The Heavenly Scholar (Part 3)

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I'd like to return to John chapter 7. I actually have two more messages

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I'd like to squeeze out of this by God's grace. Today will be part 3 of the

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Heavenly Scholar of this series from chapter 7. As we return and continue our study together in the fourth gospel,

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John. So in saying that, please turn with me to this wonderful gospel, John chapter 7.

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John chapter 7, our text is found in the beginning of verse 10. And we're looking all the way to 24.

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So this is why actually it's taken us a little time to get through this particular section because there's a lot of verses to cover here.

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We don't want to rush through it. We want to get all we can out of it by God's help and grace.

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Hear the word of the living God. Beginning with verse 10 of chapter 7. I'm reading from the

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New King James Version. But when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.

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Then the Jews sought him at the feast and said, Where is he? And there was much complaining among the people concerning him.

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Some said he is good. Others said no. On the contrary, he deceives the people.

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However, no one spoke openly of him for the fear of the Jews. Now about the middle of the feast,

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Jesus went up into the temple and talked. And the Jews marveled, saying,

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How does this man know letters, having never studied? Jesus answered them and said,

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My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak of my own authority.

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He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

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Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?

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Verse 20, the people answered and said, You have a demon. Who is seeking to kill you?

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Jesus answered and said to them, I did one work, and you all marvel. Moses therefore gave you circumcision, not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers.

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And you circumcised a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the

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Sabbath so that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with me because I made a man completely well on the

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Sabbath? Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

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Please bow your heart with me in prayers. We seek the Lord's favor and face within this hour of worship as we hear his word.

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Our Father and our great God, Lord, as your word has said from Hebrews, your word is living, it's powerful, it's sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of our heart.

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And there is no creature, Lord, hidden from your sight, but all things, all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

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Lord, this is such a sobering thing. And we just ask, oh dear

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Lord, save us from apathy, give us ears to hear and a heart to receive of thy words.

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Speak, Lord, for your servant hears. In Jesus' name I pray for thy honor and glory. Amen. Well, the atmosphere here around Jesus became increasingly tense.

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Many of his followers had defected at the end of chapter 6, as we've seen. Quick overview.

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And chapter 7 opens with an account of the unbelief of Jesus' brothers, as we have seen.

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To give a quick overview and a recap of what we've spent over a month since we've taken a break from chapter 7,

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I'd like to kind of refresh your memory this morning. Chapter 7 is the third account of Jesus during the

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Jewish festival. It is now the festival of Tabernacles, the booths which celebrated the children of Israel when they were 40 years going in circles in the wilderness as they tabernacled their tents.

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But here Jesus is in the middle of the feast on God's divine timetable.

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Verse 1 of chapter 7 all the way to chapter 10, verse 21, which is very lengthy, we see that this is what is going on here, is the festival of the

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Tabernacles. Chapter 7, technically, selectively, can be broken up into three sections.

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First section, number 1, is the events preceding the festival and Jesus' secret arrival, that he comes and arrives secretly.

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Second section, you could say, is the events during the festival that's taken place.

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And third, the events that took place on the final day. Now, if you didn't get all that, better yet,

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I would submit to you a more simple outline given by Warren Wiersbe. The first section is disbelief, the second section is debate, and the third section is division.

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I think that would be a little easier to remember. But I like that. Disbelief, debate, and division.

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So you can neatly divide up chapter 7 within those three sections. In our passage today, there's certainly an increase.

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An increase in the dividing line that Jesus was drawing. Jesus causes quite a stir, folks.

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And though, of course, it's not because of anything wrong within him, as we know.

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He is the spotless, sinless Son of Man, Son of God.

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But the wrong is within the hearts of those who opposed

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Him, to those who reject Him, to those that disbelieve Him, those who reject

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Him. And because of those two main things, those things of rejection and opposition,

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Jesus is not so popular. There's another two reasons that they disliked

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Him. It's because, number one, His teaching. His teaching. And next would be

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His confrontation of sin. Jesus always confronted sin in a direct way.

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And He still does through His Spirit. And within these two things in which

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I mentioned of His teaching and confrontation of sin, we begin to see the answer, to answer the question, by God's grace, who is

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Jesus Christ? That is probably, no doubt, the single most important question that you and I will ever hear.

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And saying that, the text today reveals to us at least three things that Jesus is for us.

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Now, we've already looked at the first one. Jesus is our prophet.

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He's our prophet. I'm going to recap just a little bit on that. But the main point

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I'd like to get to is the second, is Jesus is our perfect law keeper.

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He's our perfect law keeper. Mainly we'll look at that. Maybe not quite finish it,

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Lord willing, but in the third, I'd like to come to a conclusion of this series, next

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Lord's Day, is Jesus is our great physician. We will not get to that. But those three points is what we are looking at.

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It's all about Jesus Christ and who He is. He's our prophet. He's our law keeper, our perfect law keeper.

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And He's our great physician. So, by God's help, we'll look at this.

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Now, in this series, as I said, in part one, we looked at a complete overview of the disbelief of the

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Jews, of Jesus' unbelieving brothers. And we saw that Jesus is our prophet.

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And He is our prophet. In verse 10 -13, let me read it again. When His brothers had gone up, then

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He also went up to the feast. Going up to Jerusalem, basically. Not openly, but as it were, in secret.

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Then the Jews sought Him at the feast and said, Where is He? Where is

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He? And there was much complaining or murmuring among the people concerning Him.

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Some said He's good. Notice the opinions that people... Everybody's got some opinion about Jesus, don't they?

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They say He's good. Others said, no, on the contrary, He deceives the people. He's a deceiver.

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Verse 13, However, no one spoke openly of Him for fear of the Jews. Now, MacArthur comments here, and he's got a comment also from the

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Tammud. But he says, quote, Crowds made up of Judeans, Galileans, and dysphoria scattered

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Jews expressed various opinions regarding Christ.

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It goes on to say, the spectrum ranged from superficial acceptance that He is good to a cynical rejection that He deceives the people.

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The Jewish Tammud reveals that the latter view of deception became the predominant opinion of many

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Jews, end quote. So, really, the predominant view and opinion from the

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Jews was that Jesus was a deceiver. We know better.

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We're looking at the Lord of Lords, King of Kings in flesh, the

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Son of Man. So they were astounded by His teaching. They marveled.

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No one ever taught like this before. And the Jews wondered, how can this man know so much and not be studied in the letters as a

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Jewish rabbi? In other words, Jesus did not have a seminary degree. But here we see the

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Son of Man had supernatural knowledge, supernatural knowledge of the

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Scriptures. Look at verse 14. Now about the middle of the face,

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Jesus went up into the temple and taught. He begins to teach. He goes up to the court and teaches.

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Many commentaries agree that Jesus may have waited until the middle of the feast in order to prevent a premature triumph of entry because Jesus was on God's perfect timetable.

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And some may have forced Him for political reasons.

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But here we see Jesus as the great prophet at the middle of the feast. He's teaching. He goes up into the temple.

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Jesus taught according as in that day accustomed to the rabbis.

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As rabbis did in that day, they would enter into the temple and open the scroll.

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It's found on the Old Testament to the crowds basically who sat around them.

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So they had class. He set up class. And the rabbi would teach in the courtyard as people sat and listened.

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And here Christ teaches them in verse 15. And what does

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He teach? Well, it's not specific in the Scriptures what He's teaching, but we do know,

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I would guess and assume that the Lord teaches from the Old Testament like He revealed to the strangers on the road of Emmaus.

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One is named, but the other isn't. I mean the disciples. Jesus comes up behind them as a stranger, but He expounds on the entire

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Old Testament concerning Himself. So I believe Jesus is preaching as He always taught the kingdom of God.

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He teaches from the Old Testament concerning Himself. The Jews marveled.

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They marveled and said, Man, how does this man know letters? Haven't never studied. Jesus marveled.

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Again, He had supernatural knowledge, but we do know that He was filled with the

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Spirit of God. He was full of the Holy Spirit as a man. We know that. The Spirit of God came upon Him as John the

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Baptist baptized Him. He said He was not worthy to baptize

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Him because of who He was. He said, I'm not even worthy to unlatch the latching of your sandals.

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Who am I to baptize you? He understood who He was. And Jesus has suffered to be so to fulfill all righteousness.

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That's a great verse. And we're going to be looking at that. This is what Jesus is doing. He's fulfilling all righteousness.

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He is the perfect law keeper, but here He is the prophet. But He's a man filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

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And He had to learn the Scriptures just as any man would in that day and even as a rabbi.

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Yet, the Master Himself taught even greater than the common rabbis of that day.

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He was the greatest. No one taught like Him. Actually, at the beginning, as He opened

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His mouth and preached the Sermon on the Mount, and if you read that, and within those three chapters, the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest man who ever lived, the greatest preacher who ever lived, chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Matthew, and verse 28 and 29 says of chapter 7, and so it was when

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Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished. They were astonished at His teaching for He taught them as one having authority and not as described.

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So no one taught like Jesus in that day. No one will ever teach like Him for He is the greatest.

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But He taught with authority. Even in Luke chapter 2 and verse 52, when

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Jesus is 12 years old, He goes to the temple. He's literally teaching the doctors and the rabbis of that day.

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And it says, and Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

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Here He was 12 years old. Christ was subject to the normal process of human growth.

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And in Luke chapter 2 again, He's 12 years of age. He grew in wisdom and stature intellectually.

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He grew intellectually. He grew physically. He grew spiritually. He grew socially. He was a man.

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A real man. The Son of Man. And by the way, that title is used more often of Jesus even more so than the

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Son of God. Even though He is the Son of God, but His title, Son of Man, is used more frequently.

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Again, as He increased in wisdom and stature, Jesus did not cease being God. This is incredible.

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Or divest Himself of His divine attributes in order to become a man.

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Rather, what He did is, within the miracle of the virgin birth, He took on human nature, not sinful nature.

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That's the reason of the birth, the virgin birth. He enters into the world without the sin,

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Adamic nature. Very important to know that. He's the only one without sin who ever lived.

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No sin was in Him. He did not carry that Adamic nature that we naturally get as a birthday gift when we enter into this world.

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But Jesus was without sin. And in the virgin birth, and let me put a parenthesis here, as an addition, not subtraction,

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He submitted the use of His divine attributes to the will of His Father. He always did submit in perfect submission to the will of His Father.

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John 7, look at verse 16, Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine, My teaching, is not

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Mine, but of His who sent Me. Once again, it's beautiful to see how the

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Lord refused to take any credit for Himself. Notice that. This is Jesus.

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He's worthy of all glory, honor, and praise. But as a man, here He is, He's humble against Himself.

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And the most, the point of humiliation, the lowest that He goes is to the cross.

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Jesus answers Him simply in a profound, simple way that His teaching was not

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His own. You notice that. He does not take glory for Himself.

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What an example our Lord is for all of us, but especially to leaders in the church that this is not about us, it's not about the leaders.

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We are servants of His, and this is His church, as we talked about this morning in Sunday school. But He never seeks glory of His own.

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So whatever the Lord Jesus spoke and whatever He taught were things which the Father told Him to speak and to teach.

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He always did those things which the Father commanded and told Him. Perfectly.

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Always obedient to perfect obedience. Not one slip up.

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Not one sin. The perfect Savior. He did not act independently of the

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Father. He was always dependent upon the Father, but always under His submission.

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He's always in perfect submission to His Father, giving His Father glory.

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And that's why you see the rich young ruler who comes to Him and says, Good Master. You know, he's trying to flatter

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Jesus. Good Master. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said, immediately, there's none good but God.

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He immediately does not take that upon Himself. And we know that Jesus is good, right? As the

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Son of God. But here, as the Son of Man, He points to the Father. He's the perfect God -Man in every way.

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He represents His Father from heaven as the Son of God, and He represents His people as the

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Son of Man. He's the one that Moses spoke of in Deuteronomy 18. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, as Brother Ben spoke of this morning.

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But Jesus is greater than Moses. And the Scripture says, And I will put

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My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. He does that.

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And this is what He's doing here as the heavenly scholar. Our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Verse 17 says, If anyone wills to do his will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God, or whether I speak on my own authority.

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That's a powerful verse. That's a deep verse. That's a profound verse. But can

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I tell you something about this wonderful verse? It's a wonderful promise here for anyone or anyone here today that's earnestly seeking the truth.

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If you are a seeker of the truth, more than just a philosopher,

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I don't know about you, but Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He says of Himself, I am the door.

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If you want to get to God, you go through the door. Jesus is that door. He is the gate. He is the way, the truth, the life.

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Even in the New Testament, the New Testament Christians was known by the way. I think that was actually the first name.

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And we're talking about church. It was titled, even before they were called Christians, they were people of the way because of what

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Christ says of Himself. Now, if you're a seeker of the truth, I point you to Psalm 25, 14.

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Brother Keith reminded me of this, and I appreciate this. But this is a great reference to verse 7.

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I'm sorry. Verse 17 of chapter 7. David, the psalmist says, the secret of the

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Lord is with those who fear Him. The secret of the Lord is with those who fear

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Him. Do you fear God this morning? If you don't fear God, whoever doesn't fear

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God, you don't even have the beginning of wisdom. You don't even begin to know what wisdom is because that is the beginning of wisdom.

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It's the fear of the Lord. But the secret of the Lord is with those that fear

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Him, and He will show them His covenant. Well, what does this mean? To those who truly fear the

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Lord God, and what this is saying is that God reveals His secret.

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This means His counsels. His counsels, His intimate personal communion with Himself.

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There's nothing greater than that. To know that you are His and He is mine.

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What a glorious thing. If we have Jesus, we have everything. If we don't have

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Jesus, we have nothing. And this is what really breaks my heart when I see people, so many people

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I've known down through the years, and it still happens, and you know what I'm talking about. You have friends and family and people that you know of, and then when they die without the

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Lord, that is the number one most horrific tragedy that there is, that people goes into eternity without Jesus and being covered in His righteousness.

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We must have a covering. And the only covering that will cover us from the all -powerful justice of God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ that is to be imputed to us.

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But the secret of His counsel, His intimate personal communion with Himself, there's nothing greater than that.

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That's what He's saying. I follow up with Proverbs 3 .32. Proverbs 3 .32,

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listen to this. Solomon says to the spirit, for the perverse person is an abomination to the

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Lord, but His secret counsel is with the upright.

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With the upright. Not upright within ourselves, but those basically who fear the Lord. Perverse person?

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That's serious. You know, God is angry with the wicked every day.

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But doesn't He love people? His love and His patience and His mercy,

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He's consistent. You know, we're the ones, I heard Washer say this, God makes it of Himself in a very simple way, even though it's profound, but we're the ones that's so messed up in our thinking.

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God is the one that is consistent. And He's consistent in His patience and His mercy and His love and His truth.

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It's ever the same. It never changes. And it's the same with His justice and His holiness. And He's angry with the sinner, the wicked, every day.

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A perverse person is an abomination to God. Don't hear that word abomination too much.

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Did you know that is one of the strongest words in the Hebrew? Detestable.

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God abhors one that practices wickedness and ungodliness.

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A perverse person? And yet this is accepted so much in our world.

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Matter of fact, they look at you odd and strange if you're not perverse. But I'm so glad and happy to say,

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I'm not by the grace of God. Now, we're born sinners and we're born vile and wicked, and that's the way we come into it.

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But we need washing and cleansing by the blood of Jesus. And it takes the Spirit of God to reveal that to us, that we may repent and turn away from it, turn toward God.

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And we need to pray for this for people is just the same. But let me tell you, abomination is serious.

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And you see this word constantly mentioned in Leviticus, especially in that book, what is an abomination to God.

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That means it's an attitude or an act that is incompatible with God's holy nature and intolerable to Him.

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And it leads God to His fierce anger as we, Brother Keith, read about Uzzah thinking he was doing something right as he tried to hold the ark to help

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God. But God needs no help. And he should have known better because he was a

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Levite. God commanded that the ark was to be bore on the poles.

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And he disobeyed God's command. And God, He knew that. God smote him.

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God's holy, fierce, righteous judgment. You do not want God's anger toward you folks.

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And to be an enemy of God is the most horrific, horrific tragedy

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I would think ever. That even enters my mind. It's so sobering.

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Let's look at the positive. But to those who fear God, discloses and reveals Himself, His truth to the upright.

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And in verse 34, Solomon says in chapter 3,

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Surely He scorns the scornful, but gives grace to the humble. There's the key, folks.

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Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He'll lift you up. He gives grace to the humble.

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It is to humble. And you know what that literally means? To humble to those who bends himself.

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That means who subjects himself, who submits to God. This is why James the

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Apostle says, Submit yourselves therefore to God and resist the devil.

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Submit to God. Submit to Him. Surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

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Surrender and submit to God's will and to God's desires. And Jesus always fulfilled this.

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We struggle with this, don't we? Because of our endemic remaining sin, our nature, even though we're redeemed, sinners, regenerated by the

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Spirit of God, we still have that war within of the flesh and spirit. But Jesus didn't have that.

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Jesus perfectly submitted to the Father's will 24 -7, all the time.

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Jesus is saying in John 7 -17, He's saying in the essence that those who are truly committed, devoted to doing

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God's will will be guided by Him as He seeks the truth. God's truth is revealed through the teaching ministry of the

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Holy Spirit. It's not something we can do. It's something the Spirit of God does. And after all, what did

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Jesus say about the Spirit of God? He is the Spirit of truth. He is the Spirit of holiness.

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And Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit as a man.

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Knowing God's will is important, isn't it? But doing God's will is even more important.

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It's everything. 1 John 2 -20, the apostle once again, the same apostle that wrote the

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Gospel of John writes again, but you have an anointing from the Holy One and you know all things.

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Our charismatic friends love this verse. They'll take spins and misinterpret this one all day long about the anointing.

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Don't touch God's anointing. They take it out of context. But I'm telling you, that anointing is a serious thing.

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It's an unction. It's God's Spirit. It's God's Holy Spirit upon God's believers to those who know

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Him. And He says, you know all things. That doesn't mean by everything like God omniscience.

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It's talking about you know the truth because the Spirit of God reveals the truth to us. He's the true teacher.

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The Spirit of God. Aren't you glad for that? In times when, you know, all these false teachers and preachers and whoever it is, even myself, you to be

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Bereans and check me with the Word of God to make sure I am speaking according to what

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God says. You have an obligation, a responsibility to do that, church.

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And I submit myself to that. So Jesus is our great prophet.

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So that's an overview. Now let's look at Jesus as our great law keeper. He's our perfect law keeper.

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In verse 18, He speaks from Himself. Jesus says, He who speaks from Himself seeks

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His own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true and no unrighteousness is in Him.

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And I want you to think about this. Because of our Lord's motives, His heart was absolutely pure without any contamination whatsoever.

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Not one bad thought. His thoughts were always pure and holy.

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His message was also pure and holy as well. Jesus says what the man speaks from his lips.

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Calvin says God gave us a tongue to reveal our hearts. Isn't that the truth?

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Listen to a person talk and you'll see where their heart is. Listen to yourself talk. What are you talking about?

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You'll see where your heart is. And Jesus says where your heart is, your treasure is also. But Jesus' heart was all about the

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Father, about doing His mission and He fulfilled it. The truth.

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Jesus, everything He spoke was truth because He is the truth. His message was absolutely true because He is the truth.

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Sad to say, you've got so many people who have different opinions of Jesus. They were saying, oh,

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He's a good man. Others say He's a deceiver. Many said He had a demon.

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Even when Jesus stood before Pilate, before He committed

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Himself to the cross, and I say that in that way, the people were desiring that, but God allowed that in His sovereignty and Jesus submitted to it because that's why

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He came. If they'd known who He was, as Paul says, they would never have crucified the

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Prince of Glory. But Jesus submits, and as He submitted to Pilate, even

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Pilate looks at Him and he says, what is truth? And there is truth,

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Jesus Christ standing right before Him. Isn't that the way it is today?

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Christ, they hear the Word of God, they are blind and they cannot see who

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Jesus is because they are blind in their sins. They are darkness in their sins.

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My wife and I, we talk about this all the time when we're praying for our lost loved ones. So you just can't make a dead person walk and see and a mute hear.

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Only Christ can make that happen. Only God can fix the heart, but only regeneration comes through the power of the

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Spirit of God. But we can pray for them and plead with God to have mercy on them and to open their eyes and unstop their deaf ears that they may see who

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Christ really is, but to see also who they are. Jesus is the only one who spoke perfect truth.

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Every other teacher has had some selfishness mixed in his service, but not

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Jesus. Completely pure. And it should be the ambition and the goal of every servant of the

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Lord, whether he be a minister or a child of God or whoever it may be, to glorify

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God rather than self. Our motto should be as John the Baptist, He must increase,

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I must decrease. All about the glory of God. Verse 19.

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And this is where I like to drive home. And we'll pick up the rest later,

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God willing, next Lord's Day, but still I got a lot to say here. He says,

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Did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you keeps the law? Listen to that.

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Did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you keeps the law? Why do you seek to kill me?

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Listen to what Jesus... Could you imagine the perfect Son of God, the perfect Son of Man asking that question to a

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Pharisee and how they must have thought? What did they think when Jesus asked them that?

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Here we read that our Lord makes a direct accusation against the Jews. It's an accusation.

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And actually it's grace that He's giving them this.

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They don't know that, but He's giving them the truth. And He does it in a question. You can't imagine the anger the

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Pharisees must have boiled up. I like the way MacArthur talks about this. Like on the radar screen, that meter goes way high.

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Boiling. Why? Because of their pride.

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Their pride of self -righteousness. This hits us all, doesn't it?

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Because we all have the seeds of this within us. Beware of pride, beloved.

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Self -righteousness, beware. Take heed. Great hypocrites.

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They were great hypocrites Jesus preached to and He called them hypocrites, play actors. Because they were all about externalism.

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Jesus even pointed out analogies. He said, like the tombs. He said the tombs are white and clean on the outside, but dig it up and go inside the tomb, you got nothing but dead men's bones that stink.

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Folks, that's the way we are in our own self -righteousness. And I'm preaching to myself.

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Beware of pride and self -righteousness. They gloried in the fact that they possessed the law.

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They bragged and boasted about it because we got the law. With Jews, with Pharisees.

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Who are you to question us? We're somebody. See right there, they were lifting themselves up.

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They wanted to sit on Moses' seat. They were all about themselves, folks.

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Their glory. But Jesus was not about that. And He was the one that was well qualified to rebuke them.

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And He's well qualified to rebuke us. In love, in grace, and even in tenderness.

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The law of God, as you well know, is basically who

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God's holy character is. It demanded perfect obedience.

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This really gets me. I see these bumper stickers. It really gets me. And I read some of these signs and I'm just shaking my head.

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Keep the Ten Commandments. Oh, I say, good grief. Who in the world can dare keep the

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Ten Commandments but Jesus? We've all broken God's law. And James says, if you've broken one, you've broken them all.

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It's a mirror. But there's a purpose for the law of God. It's a schoolmaster, a tutor, to teach us

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Christ. To bring us to Christ. To show us our sin. That we need a Savior.

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Can't take out the law of God. Although they gloried in the law, evidently none of them kept the law as Jesus says.

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And even when they were plotting to kill Him, they already had murder in their hearts. They were committing murder.

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And Jesus knew this. Because of their hard hearts of unbelief, they were breaking the law of God within their hearts.

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Their thoughts and motives were contaminated and impure toward God's law.

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The same testimony can be said of each of us today, beloved. Every one of us has broken God's law. In word, thought, or deed somehow.

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Even as Christians. That's why we're not to walk in the flesh after the flesh.

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That we were to walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, stay in the Word. That's why I'm saying we need to stay in direct communion with God on a daily basis.

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And this is sanctification for the regenerate now. On our face before God and allow

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God's eye search us out through His Word. And we fall before Him and say,

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Lord, search me, O God, and see if there's any wicked way in me. That's the thoughts of the righteous, of those that's sanctified.

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But we desire that. And I believe Martin Lloyd -Jones said it like this,

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The closer you get to God, the more you will see your sin. Jesus says to us as well,

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May we not give the Pharisees a hard time here, even though they were guilty of this. Let's examine ourselves.

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Not one of us keeps the law. All of us are exposed as lawbreakers before one another.

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No exceptions. Scripture says it. None is righteous. No, not one.

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All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Our human flesh likes to think that we have some righteousness or some good in us.

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Even people you ask that are called professing Christians, Well, he's a good person. How many times have you heard that?

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And I think to myself, Well, maybe they did some good acts, but friend, there's nothing good within them. Only God's good.

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Think of this, there are many, many, and I want to throw this in here, religions today built upon the false premises that we are good, could do good enough, and do good deeds to achieve and earn eternal life.

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Folks, most of religions of the day teach that. And one that comes to mind is what?

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The Roman Catholics. I googled this. Yeah, I google once in a while.

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I'm very careful what I do on the phone, but I did google this. Found out that there are approximately 1 .4

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billion Roman Catholics in the world. 1 .4 billion souls trying to earn their way to heaven by their good works, praying to Mary, believing in a false religion.

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That represents, by the way, that represents 17 .7 % of the world's population.

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That's a lot of souls. Trusting in good deeds, good works to get them to heaven.

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Lost and blind. I also googled the Muslims. How many Muslims are...

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Overall, there are also 1 .8 billion Muslims. A religious machine that does not know

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Jesus Christ. Only knows Him as a good person, a prophet, but that does not know

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Him as the only Savior, the Lord. The list goes on, folks.

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And this should give us Christian calls to be burdened and to pray even greater and to intercede for these poor lost souls and say, oh

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God, send missionaries to these people to reach them for the gospel's sake and for Jesus' sake.

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But let us remember this, that this is our mission field here in our surrounding area.

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And let me say, not only Cartersville, our mission, you are missions, Redeeming Grace Church, you are missions.

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This is our Jerusalem. This is in our backyard. Our friends, our family, our co -workers, our children need to know

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Jesus Christ most important. The nearest to us, our mission field.

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So go into all the world and preach the gospel to every person, folks, and preach it with love and power and truth.

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And plead with them as Paul pleads as a beggar. Be reconciled to God.

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Be reconciled to God. Jesus tells them, not one of us keeps the law.

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Not one of you keep the law. Only the perfect Son of God, before a thrice holy

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God, that we would not be condemned. God's standard is a holy standard and let me mention this, that God's standard never changes and will never change.

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A billion years ago, God's holiness and His standard of who

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He is and His character is just the same as it is today and it will be the same a billion years ahead.

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Never will change because God never changes. He's immutable. Simply, we have all transgressed

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God's holy law. God does not judge on a curve, does

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He? And His holy standard is set by His perfect holy character.

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We cannot be made righteous by the works of the law. No one can.

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Is the law to be thrown out since it cannot save us? God forbid.

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Paul addresses this in 1 Timothy chapter 1. You could go there with me if you like. Chapter 1, verse 8 through 11.

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Listen to the Apostle Paul as he addresses Timothy. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

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And by the way, if you read the previous verses to get the context to the text, that there were false teachers that were using the law of God unlawfully.

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They were abusing the law. But God says if one uses it lawfully, it's good.

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Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person. It's not for those that are born again.

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Listen to this. Even though there's nothing wrong hearing the law, right?

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And reading the law. Because it is the word. But what He's saying is, it's not for the righteous person.

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Then who is it for? He tells us. But for the lawless.

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The lawless, the insubordinate. For the ungodly. Listen to the list

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He gives. For the sinners. For the unholy and the profane.

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For the murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers. For manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites.

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For kidnappers. For liars. For the perjurers.

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That means false accusers. And if there is any other thing that is contrary to the sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed

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God, which is committed to my trust. Paul took that very serious. And this is why we are to make sure that the law of God, we believe here in Redeeming Grace Church that it's law and grace.

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We don't go to one ditch to the other ditch. Where you have too much law, you become brutal and hateful in trying to punch people into the kingdom.

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And throw in repentance and hell at them with a mean spirit. No, we don't believe in doing that. Even though we believe in the law of God to be used lawfully.

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And I tell you, people don't get Jonathan Edwards' old sermon, the classic sermon, Sinners in the

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Hands of an Angry God. But that was a powerful, great use of the law of God.

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He preaches a text from the Old Testament. And by the end of the sermon, and by the way, when he preached that, he was very sick.

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He used a candle and he read a sermon. And his voice was very weak. And at the end of the sermon, people were literally falling on their faces thinking they were going into hell.

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Where the Spirit of God brought about the great awakening through preaching the law of God in a useful way.

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Because he preached a word. But the law of God always takes us to Christ.

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It shows us our sin, and once we truly see who we are and how wicked we are, believe me, brother, you need

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Christ. Only Christ can cover you and me in His righteousness. The gospel of God reveals

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God's glory. That is the perfections of His person. And by the way, when you go to the cross, you see

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His holiness. You see His justice. You see all the attributes of God on display in a perfect way.

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Goodness, everything. All these attributes are key to effective gospel presentations when we witness to the lost.

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By the way, if you go on YouTube and listen to Ray Comfort, he has really mastered this in a great way.

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He always gives people questions about the Ten Commandments. Have you ever murdered?

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Have you ever committed lust? Have you ever looked at a woman with any pure thoughts or impure thoughts?

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And he said, be honest. And a lot of them say, yeah, I've lusted after women. You see what

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I'm saying? He starts with the law of God, and then after he does that as a foundation, he takes them to the gospel.

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Praise God. Only the gospel presentation is effective when we present

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God's holiness and character in the law of God. And after giving them the perfect law of God, take them to the cross of Christ.

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Take them where mercy is. Take them where grace is. Where everyone needs mercy.

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When this perfect law of God is told to the wicked, the ungodly sinner, most of the time there will be resistance against the truth.

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Actually, naturally. Don't be surprised when that happens when people don't want to hear it because you're telling a natural man that loved their sin, folks, to repent against it, to turn from it.

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No one likes to hear that they're a wicked sinner and that they have sinned against a holy God.

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No one likes to be exposed and confronted. But beloved, that's what we are commanded to do. And that's why the

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Bible says we're to be bold for the gospel's sake. Even Paul the

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Apostle, and I remember our wonderful missionary friend, Brother Dan Bill preached on this once.

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He talked about even the Apostle Paul had to pray for boldness. I'm thinking, the Apostle Paul had to pray for boldness to present the gospel?

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Yes, and we must as well. Our Lord Jesus goes on.

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He goes to the heart, doesn't He? He gets to the heart of the matter. He goes to the soul of our problem.

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Now let me give you an application here, and it's a great application. And I want to tell you, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're good to go here because Christ covers you.

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But if you're a non -believer, you need to hear this. But I want to tell you, even as a believer, I can hear this a million times over because this is where our only hope is found.

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It's in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You know why? Because He was the only righteous one.

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The Bible says specifically, He is our righteousness. He is the righteous one.

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He fulfilled all righteousness, and He represented us here at the Feast of Tabernacles for us as He, first of all, was pleasing to His Father, but He represents us as the

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Son of Man, and here He is fulfilling the law of God. Well, what should we do?

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That's a good question, but let me tell you a better question. Or should it be said, what has

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He done? I like the latter one better. We are to repent, alright, and believe the gospel.

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But what has Jesus done for us? Well, He died for you. You keep that before you, folks.

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And that'll keep you from sinning. There's two things that I try my best, by God's help, and this is on a personal note, in my walk with the

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Lord daily, is keep before me the cross of Jesus Christ, how much He died for me, how

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He loved me, and how much He hated sin, and when I think about that, that He did that for me, that keeps me from sinning, folks.

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If I'm tempted to sin, and the pleasure of sin is before me, I said, Jesus died not for me to entertain those sins, but to save me from sin.

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That's one thing I keep before my eyeball, and the next is eternity I keep in my eyeball. As Jonathan Edwards said, stamp eternity on my eyeballs, that I keep the judgment seat before me, because one day we're going to give an account for our deeds as a believer.

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Folks, that'll curb your life, as Ravenhill says. So, what are we to do?

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We're to cling to Christ. We're to throw ourselves to Christ, on Christ. Here's the blessed promise of the gospel.

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Here's our only hope. Our only hope.

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This is the only hope of the world. If someone else could keep the perfect law of God for us, who represents us as our federal head, and Jesus was that perfect law keeper.

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Beloved, someone has, and Jesus is the one, and how great love He has for your soul and mine, that He would do this.

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The Lord Jesus Christ, Galatians 4, 4, born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive the adoption as sons.

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John 1, 17, For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

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That's the best news you and I can ever hear, folks. That you will ever hear in your ears.

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That's the best and greatest glad tidings that has ever hit this planet. And we should be burning up the roads, and tearing up the streets, and telling every person on every side, and every person in our family, flee from the wrath to come, and repent, because Jesus Christ loves you, and He longs to save you.

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Remember in the Old Testament, when Moses requested that God display His glory to him? God told

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Moses that no one can look upon Him and live. Then the

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Lord replied to Moses, He said, okay. He says,

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I'll allow you to see Me, but only a glimpse. And He put him in the cleft of the rock, and God allowed

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Moses, that prophet of God, that knew God face to face, and He said He wanted to see His glory.

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And God says, I'm going to allow My goodness to pass before you. Did you hear that?

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God's goodness. Out of all the attributes that God chose to show,

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Moses was His goodness. So many times preachers preached that God's this bad

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God in the Old Testament, a God of justice. And He is a God of justice. Because we saw today in 2

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Samuel chapter 6, how He smote Uzzah, that God did a just thing for doing that.

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Because Uzzah violated God's command. He knew better. But yet, and then somehow

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God gets loving in the New Testament, but God is the same. He's the same in the

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Old Testament. He's the same in the New Testament. He doesn't change. And here He shows Moses, I'm going to allow

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My goodness to pass before you. And the scripture says, the Lord says,

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I'm merciful, and I'm gracious, and I'm long -suffering. I'm slow to anger.

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Abounding in goodness and truth. You get that? How glorious our

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God is. How good our God is. Attributes such as God's goodness and truth, especially in relationship to Jesus Christ.

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His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection. That's salvation in Jesus. And Jesus Christ came as the perfect law -keeper to redeem law -breakers like you and me.

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Born under the law. Lived perfectly under the law. Unto God His Father. Obeyed the law.

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Fulfilled all righteousness under the law. No one else could do this, folks.

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There's so many things that Jesus has done. He's done it all. And it was all completed when

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He died on the cross and said, it is finished. His active works of obedience,

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His passive works of obedience. His life, His death. All in Jesus Christ.

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He's enough. And I'm telling you folks, it's going to be sufficient for you and me if we're covered in the righteousness of Jesus.

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And we have by faith cling to Christ and say, Christ is all we need on the day of judgment.

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Praise His name. In that great and glorious exchange on the cross, we trade our rags for our filthy sin.

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We trade our filthy rags of sin for riches of righteousness.

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We must be covered, folks. We must be covered because of our sin, our nakedness before God.

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Our awful sin. Our bare nakedness that's exposed. And only the imputed righteousness of Jesus can cover our awful nakedness by faith alone in Christ.

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Faith is the instrument. A lot of people put a lot of stress on the faith. But yes, it is the instrument.

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But who saves us? It's not the faith itself. Even though we're to have the faith, the faith, that's so important.

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But listen to me carefully. It is Christ that saves us. The instrument is faith.

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It's a gift by God's grace. Or you say through faith, that not of yourself.

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So God gives you the faith to lay hold of Christ. He's the Savior. He's the one that saves us to the uttermost by faith and by faith alone in His perfect life.

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In His perfect death. In what He did for us. And here

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His perfect record of obedience is credited to us. Isn't that amazing? His perfect record of obedience is covered on us.

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His righteousness. And when God looks down at us now, He doesn't see us. He sees

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Christ. Our substitute. We're accounted for righteousness in Him by faith alone in Christ.

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In the gospel. What is required of us is given to us by faith alone in Jesus Christ.

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Faith in Christ. Righteousness by faith alone in Jesus Christ. So the command is still the same.

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And it never changed. And Jesus said it. Repent and believe the gospel for the kingdom of God is at hand.

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Have you truly believed? Have you truly repented? Have you really cast yourself on God?

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Have you given yourself to the Lord wholly? If you find yourselves burdened this morning of your sin before God and your unrighteousness and your sinful deeds laden with guilt, condemnation, and you can find forgiveness in the precious blood of Jesus Christ this morning.

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Wash His water than snow. And receive His perfect righteousness. You know something?

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A lot of times you hear the forgiveness of sin and that's great. But we also need to be covered in the righteousness of Christ.

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That's double imputation. We need that. That makes the gospel complete.

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Oh, the forgiveness of sin is a great benefit. It's great. But even greater still is having the righteousness of Jesus applied, imputed to us.

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And God declares us righteous in Jesus. Praise His name.

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Beloved, do not trust in your own good deeds, your own self -righteousness. Let your pride be broken to pieces before God.

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Be broken -hearted as David prayed in Psalm 51. Be broken by the anvil of God's hammer, of His Word, and be humbled.

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Receive the righteousness of Christ by faith in the only righteous One. And your best, your best and my best isn't good enough, is it?

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But Jesus's is. Because that alone pleased the Father. In His life and in His death, praise

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His name forever. Please pray with me. Our Father, Lord, we so thank

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You this morning for the great promises that You have given in Your Word about salvation.

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It's all in Jesus Christ. As Isaiah said in Your Word, I will greatly rejoice in the

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Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me in the garments of salvation.

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He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. And as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels,

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Lord, so You have dressed us, to those who believe in Jesus Christ, You have dressed us in His perfect, beautiful righteousness.

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How glorious is this. Lord, we owe it all to You. Lord, our hope is in You.

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Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. His righteousness.

01:03:08

And apart from Jesus, our works are filthy rags. Apart from Jesus, we have no hope.

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But trusting in Jesus, and trusting in His work alone, and trusting in Him alone, our filthy rags, we have exchanged for His riches,

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His beautiful garment, grace -tailored wedding garment. Lord, this humbles us.

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This humbles us to the dirt. But oh, how wonderful, how glorious, how good

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You are to show such mercy to us, such compassion, such grace, to undeserving sinners like us, to dress us, to forgive us of our sins, to take our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

01:03:52

Then dress us in the righteousness, in the robes of righteousness. For this we praise and adore

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You, Lord. And we'll praise and adore You forever and ever for such a wonderful thing

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You have done for us. Hallelujah, what a Savior. It's Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. We give You praise, and we give You glory. Amen and amen.