Matthew 26:47-56, Some Things Are Just Impossible

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Matthew 26:47-56 Some Things Are Just Impossible

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Matthew chapter 26 reading from verses 47 to 56
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Hear the word of the Lord While he was still speaking Judas came one of the twelve and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs
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From the chief priests and the elders of the people now the betrayer had given them a sign saying
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The one I will kiss is the man sees him and he came up to Jesus at once and said
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Greetings rabbi and he kissed him Jesus said to him friend Do what you came to do?
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Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him and behold One of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword
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It struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear Then Jesus said to him put your sword back into his place
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For all who take the sword will perish by the sword Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once?
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send me More than 12 legions of angels But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?
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At that hour jesus said to the crowds Have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me?
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Day after day I was in the temple teaching and you did not seize me But all this has taken place that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled
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Then all the disciples left him and fled The lord had his blessings to the reading of his holy word
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Well, some things are just impossible When asked to list some impossible things, uh, here's some responses
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I found on the internet slamming a revolving door That's impossible to find a word that rhymes with purple same with orange too
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For one plus one to not equal two Yeah, it's impossible Kissing your elbow.
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I mean try it unless you're really flexible. I don't know. I don't think anyone can do that Someone said to control my teen daughter
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That wasn't Nancy, was it? Uh, someone else said me getting a date
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A wise person To be god As much as people love to say these days, you know, just kind of their heads off and filled with this
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Nothing is impossible if you just set your mind to it The truth is some things are impossible
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It's important to know what you can and cannot do that. There are some things that are just just impossible for you
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Have you ever come across something that even after trying hard? You just conclude
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It's impossible. I can't do it Learning most language is impossible for me. I think
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At least at this stage of life. Maybe if I'd started young I could have I don't I don't care How many language learning software commercials tell me that the only thing
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I lack is their software? The reality is that there are some languages that my brain just won't accept hebrew
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Aramaic amharic probably aramaic to german I've given up trying anymore mandarin.
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I'm pretty sure is is impossible from for me Athletically, some things are impossible for me the high jump the long jump
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At least doing well at them singing. Well Is impossible for me. I think if you listen to me, you probably agree with that I've had to conclude that it's just impossible to teach some people some things
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They're just not going to listen no matter how many times you say it how Creative you are and the way you say it how many illustrations you make
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How gently you put it or how bluntly you put it how loudly or emotionally you put it If you refer them to other teachers who you think say it so well, you show them good videos
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Nothing seems to get through Can you teach an individualistic american christian that the church isn't just a religious show
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Or just like a restaurant a service provider that you kind of come and go that it's a body to which you belong Can you I don't know.
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I don't know Uh for some anyway, can you teach a dispensationalist not to read their interpretations into scripture?
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Oh, this is my first station speaking I don't know. Maybe some people can One thing I do know you can't teach unteachable people.
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You just can't it's impossible What about for you? What things are impossible for you?
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Hopefully, you you know by now despite all the hype about nothing is impossible What for you?
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Is impossible at least by yourself without a miracle A popular saying today in popular religion
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You find this People put on their facebook page this kind of thing is that god wouldn't put you through it
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If he didn't know you could handle it In other words god wouldn't give you something
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If he didn't know it was possible For you to take care of it The opposite actually might be the case
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He might bring you face to face with something that is impossible for you Just so you learn
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That it's impossible for you What is impossible for you Do you know
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Here we see some impossible things last week we saw that it was impossible for us to be saved in any other way than than the cross
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Jesus prayed that if it was possible that this cup of suffering be taken away that it would be that he'd be spared
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But it wasn't possible. And so it wasn't taken away Here we see three more impossible things
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We see first the unashamedness of sin. It's impossible for sin to be ashamed second the unprofitability of violence and third the unbreakability of scripture
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Judas here has given himself to sin In verse 47 judas arrives. We're reminded he is one of the 12
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And that's not because you know matthew thinks we've forgotten But because it's such an astounding fact.
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It's like he's saying matthew's saying one of the 12 Jesus is not betrayed by just some, you know, not by a bounty hunter
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You're looking for 30 pieces of silver trying to make a quick 30 pieces of silver or someone on the fringes of jesus's followers
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But maybe just heard him once or twice just knew him well enough to recognize him This man was one of the 12
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One of the few chosen men that who had traveled with him for three years who had shared meal after meal with him
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Had spoken with him time and again knew his friendship and love and perfection Matthew writes with an exclamation, you know, basically like can you believe it?
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one of the 12 That seemed impossible That one of those men so close so so committed to their master so impressed with his perfection
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One of them would be a betrayer Now we know that's what jesus had said would happen but still
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It seems so impossible It should be impossible But sin has a way of making us do things that that would be impossible
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Otherwise when paul talks about the mystery of iniquity, you know, why does it why do we do the things we do?
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When we sin sometimes it makes those sense it's not in our own self -interest it's we're hurting ourself
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Why are we doing this? Sin makes us do impossible things sometimes to be unfaithful to be ungrateful to be disloyal forget everyone
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But ourselves even sometimes to our own destruction Not only has judas done what seemed impossible, you know
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Please basically to be to deny people like me who are not yet aware of our natural sinful sinfulness selfishness
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That the way we will sell anything or anyone to get what we think Is good for us, even though if we thought about it, we should know it's not not only has he done what seemed impossible
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He does it completely without shame here Judas is probably the character the world finds the most curious
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In the whole all the gospels, you know There are there are just so many attempts throughout history to to spin what he did and put him in a good light
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How to understand him make him seem sympathetic character To guess that he must have been motivated by something right
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Maybe he was trying to provoke jesus to act So that he so that jesus would finally you know
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Lead the rebellion that judas wanted him to lead maybe maybe he thought that if he brought those soldiers there
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This is what some people think anyway understand that if he brought those soldiers there jesus that would then rise up leave his
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Apostles to start the revolt that he that judas wanted or maybe judas thought that jesus was going to Going to lead a rebellion
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Did some imagine judas wanted to avoid? And so for the sake of the nation Judas had to betray jesus to stop this revolt coming.
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He was just thinking of the nation He was just thinking of the people. This is what some people is trying to Rationalize what judas did make an excuse for him
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One example of that is in the in the 1970s musical jesus christ superstar
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You ever seen that sort of a 70s kind of hippie agnostic interpretation There judas is provoked into action because he's afraid jesus's followers were going to move him to start a revolt
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Against the romans and so the romans would then put it down and that would destroy the nation So judas was just thinking of the people
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He was just trying to help the nation and all of that sung out in a rock opera
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That's in the 1970s and that's been going on for a long time in a document entitled the gospel of judas
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Written perhaps as early as the as the late second century by a group of cultists called the gnostics
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In that judas was actually told to do what he did by jesus himself to set in motion What happened by the way people sometimes see hear this stuff gospel of judas always excluded from the canon
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It was left out of the new testament that I got some great conspiracy. You know, why he was left out of the bible okay, putting something like that in the bible would be like Putting a movie saying a movie like abraham lincoln vampire hunter is a valid documentary
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Okay, you understand? I just made a few years ago Even it's like 150 years after abraham lincoln's time people make these creative fictional things and they did the same with jesus about 200 years
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After jesus made these accounts and so it's just it's just nonsense. And of course, that's that's why it's not in the bible
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Because it's nonsense anyway, but as soon as people started to fictionalize it they began to think well judas
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Maybe he had something going for him So it seems from the first when people started beginning creative with rewriting the gospel
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They've been trying to make excuses for judas. There's something about us that has a hard time accepting the unashamedness of sin that sin
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Sometimes makes it impossible for us to be ashamed To feel guilty anymore. We think that sin must produce guilt
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Which makes people ashamed makes them embarrassed at least sheepish about their sins We want to think that everyone who sins is ashamed that no one is beyond seeing their sin
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And that they can all feel that something is wrong and that that feeling is getting worse that everyone can repent
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If they just choose to they can they understand what they're doing is wrong and they'll turn from it That we all have some good in us after all even darth vader can be turned from the dark side
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He brought to be good again, right? Sin really is it so bad for you?
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Oh, it's bad that you do it, but it's not that bad To you we often think partly that's because we misunderstand what sin is we think it's just something
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That we do it's something external to us. It's just our actions. It's our words
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But that is really the outward expression of our sinfulness the heart of sin
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Is our sinful heart? Also, we underestimate what sin does to us
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When we give into it How it hardens us To more sin it makes it easier to sin again
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And again in our language we talk about the burden of guilt, you know that phrase the burden of guilt It's like when we sin we get the guilty and it's like a burden we feel more and more of it
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And implied that the more we sin that the more wrong things we do and then the more burdened we must feel
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We add to the burden with every sin and after a while we feel so much of a burden We'll finally want to get rid of our sins
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Really But that's not what said does just left to ourself The bible says sin
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Sears our conscience in first timothy chapter four verse two that sins like a hot iron
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It just burns out the nerves like a branding iron searing Burns out the nerves of our conscience so that we don't feel more and more burdened by sin
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We feel less We become numb to it And we more freely give into more of it
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So the only way we can feel the weight of sin again Is if god does a miracle in our hearts that repairs the seared nerves of our conscience without that miracle
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We become more and more unashamed of our sin And we see that brilliantly here
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We would think that judas would at least be ashamed of what he is doing That he would be he would go about sheepishly, you know, reluctantly trying to hide
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We might try to read back from his suicide thinking. Well, he was guilt -ridden. He was burdened.
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He was conflicted But that was really what second corinthians chapter 7 verse 10 describes his worldly grief.
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It produces death Well things just didn't turn out the way he had hoped And so he felt he felt bad that it didn't turn out.
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Well for him. That's not real repentance here. He is unashamed He tells the mob
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You know that he's leading that he'll identify the one That they want with a kiss and then matthew tells judas notice that judas comes up with that He'll identify with a kiss.
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It's his idea Then matthew says judas comes up boldly He doesn't stand far off and just point him out.
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You know, he could have done that surely Stand far off. He's the one over on the left You know, whatever describing he doesn't give a description from him and you let them go get him
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He is unashamed about identifying him. Exactly. So he hails jesus with a loud sounding respectful greeting, you know hail rabbi rabbi, meaning my master my teacher and the kiss
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Matthew writes specifically. It's not just a casual kiss It doesn't come across in english because there's really no way to translate it, but it's not just the word kiss
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It's like an intensive word for kiss. So it's not just the casual greeting kiss, which is common in that culture
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It's an intense word probably to indicate that he kissed him vigorously several times probably on the cheek on both cheeks
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It's an affectionate repeated kiss. He's not sheepishly just kind of going through the motions Just just doing the minimum of what they've asked him to do.
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He's volunteered to exactly identify jesus He's done it with the most demonstrative
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Expressive way possible. He audaciously meets jesus with a happy greetings my master and repeatedly kisses him
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He's gone all out to sell this First to jesus he thinks and then to leave no doubt to the mob
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Who is the one he's not held back? by even a twinge of shame
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So the lord jesus says to him in verse 50 Literally it says for this you came for this you came or it could be friend.
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He was supposed to be a friend Friend do what you came to do Why did judas come?
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It really wasn't to greet him cheerily cheerily was it? It was it wasn't for this fake kiss. It wasn't to be taught
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By his rabbi his master. It was for betrayal and jesus probably means this for judas's whole life
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Why did you come into this world? Why were you born? What's your purpose? What is your life all about?
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It was about this The sin is now fully grown in him and now there is nothing left in judas but sin
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Nobody try to make excuses for judas But the bible is really as severe toward him as it could possibly be here
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Can you can you basically can you believe he's one of the 12 and then in verse 48? He is the betrayer notice that the betrayer
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That's who he is now. That's his identity He formerly a disciple now just the betrayer
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That's all that's left of his identity sin changes your identity
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You're not just someone who betrayed You're a betrayer You're not just somebody who committed adultery
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You're an adulterer. You're not just somebody pilfered money from your workplace. You're a thief
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You're not just somebody who broke a promise You're unfaithful In john chapter 17 verse 12 judas the betrayer
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Is called also the the son of destruction Which is a term only used of one other person in the bible
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Anyone know who the antichrist? The sin that was in his heart drove out everything else.
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So at the end He is nothing more judas is nothing more than an antichrist the betrayer
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His sin which began as he uses access to the money to enrich himself to get a little something extra for himself those little sins
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Have it become a gradual weight that got heavier and heavier made him more and more burdened more and more ashamed
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They seared his conscience so that now he can he can put on this this act
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Of love and respect without shame all to betray the one who chose and loved him
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Here's the unashamedness of sin Psychologists today talk about the sociopath
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A sociopath is defined quote is is someone interested only in their personal needs and desires without concern for the effects of their behavior on others
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It's all basically it's all about them. So it's impossible for such a person to feel the wrongness of his actions
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To even care about how he is impacting others. It's all about me. That's all they think about I'm not i'm not so college.
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I'm no psychologist, but on several occasions i've seen people in churches who I believe have become sociopaths
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They tell will tell the most outrageous lies Which everyone would know would know were lies if they just stopped and thought about it but the
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The person telling them is so emphatic so confident so unashamed
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People just assume he must be telling the truth or at least they mean well, they think they're telling the truth after all
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People think you know if they were lying If they were really being selfish and malicious, they were really being hateful by what they're saying
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They'd be ashamed wouldn't they? They'd be a little sheepish a little embarrassed by it, wouldn't they? No They sat under the preaching of the word so long and some of the most evil sociopathic people.
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I know are lifetime churchgoers Raised in church, but time after time they they heard the word
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And sinned by hardening their heart by refusing to repent by refusing to accept that they even need to repent and each time
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They sear their conscious a little more until finally they had no conscious left You know the preaching of the world will even make you softer or harder.
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It's not going to leave you the same Their little sins have made them into a big audacious sociopathic sinner
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What about your sin Do you think those little sins that you've been keeping and really no sin is truly little
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Maybe like you've been keeping that like little pets in the back Where no one can see? They're no big deal
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Maybe you feel a little bit guilty about them And you think that eventually you'll get around to getting rid of them
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Because you assume you're gonna you feel guilty today gonna feel even guiltier tomorrow You assume after a while you become more and more ashamed of them
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Maybe a maybe it's pornography or sexual fantasies or cheating on your taxes or pilfering office supplies from your work or some kind of texting
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Or email or flirting that is inappropriate or maybe it's a lack of control Perhaps of your temper or of alcohol or sweets or of your urges to spend or to eat
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Maybe it's a relationship that you know or used to know Is compromising your commitment to jesus or maybe it's just a little decisions that you make about bible reading and prayer and uh,
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Church the way you respond to correction that reveal a problem in your heart you think well those those are big things i'll
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Never let them get out of hand But such sins right now are searing your conscience and making it easier for you to one day unashamedly
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Fall for the the big sin There are some things you cannot do You cannot play with sin
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Without being burned You also cannot profit spiritually
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By carnal means and carnal. I mean human means Any means any ways that arise from our our work our abilities our techniques we see that here uh in their
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In what jesus exposes as the complete? Unprofitability Of violence of force of any application of merely human power and strategy and techniques
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To advance the kingdom of god. We see that here when a disciple and they all probably would have
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They only had two swords. So if they all had swords, they probably all would have tried to tried it One took out a sword and begins to fight it.
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He almost certainly intended to cut off more than an ear You understand what happened here. It says cut off an ear the probably what happened is
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It's peter tells us in john peter swung and the servant dodged didn't
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Quite get out of the way in time and so got his ear caught by the blade Jesus's words here in matthew in verse 52 are famous put back your sword into his place
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For everyone who takes the sword will perish by the sword. The violence he says is unprofitable
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It's unable to advance the kingdom of god The history proved him right
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For those who wouldn't listen who wouldn't accept this kind of savior who thought that the kingdom would be advanced with the sword and with with blood who didn't want
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Meekness with their majesty who just wanted power glory and violence those people 40 years later within a generation of these men in this garden right here
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Um Saw what happened to their kingdom when they took up the sword
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To defend it their city the city They're in jerusalem was destroyed Their armies were defeated the temple that they thought here that they were defending by arresting and killing
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Jesus that temple was torn down. It was obliterated Roman swords made jewish swordsmen perish by the thousands more likely by the hundreds of thousands
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How does the kingdom of god that the kingdom means the rule of god, how does it grow That is how do more and more people come to believe?
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That jesus is lord and then live Practically day by day under his rule live his way
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Live the way that's pleasing to him. That's how that's what it means the kingdom of god. How does it grow?
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The disciples have been taught that the kingdom of god will come and grow when the messiah like david
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Takes power and imposes it his power on israel and then on the nations around He uses the forces of government of laws of punishments the sword to make people obey
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To live as god's word says and that's what they were expecting. That's what they were waiting for in a messiah
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But the lord jesus has been teaching them that the kingdom of god. Is it coming like that? He's been teaching them that throughout his whole ministry
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He said it's like a grain of mustard seed tiny seed Starts so small gradually grows.
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It's like a little yeast Just a pinch put in a lump. The lump is the world a little yeast a little bit of the kingdom of god
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It permeates the lump That is it started small not as a sudden revolution Takes over israel with the messiah at the head of an army.
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It comes jesus taught like a farmer planting a seed And it grows he knows not how
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Mysterious damn he puts the seed in the earth, but how it grows he doesn't really control that It spreads through the preaching of the word and some will receive it and produce great fruit, but others will not others won't
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The kingdom doesn't grow in their life because they're too hard -hearted. They won't listen or they're shallow They appear to accept it emotionally at first, but then they don't last or they're just too full of other desires.
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They appear at first Desire the kingdom of god, but other things creep in that they want more like money
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The deceitfulness of riches jesus says that the illusion that his wealth is the most important thing that he says stifles the word
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So it's unfruitful, but the kingdom grows when sincere people Cherish the word
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He says sincere people with integrity. They hold it with integrity that they really want it and it will be finished that kingdom
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It will be complete at the end of the age like a fisherman dropping a net harvesting the fish bringing up the fish or or And then separating them or a farmer waiting till the crop is fully grown
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Before plucking up the weeds and throwing them into the fire now Before the end before the net has been dropped before the crop has fully grown
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If you want to be part of this kingdom live under his rule live jesus's way If you want to live under the rule of god, then it will require some forcefulness
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From you a violent dedication Earlier in this gospel in matthew chapter 11 verse 12.
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The lord jesus said that since john the baptist since his days Before jesus's ministry began since then the kingdom of god has been forcefully or or violently
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Advancing in forceful or violent people. They they lay hold of it They grab it with All their might and that that is it takes the same kind of commitment
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That people have when they throw themselves into violence Violent people have one thing going for them
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They're committed Right. I mean violence you're going to do violence you go all out or don't go at all violence takes commitment
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Violent people are usually to throw caution to the wind and give their all to achieve their goal
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So too if you want to be part of this kingdom You need a violent dedication, but violence itself.
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He says here Will not achieve it our violence our violence
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Is unprofitable the wrath of man does not achieve the righteousness of god
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If you could take over the united states, you could pass any law you want And you can make a law everyone has to go to a reformed baptist church
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And you think that would grow the kingdom it wouldn't You just fill the church with a bunch of unsaved people. Well what happened probably destroy the church is what would happen
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The wrath of man does not achieve the force of man the violence of man the laws of man the techniques of man
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Does not accomplish the righteousness of god. It's impossible to force others into the kingdom of god
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And this is a lesson that christians have forgotten since the days of the roman emperor Constantine who claimed just before the battle of milvan bridge in the year 312 to have seen it
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He claimed he saw a vision the day before the battle With the words with the cross and the vision and the words conquer by this
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And so he had his men draw a cross on their shields, even though christianity was still technically illegal
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And he won the battle And legalized christianity and since then christians have thought that they can advance the kingdom of god by force
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They can force people into it. They can take over pass laws And and the irony though is really the foolishness
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The idea that you think you can conquer You can advance the kingdom of god and you can make other people
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Be part of it by that symbol of sacrifice the cross
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It Can be a way of conquering violently That seems odd, isn't it? Yes, the kingdom of god advances forcefully and forceful people lay hold of it, but we cannot with our force advance the kingdom
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It is only by god's power that the kingdom can advance. It's impossible to advance advance
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God's cause with the use of swords or guns or fines or imprisonment
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You may now we may need that In this age this present evil age to keep order, you know to keep the criminals at bay to have some peace and then with that peace the church can spread the gospel, but if we want to achieve the
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The advance of the kingdom of god to make people's hearts submissive to the word of god The way is not politics or the military all of that Is unprofitable spiritually?
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God's kingdom advances only as god advances it
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Well, there are some things you cannot do You cannot profit spiritually by carnal means
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The apostle paul wrote in second corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal
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They're not just fleshly. They're not of outward force or just merely human reasoning and techniques, but they are spiritual
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They're the word of god that That is able to take every thought captive to obey christ to bring us under the rule of the lord
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We think so often that god needs our help That he has to have a certain kind of altar call
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Maybe something manipulative Emotional music that will you know? Put people in the right mood the right techniques, maybe fog machines and laser lights, whatever
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Write repeat after me prayer that god needs our strategy our money our marketing our techniques But he doesn't
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Here in verse 53 he tells the disciples, you know, they're poised to fight They got their swords out
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He tells him, you know if I wanted to fight I wouldn't rely on 12 disciples He says i'd call it 12 legions of angels
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He means 12 legions the legion of about what 6 000 5 000 6 000 troops But I think he means just 12 like 12 tribes.
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He means an overwhelming number After all just one angel would be enough to Destroy this band of soldiers that's come out to get him.
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He could obliterate this band of soldiers Well, you know just one he doesn't need 12 legion didn't even need one legion but after he
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But if he did that And after leaving a lot of dead bodies of roman soldiers and temple guards and the rest of them and judas
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He would not have advanced the kingdom of god Here he's telling them
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That he's not a victim He's saying he's not being this is not happening out of my control.
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He doesn't need any human help He is not being arrested because he's just caught off guard He was caught in a trap by a plot.
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No, he is being arrested because he chooses to be He came intentionally to be the lamb of god
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Voluntarily to be the scapegoat on whom all our sins were to be laid. He wasn't trapped.
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He has a way out But he didn't take it Because if he had he had taken his way out we
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Would have no way out It is not possible speaking of impossible things
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That we could be saved any other way than through this Now the disciples seeing this hearing that they that they couldn't use violence realizing that the only alternative was submission
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Possibly being hauled away as prisoners, too They would have nothing of that No, they don't that's impossible for them to tolerate if they couldn't fight
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They would flee There are some things you just can't do If you can't fight you can't help yourself but to scatter
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You cannot third Break scripture We see here the the absolute
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Unbreakability of scripture it cannot be thwarted First the lord jesus tells the disciples that it's interesting with all this going on We would think something about scripture would be sort of out of place a doctrine about how?
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The bible scripture is god's word, but it's not it's it's important here So important it appears here
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They think that they can disciples here think that they can change the events with just enough grit and determination with swords and muscle
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But jesus tells them in verse 54 the scripture must be fulfilled he says it must it's necessary to happen in this way
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Because this is the way scripture says Don't don't you understand it? He's telling them. This is what scripture says.
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It's gonna happen. You can't stop it And as hard as you might try and then he turns and he tells that to the mob in verse 55
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You know, you could have arrested me anytime in the temple what I was teaching But this has taken place
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That the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled What writings of the prophet
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I think part of it what we read in psalm 55. Do you notice that about judas? my companion
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It comes to the betrayer That had to be fulfilled So jesus could have been rested easily in the in the temple, but without the need of judas
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But god god's word had to be psalm 55 among many others had to be fulfilled Scripture is not just the writings of religious men from the past It's not just kind of the musing of ancient sages trying to pass down their wisdom
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It is not just the convictions of the quote the community of the faithful the church interpreting events for us
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About a decade ago. There was a man in yanceville who was basically teaching in a church there who said that about scripture that scripture is basically just the opinion of of Of the ancient church of people way back then
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Wise men sure they were godly men sure but they were just men and this is their ideas limited by their times
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And you know their limited knowledge And so this is the best they could do and we we get inspired by it
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We respect it as much as we can but we're not confined by it It's not it's not the word of god. It may deserve deserve some respect as ancient literature
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Motivated by religious feelings, but it's still only the word of man. He said so I asked this man
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If that's so If scripture is just the word of the church the ancient church and yet it tells us that all scripture is inspired by god second tibetan chapter 3 verse 16 that none of it was written just By the will of man and second peter chapter 1 verse 20, but the writers spoke from god as they were carried along by the spirit
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Or or here the scripture must be fulfilled That you know, no matter as hard as you try you will never
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Thwart its plan what it reveals if that's all if that's what What scripture says about itself if I'll put it this way if it was just the word of the church like this guy said
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And yet it tells us all those things about itself It wasn't the church
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Lying to us I mean either the bible is what it says it is Or it's lying to us
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Really there's there's no middle ground You can't say it's oh It's this wise word of ancient men of the path and then it's saying this lofty thing that it's the word of god
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You can't you can't have both both. It's either a bunch of lies or it's true He didn't have an answer for that And his church is now closed
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Here scripture Is unbreakable The disciples with all their might cannot stop it being fulfilled
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Isaiah 53 verse 12 said that he would be numbered with the transgressors He's gonna be treated in other words like a criminal.
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That's why jesus asked him Why did you come out against me as if i'm a robber? Well, and then he then he answers his own question because scripture has to be fulfilled
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That he would be treated like a robber here. They come out against him like a robber fulfilling Scripture written centuries before though your word contained the plan
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They just did not understand It's impossible For for us to grow to thrive to know the lord without knowing scripture
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It's not just an old book that we study because well, that's just what we've always done It is the word of god.
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It has a it has one plan of salvation that's fulfilled In christ here.
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Jesus says the the writings of the prophets we call old testament. It must be fulfilled There's one plan there and so when it says things that may be out of fashion
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That may be uncomfortable for us that may be hard for us to accept. We need to remember it Is unshakable it's impossible that scripture be wrong so we break our resistance
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And submit to it Some things Are just impossible
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Breaking scripture is one of those things It's impossible to play with sin And not be burned
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And it's impossible to profit spiritually by carnal means Living the christian life by yourself
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Is impossible you need the power of the holy spirit. You need a church Entering the kingdom of god with enough of your own religion and morality just with grit and determination
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That is not possible You can't come in that way We cannot muster up enough dedication to kind of force our way into heaven
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But Coming into god's kingdom that is being saved without dedication
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That's not possible either You must violently lay hold of it with all your heart
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Have a single -minded dedication To not let it go when you behold that wondrous cross it demands from you your life your soul your all
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So let me say it plainly if you think that you're saved because of a prayer you prayed years ago But a prayer that made no difference in your life
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It didn't change you a so -called profession of of your faith that that lets you continue to play with sin
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That lets you still think that you've impressed god with your efforts that doesn't draw you to his unbreakable
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Unbreakable word then then it's impossible for you to be assured of salvation based on that Lay hold now
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Violently forcefully of the kingdom knowing that your forcefulness Cannot advance it the kingdom of god demands 100 from us
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While relying on zero percent of us Pleasing god at all on our own is impossible
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We need for this jesus to be numbered with the transgressors even though he was not a transgressor
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And we are we need him to do for us What is impossible? For us to do for ourselves
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Have you come up to what is impossible for you to do? Have you come up against it and realize this is impossible to serve god to submit to god to love god
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Have you come up against that and then cried out to him for him to do for you
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What is impossible for you to do? for yourself Have you prayed lord?
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This is impossible for me But everything Is impossible is possible for you