Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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The Lord reigns. Let the peoples tremble.

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He dwells between the cherubim. Let the earth be moved.

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The Lord is great in Zion, and he is high above all the peoples.

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Let them praise your great and awesome name. He is holy.

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The King's strength also loves justice. You have established equity.

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You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the

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Lord our God and worship at his footstool. He is holy.

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Come now, let us worship him. Let's pray together. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we joyfully enter into your presence, heeding your call.

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We come to worship you. O Lord, we pray that you would enable us to worship in spirit and in truth.

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We know that this is possible because we have the perfect mediator, who is your Son, Jesus Christ the

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Lord. It is in his name that we pray. Amen. Please kneel for the corporate confession of sin.

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Let us confess with one voice now. Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real to hide, and too deep to undo.

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Forgive what our lips tremble to name, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has become for us a consuming fire of judgment.

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Set us free from a past that we cannot change. Open to us a future in which we can be changed.

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And grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness. Through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

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Amen. Please stand. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the

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Lord. O people of God, you are great sinners, but you have a great

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Savior, who is Christ the Lord. If you be united to him by faith, your sins are forgiven.

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Amen? Let's take up the hymnal now and turn to number 116, for the beauty of the earth.

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116. Please take up the insert.

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Psalm 98 is coming into shape for us. It is the Psalm of the

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Week. Please practice with your family at home in devotions, and we'll be singing as the

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Psalm of the Month in the month of December. Let us begin. Psalm 98.

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The way to do a thing is to praise the

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Lord. That's great. Please hang on to Psalm 98. I hope that we will do one more practice session before lunch today.

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I'd also like to sing it at the Lemke's next week. A Thanksgiving meal there.

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So hang on to the copy, or turn it in to us, and we'll hold on to a copy for you. Please remain standing now for the reading of the word from Genesis in chapter 30.

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Do you have your Bible?

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Genesis chapter 30. Go unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.

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And she gave him Bilhah her handmaid to wife, and Jacob went in unto her.

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And Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son.

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Therefore called she his name Dan. And Bilhah Rachel's maid conceived again, and bore

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Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, with great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed.

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And she called his name Naphtali. When Leah said that she had left bearing, she took

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Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. And Zilpah Leah's maid bore

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Jacob a son. And Leah said, a troop cometh, and she called his name

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Gad. And Zilpah Leah's maid bore Jacob a second son. And Leah said, happy am

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I, for the daughter will call me blessed. And she called his name

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Asher. And Reuben went in the days of wheat and harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother

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Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.

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And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hath taken my husband?

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And wouldst thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said,

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Therefore he shall lie with thee to -night for thy son's mandrakes. And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said,

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Thou must come in unto me, for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes, and he lay with her that night.

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And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bore Jacob the fifth son.

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And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband, and she called his name

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Issachar. And Leah conceived again, and bore Jacob the sixth son. And Leah said,

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God hath endued me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons, and she called his name

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Zebulun. And after she bore a daughter, and called her name Dinah. And God remembered

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Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son, and said,

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God hath taken away my reproach. And she called his name

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Joseph, and said, The Lord shall add to me another son. And came to pass, when

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Jacob had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go unto mine own place, and to my country.

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Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee.

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And let me go, for thou knowest my service, which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him,

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I pray thee, if I found favour in thine eyes, Terry. For I have learned by experience, that the

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Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it.

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And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me.

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For it was little, which thou hath before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude.

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And the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming. And now when shall I provide for mine own house also?

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And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shall not give me anything.

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If thou will do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock.

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I will pass through all thy flock to -day, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats.

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And of such shall be my hire. So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come from my hire before thy face.

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Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me.

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And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word, if he removed that day that he goats were ring -streaked and spotted, and all that she goats were speckled and spotted, and all of every one that some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

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And he set three days' journey betwixt himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.

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And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree, and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods.

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And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink.

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And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring -streaked, speckled, and spotted.

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And Jacob did separate the lambs, and set the faces of the flocks towards the ring -streaked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban, and he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto

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Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, whenceoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods.

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But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in, so that the feebler were in Laban's, and the stronger

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Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses.

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The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. What a great joy it is to be studying the book of Genesis through our reading.

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Let us now confess our faith through the joyful singing of the Apostles' Creed. Let us begin.

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I believe in God the Father, Christ his only begotten

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Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the

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Virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, ascended, is seated at the dead.

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I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe the

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Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body.

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

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That's number 521. Preparations now for the prayers of the people.

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Please kneel if you are able. After this manner, therefore, pray ye.

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Charged in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

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Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

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Amen. Pray that we may glorify God in all that we do as we live and work in the creation that displays

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His power and be pleased to dispose all things to His own glory.

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Pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed and that the kingdom of grace may be advanced.

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Ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it and the kingdom of glory hastened.

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We ask in Jesus' name. Pray that God, for Christ's sake, would freely pardon all our sins.

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And we are encouraged to ask this because by His grace we are able from the heart to forgive others.

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And stay in it. Lord God, you've allowed us to follow you and to live a

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Christ -like life. Father, I pray that you would allow us to have our sins forgiven and be mindful of this in our dealings with others.

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That you would cause us to not look at the small offense. Lord God, in our brotherhood we have transgressed you in a very large way.

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Father, I pray that you would have a heart of mercy towards our neighbors and in so doing be a critical witness for your gospel.

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In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin or support and deliver us when we are tempted.

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Lord, hear our prayer. Our Father, taking encouragement and prayer from you alone, in our prayers we praise you, ascribing kingdom, power, and glory to you.

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And to testify of our desire and assurance to be heard, we say together,

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Amen. Please stand and take up the

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Psalm of the Month. Psalm 78. We are well versed in it now.

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Familiar tune. We're doing well with it. Let's sing it to the Lord. Please remain standing.

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We begin reading 1 John 5. We begin reading today in verse 14 to the end of the chapter.

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And sadly, this is the next to last message in 1

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John 5. I hope it's been an encouragement to your faith as we've studied 1 John together.

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Let's begin reading in verse 14. This is God's holy and infallible word.

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Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything according to His will,

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He hears us. And we know, and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

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If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.

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There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.

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All unrighteousness is sin and there is sin to death.

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We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him.

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We know that we are of eyes under the sway of the wicked one.

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And we know that the Son of God has come and given us an understanding that we may know

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Him who is true and we are in Him who is true in His Son, Jesus Christ.

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This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

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Amen. Please pray with me. Oh Lord, we rejoice to be studying

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Your Word and I pray today that we would be diligent and earnest and desire to pray for one another and to pray for those who are caught in trespasses.

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Oh Lord, I pray that we would be very unselfish, that we would seek to glorify

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You and we would seek the good of our brethren in this and we ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Please be seated. This is one of the four or five puzzling verses in 1

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John. We'll be considering verse 16 today in 17 of chapter 5.

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The title of the message is Praying for Others and my sermon in a sentence is

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Intercede for Your Brother in Sin. Intercede, pray for your brother in sin.

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Last week we learned that we can have a confidence in prayer when you pray in accordance with His will.

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Our God is eager to make us more like Christ.

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Those types of prayers when we seek to be more godly and more God glorifying and to love our brother appropriately,

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God is eager it seems to grant those requests. We also learned last week that we have a deep propensity for selfishness in prayer and the antidote to that is to know

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God's will, to get this from His word, to meditate on it day and night, believing it is true and best and embracing it wholesale.

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This will enable us to pray boldly in accordance with His will.

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Today we again take up the subject of prayer but this subject is intercession for others.

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When we pray for others we glorify God and demonstrate a real love for our brethren.

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There is a purity to this kind of prayer. We look to God and show real concern for our brother and we fade into the background.

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Very antithesis of what our selfish tendency is. We think of God and we think of our brother when we pray for them.

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So let's consider praying for others and interceding for your brother in sin.

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What do you do when you see a brother sinning? Well first you may be tempted to think poorly of them.

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Maybe this would be an expression of your own pride and self -righteousness. I would never do such a thing as they are doing.

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Second, you may be tempted to gossip about their sin with others and you may feel your sin is justified by theirs because they're doing this terrible thing.

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Again, this pride and self -righteousness and self -exaltation enters in.

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You are better than them and you want to let everyone know about how much better you are than those who have been fallen into this sin.

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Or maybe you write them off as second -class Christians or view them as unbelievers.

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However, egregious unrepentant sin may actually indicate unbelief in them.

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It's interesting, when we see our brother or sister in Christ in sin, we seem to be forgetful about our own sinfulness and the grace of God that has been extended to us in Jesus Christ.

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We become judges and enforcers of the law in those situations.

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There's also a danger when we see our brother sinning, we could be drawn in to his sin.

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Our text today gives us the proper response to seeing our brother in sin.

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Look at verse 16. It says, If anyone sees his brother sinning, a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, this is the interceder asking

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God, and God will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.

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For those of you who have need of an outline, I have two points. The first is very simple.

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You should pray for your brother in sin. You should pray for your brother in sin.

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And second, there is sin that leads to death.

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You should pray for your brother in sin. The church must be zealous for holiness.

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We are, like our culture, too tolerant of evil.

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We are most tolerant of our own evil. And we're tolerant of the evil of those that we like the most.

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But the church is a holy body of Christ. A holy assembly of the saints.

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The holy ones. So first, we should care about our brother or sister falling into sin.

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We shouldn't be indifferent. It would be cold and unloving to not care about it.

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But it seems that one of the first impulses of the Christian community is to not love and to pray, but to gossip.

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To think poorly of them. To write them off as second -class citizens. All that we just talked about.

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Forgetfulness about the grace of God extended to us and Christ.

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And what is lost in all of this is the controversy or the difficulty of interpretation.

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This seems to overtake the main thrust of the message. When you consider verse 16, we want to talk about the sin which leads to death.

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The thrust, the emphasis, is we are to pray for our brethren who have fallen into sin.

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We're going to be more concerned about the controversy or the interpretation of that difficult phrase.

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May the Lord help us as we consider all of this. Let's do some exegesis of the text.

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Surprisingly, there is a lot to be mined here in verse 16.

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If anyone sees. This is why we need a deeper study of scripture than just a cursory reading of the text.

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This is why preaching and study and biblical scholarship is needful. We need to peer more deeply into the text to draw out the marrow of the text.

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So we might know the depth and breadth of what is being taught here.

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Seeing in this case is what we might think seeing to be in English. But it has this idea of perception attached to it.

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Discernment. It encompasses both the physical act of sight with the eyes.

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And the metaphorical sense of perceiving or understanding with the mind.

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It includes the deeper understanding or realization of spiritual truths.

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It can indicate an insight granted by God to see is to see with the mind.

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It could be argued another level to be to be seeing with the spirit. To understand, to discern.

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So if anyone sees his brother sinning. Sinning is missing the mark in its literal sense.

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But it's used to describe that act of violation of God's law or falling short of his standards.

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You and I could walk around nitpicking one another for our offenses. And that doesn't seem to be the thrust of the text.

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But we could do that with one another. And I can tell you that'd be a very unpleasant fellowship to be a part of.

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These seem to be egregious sins that are in view. It's a moral failure or transgression in opposition to and rebellion against God and his law.

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And it's probably habitual and unrepentant and somewhat scandalous.

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And affects the body life of the membership of the church.

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So you and I are observing our brethren. We're not looking to find fault with them.

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We are not the designated fruit inspectors of our Christian brethren.

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But we do have an obligation to one another. To spur each other on to love and good works.

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To make sure that we're okay in the faith that we're walking in righteousness. We have an obligation and duty to one another.

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And all that I've been teaching on the parish and everything in Sunday school all these months now.

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We have to have a deeper, non -superficial connection to one another.

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We can't keep each other at arm's length. We have to be vulnerable with one another. Our lives have to be open to one another so that we can speak truth into each other's lives.

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And the culture and most Christians don't want that. But we desperately need it.

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But now it leads us to the question. Sin has been identified. A egregious sin.

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A noteworthy sin. But what is a sin not unto?

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Death. That word unto means towards. Does it lead to, does it tend towards death?

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It refers to a direction or an orientation of life.

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And so we are all very much sinners. And Jesus came into the world to save sinners like us.

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And so we have confidence that he will hear us, that he will forgive us our sins. And we have confidence that our sins are forgiven as we heard in the assurance of pardon if we be united to Christ.

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But there's another category of sin. A sin unto death.

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Which we're going to be considering. The verse again it says, if anyone sees his brother sinning, a sin which does not lead to death.

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He will ask, this is the petitioner, the Christian who's interceding for the other believer who has fallen into sin.

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And he, capital H, God, will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.

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To further fill out the picture we have to see what death is.

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Death is both physical and spiritual. It has this, like seeing, kind of multi -faceted layers.

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Physical death is the cessation of life. Spiritual death, which what happened in Adam is to be separated from God due to sin.

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And eternal death is the final separation from God in judgment.

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All of these are encompassed in the word death. It is the literal end of life with the accompanying broader implications of sin and separation from God.

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Through Hebraic lenses, the Jewish world would see it as a separation from the covenant community.

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As a consequence of the sin, John was very much a

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Jew. But in the world that he preached, and he seemed so adept to preach, the

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Greco -Roman world, it was feared as an inevitable fate.

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Death was feared because it was inevitable and there was nothing that you could do about it.

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But the Christian worldview is entirely different. Death for the believer is a defeated enemy and foe through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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And the Christian mantra really is, and it's very perplexing and almost paradoxical, we must die with Christ and to ourselves in order to live.

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The whole world is trying to preserve their lifespan, but we must die to self.

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I happened upon a trainer, a nutritionist guy, and he's doing all these things.

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He's spending all of his years trying to extend his longevity, which

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I think is a very ironic thing. His eating, his living, everything is geared.

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He's researching, he's laboring, his whole life is consumed. All of his hours are consumed with living longer.

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He doesn't have a view of eternity in Christ. He thinks this is all there is. But we have a different perspective.

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And we know that death is serious, but for the Christian, oh, it's the the entry point into glory.

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It's the beginning of eternal life with Christ forever. Oh, what a joy for the for the death of the saints.

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Oh, what a blissful day when the believer in Jesus Christ dies and enters into the presence of God.

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But death must be seen in all of its force and implications here.

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We need to ask. Look at the text again. It says he will ask the believer needs to intercede for his brother.

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When you see a Christian in sin, the first thing you need to do is to pray for them.

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I don't know if you would have asked me a few weeks ago what my first act would be. I might have said, well,

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I have to go talk to them. I have to go confront them or something like that. And certainly necessary.

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I should do that. But your first course of action should be to pray for them.

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Ask the Lord to work in their life. Ask the Holy Spirit to to crack into their hard heartedness.

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What great practical wisdom there is in Scripture. Seeing my brother sinning,

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I need to ask God to help him. And the New Testament is used to ask is to request, but often with a sense of urgency.

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It is the act of petitioning or making a request in this case to God.

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And to ask God, particularly in light of last week, it demonstrates a reliance on God for provision and guidance.

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We trust and depend on God to answer. It is the seeking of help from the superior, from the inferior.

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We cry out to God, Oh God, help our brother who has fallen into sin.

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Grant him, give him gifts, grant him the authority to have life.

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Set him free from this sin. We would pray that our brother would be relieved of this burden.

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God generously gives, gives life, physical, spiritual, eternal life.

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And this is, of course, the opposite of the aforementioned death that we have been considering.

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This is life in Christ in its fullest sense. It encompasses both physical and the spiritual realm.

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It is used to describe the eternal life granted through faith in Jesus Christ.

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This life is not merely an unending existence, but a quality of life that is abundant and fulfilling, characterized by communion with God.

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It comes from and is sustained by God's self -existent life.

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True life is found only in God himself. Sadly, our brethren around us are still dead in their trespasses.

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They have physical life, but they don't have spiritual life. Christ brings physical, spiritual, eternal life.

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He comes to give us life abundant, life to the full. A very different life.

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The Christian life is the best life. Far superior to the mere physical life of the unbelievers, walking in spiritual death.

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This is important for us to remember. So basic, yet so profound, Christ gives life.

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In contrast, true life is found only in God himself. But in contrast, in the ancient world, life was associated with the physical and temporal existence.

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And I think that pagan world has reemerged in our time. This is just a physical and temporal existence.

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Look at the culture. Everything screams this. In the

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New Testament, true life in Christ, in contrast with the temporary and unfulfilling life that is offered by the world,

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Christ has come and he's come to grant us life in abundance.

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The granting of life is gospel grace. It removes the presence and power of sin.

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It gets us back to walking in the newness of life in Christ. When we restore an erring brother, he again walks in newness of life.

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This is such good news for sinners like you and me. Christ came into the world to save sinners like us.

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Point one, you should, you must pray for your brother in sin.

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But now we transition to point two. Here, still in verse 16, it says there is sin leading to death.

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These harder sayings of Scripture often grab our attention. We can't lose sight of the main thing.

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We have to intercede for our brother in sin, but we do have to get to the bottom of this. What does this mean?

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We do have to clarify what this curious statement is about. What sin leads to death?

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Well, we have to see it in its full scope. Physical death and spiritual death were brought in by the fall in the broadest sense.

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Sin brought death into the world. The original cause of death is sin.

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So the first conclusion to be drawn is that God may judge a believer in his chastening love.

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And that may result in the physical death of a genuine believer on account of their unrepentant sin.

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So the broadest category, there's sin in the world. Rank unbelief leads ultimately to spiritual death.

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We start to close in a little bit on it. There's about four of these. God can actually and has struck genuine believers to death that they might not sin anymore.

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It's fearful, right? It should bring a little pause in our own life. This should cause us to have a measure of circumspection.

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That means literally to look on all sides, look around, to be cautious, to be prudent.

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Is there anything that you're doing in your life that would draw the friendly fire of our

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God? That he might take you out, he might kill you because you're not repenting of your sin.

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Oh, we shouldn't have unrepentant sin. Particularly that scandalous unrepentant sin.

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God may see fit to save our soul by killing us.

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We need to be watchful in every way with attention to guard against any surprise or danger.

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Unrepentant, egregious sin may cost you your life. And it may be a merciful act of God to prevent greater evil.

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He could do it to also warn the church corporately to maintain its peace, unity, and purity.

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Now, if some Christian dies an untimely death at a young age, we shouldn't immediately assume that God is striking them dead because of their sin.

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But maybe we should consider it. It's all very sobering. Galatians 6 .1

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says, Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

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Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. This should remind us to see how serious sin is.

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There are sins which lead to death. What else does it mean?

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One of my favorite passages of Scripture.

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I don't know what it says about me. It's Exodus chapter 4. And I am utterly amazed.

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And I mean this in the truest sense. Every time I still have the sense of amazement that God speaks to Moses out of the burning bush, causes him to be the prophet and king over his people, to deliver them out of Egypt.

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And while he's on the way to accomplish the mission, God appears to him and is on his way to kill him.

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Because he didn't circumcise his sons, keeping covenant. And his wife,

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Zipporah, circumcises, I bet you very painfully and very harshly, in all of the drama that she circumcises her sons and averts the just wrath of God.

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God is serious about his holiness. God is serious about his word. And Moses, one of the biggest men in the

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Bible, is in danger of death. Because he fails to keep covenant.

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No doubt one of the instances that pops in your mind when you think of this is found in the book of Acts.

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Let's turn there, Acts chapter 5. There's a great outpouring of generosity between the brethren and the church in Jerusalem immediately after Pentecost.

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It says in chapter 4, With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the

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Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all, nor was there anyone among them who lacked.

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For all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceedings of the things that were sold and laid them at the apostles' feet.

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And they distributed to anyone as they had need. And Joseph, who was also named

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Barnabas by the apostles, which is translated son of encouragement, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.

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But a certain man named Ananias, this is chapter 5 verse 1, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.

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And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet.

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Now, it should be pointed out, the partial gift was probably fine and lawful.

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It was, however, that they were lying about it. They said, oh, we sold this land, we're giving all the proceeds to the church.

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They kept some back. Verse 3, Peter said,

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Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?

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While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control?

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Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last.

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So great fear came upon all those who heard these things. And the young men arose and wrapped him up, carried him out, and buried him.

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Now it was about three hours later when his wife came in, not knowing what had happened, and Peter answered her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much.

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She said, yes, for so much. And Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the

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Spirit of the Lord? Now, I should point out to you, this seems to be a recurring theme in the sins that lead to death.

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Lying to the Holy Spirit, putting the Spirit of the Lord to the test. It says, look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out.

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And immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. The young men came in and found her dead and carrying her out, buried her by her husband.

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So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things.

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It seems that lying to the Holy Spirit is a sin that leads to death. Now, this should cause us to be mindful, to be circumspect.

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In the context of First John, let's go and turn back to our book that we're in First John. There are false teachers espousing heretical doctrine.

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You guys remember that? They denied that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh, meaning they denied

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Christ and his gospel themselves and were leading others astray.

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That's not something you want to do. It'd be better for you to have a millstone tied around your neck than to cause one of the little ones to stumble.

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First John 2 says, who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the

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Christ. He is Antichrist who denies the father and the son.

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Whoever denies the son does not have the father either. He who acknowledges the son has the father also.

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In First John 4, testing the spirits, that section, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.

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And this is the spirit of the Antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world.

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Their condemnation is just if they refuse to repent.

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Another category of sin unto death that would have been before John and maybe we don't include in this and I don't know why we wouldn't but it doesn't seem naturally to follow but I think it's very much this.

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What about the national rejection of Christ by the majority of the Jewish people? Sin unto death.

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And in fact death is going to come. The sword, physical and spiritual death are coming in 80 -70.

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The blood is going to be like a flood through the streets. The blood of the Jews who reject

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Christ. What about the destruction of the temple? The decimation of the people?

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These seem to be sins unto death. The next category and I think maybe this gets more people who are in grief.

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Some of these are controversial that I've offered and these are more consistent with what most people think are the sins that could lead to death.

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And the next category of sin is apostasy. Some of the harshest words of scripture are given to the apostate.

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In the Bible apostasy is the act of a baptized Christian who completely rejects their faith in Christ and the essential teachings and tenets of Christianity.

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If you are a person who's done that you are in grave danger of physical and spiritual and eternal death.

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That's why we're always calling people to repent and to come back. 1

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Timothy 4 says Now the spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons speaking lies and hypocrisy having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.

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2 Timothy 4 The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but according to their own desires because they have itching ears they will heap up for themselves teachers and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

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Take heed, Paul would say to Timothy, to your life and your doctrine.

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This will save yourself and others. Do not tinker with the essential tenets of the

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Christian faith. Do not entertain the false teachers. They are on the path and on the way to death.

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I'm going to ask you to go to one more place. I think this is probably my central text evidence textual evidence for this kind of idea.

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Let's go to Hebrews chapter 10. I want you to just see it.

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I have one more that's probably the most clear example of this.

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This is probably the second and the one in Matthew will be the most clear.

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I'll read that one and you won't have to turn there. Hebrews 10, verse 26

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For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

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Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

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This is all I think tied to apostasy. Verse 29 Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the

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Son of God underfoot counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and here it is again insulted the spirit of grace.

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For we know him who said vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord and again the

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Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. But recall the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great struggle with sufferings partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated.

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For you had compassion on me in my chains and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

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Therefore do not cast away your confidence which has great reward.

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For you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of God you may receive the promise for yet a little while and he who is coming will come and will not tarry now the just shall live by faith but if anyone draws back my soul has no pleasure in him.

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Oh Lord I cry out to you with the deepest earnestness may it never be said of any little one or any of us that we turn back away from Christ.

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Oh Lord please don't ever let that happen to anyone here not to our children or our grandchildren

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Oh Lord please I cry out to you I beg for mercy do not let any of these shrink back if anyone draws back my soul has no pleasure in him but we are not of those who draw back to perdition praise the

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Lord but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

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These are serious matters. We talk about the things of the faith sometimes in a very trivial and very casual way and these are matters of eternal and physical life and death.

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Well the final instance and probably the most glaring of this again along the lines of you don't have to turn there you can in fact turn back to 1

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John is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit section found in Matthew chapter 12.

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There is a sin unto death and apparently this is it. There may be some debate about the earlier ones but as we have gotten closer there is great certainty here.

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The final category of sin unto death blasphemy against the

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Holy Spirit. I will begin reading in verse 22 if you want to follow along Matthew 12 verse 22

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Then one was brought to him who was demon possessed blind and mute and he healed him.

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So that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw and all the multitudes were amazed and said could this be the son of David?

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Now when the Pharisees heard it they said this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons and there it is.

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Ascribing the work of God in the son of God to Satan. To say this isn't the work of God this isn't the work of the son of God this is the work of Satan this is blasphemy against the

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Holy Spirit. Jesus knew their thoughts verse 25 and said to them every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.

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If Satan casts out Satan he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

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And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub by whom do your sons cast them out?

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Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house.

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He who is not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters abroad.

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Therefore I say to you every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men but the blasphemy against the

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Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the

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Son of Man it will be forgiven of him but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come.

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Either make the tree good and its fruit good or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad for a tree is known by its fruit.

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Brood of vipers how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

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A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.

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This was reminiscent of James. Oh we better take control of our tongues. Man, the words we speak reflective of the hearts and minds that are not sanctified.

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He says but I say to you that for every idle word men may speak they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

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We need to learn to shut our mouths. Be careful with our words and not spout lies.

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We might find ourselves saying wrong things about God and the Holy Spirit. Denying Christ.

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For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.

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There is sin that leads to death. I don't say we should pray about that.

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John would say. All in righteousness is sin.

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There's sin not leading to death and I thank the Lord that there is forgiveness for all those in Christ who turn and repent and confess their sins.

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But what should we do? We can't ultimately intercede for those who are persisting in unbelief and unrepentance.

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But we can pray for our brethren who fall into trespasses.

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Like assurance of salvation I think if you're worried about sinning a sin unto death you're probably not going to sin a sin unto death.

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Does that make sense? If you are concerned about the assurance of salvation that's a very good sign about your heart.

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If you don't want anything to do with the sin leading to death that's a good sign of the condition of your heart.

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So you shouldn't be walking around fearful that you're going to commit this sin. But oh, may we be circumspect and wise and careful.

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While time is running on I need to give you a couple words of application about how to do this before we go.

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Intercede for your brother in sin. Don't be forgetful about your own sinfulness.

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Restore one who has fallen into temptation and sin with the spirit of gentleness.

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Don't be drawn into their sin. Don't think poorly of them.

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Don't gossip about their sin with others. Don't write them off as second class citizens.

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Don't immediately designate them as unbelievers. All of this seems to happen out of our own spiritual pride.

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So what do we do for our brother? First, very simply, we pray. We pray and we ask the

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Lord to intervene. In our prayers to God it usually works that he calls us to intervene.

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When we pray for someone God will often call upon us to act.

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So be ready for that. The second thing we need to do is we need to teach.

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Some people are sinning and they are ignorant to their sinfulness because they're immature

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Christians. They haven't been properly taught. It's very important that we teach them the truth of God's word.

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And this requires a little bit of investment. We actually have to do some confrontation and talk to people about their sin.

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This isn't a work for someone else. It's the work for you to do. When we teach them we move on to admonishing them.

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We're urging them. We're beseeching them. We're pleading with them to turn from their sin.

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We then call them to repentance. And we continue to teach and admonish them until they repent.

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And according to our text if we pray and we ask the Lord will grant them repentance we restore them to full fellowship.

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We restore them. We forgive them ourselves. We encourage them to continue to persevere in faith.

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So what are you going to do the next time you see your brother sinning? We have to resist those natural inclinations.

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We all have those. Intercede for your brother in sin and win your brother.

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Sound good? We have a brother who has interceded for us.

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This is very Christ -like. Let's pray together.

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Oh Lord we thank you for hard messages. I pray that we have an appropriate confidence in prayer to boldly approach the throne of grace but also compassion on the weak that we would see that there's great danger for those who apostatize or blaspheme the

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Holy Spirit. We know that these folks are not recoverable and they commit the most egregious sins and they are it seems given over to this.

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They can comfortably blaspheme your holy name. If they can walk away from the church never to return.

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Oh Lord I pray that you would draw all the erring and wandering sheep back.

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That they would not commit the sin that leads to death. Oh Lord I pray that we would never be those who wander from your truth.

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Who embrace false teaching to deny that you come in the flesh to save sinners.

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To deny that you are both God and man. Whatever it would be Lord that would push us away from your truth and from salvation.

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I pray that you would restrain us and protect us and keep us. Oh Lord I pray that we would come appropriately to the

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Lord's table. That we would not be divisive. Because we know that according to your word there are many weak and sick among us and some have even died because they have been not unified at your table.

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Oh Lord I pray that we would always come to your table unified. Lord we are great sinners but you have brought a great salvation in Christ.

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And in this we rejoice. Against the dark backdrop of sin leading to death we rejoice that there's a savior who gives life.

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Jesus Christ the Lord. Amen. Let's continue our worship in the presentation of tithes and offerings.

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Please stand and let's pray together. Oh Lord we thank you for the beautiful lives you have given to us.

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I pray that our hearts would be filled with joy and gladness. We have so much to be thankful for.

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Lord I pray that these offerings we use for the advance of your kingdom for the growth of your church the sanctification and edification of your people.

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We ask this all in Jesus name. Amen. Let's give glory to God through the joyful singing of the

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Gloria Patri. Let us begin. The Lord be with you.

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And also with you. Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. Let us give thanks to the

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Lord. It is good and right so to do. It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you oh holy

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Lord Father almighty everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life.

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That when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world.

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We may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing. Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven we praise and magnify your glorious name evermore praising you and singing.

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Please be seated. Pray with me now. Oh Lord we thank you for a sacrifice that covers all sin.

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Lord you do not let your people commit the sin leading to death.

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Oh Lord we pray that you would keep us from apostasy and blasphemy of the

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Holy Spirit. Oh Lord we ask also that you would prevent us to receive harsh chastening because we are eager to repent and to turn from our sins that we would not be hard hearted that you would have to take more drastic measures against us.

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Oh Lord I pray for tender consciences and hearts for your people and Lord even more so as we consider what you have done for us on the cross and how in the supper you have united yourself to us and we see you one with us and the people of God one with you and each other.

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Oh Lord I pray that we would drink deeply from this fountain of grace that we would be satisfied and nourished here when we consider the great work of Christ for his people.

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We ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Our Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread as my body.

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Likewise he took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

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Drink from it all of you. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes. Therefore we proclaim the faith.

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Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Let's approach the table with a sense of humility that's overtaken with a sense of joy and expectancy.

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Let's pray now. We do not presume to come to this your table but in your manifold and great mercies.

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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table but you are the same

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Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us therefore gracious Lord so to eat the flesh of your dear son

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Jesus Christ and to drink of his blood that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body and our souls washed with his most precious blood and that we may evermore dwell in him and he in us.

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Amen. Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. Therefore let's keep the peace.

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The gifts of God for you the people of God. We sing praise to our victorious leader who has washed us in the tide flowing from praising him whose love divine gives his sacred blood mercy for the broken.

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We do we owe gracious Lord upon Jesus Christ our

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Lord Jesus We had a very joyful time of worship and singing and we had a sober sermon but we did come and feast at the table.

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So in light of all this let's make this commitment together. Almighty and ever living

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God we thank you for feeding us with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of your son our savior

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Jesus Christ and for assuring us in these holy mysteries that we are living members of the body of your son and heirs of your eternal kingdom.

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Grant us this other benefit that you will never allow us to forget these things but having them imprinted on our hearts may we grow and increase daily in the faith which is at work in every good deed and now father send us out to do the work you have given us to do to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our

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Lord to him to you and to the Holy Spirit be honor and glory now please stand receive now the blessing the grace of the

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Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the

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Holy Spirit be with you all amen back to song of simeon today so pay attention to that let us begin