Gospel of Resurrection

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to the 15th chapter of the book of 1 Corinthians.
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Here at Sovereign Grace Family Church we preach verse by verse through the Bible and it just is in the Lord's providence that we are here at the resurrection chapter this morning on Resurrection Sunday.
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So we are going to read 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
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I really wish that I could preach the entire chapter but time will not allow it.
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So we are going to focus on the first 11 verses.
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I want to invite you to stand as we give honor and reverence to the reading of God's word.
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This is God's holy, inspired, and inerrant word.
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And as we would stand for dignitaries, as we would stand for nobility, we will stand for the reading of the word of God.
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Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.
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If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
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For I delivered to you as first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12.
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Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
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Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
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Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
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For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
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But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain.
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On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is in me.
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Whether then it was I or they.
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So we preach, and so you believed.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I come to you now and ask that in the preaching of the word, that you would by your mercy and grace, keep me from error.
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For I know, O Lord, that I am a fallible man, and I am capable of preaching error.
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And Father, for the sake of my conscience, for the sake of my own soul, for the sake of the souls of the ones who hear me, and for the sake of the glory of your name, Father, I would want to be kept from speaking error.
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Father, shut my mouth if what I say is not true.
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But Lord God, we know that the word of God is true.
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So I pray that it would go out today, that it would be mixed with faith, that it would go in through the ears and to the mind and down into the heart.
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For the believer, Lord, that it would cause us to draw closer to Christ.
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And for those who do not know Christ, that today would be to them a day of reckoning.
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A day where they are forced to face the verdict.
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A day where they are forced to know, Lord, whether they are on the broad way, which leads to destruction.
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Or whether they are on the narrow way, which leads to life.
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Father, may it be ever so clear to us today.
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In Christ's name.
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Amen.
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All around the world today, people are celebrating the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it's an important reality that we understand that the resurrection really is a unique part of our faith.
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Many religions, in fact, most religions have some kind of existence after death.
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Some kind of an afterlife that they look forward to.
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The ancient world boasted many philosophies about what happened at death.
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There were the Stoics.
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They believed that the soul, when you die, merged with the deity.
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And that it became an impersonal energy that merged with the divine.
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The Epicureans believed that at death everything stopped and you simply ceased to exist.
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Like when you used to turn off the old television set and it would fall to that little dot in the center.
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And it would hold for a few seconds before the lights went out.
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That was the idea of the Epicurean end of life.
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You just simply fall to nothing and you go away.
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The Platonists believed in the immortality of the soul, but not the resurrection of the body.
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Again, that's what really defined Christianity as different.
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Christians believed not only in the immortality of the soul, but in the resurrection of the body.
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This is why Paul was considered so strange when he went into Athens and he preached the gospel there to the wisdom on Mars Hill, the wise men on Mars Hill, the philosophers.
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It says in Acts 17, it says that when they heard him, it said he seemed to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
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To them, that was a stumbling block, the idea that there was going to be a resurrection.
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And even today, many people have given up belief in the resurrection.
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A BBC poll of the United Kingdom found that less than half of those who call themselves Christian, 46% of those who call themselves Christians in the United Kingdom actually believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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It's almost an oxymoron to say I'm a Christian who doesn't believe in the resurrection.
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Paul says if you don't believe in the resurrection, your faith is in vain and you're still in your sins.
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There is no Christianity without resurrection.
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There is no Christianity without a risen Christ.
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A Christian who does not believe in the resurrection is like an atheist who believes in God.
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It doesn't make sense.
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So what we're going to see in our message today, we're going to go through these verses and we're going to see that the gospel of Jesus Christ is founded on the doctrine of resurrection.
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Without the resurrection, there is no gospel.
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Therefore, we can rightly call our faith the gospel of the resurrection.
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We have four parts in our text this morning.
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We're going to look at the proclamation, the priority, the proof, and the power.
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You don't often get alliteration from me, so it's a special day.
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It's Resurrection Sunday.
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So I kept the Ps for you.
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I put them all together.
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So we're going to look at the proclamation, the priority, the proof, and the power.
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This is four truths about the gospel of the resurrection.
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Let's first look at the proclamation, verses 1 and 2.
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Look again with me.
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It says, Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.
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Stop right there at verse 2.
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Looking at this, it says, Now, now I would remind you.
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Paul is making this very personal.
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He has spent 14 chapters speaking to the Corinthians, and he's talked to them about their sin.
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He's talked to them about their direction going outside of the will of God.
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He's talked to them about the way they worship, the way they treat each other, the way they behave outside the church, the way they behave inside the church.
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He has gotten to them.
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He's been very personal with them.
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But at this point, he gets right in their face, and he says, I would remind.
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I preached.
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I delivered.
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You received.
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You stand.
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You are being saved.
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You believed.
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It's I in you.
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It's right in their face.
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And he says, I want to remind you.
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And remember this, when somebody wants to remind you something, that means you already know it.
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He's telling them something they already know.
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It's good to be reminded and refreshed of things that we already know.
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I was talking to another brother this week about Resurrection Sunday, and I said, you know what? Don't try to be novel.
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We needn't be hoping for novelty in theology.
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Be satisfied with the enduring truth.
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In fact, the old saying in theology is this, if it's new, it's not true.
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And if it's true, it's not new.
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The idea that we have to keep modifying the message, to keep making it relevant.
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It needs not be made relevant.
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It just needs to be preached, because it's always relevant.
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Because everybody's dying.
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250,000 people die every single day around the world.
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So the message of what happens to you when you die is relevant every day.
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So Paul says, I want to remind you of the gospel that I preach to you.
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The word gospel there is an important word.
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In Greek, it's euangelion.
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Transliterated into English, it's where we get the word evangel.
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Where you get the word evangelism.
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Euangelion.
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The prefix epsilon, upsilon in Greek, eu in English, that prefix means good.
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Like a eulogy.
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When you go to a funeral, a eulogy is a good word.
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Lagos is the word, good word.
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Euangelion, angelos means message.
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Or the news.
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So the gospel is good news.
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I remind you of the good news.
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You guys who've gone out witnessing with me before, what's my favorite question to ask people? Do you understand the gospel? Honestly, that's one of my favorite questions to ask people.
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Because I don't care if they say they're saved or not saved.
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Because even saved folk, I'll say, do you understand the gospel? And they'll say, yes.
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Can you share it with me? And often times it's a blank stare.
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Do you understand the gospel this morning? Do you understand why Paul would say, I want to remind you of the gospel? Because even in church, people don't know the gospel.
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People know the Bible stories.
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They know Adam and Eve.
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They know Noah and the flood.
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They know the parting of the Red Sea.
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They know something about David and the big Goliath.
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And they know something about the manger and something about the cross.
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But do you know the gospel? Paul says, I want to remind you of the gospel that you received.
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In which you stand.
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And by which you're being saved.
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If, and here comes the contingent statement.
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If you hold fast to the word I preached.
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Notice there's an if, a contingency.
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You're being saved if you hold fast to what I preached to you.
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You see, there are people in Paul's audience who were not holding fast to what he preached.
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In fact, if you just make your way for just a second down to verse 12.
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Now, if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection from the dead? You see, there were people in the church who were denying the resurrection.
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That's the whole point of this.
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Paul says, I want to remind you of the gospel that saved you.
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And you're being saved by it if you hold fast to what has been preached to you.
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Unless you believed in vain.
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What does it mean to believe in vain here? Well, we actually learn what this means later on.
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Because Paul says, if Christ was not raised, our faith is in vain.
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So what he's saying is this.
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He's saying, if you believed what I preached to you, you're being saved.
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Unless it's not true.
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Unless you believed in it and it's not true.
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Unless you believed in something that's not true.
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In fact, the New Living Translation, not a translation I use a lot, but I think they got it pretty good here.
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This is what they say for verse 2.
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It's the good news that saves you if you continue believing the message I told you.
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Unless, of course, you believe something that was never true in the first place.
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That's what Paul is saying.
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Unless you believe something that isn't true.
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And see, that's the point.
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Paul is pointing to the fact that what he's proclaiming is the truth.
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We live in a world that does not believe in truth anymore.
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You go onto the college campuses, they'll say truth is relative.
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Truth is relative to the person.
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Truth is relative to the individual.
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Truth is relative to what I think and how I feel.
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And my truth can be different from your truth.
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And your truth can be different from my truth.
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When they say that, steal their wallet.
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Because they'll say, you stole from me.
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That's not my truth.
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See how ridiculous it becomes? It's reductio ad absurdum.
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It becomes ridiculous when you push it to the absurd.
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See, there is such a thing as truth.
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And Paul is saying here, what I'm proclaiming to you is truth.
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I'm reminding you of the truth.
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And if it weren't the truth, all of this is in vain.
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But in fact, it is the truth.
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So he moves on now to the priority, verse 3.
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For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received.
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That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.
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That He was buried and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
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Notice here, he says, I delivered to you what you received.
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Again, personal.
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I delivered it to you.
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But I first received it myself.
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When did Paul receive the Gospel? On the road to Damascus, remember? Paul hated the church.
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Paul was a persecutor of the church.
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Paul was actually headed to Damascus to arrest Christians.
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He had received from the Sanhedrin a letter that allowed him the authority to go and arrest those who were members of the Way.
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The Way was what the early church called itself.
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And he was going there to arrest members of the church.
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He hated Christians.
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He hated the church.
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On his way to Damascus, Christ saved him.
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Opened his eyes.
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Appeared to him.
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Said, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Paul says in Galatians 1.12, I did not receive the Gospel from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
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Paul didn't get it from a man.
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He got it from Christ Himself.
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He said, I received it and I delivered it.
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I became a channel.
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It came to me and that's how it came to you.
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And it was of first importance.
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Protois in the Greek right here.
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He says it was of first importance.
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It was the most important thing.
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And what's the most important thing? Jesus Christ died for our sins.
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He was buried.
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And He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.
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That is the foundation.
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That is what we stand on.
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Paul says, in which you stand.
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That is the foundation.
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A few years ago, I preached this same passage and I just looked at what is the death, burial, and resurrection.
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Why is that the focus of the Apostle Paul? Why does he focus on those three things? And I want to remind you, if you were here a few years ago, some of you have been here for many, many years.
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You may not remember, maybe you do.
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But I just want to remind you why the death, burial, and resurrection, those three things sit as the cornerstone of our faith, of the Gospel.
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Number one, in death there is propitiation.
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What does that mean? In death there is propitiation.
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Jesus Christ died for our sins.
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What does that mean? The God of the universe is a judge.
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He is a loving Father, but He is also a righteous judge.
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And the God of this universe has a law that we have broken.
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And when you break the law in this world, what happens to you? You are punished.
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When you break the law of God, what happens to you? You are punished.
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And God will punish those who break His law.
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But God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He could redeem those who were under the law.
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What does that mean? That's what I'm talking about.
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When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, when those spikes went through His hands and through His feet, and He was hung between heaven and earth, God's wrath, the punishment that you deserve, that I deserve, was poured out onto Him, and He took it.
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And the Bible says it satisfied God.
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That's what propitiation means.
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God's wrath, which was righteous, holy, and just, was satisfied in Christ.
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So that's why I say in death we have propitiation.
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Propitiation means to propitiate or to satisfy.
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God is satisfied.
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It's like this.
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The picture Jesus gives is a picture of a cup.
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The Old Testament, the cup of wrath.
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Every time we sin, we're filling up this cup of wrath.
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Jesus takes our cup from us.
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We have this cup that we have filled.
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He takes it from us and He drinks all the way down to the last drop.
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The wrath of God for us.
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And that's what it means when it says He died for our sins.
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And He was buried.
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Well, if in death we have propitiation, in burial we have confirmation.
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Why does Paul focus on the fact that He was buried? Because burial proves death.
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In fact, the Heidelberg Catechism says this.
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Why was He buried? Question 41.
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Why was He buried? Answer 41.
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He was buried to testify that He was really dead.
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His burial testifies to His death.
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We have confirmation.
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You know, Jesus died on the cross before the other two men.
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They had to break their legs because they were still holding themselves up.
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Death on the cross is death by asphyxiation.
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Your whole body weight pulls down on your chest cavity, crushes you from the inside, and causes basically your lungs to continue to constrict and constrict and constrict until you can't breathe in anymore and you die from lack of oxygen.
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Jesus had died before those other men because He gave Himself up.
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The Bible says no man takes my life from me.
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I give it up on my own accord.
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And Jesus, when He was finished, He said, It is finished, and He gave up the ghost.
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Right there.
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But the other two men were still alive.
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Jesus was dead.
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They broke those men's legs, which made them die quicker, and they came and they shoved a spear into Jesus' side and out of His side would run water and blood together to show that He was truly dead.
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Jesus Christ was dead.
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Romans didn't bury living people.
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They buried a dead man, Jesus Christ.
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He was dead for our sins, He was buried for the confirmation, and He rose for our vindication.
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He rose for our vindication.
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When Christ rose from the dead, there could be no doubt that He was who He claimed to be.
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Through the resurrection, there was assurance of His message.
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The gospel is not the promise of a dead prophet.
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It is a verified and trustworthy testimony of a man who is alive.
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Mohammed died, and he is still dead.
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Buddha died, and he is still dead.
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Confucius died, and he is still dead.
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Joseph Smith died, and he is still dead.
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And we can go down and down and down the line.
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Jesus Christ died, was buried, and He rose again on the third day, verifying that His message was true.
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In fact, people say, Keith, why are you a Christian? Because I stand on the most verified message of all of human history.
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Jesus Christ arose.
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It is affirmed in His resurrection.
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He is alive.
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And notice He keeps saying, according to the Scripture, according to the Scripture, according to the Scripture.
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What Scripture? Isaiah 53, written 500 years before Jesus Christ would ever walk the earth.
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And Isaiah said, He is bruised for our iniquities.
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He is crushed for our transgressions.
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Upon Him was our sin laid, and by His stripes we are healed.
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Psalm 22 talks about the fact that He would have His hands and feet pierced, and they would cast lots for His clothing.
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Psalm 16.10 says, The Holy One will not see corruption, speaking of His resurrection, that He would not be abandoned to Sheol or to the grave.
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The Old Testament is numerous over and over and over about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
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That's why it's the priority.
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But now I want to show you the proof.
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The proof is what I think is the most beautiful part of this passage.
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The proof is in verses 5 to 10.
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It says in verse 5, And He appeared.
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By the way, you're going to see that word here several times.
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He appeared.
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He appeared.
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He appeared.
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He appeared.
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He appeared to Cephas.
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That's Peter.
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He appeared to the twelve.
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That's the disciples.
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Now some people take issue with that, and they say, wait a minute, at this point there was 11, because Judas had gone out and hung himself, so there wasn't 12 anymore.
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That's true.
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But understand this, the twelve were always called the twelve as designation.
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Not necessarily a number, but by title.
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They were the twelve.
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So don't let the number take issue.
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So He says, He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive.
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When Paul's writing this, those 500 people, most of them are still alive, y'all.
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Which means, if Paul would have wrote something that was untrue, they could have just went out and asked somebody, hey, you said you were there.
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Some of them had died, though some had fallen asleep, but most of them were still alive.
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And then He appeared to James.
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Who's James? James is Jesus' brother.
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Why does it mention James? Because Jesus' brother didn't believe in Him when He was in the world, when He was living.
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James' brother didn't become a Christian until after He died and resurrected.
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And then James, Jesus' brother, becomes the pastor at the church of Jerusalem, and he wrote the epistle that bears His name.
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He was an unbelieving sibling of Jesus Christ, half-brother of the Savior, and didn't believe.
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Now He's the pastor of the church of Jerusalem.
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So Paul points Him out.
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These are the witnesses.
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And let me tell you something, the sheer size of this gathering should remove all doubt if you wonder about whether or not Jesus Christ died and rose again.
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I brought a quote this morning.
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How many of you guys know who Chuck Colson is? Prison Fellowship.
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He was actually a White House counsel underneath Nixon.
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He got in trouble and went to prison because of Watergate.
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While he was in prison, got saved.
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And when he got saved, he began a ministry to prisoners.
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And this is something, I just love this quote.
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He says, I know the resurrection is a fact and Watergate proved it to me.
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How? Because 12 men testified that they'd seen Jesus rise from the dead and they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it.
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Every one of them was beaten, tortured, stoned and put into prison.
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And they would not have endured that if it weren't true.
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Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world and they couldn't keep alive for 3 weeks.
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You're telling me 12 apostles could keep alive for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.
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I just love that.
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It's so pragmatic and yet so simple.
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He's saying 12 men gave their lives.
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And it's more than 12.
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500 people.
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Many of those people died for Jesus Christ.
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And they didn't die for something they believed.
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They died for something they saw.
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They saw the risen Jesus.
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Many men will die for something they believe that's not true.
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But no one will die for something they know is a lie.
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Let me say that again.
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Many people will die for something they believe is true but isn't.
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But no one will die for something they know is a lie.
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They weren't proclaiming something they believed.
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They were claiming something they had seen.
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And they went to their deaths proclaiming a risen Christ.
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But I want to tell you something.
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The 500.
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The 12.
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Cephas.
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James.
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That's amazing.
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But you know what amazes me most of all? Paul.
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Look at verse 8.
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Last of all, he appeared also to me.
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Paul is writing.
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For I am the least of the apostles.
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Not even worthy to be called an apostle.
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Because I persecuted the church.
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But by the grace of God.
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I am what I am.
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And His grace towards me was not in vain.
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On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them.
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Though it was not I but the grace of God that was in me.
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Listen to here.
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If you want proof positive that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be.
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I look to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus.
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A man who hated Christ.
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Who hated the church.
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Whose job it was to bring persecution and imprisonment to the people of God.
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And he became one who was willing to be tortured.
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Willing to be stoned.
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Willing to be cut off from his people.
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Willing to have his head removed.
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In Rome.
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Under Nero.
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For the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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It has been said.
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That the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
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The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
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The apostle Paul went to his death.
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Proclaiming a risen Christ.
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He who hated Christ.
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He who hated the church.
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Was now it's greatest champion.
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You want proof for the message? There it is.
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Jesus is alive y'all.
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Jesus is alive.
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Last thing I want to show you is the power.
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Verse 11.
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Verse 11 is the power.
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He says whether then it was I.
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Or they.
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So we preached.
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And so you believed.
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What's Paul saying there? Let me say it a different way.
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If you are saved today.
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It isn't about the messenger.
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It wasn't about the messenger.
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It was about the message.
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Paul was saying whether it was I who preached to you.
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Or whether somebody else preached to you.
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You heard it.
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You believed it.
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And that's how you got saved.
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It wasn't about the preacher.
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It was about what was being preached.
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The preacher is not important.
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The message matters.
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Not the messenger.
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You say well why are you even pointing at this pastor? Because let me help you understand something.
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Some folks get really nervous about sharing the gospel with other people.
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They say well pastor I'm not articulate.
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I don't know as much as other people.
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Let me tell you what.
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My beloved friends.
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The message is what saves.
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The best way for you to equip yourself to share the gospel.
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Is not to go take a speech class.
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Or an improv class.
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Or to learn how to speak better.
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The best way for you to learn how to share the gospel.
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Is to know the gospel.
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Because if you know the gospel.
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You can preach to anyone.
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You can address Muslims.
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Mormons.
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Jehovah Witness.
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I don't care.
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You don't have to know their faith.
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You have to know your faith.
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Now knowing their faith helps.
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Knowing something about how to converse with them helps.
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But let me tell you this.
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I would rather take one person who knows the gospel.
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Than six people who know all about other religions.
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But don't know Jesus.
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If I'm going to go out witnessing.
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Know the gospel.
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Because the power is in the message.
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It's not in the messenger.
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It's in the spirit of God.
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The message is carrying that power.
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And again the message is simple.
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Let me remind you again.
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Jesus Christ died for our sins.
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That alone should cause us to stop and weep.
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Our sins were enough to make the God man go to the cross.
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Our sins were enough to hang him on a tree.
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The bible says my sins nailed him to the cross.
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That should be enough right there.
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Just to cause us to stop and just meditate all day.
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But the message doesn't end there.
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Jesus Christ died for our sins.
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According to the scripture he was buried.
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And he was raised on the third day.
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According to the scripture.
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And right now.
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If you will place your trust in him.
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If you will turn from your sins.
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And turn to Christ.
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You will have eternal life.
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I say that on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I say that on the authority of the word of God.
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If you will turn from your sins.
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And turn to Christ.
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You will have eternal life.
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You will do it only under the power of the spirit of God.
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But if you do you will do it.
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And it will not be in vain.
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Isaiah says this.
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He's speaking to Israel.
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But he could just as easily be speaking to you today.
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Listen to Isaiah.
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When he says come now.
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Let us reason together says the Lord.
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Though our sins are like scarlet.
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They shall be washed whiter than snow.
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Though they are red like crimson they will be like wool.
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If you are willing and obedient.
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You shall eat the good of the land.
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But if you refuse and rebel.
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You shall be eaten by the sword.
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For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
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As David says in the Psalms.
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Purge me Lord with hyssop.
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Wash me.
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And I will be clean.
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Whiter than snow.
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When you come.
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Your sins will be taken from you.
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And Psalm 103 says this.
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As far as the east is from the west.
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So far does God separate our iniquities from us.
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So again.
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I'm talking to you this morning.
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I'm talking to everyone here this morning.
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I'm talking to you specifically.
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Hear this.
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Young people hear this.
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Older people hear this.
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Wherever you are in life.
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Hear what I am saying to you this morning.
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If you are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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You abide everyday under the wrath of God.
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And outside of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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There is no hope.
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You are like those in Noah's day.
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Who were marrying and given in marriage.
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And eating and drinking.
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And having a joyous time.
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Not knowing that any moment.
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The heavens would open.
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And rain down the judgment of God upon you.
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Not knowing that at any moment.
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The earth beneath you would erupt.
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And the springs of the deep would burst forth.
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And would consume you.
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If that's where you are today.
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If you are outside of the ark.
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Remember Jesus Christ.
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That's a picture of Christ.
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If you are outside of Christ.
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I would call you today.
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Come into the ark.
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Come into the ark.
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I want to quote one last verse.
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Revelation 22 verse 17.
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The spirit and the bride say come.
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And let the one who hears come.
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And let the one who is thirsty come.
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Let the one who desires take from the water of life without price.
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For the gospel is a gift.
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It is a free gift.
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You cannot buy it.
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You cannot purchase it.
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You cannot earn it.
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All you can do.
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Is receive it.
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By faith.
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Won't you come.
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Into the ark.
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Of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Let us pray.
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Father.
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When we consider this message.
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We consider the reality of.
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The truth.
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That Jesus Christ died for our sins.
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In accordance with the scripture.
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That he was buried.
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That he was raised.
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On the third day.
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In accordance with the scriptures.
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And that he was seen.
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By a myriad of people.
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All of which were willing to testify.
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Even to the death of his resurrection.
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Proving without doubt.
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The reality of who he was.
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Father when we consider these things.
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We are moved.
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But Lord.
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We know that there are obstinate hearts.
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We know that there are those.
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Who would not be moved.
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Unless it were as if.
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A spiritual jackhammer were to come.
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And break open their heart of stone.
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And give them a heart of flesh.
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So father I pray.
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That those under the sound of my voice.
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Lord would have that spiritual jackhammer come.
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Break the heart of stone.
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Lay them bare before you.
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And help them to run.
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To the shelter of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Lord give them the ability.
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To turn from their sins.
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And turn to the savior.
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For Lord we know.
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There is no name under heaven.
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Given among men.
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By which we must be saved.
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Other than the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Lord may every knee.
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Bow to him.
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In his name.
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Amen.