God will declare us righteous. Not because we're righteous, because we're not.
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There's none righteous. No, not one. And our righteousness is what? Filthy rags before God.
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So what do we do with those rags? We take them to God. Say, Lord, I'm filthy, I'm not fit for the kingdom.
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Christ gives us His perfect robe of righteousness. So, the spotless
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Son of God, absolutely sinless, the Lord Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us.
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2 Corinthians 5 .21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
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Folks, that's the Gospel, and packed together in one verse. Seventeen words in the
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Greek. The heart of the Gospel summarized, expressed in these, I'm sorry, fifteen
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Greek words. The doctrine of imputation, the substitution of sacrifice, explained all in one single verse.
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Jesus Christ was vindicated. He was justified. But how was He vindicated? Let's look at this.
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How was He vindicated? Romans 1 .4 Jesus Christ who was declared the
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Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness. Jesus Christ our Lord.
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MacArthur says this, the resurrection clearly declared that Jesus was deity.
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The expression of God Himself in human form, while He was eternally the Son in anticipation of His incarnation.
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It was when He entered the world in incarnation that He was declared to all the world as the
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Son of God and took on the role of submission to the Father. And it came through the incarnation.
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How could He do this unless He became flesh? Physically. Jesus Christ was vindicated in the
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Spirit. His final vindication was at the end of His perfect, sinless, spotless life.
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His revelation in the flesh at the end point once He died on the cross of Calvary, then it was time to render vindication.
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Think of that. Wicked men planned His death. And Paul actually says this in 1
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Corinthians. He says if they knew who the Lord of glory was they would have never crucified Him.
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God had blinders on them for Christ to be crucified. And there was one among the apostles that would betray
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Him as Brother Keith talked about. He kissed the face of Christ and betrayed the
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Lord of glory. But if He really knew who He was He would not have done that.
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And if you read the prayer of Jesus to the Father in John 17 Jesus speaks and He's praying for the apostles.
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Then He prays for all believers. But as He's praying for the apostles what does He say? He says, Father You have kept them.
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I have kept them. You gave them to Me. I have kept them. All but one.
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The son of perdition. It was all in the plan of God that Christ would be crucified on the cross.
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And this threw everybody for... I mean, even the prophet
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John the Baptist for a loop because he was figuring at the time when
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Christ came that Christ, as we are anticipating the second coming that Christ would take over as king.
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No one looked at Him as a crucified king. But folks, that exactly was in the plan of God because He was the
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Lamb of God. Didn't John the
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Baptist understand He was the Lamb of God? Absolutely. He understood His person but like the apostle
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Peter he confessed that Jesus Christ was the son of the living God. And then it turns right around and John the
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Baptist was confused about this as well. And Peter basically starts to rebuke the
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Lord Jesus Christ and says, Be it far from you to go to the cross. And Christ was going to say... He was saying,
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I will be crucified. I will be handed over to sinners. It is all the Father's will. And Peter says,
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Be it far from you, Lord. And Jesus looked at him and says, Get thee behind Me, Satan. You savor the things of men, not of God.
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You see, that was the mission of Jesus that He was born to die and go to the cross.
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Folks, if we lose sight of that, we've lost sight of the whole gospel. He came to die.
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He was born to die. God had the last word, didn't
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He? Three days later, after Jesus was crucified, buried, Jesus Christ was justified in the
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Spirit. He was raised from the dead. Listen to what the apostle
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Peter preached on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, verse 22 to 39, the glorified, resurrected
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Christ. And let me turn to that real quick. Acts 2.
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You can turn with me there if you like. This is very important. Look at verse 22 to verse 39.
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This great sermon as Peter preaches under the power of the
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Spirit of God. And what does he preach? What does he preach?
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He preaches Christ, the resurrected Christ. Men of Israel, hear these words.
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Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to God, to you by miracles, wonders, signs, which God did through Him in your midst, as yourselves also know
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Him, being delivered by the determined purpose of the foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death whom
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God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
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For David says concerning Him, I foresaw, quotes David, for I foresaw the
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Lord always before my face, He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
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Therefore my heart rejoiced, my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Hades, basically the grave, or Sheol.
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Nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. His body will not decay.
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Verse 28, You have made known to me the ways of life, and You will make me full of joy in Your presence.
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And then Peter goes on to say, Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried.
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Now he's given the interpretation of this. And his tomb is with us today. In other words,
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David's dead and gone. He's decaying, but he prophesied about the Messiah. He goes on to say,
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Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn an oath to Him, that of the fruit of His body, according to the flesh,
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He would raise up the Christ to sit on His throne. The glorious resurrection.
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Verse 31, He foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did
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His flesh see corruption. This Jesus, God has raised up, of which all are witnesses, therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the
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Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear, this is on the day of Pentecost.
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For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.
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Says it all. He was vindicated by the Spirit, justified. God raised
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Jesus from the dead, and now declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
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Now the next line. First we have seen, God was manifest in the flesh, He's justified in the
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Spirit. Third line, Seen by angels. Seen by angels. What does this refer to?
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Angels have a great interest in the events surrounding the Incarnation. Look in Scripture.
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The Incarnation. Brother Stephen read that this morning. Angels were there.
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Angels were there, singing and giving glory to God. They were messengers, giving this message to the shepherds, the lowly shepherds.
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Who would ever think that the lowly shepherds out in the cold, watching after sheep, would be some of the first ones to hear the glad tidings?
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But they were. Well, angels surrounded the
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Incarnation. Angels surrounded the crucifixion. Angels surrounded the resurrection.
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Angels surrounded the ascension. Angels even surrounded the intercession of Jesus. And will one day, coronation as our
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Lord will be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It will be complete.
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1 Peter 1 .12 says, Things the angels desire to look into. And as Luke 1 .26
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-38, who announced Christ's birth and herald of His coming.
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Matthew 4 .11, we see angels that minister to Jesus after the temptation from Satan to strengthen our
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Lord. And Luke 22 .43, we see again angels during His agony as He's agonizing with great drops of blood as He's praying for the
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Father's will to be done in the garden of Gethsemane. He's pouring out Himself and angels came to minister to Him.
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Jesus told Peter that He had more actually than twelve legions of angels to come to His side to rescue
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Him. But Jesus did not call them. He said twelve legions of angels. Do the math there, folks. Do the math.
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That's approximately 72 ,000 angels. If you look at a legion, twelve legions.
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Jesus said the Father would give Him more than that. Twelve legions of angels.
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And now one legion is 6 ,000. So you multiply that number by twelve and it becomes 72 ,000 angels.
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Jesus says, I can call them by my side just at my word. But He didn't.
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Folks, Jesus is... This is such a convicting verse. But I believe it was
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Watson that said that Jesus was more willing and desirous to go to the cross than we are to the throne of grace.
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Jesus was so willing to go to the cross and endure and take upon Himself and absorb the wrath of God for our sakes that we may be saved.
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What such wondrous love is this? Go back to the angel.
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Isaiah 37, 36 records that one single angel literally annihilated 185 ,000 men, folks.
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What could 72 ,000 angels do? But look at the
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Son of God. The Son of Man that had the power to call them to His side and command them.
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And yet He went all the way. He went a little further and died. He set His face like a flint and He loved us so much that He desires and He paid for our salvation.
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That you and I could be forgiven and cleansed and brought into the kingdom of God if we but believe the gospel and repent.
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Angels, angels. Angels would be enough to destroy 1 ,100 ,000 men.
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Now that's just combined power of one legion of angels. Jesus said, I could call down 12 legions.
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Angels are also mentioned in connection with His resurrection. You see that at His ascension.
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We see that angels will be accompanying Jesus at His glorious second appearing. Great power. 2
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Thessalonians 4 .16 And we'll also administer judgment during the great day of the Lord according to the book of Revelation in chapter 19.
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But more. Angels witnessed the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. They are the holy beings created for the service of God.
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Spurgeon says this about angels. Godhead was seen in Christ by angels. As they never seen it before, they had beheld the attribute of justice.
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They had seen the attribute of power. They had marked the attribute of wisdom and seen the prerogative of sovereignty.
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But never had angels seen love and condescension and tenderness and pity in God as they saw the things resplendent in the person and the life of Jesus Christ.
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Well, let's go to the fourth stanza. The first, God was manifest in the flesh.
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Second, justified in the spirit. Third, seen by angels. And I'm going to combine all this together here.
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Preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. Preached among the
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Gentiles, proclaimed among the nations. After the glorious resurrection from the dead, He revealed Himself alive in the flesh, by the way, not a phantom, physically to those that believed in Him.
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The evidence of the resurrection was so overwhelming that people did believe when the gospel was preached.
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And if you read in Acts, great power, great grace, great fear came upon the church.
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Mark 16, 15, Jesus commanded, He commanded to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
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Verse 20, He who has believed and who has been baptized shall be saved.
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That baptism, by the way, is a mark of obedience after believing.
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And who disbelieves will be condemned. They went out and preached everywhere, the
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Bible says. Should not we do this? The early apostolic church literally turned the world upside down and we should be doing the same.
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Oh my beloved, this should give us cause to tell everybody.
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When Peter preached after the 120 on the day of Pentecost was filled with the Spirit of God and power, he preached the mighty gospel, the crucifixion, the resurrection of Jesus, 3 ,000 souls was added to the church.
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That's the first members of the church of the living God. They believed, they were added to the church. Acts chapter 4, church expands with the gospel, the resurrected
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Christ throughout the book of Acts, the resurrection is being preached, affirming the sacrifice of Jesus Christ was accepted by God the
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Father on behalf of sinners, and the gospel is heard and believed. What about believing?
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Romans 10, 5 through 11, for Moses writes that the man who practices righteousness which is based on the law shall live by that righteousness, but the righteousness that's based on faith speaks as follows.
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What? Do not say in your heart, who will ascend into heaven? That is to bring
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Christ down. Who will descend into the abyss? That is to bring Christ up from the dead.
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But what does it say? I love Paul, don't you? What does the scripture say? The word is near you.
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That word is near you in your mouth and in your heart.
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That's how near it is. The word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth, first confession,
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Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved, for with the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness.
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And with the mouth, confession, resulting in salvation. For scripture says, whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.
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In other words, will not be disappointed. God never disappoints, folks.
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But here's the problem. The problem is never on God's side, the problem is on our side.
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And this is where we must hone in and allow the word of God to search our own hearts. Let me bring some application here.
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The Lord says this in 2 Peter, through Peter 3 .9,
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The Lord's not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you. Aren't you glad God's patient toward you?
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I'm so thankful He's patient toward me. Not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.
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That word all, basically in that text, if you study it, means all those that are elect of God.
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That could be proven from, I don't have time to go into it, but check it out yourself. Do the research.
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And does that mean that the gospel is not to all people? Well, you heard earlier Brother Stephen reading in that, and Luke too.
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It's the gospel's to all people. Yes it is, but does all believe? No. What does it mean?
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When it says to all people, it's speaking about the general call, outward call, that verbally, that people will hear, that people all everywhere needs to hear without partiality.
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Every tribe, every tongue, every nation, the whole world, God wants them to hear. But all will not be saved.
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Like some people believe about the Jewish nation. All Jews are not of Israel.
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True Israelites, all of them would not be saved. Only the elect few, just like it is among the
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Gentiles. Only those who God has appointed. Do we know who
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God has appointed to believe? No, we don't. We don't know that.
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And that's why we go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every person. We never know who God's elect is.
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That's why God does not exclude no one. He desires for all to hear, but all will not believe.
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That would be universalism. And by the way, there's a lot of people that do believe in universalism.
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They just cannot grasp that God will send people to hell. Now, let me paraphrase this.
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Spurgeon believed according to Scripture, some people believe God elects some to salvation and some to damnation.
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We don't believe that, folks. Damnation is all a man. They get justice.
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We all deserve justice, folks. More people will get justice than people get to mercy.
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But God's elect to those that believe will get mercy. And by the way, read Romans 9.
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God shows compassion on whom He wills show compassion. In other words,
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He is sovereign and He can elect who He wants. Now, that hurts people's feelings because people wants to have something to say that I have some control about this.
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But I'm telling you, God is the one that elects and controls. Now, if you got problems with that, it hurts your pride, well,
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I'm sorry. I'm not gonna apologize for the Word of God. Or I'll be a man pleaser.
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But God says, this is the Word of God. Read Romans 9 and all its context. Read Ephesians 1.
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It's true. God willing, next year, we'll look into the doctrine of election. But I'm here to tell you, that's why a lot of people says, well, that isn't fair.
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Who says? God is fair. What they're doing is they're comparing their righteousness with God's righteousness, which is uncomparable.
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It's a different kind of righteousness. We're talking about the Holy One of God Himself.
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And we are His creatures. We are created in His image. And people say, well, why would
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God send His creation to hell? It shows you how much
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God hates sin. That's the problem. The problem is, people, it's not that people, yes, they have a distorted view of the love of God, but the problem is, they have a wrong view of God's righteousness.
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They don't see that God is just. And He has a right to do whatever
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He wills. I like what R .C. Sproul says, if God is not sovereign, then
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God is not God. But He is God, isn't He? He does desire you to come to repentance.
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And folks, if God is moving upon your heart by the Spirit of God to repent and believe the gospel, then do it.
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Come to Him and plead. Lord, help me. Call out to Him. I plead with you.
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I repent. Turn from my sins. Confess it, but forsake it. Then mercy will be given to you.
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Fairness? That's so arrogant for people to talk about God, you're not fair.
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Well, there's so much that could be said. Let me give a closing to this.
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Here's the promise, Matthew, of the Incarnation. Matthew 1 .21,
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She shall bear a son, talking about Mary. You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.
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Again, some people want to interpret that just His people is the Jewish nation, but if you look closely, it's talking about His elect people.
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His people. He will save His people from their sins.
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So the mission, the purpose of Jesus' Incarnation is what?
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To save. To save. Now let me conclude with this.
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Hebrews 7 .25, Therefore He, Jesus Christ, is able.
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Listen to that. He's not only willing, but He's able. He's able also to save forever.
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Notice what the promise says. Those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives,
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He lives and makes intercession for them. As the great high priest,
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He sat down by the right side of the Father, He's making intercession for His people.
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Hebrews 2 .9, But we do see Him, who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely
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Jesus, because of suffering and death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God, He might taste death for everyone.
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Jesus' death is not only sufficient, but is efficient.
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He's able to save to the uttermost. In other words, Jesus Christ was born to die as our substitute, the
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Lamb of God. Take away the sin of the world. What great love is that, folks? That God would love us so much, and He was so desirous to die, and be born in flesh.
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We're talking about the Creator. Does not that lead us to worship
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Him? To worship Him, and love Him, and say, Lord, why did you ever choose me?
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I don't know. But we should just reflect and meditate, look to Him, and kiss the
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Son, as Brother Key said this morning, and love Him, and adore Him, and glorify Him.
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It leads to doxology. Jesus Christ tasted death for you and me, so that we could reign with Him one day, and live forever with Him in the portals of glory.
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Now He's gone to prepare a place for His bride, many dwelling places. Jesus Christ became obedient, perfect obedience to the point of death.
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God highly exalted Him, and that's the redemptive plan, the redemptive work that Jesus accomplished.
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Jesus Christ has fulfilled all that is required as the supreme representative of mankind.
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By His incarnation, by His substitutionary death,
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His sacrifice unto God the Father, His victory over sin, His victory over death,
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He has fulfilled man's original purpose even greater. Adam at one time was in a perfect state, but he fell.
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Sin entered into the world, and that was the importance of the incarnation, is because as Jesus entered into this world,
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He entered by without having the Adamic nature. There was no sin in Him.
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And the death of Christ upon the cross, with the glory to come, can be applied in its ability to produce a desired intent result to those who come to God and repent and believe by faith alone.
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Have you done this today? Have you come in humble, humble brokenness and see yourself as a wretched, wretched sinner to be saved by His grace and then be cleansed of sin?
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Jesus Christ is able and willing to save to the uttermost to those who draw near to God through Him.
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Praise His name. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
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God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the
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Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in the glory.
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Praise His name. Glory to His name. Bow with me in prayer.
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Praise Your holy name, Lord. Our Father, and our
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God, Lord, help us as we pray to You and we thank
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You, Lord, as we have just taken just a small, brief time of our moment to focus our attention in worship from Your Word, the
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Word that was made flesh. Thank You, Father, for the great confession of the church here given to us in 1
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Timothy 3 .16 that belongs to Your church purchased by Your precious blood.
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Thank You, Father, for Your unspeakable gift, Your one and only
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Son, that You so loved, You so loved the world, You gave, You gave, and whosoever believes may not perish, but have everlasting life.
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Lord, that's the promise. We rejoice. We adore You. Lord, we worship
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You for the great and glorious wonders of salvation that is given.
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This great treasure. Christ in us, the hope of glory. Jesus Christ, our
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Lord and Savior. And Father, we thank You for all the glories that's in Christ and Christ alone.
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Even the angels in heaven desire to look into it. Such great glory that is given to the believer that humbles himself and believes this.
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We pray that, Lord, You would bless us now. Lord, as we go into all the world, help us and to our
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Jerusalem and preach this gospel and to warn every man to repent and believe the gospel.
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Lord, help us. Help us as we depart and we meet with family members. Lord, to those that do not know
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You. Lord, give us a greater burden for souls. Lord, we praise
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You. We give You thanks and we're honored and privileged.