War Against the Soul: Part 3

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Worship Before the Throne Of God: Part 4

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Continue our series, War Against the Soul, and this will be a part three.
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I didn't put that down for Ben to put in the email, but this is a part three of War Against the
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Soul. And yet we'll be looking specifically what evangelism looks like.
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I think we all can need, we truly need this, I need this, and how evangelism really looks like in our lives, so I'm calling this living godly lives before a watching world.
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Living godly lives before a watching world, and any time, if there's any time in our history, the church needs to be the church.
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And that includes a small band of little Gideons here as well.
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So in saying that, please open your Bibles with me as we continue our study in the epistle of 1
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Peter. The epistle of 1 Peter, we're looking at chapter 2, only two verses, but these two verses are power -packed.
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They are loaded up for us. There's much here. This will be the last of this series, and Lord willing, we'll have communion next
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Lord's Day and a message on the cross, and then we're going to go into the rest of this chapter of what the
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Apostle Peter has to say about submission to government and submission to masters. And the rest of the, just about the rest of the whole entire chapter,
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I'm sorry, book, deals with submission. That's very convicting. But here we're looking at evangelism.
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Hear the word of the living God. I'm reading from the NASB translation. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.
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Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evil doers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify
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God in the day of visitation. May God richly bless the reading of His word to our hearts this morning.
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Let's pray and seek our Lord's help within this hour of worship as we continue our study and as we hear the word of the living
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God. Our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father, we say with what the
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Master, how He taught the disciples in the
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Sermon on the Mount how to pray, hallowed be Thy name, hallowed be
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Thy name. Lord, we pray that our worship would be acceptable to You through Jesus Christ and only through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
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Lord, help us to worship You and worship You alone. Father, help us to clear our minds now by the help of Your Holy Spirit that we focus on Your word this morning.
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Father, as it already has been said, Lord, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
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And Lord, You have truly given so much of Yourself in and through Your Son.
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All the riches of heaven, all the riches that we have to us is all because of that great sacrifice upon Calvary's tree.
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Oh, Father, no wonder it's such a sweet -smelling aroma to You. Oh, Father, thank
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You for that blood sacrifice. Thank You for the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
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And Father, we pray that Your blessed Holy Spirit would change each and every one of us this morning by the truth that is given unto us through Your word.
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Father, it's not this person here that's speaking, but it's, Father, Your word that speaks through me.
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And Father, I pray that, as Brother Keith said, hide me behind the cross and may we only see
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Jesus this morning. And may not a one of us leave here the same way we came. And we would pray and ask this in Jesus' name and for Your glory, amen and amen.
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Well, here in the text before us, the Apostle Peter is speaking an exhortation to the persecuted believers in Asia Minor.
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And this section basically begins a distinct division of his epistle. The first division is consisted in a series of exhortation as we have seen in the past Lord's days as based upon the particular privileges.
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What a wonderful study that has been seeing the privileges that we have that's in Jesus Christ.
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And these particular privileges described in his salutation as we saw and in the thanksgiving that the
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Apostle Peter gives and is summarized and really in one great word that's given and that is salvation.
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Salvation is really the complete story, the whole story of what
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God has done and what He continues to do. It is His great works. And doesn't
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David say to praise Him for His good deeds? And he praises Him for who
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He is, but he praises Him for His good works, His good deeds, because God is good.
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And the greatest work that He has done is in salvation through Jesus Christ. And that's really what the
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Apostle Peter speaks of in all of chapter 1 and going into chapter 2.
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Now the present series of exhortations that he urges his readers to is of a godly living as believers before a heathen society in the midst of which they were dwelling.
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Now isn't this relevant for us today? That we're in the world, but we're not of the world.
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And that's basically what he's exhorting them to. You're in this world, but God's not going to remove you out of the world until His good time comes.
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But while you're in the world, Jesus prayed for the disciples in John 17 that the
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Father, He prayed to the Father that keep them from the evil one. They're in the world, but keep them from the evil one.
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Keep them from becoming contaminated. Keep them from being corrupted. So this is what the exhortation really is about to the persecuted believers in Peter's day.
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The first of these exhortations is wide in its scope and refers to their whole course of life.
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That's the pattern in which we see the Apostle Peter taken here as he writes this wonderful letter to these persecuted believers.
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Now in it, they are addressed as sojourners and pilgrims.
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Sojourners and pilgrims, those are wonderful words. Namely, those who are looking for a country, as the
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Apostle Paul says, whose builder and maker is God Himself.
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You know, it's not only just the heavenly home, the celestial city that awaits us which is glorious, but it's
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God Himself. The place that is not made with hands, but God Himself dwells there.
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And that is their destination. Yet both emphasize a closely related truth. And what is that?
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First of all, it describes those who are in a foreign country as aliens. And the other are those remaining in such a country for a short time.
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And it is for a short time. Thus both words remind us, as the
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Apostle Paul says, through the Holy Spirit, our citizenship is in heaven.
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That's where our citizenship really is. And our stay here on this earth is very brief.
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Now isn't that true? Time is short, eternity is long. Our time here is very brief.
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We need to remember that to encourage us that here our life is like a vapor, as James says.
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And the psalmist says it's like a shadow. You think about that. It sobers us up to the brevity of life.
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And as we have looked at it in the past Lord's days, we are urged to abstain, abstain from fleshly desires, fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.
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And that is, we as the people of God, we are
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God's own possession. And we are not to adopt the evil customs of the people of the world.
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Isn't that what the Apostle Paul says? You see this all the way through scriptures really. And I cannot help but think about what he says.
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That we are to be separate, says the Lord. We are to come out from among them and be ye separate.
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And that separation means that we are to be holy unto Him in the world, but not of the world.
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And that's really what the scripture says. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
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If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now I don't know about you, but that's one of the most powerful commands in scripture.
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It basically causes me to examine my own heart. If I got the love of the world in me, the love of the
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Father is not there. Both cannot dwell in the same house, in the same heart.
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So it's one or the other. Jesus said, you for me or against me. So this is what the
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Apostle Peter is exhorting the persecuted believers in his time. And among whom we live in this world, or to endanger our spirits, the life of which is not brief, but immortal and eternal.
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Now we looked at the text, the lust, we are to abstain from the desires of the flesh, fleshly desires, because they wage war against the soul.
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We need to keep that in mind. This wages war against the soul in which we are warned.
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Don't you love these warnings? I love these warnings. Anytime, and you see a lot of them. There's a lot of promises in the word of God, but there's many warnings.
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Those warnings are God's love to us, because He cares for us as His children.
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We are warned to not to refer merely to impure bodily appetites, as we looked at, but to all wrong and selfish desires and impulses which threaten to take captive, to destroy the soul.
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And that's what he speaks of. So not only we must exercise discipline, as the
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Apostle Paul, that I keep under my body, that I myself would not become disqualified, a castaway.
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And he said that, that's the Apostle Paul, but in the area of fleshly indulgences.
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But we must also maintain our conduct in an honorable way among the
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Gentiles. Now, this is the text we're going to be looking at today. That we are to maintain our conduct in an honorable way among the
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Gentiles. And that is, in the pagan world. We live in a pagan world, don't we? I don't know about you, but on our way to worship this morning,
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I don't know how many people that you saw that had their mind on shopping, had their mind on boating, and on camping, and on everything else but the
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Lord. And here it is, the Lord's day. You think God's in their mind? Not on your life.
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But we need to remember, they're acting like the way they really are.
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And they are lost, wretched, undone. And we were once as well.
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We were there once, right? So it helps us to show pity a little bit more, not have a self -righteous attitude toward them.
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But we do know that God's holy and God's angry with the wicked every day, right? But God is patient as well.
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And He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So very simply put, in the text that is before us, we must not pattern our lives after the passing world.
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Let's keep that in mind. I'm going to say that again. We must not pattern our lives after the passing world.
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And this is what is happening to the church today. And Brother Keith has already mentioned that God is interesting, and what
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He's concerned about is the purity of His church. The purity of the church. That is huge, folks.
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And this is the exhortation that is given to us. But it's given to us in evangelism.
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You know, we should be marching to a different beat, right? To a different drummer as we march to Zion.
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Now, the key phrase here to help us understand this is not actually in verse 12.
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I want you to look at verse 15. This is really the key phrase because it all goes together.
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But this is a very important scripture for us to understand what Peter is driving to.
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Look at verse 15. He says, For as such is the will of God, that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.
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For such is the will of God. This is God's will. That by doing right, underscore that, doing right.
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It's your works, it's your good deeds. You may silence. That word silence is important here.
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You know what that word silence means? It is often used to speak of muzzling an animal. You ever seen a dog that's really mean and ferocious?
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He has to be muzzled sometimes. It puts a muzzle on him. Muzzling a ferocious animal.
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Figuratively speaking of reducing an adversary to silence. That's what it means in the
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Greek. To reduce the adversary to silence as it were. Taking the very accusation out of their mouth.
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You see David constantly prayed this. And you see this in scripture that God will silence the fools, the wicked.
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And God will. God knows how to silence. But it is a means to an end.
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He silences these wicked people through a godly life.
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But it's God that's really going to get the glory out of it. And as it were, it's taking the very accusation out of their mouth.
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At times, as Peter wrote this letter. Now, commentator
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Erdmann said this about the early Christians. I'm going to give two quotes here,
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I think, would help us grasp what the early believers were up against in accusations. Let's talk about slander, right?
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Remember our text? So that in the thing that which they slander you as what? Evil doers.
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They were being slandered as evil doers. Now, what does that mean? What, you know, we see that in a general sense.
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But specifically, what were they being slandered or accused of? Listen to this. Erdmann said this, quote.
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The Christians were being slandered as irreligious because of not worshipping the heathen gods.
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They were slandered as morons and ascetics because of refraining from popular vices, as disloyal to the government, because of claiming allegiance to a heavenly king.
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End quote. And regarding the nature of the slanders in which they were up against, against the church, another commentator,
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Barclay, William Barclay. These are good, two very good readers of the New Testament. Resources here. William Barclay says this, and he points out a little bit more specifics about the slanders and accusations.
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Now, you think about this before I give you this quote. We, we have, we don't, we have never been slandered like this.
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Just may, maybe in some foreign countries of real persecution.
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But as far as I know, I mean, in my own personal life here in, in America, I don't think we've ever had any slandering like this.
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Listen to what he says. They were accused of cannibalism. Cannibalism, that's right.
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This took its rise from the perversion. They perverted the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my body.
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This is my blood. So they were accused of cannibalism, etc.
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William Barclay also says this, they were accused of killing and eating a child at their feast, at the love feast.
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Wow. They were accused of immoral, immorality and incest.
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This is what the Christians were accused of, folks. And was misrepresented, he goes on to say, as a sensual orgy.
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These godly believers were also accused of turning slaves against their masters.
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They were accused of that. And they were also accused of hatred of mankind.
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Because of the separation against the world. And they were accused also of disloyalty to Caesar due to the refusal to worship the emperor.
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Now that has happened in America, I will say that, end quote. Now, there are some accusations.
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And some serious accusations, isn't it? And that's some serious slander that were not true against these believers.
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But they were accused of it. And with all that hatred and all that slander, the apostle
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Peter, through the Holy Spirit, gives them an admonition, an exhortation. In verse 12, keep your behavior excellent.
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Think of that. Being accused of such things. He says, keep your behavior excellent among the
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Gentiles. So that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify
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God in the day of visitation. Now, doesn't that help us understand the text a little bit more?
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Now, when I read those quotes from those commentators, I said, wow. Now, we might have gone in America and certain, especially about being accused of disloyalty to Caesar.
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We've seen that. But the rest about cannibalism and so forth, it's just absolutely wicked accusations.
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Well, the simplest, greatest tool for evangelism is keeping an excellent behavior.
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It's doing what is right. And this is what the scripture exhorts us to.
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Now, I don't know about you, again, I need this. It helps me get my focus. Because this is the way my attitude should be, my conduct, my character, my integrity is to be before watching the world, and you as well.
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So keep this before you. We are to do what is right. Doing right is the greatest tool for evangelism.
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So how can a believer silence his critics? How? By good deeds.
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By good deeds. Now, good deeds don't get us to heaven, right? Doing these good deeds do not earn us to heaven.
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These are the fruits of salvation. And it's very obvious that the scripture teaches this.
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Because we are saved by grace through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
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But we also know the apostle Paul says that we're saved unto good works. And that's what scripture teaches.
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By living a holy life is effective. That is effective to evangelism. Living a righteous life is effective to evangelism.
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So the foundation of all Christian witness before a watching world is what we do.
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Not what we say. I can't emphasize that enough. Words are cheap.
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People are looking the way you and I act. Our actions, as the saying goes, speak louder than words.
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And that is true. They're watching us. I'm telling you, I've been surprised at times.
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A person would come up to me and kind of nudge me and say, you know,
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I saw you do this. I saw you do this. I just didn't hear you.
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Oh yeah, they're hearing your words. We need to watch, as James says, we need to watch our tongue.
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It can be untamed. But they're watching our actions. The way we behave.
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The way we react. The way we react. That's what they're doing. Not what we say necessarily, but it's how we live.
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How we live. And it's our living before God, first of all, but we also are living before a wicked society.
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They are watching us. So Peter is drawing from the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in this.
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Go with me to Matthew chapter 5 and we'll see where he draws from. Now here we go.
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This is the greatest sermon that has ever been preached. Oh, if you want a sermon to read, read these three chapters.
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Chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7 of Matthew. Here it is.
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Chapter 5. Brother Keith knows where I'm going here. This is the greatest sermon ever preached.
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I don't care what anybody says. This is the greatest sermon ever preached.
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If you really want to study a sermon, study these three chapters. Study it verse by verse.
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And I promise you, when you get through, you will be changed. The greatest sermon ever preached.
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The sermon on the mount. Everything. And by the way, let me say this before we look at these words. Everything that Peter and James and John says in their epistles is based on this sermon.
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On the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Master. And it comes directly from this sermon.
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From the greatest sermon, but from the greatest preacher ever. The Lord Jesus Christ.
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And you look at chapter 5, look at verse 13 through 16. Just three verses. Three verses. Now, I don't have time to unpack all of this, but we're going to touch on a few things here real quick.
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And what Peter is drawing from. Jesus says this in verse 13. You are the salt of the earth.
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But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?
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What a question. It is no longer good for anything. It's set to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
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Verse 14. You are the light of the world. You are the light of the world.
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A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket or a bushel.
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But on a lampstand, and it gives light. It gives. Don't you underscore that.
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It gives light to all who are in the house. And then he says, let your light so shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your
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Father who is in heaven. Well, there you have it. The similitudes.
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The similitudes. What does these verses teach us? Well, they basically teach us.
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I like what J .C. Ryle said in his commentary on Matthew. This section teaches us in the whole
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Sermon on the Mount, quote, the character, this is J .C. Ryle, the character which true
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Christians must support and maintain in the world.
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The character which true Christians must support and maintain in the world.
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J .C. Ryle. Well, our Lord Jesus tells us that Christians, and I'm talking about true
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Christians, are to be, they're being and then doing.
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But first of all, Jesus says to be in the world like salt and light.
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Those two things, those two great elements that Jesus brings something simple in life and he brings it right down to where we can understand what he's talking about.
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Salt and light. Salt is both a preservative and what else? A flavor enhancer.
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It flavors. You don't know about you. I love salt on certain things. I can't do without salt, it seems to be.
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But it is a flavor enhancer. But mainly, I believe, if you look at the text, that Jesus is speaking of salt more as a preservative is what
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Jesus is really driving at here. Albert Barnes comments on this passage which gives much illumination to our text.
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He says this, The salt used in this country is a chemical compound. And if the saltiness were lost, or it were to lose its savor, there would be nothing remaining.
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In eastern countries, however, the salt used was impure, mingled with vegetable and earthly substances so that it might lose the whole of its saltiness.
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And a considerable quantity of salt without flavor remained.
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And then he says this, This was good for nothing except that it was used, as it is said, to be placed in paths or walks as we use as gravel.
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End quote. That's all it's good for. If it's lost its saltiness, its preservatives.
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That is, no longer preserving what it needs to preserve against a corrupt, decaying society.
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The salt has lost its saltiness. It makes you wonder what's going on today as we see judgment in America that the church has lost its saltiness.
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It's good for nothing but to be cast out and be trampled like gravel.
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So the believer has one great function. And what is that function? It's to be salt.
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To be salt of the earth. Beloved, that's what we are to be. We are to be salt.
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We are the salt of the earth. By living out, now what does that mean? By living out the terms of discipleship that's listed in the
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B attitudes. B attitudes. This is what
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Jesus desires us to be. And throughout the rest of His sermon,
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He preaches. And then if the believer fails, I want you to think about this. If the believer fails, if we fail to live out the spiritual reality in which
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Jesus preached, men and Gentiles specifically will tread our testimony underfoot.
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And that's exactly what we have seen. You know, I don't know if you look about within the church when any time a leader falls and goes apostate and goes shipwrecked, the testimony is absolutely trampled underfoot.
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And the name of God is blasphemed. Now, how must God must grieve about this?
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And I'm sure He does. The world has only contempt. Let me say this, in a sadness contempt for a hypocritical worldly believer.
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God help us. Only contempt for a hypocritical worldly believer.
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This is convicting too. Verse 14, not only is the
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Christian to be salt, but Jesus calls Christians to be light. Salt and light.
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He says, you are the light of the world. Now, Jesus is drawing this from John 8, what
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He says basically in 8 .12, John 12 .35 -36 and 46.
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And when I say drawing that, He is the light of the world. He refers to Himself, the light of the world.
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He is the light. In John 1, we read the testimony that Jesus comes and He is that light.
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John the Baptist says, I am not that light, but I bear witness of that light. And that's the way we should be.
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We bear witness of that light. But what does Jesus mean by you are the light of the world? I really believe
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He's talking about, this is the relationship between these two, these statements that Jesus Himself is the true source of light.
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He is like the sun that's in the skies and the heavens. And Christians are nothing but a mere reflection of His light.
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It's kind of like the sun and the moon. The moon draws from the sun and reflects from that light at night time.
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In dark, in darkness. Don't you love when you see a full moon? And especially when it's, the other morning the moon was full and I was going to work and I couldn't help but see the moon.
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And it was so large, but that reflection of that moon, of that light was drawing from the sun.
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And that's the way we are to be. And as you know in Scripture, light is a symbol of God's holiness.
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That's the symbol of God's holiness. And Jesus is the light. He is absolutely holy, the perfect Son of God.
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We're not perfect, but we reflect His light. And believers is that reflection of God's holiness.
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We're to reflect that holiness. Because we cannot be as holy as God, can we?
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By no means. Because God is that standard of holiness. He is the Holy One of Israel.
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That's what Scripture says. Holy is His name. Holy, holy, holy. It's all about God's holiness.
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And Jesus is holiness manifest in the flesh. So the function of the believer is to shine for Jesus as the moon reflects from the magnificent glory of the sun.
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You know, Christians are like that city set. Don't you love that word, set, on a hill.
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He's not going to be moved. He's set on that hill. He's on that hill. He is shining.
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And He's elevated. He's elevated His entire surroundings and shines in the midst of a dark, evil world.
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Those whose lives exhibit traits of Christ's teaching. And Jesus says, it cannot be hidden.
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It cannot be hidden. People do not, Jesus said, light a lamp and put it under a bushel or under a basket.
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Instead, they put it on a lamp stand. For why? There's a reason. So that it would give light.
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It gives light. And that's the way the Christian is to be, is to give that light to all that is in the house.
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And Jesus never, ever intended for believers to hoard that light, right?
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What are we to do with that light? We're to give it out. We're to share it with the world. We're to give it out.
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This is evangelism. This is what Jesus is talking about. Jesus is basically saying in a simple way, this is the way effective evangelism works.
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It's the way we live. It's the way we act. It's the way we react.
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God help us. We're to let our light shine before men. Don't you love that little child song?
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This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine. Don't let the devil blow it out.
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Let it shine, right? That is so true.
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Simple as that may seem, but we are to let our light so shine before men so that they may see.
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Did you get that? That they may see your witness. To see your good works.
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And they will, what did they say? What's the scripture say? They will pat you on the back and praise you for all the wonderful things that you are and do.
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Did I misread that? Oh no, God forbid. No, they're not gonna praise you and tell you what wonderful things they're gonna do.
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Matter of fact, they're not gonna like it. They will persecute you, and Jesus speaks about persecution.
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And he says, when you are persecuted, rejoice that heaven belongs to you and that you're rejoicing because so persecuted they, the prophets.
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And what does Jesus say? Why? Because your reward in heaven is wonderful, it's great.
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Be exceedingly glad, exceedingly glad. Jesus said that they will glorify your
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Father in heaven, not pat you on the back. That they may glorify your
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Father in heaven. Beloved, this is the emphasis here in the ministry of the
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Christian character. It's behavior. It's our attitude. Be attitudes, attitudes.
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It's the heart, be attitudes. Be, be our good works that comes from us being holy, being righteous, being godly.
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It's the wisdom, it's the whimsiness of our lives which Christ has seen that speaks more louder than words.
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And by the way, it's louder than the persuasions of any words. J .C. Rowe, and I've quoted this before by I love what he said.
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J .C. Rowe said it well, a Christian is a walking sermon. They preach far more than a minister does for they preach all week long.
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Think about that. You preach far more than any sermon that's preached. No matter how good that sermon may be.
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And there's many a preacher that can preach very good. But beloved, your life speaks more in a sermon than what any preacher can ever preach.
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That's what J .C. Rowe meant. And he draws that from scripture right here from this text. You know,
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Peter says that they may because of your good deeds as they observe them glorify God in the day of visitation.
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Oh beloved, this is effective. This is effective evangelism. This is effective evangelism.
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This is effective. Why? Why is it effective? Because on account of your good deeds, the works of righteousness, they will observe it.
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And they are observing as they're watching you. And you know what the Greek says in the present tense here? As they go on observing them.
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It's not just past tense, it's present tense and it continues. And they continue to observe them over a period of time.
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That they will glorify God in the day of visitation. Now, that term right there, that phrase, glorify
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God in the day of visitation. In the day of visitation. What does that mean? What does that mean? That's a good question.
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Let's look at this. What does it mean by the day of visitation? This is a wonderful phrase and I love this phrase.
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But first of all, let me, I thought about this. Let me ask the question, who is doing the visiting here?
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Almighty God. It's just not another person. This is just not a king of the earth. I don't know about you.
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If a high official were to come in, we would give him great respect, wouldn't we?
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But we're talking about God himself that does the visiting.
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The obvious answer, of course, is the visitation of God himself. And a day of visitation is any time that the
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Lord, what he speaks of is any time the Lord is drawing near. And by the way, he draws near in grace or in judgment.
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You don't have anything between that. God will draw near in grace or in judgment, in blessing or in punishment.
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This is a common phrase that the Old Testament speaks of. In the Old Testament, God visited man in a number of ways, but basically for those two reasons, grace or judgment, grace or judgment.
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Let me give you some examples here. You can write these down. You can go to the text if you like.
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Isaiah chapter 10, verse 3. Isaiah 10, 3. Let me read 10, 3.
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This is the word of the Lord. Listen to these questions. Isaiah speaks as God's mouthpiece.
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Spirit of God is upon him. This is recorded. He says in Isaiah 10, 3, now what will you do in the day of punishment?
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The day of punishment. The day of visitation. Now there it's for punishment. And in the devastation which will come from afar.
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Second question. Third question. To whom will you flee for help? To whom will you flee for help?
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Three questions in that verse. What will you do in the day of punishment and in the devastation which will come from afar and to whom will you flee for help?
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And then he says this, another question. To whom will, I'm sorry, and where will you leave your wealth?
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Where are you going to leave your wealth when God comes in judgment? A series of questions
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God gives. Here's another one, Jeremiah 27, 22. 27, 22.
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The same idea occurs. God visits for blessing here, for deliverance, for rescue, for salvation.
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Jeremiah 27, 22. They will be carried to Babylon and they will be there until the day
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I visit them, declares the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.
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Praise God. Now that's blessing, isn't it? That's blessing. Of all the scriptures in the
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Old Testament, sometimes you see, you see for most of the time it's for punishment in the
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Old Testament. But when we come to the New Testament, I find this, that God comes to visit, refers to a visit for redemption.
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A visit for redemption. Praise God. Luke 1, 68. Chapter 1, verse 68.
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The Word of God says this, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He visited us and accomplished redemption.
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Aren't you glad for that? The God of Israel has visited us and accomplished redemption.
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Redemption's been accomplished. Who? God. Through who? Jesus Christ.
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That's how He accomplished it. Through the person and works of Christ. Luke chapter 7, verse 16.
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We read in regarding Christ. Now, I'm not going to read this, but He visited His people and this is obviously for redemption.
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As you move toward the end of Luke, in the Gospel of Luke chapter 19, it's also in chapter 7, verse 16, but it's also in Luke 19, 41 through 41.
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I'm not going to read it, but Jesus technically is weeping over Jerusalem because they did not know the time of visitation.
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You can read that in the text. They did not know the time of visitation. They did not know it.
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They did not recognize it. They were oblivious from it and of it.
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That is, what is said here, you're going to be judged. Jesus tells them,
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I'm going to judge you because they did not recognize who He was. They didn't, did they?
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They crucified Him. And that's exactly what it refers to.
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Why were they going to be judged? Because you didn't know. You did not know that God visited to save you.
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I like what Lennon Rabin said. He said, no, I don't mind being the least of all the saints, but I don't want to be the most stupid of them.
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Amen. We need to know, don't we? We don't need to be ignorant. And Paul told the
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Corinthian church, I would that you not be ignorant. My people perish because of lack of knowledge.
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And that's exactly what the case is here. A lack of knowledge of God, not intellect. A knowledge of God.
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How much knowledge of God's in this land today? You think people care? Where there's a lot of intellectual knowledge and people's heard sermon after sermon, but we're talking about knowledge from the
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Holy Spirit and from the Word of God. But this is God speaking. The day of visitation.
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So of all those visitations in the New Testament, they had the idea of visitation for salvation.
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Salvation. Now that's so important. That's exactly how Peter understood this text.
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And so what Peter is saying is this, that because of the ongoing observation of the character and the quantity of the believer's life, the unbeliever will glorify
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God in the day that God visits him, basically to save him, to give blessing when
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God visits him. Isn't that what we pray for our lost loved ones? And you know,
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God is using you and me through a means to an end. It's because of the righteousness of the saints.
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It's not because of you, anything good in you of yourself. No, because we're depraved, aren't we?
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We're wretched sinners saved by the grace of God. But what he's speaking of, it's the righteous life that is shown through your life by the power of the
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Holy Spirit. Where Jesus said in Acts 1, chapter 1, 8, you shall be witnesses unto me.
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And what's he talking about? He says you shall be filled basically when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, when the power of God comes upon you, that power was not for salvation in that context.
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That power is an energy, a dynamite from God for us to live out the life.
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And it says, Jesus says you'll be witnesses unto the world. No, he says you'll be witnesses unto me. And that word witnesses is interesting, it means martyrs.
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That was the context. And look at how many people will put to death for Jesus' sake and for his name in the early church.
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And you know, we're having persecution now today, not just, persecution's on its way here.
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It's coming from Canada. Canada is really hitting it hard. But let me tell you where it's really hitting hard, folks, in Nigeria.
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I'm telling you, I read in the Tortured for Christ, what's that?
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Martyrs. Yes, the Book of Martyrs. But, what's the name?
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Voice of the Martyrs, thank you. My wife was trying to help me, but anyway, the Voice of the Martyrs. And I saw that in that, within just a few weeks, there was almost up to 2 ,000
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Christian believers put to death from Muslims, from terrorists. Folks, this is real.
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This is experiencing almost genocide. I mean, it's terrible.
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The Muslims wants to annihilate the Christians. This is, but you know, as we pray for people that persecute us, for Jesus' sake, we need to pray that our behavior, that God would help us to live out a holy life that is excellent, a behavior that's excellent.
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And when God comes to them in grace on the day of visitation, and begins to move by the power of His Spirit in the heart of the unbeliever, and only which
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God can do, He will respond, and that unbeliever will respond in saving faith, and what will
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He do? Glorify God for His salvation, for the day of visitation.
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God is glorified. It's not about us, it's about God.
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And God, it's because God has remembered, and it's the testimony, and the behavior of the believer that is used for a faithful life in Christ.
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Second Corinthians chapter three, verse two and three says, what, you are living epistles.
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You are our letter. This is what it's talking about, evangelism, written in our hearts, known and read by all men, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living
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God, not on the tablets of stone, but on the tablets of human hearts. And going back to our text, verse 11,
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Peter urges his readers, believers, to abstain from fleshly lust, from the sin that wages war against the soul.
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One reason for that is found in this verse, the world is watching us. That's why we are to abstain from fleshly lust.
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It wages war against our soul. It's not only a personal, but it's also a witness to unbelievers.
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And God's name is at stake. And although Peter has described Christians as aliens and strangers in the world, he says that we still live among the people of the world, in it, but not of it.
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So we're not isolated, are we? We're not an island to ourselves. We're surely, especially, speaking of within the church, but also in the world.
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And you know, we see them, and we see how the wicked lives, but they see us too.
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I remember Francis Schaeffer speaking about this, about a watching world, and they have a right to judge us.
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They do. They have a right to judge us. Well, you know, you have slander.
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Christians are slandering. Jesus had told Peter and the other disciples that the world would hate you. And in part, they would not belong to the world.
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That's the reason why they hate you, because of him, because they bear witness of the light, the truth.
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And we should not then be surprised why the world hates us, right? And when we are falsely accused by unbelievers, false accusations.
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However, believers do have a powerful defense, and that is a godly life.
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How does this look like? This is application. I gotta get to application here. How does this look like?
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Go with me to Romans chapter 12, and we'll see how this looks like. Romans chapter 12.
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Now, I'm not gonna have time to unpack this again. I'm just gonna read you the verses, and I think that's sufficient.
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Look at verse 9 through 21. This is a cluster of behaviors.
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This is the way a Christian is to behave. This is the way we should behave on a daily basis as Christians.
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Listen to what he says in verse 9, chapter 12. Let love be without hypocrisy. Now, he's talking about God's love, okay, agape.
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He's not talking about friendship love. He's talking about the love of God in you.
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Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
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Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Give preference to one another in honor. Not lagging behind in diligence.
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Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope. Persevering in tribulation.
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Devoted to prayer. Contributing to the needs of the saints. Practicing hospitality.
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Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
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Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly.
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Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.
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Respect what is right in the sight of all men. And if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.
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Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine.
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I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
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And if he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head.
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And I love what he gets to here in verse 21. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
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Our good deeds do matter, don't they? One more, one more in the
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Old Testament. Go to Psalm chapter 15. I texted this to Brother Keith earlier.
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I'll say one more, I got one more after this. Psalm, this is only five verses.
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Now I want you to think about this. Chapter one of Psalm is only five verses. Isn't that interesting?
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These five verses from the Psalm of David speaks to us in description of a citizen of Zion. And you know something?
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Chapter 15 and chapter one of Psalm are very similar. They are. Because like chapter one,
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Psalm one focuses on the way and the walk of the righteous.
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The way the righteous walk. The righteous is the blessed man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scoffers.
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Why? Because his delight, he delights in something. What does he delight in?
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He delights in the law of the Lord. In our interpretation today, he delights in the word of God.
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He delights in the law of the Lord. And in his law, he meditates day and night. Now Psalm 15 tells us how that righteous man lives it out.
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In five verses, he packs it in. How he walks. So this whole Psalm unfolds a question and,
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I'm sorry, a question and answer series. Question and answer session. And it's focus is on moral responsibility.
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And the Psalm offers a sequence of responses to the question of acceptable worship before God. Well, let's look at the first five verses, the whole chapter actually.
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Oh Lord, he cries out. Oh Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell in your holy hill?
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Who? Verse two. He who walks with integrity and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart.
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He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend.
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In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord. He swears to his own hurt and does not change.
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And in verse five, he says, he does not put out his money at interest, nor does he take bribe against the innocent.
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He who does these things will never be shaken. That bird is singing right with us, isn't he? Now he is praising
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God. He who does these things, does these things, will never be shaken.
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Never be shaken. If you do these things. Now, it's interesting.
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The individual that God chooses here is his companion. This is what I was thinking. He's a companion and friend.
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You're a friend of God, right? God chooses you. You're marching to Zion. And the subject of Psalm 15, although it does not say so in this
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Psalm, but put it in context to the rest of what scripture has to say.
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The basic qualification for entrance into the kingdom of God is that you must be born again. John three, right? That's the order.
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So apart from the new birth, no one can see or enter the kingdom of God. But this birth from above is experienced by grace through faith.
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And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So apart from works of righteousness on man's part, but taken by itself, this
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Psalm seems to imply that salvation is somehow connected with man's righteous character and noble deeds.
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But we know better than this. Why? Because if you take with the rest of scripture and it only can mean that the kind of faith that saves is the kind of faith that results in a life of true holiness, all right?
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First, you must be born again. And matter of fact, there's no way you can live out a righteous life.
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And Jesus says, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
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And what's he talking about? That righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus. So there's no way we can live out a righteous life before the world unless we have the righteousness of Jesus.
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Now people could do good works, but it's not the kind of good works that the believer has.
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The believer has a different kind of good works. Like James in his epistle, David is saying that genuine faith in the
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Lord results in the kind of good works described in this Psalm. Incidentally, this
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Psalm does not give a complete catalog of the virtues of the citizens of Zion, but it is a portrait. It's suggestive.
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It's not exhaustive. But God uses us for his glory and we're changed.
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We are his workmanship. James 2, 14 through 17. What use is it?
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My brethren, my brethren, he says, my brethren. If someone says he has faith, but he has no works, can that faith save him?
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If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, or one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
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Well, faith works. And then he says his point in verse 17.
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Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself. True faith, genuine faith always works.
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John Owen said, true faith can no more be without holiness than true fire without heat. So what does it mean to live out our faith and our calling?
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The Bible is clear. Faith bears fruit in love, right? Justification by faith and its relationship to good works.
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As Luther said, God does not need our good works, but our neighbor does. Let me close with this chapter, chapter 10 of Luke.
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Go with me very quickly to Luke chapter 10. And I'll close with this, I promise. This is a powerful text, folks.
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Wish I had time to unpack this, but I don't. Let me read this very quickly. In verse 25 of chapter 10, and a lawyer stood up and put him to test.
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He came to Jesus. He put Jesus to the test. Oh, you don't do that. Not to the master.
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He comes and says, teacher. Oh, he calls him teacher. He's using flattery. What shall
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I do to inherit eternal life? Remember, his motive is testing him.
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And he said to him, Jesus says, what is written in the law? How does it read to you? And he answered.
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
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And he said to him, you have answered correctly. What did
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Jesus say? Do this and you will live. Do it. Verse 29.
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This is key to understanding the motive of this man. But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, and who is my neighbor?
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Oh, you can almost hear it in his voice, a snobbish, self -righteous attitude. And who is my neighbor?
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A robber. That's what Jesus tells him. And Jesus replied and said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, isn't this such wisdom, heavenly wisdom?
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And fell among robbers and they stripped him and beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. And by chance, a priest, a priest was going down on that road.
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And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So the priest didn't care, did he?
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Verse 32. Likewise, a Levite, oh, this is supposed to be some really holy guys, holy men.
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Likewise, a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. There was a third one, verse 33, but a
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Samaritan. He's a reject. He's a mixed person. The Samaritan comes.
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He's a lowlife. He's a nobody. He comes by. He was on a journey.
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He had a place to go. He had a schedule to meet. But he came upon him and when he saw him, he felt compassion.
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Folks, that's, underscore that. He felt compassion. And he came to him and he bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them.
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What a story. And he put him on his beast and he brought him to an inn and he took care of him.
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And on the next day, he took out two dinero and gave them to the innkeeper and said, take care of them. And whatever more you spend,
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I will return, I will repay you. Jesus asked a powerful question here, folks.
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Listen, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robber's hands?
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Now keep in mind, Jesus has ended this conversation with a question and this self -righteous lawyer began trying to justify himself with the question.
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Jesus gives the answer in this story. Now Jesus answers, gives him a question. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robber's hands?
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And he said, the one who showed mercy toward him. Then Jesus said to him, go and do the same.
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Go do likewise. Go do likewise. Go do likewise.
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Let's pray. Oh, Father in heaven, this is so convicting to us because Lord, how many times have we failed?
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Like the Levite, like the priest. And yet this good
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Samaritan, this reject, this nobody showed such compassion. And he showed it in his good works.
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Lord, you said, oh man, what is good?
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What does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love mercy?
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To walk humbly with your God? Lord, you said in your word, do not let mercy and truth lead you, but bind them on the tablet of your heart.
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Therefore, be careful how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise. Make it the most of your time because the days are evil.
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Lord, we live in this day, but may we never be too busy, Lord, to stop and show compassion and mercy.
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But Lord, we are to be, as we walk circumspectly, we are to walk cautiously, to look where one is stepping, to be vigilant, to be watchful, to be diligent, to be attentive, oh
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God. And as the master said, help us to be wise as serpents, to be discerning, but to be loving, to be harmless as doves.
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Help us, I pray, oh God, that each and every one of us would be salt and light to a decaying dark world.
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And may we watch and pray until the day Jesus Christ comes and so he would find faith in us for his glory.