Words of Warning from the Loving Savior

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John 8:21-30

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I want to say this, I believe it was A .W. Tozer who said, we should receive the corrections of God as we do the encouragements of God.
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In other words, we should allow the Word of God to correct us as well as we allow the
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Word of God to encourage us. Strong medicine this morning, brothers and sisters.
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I've titled this, Words of Warning from the Loving Savior. I don't believe I'm going to get through this whole message. So I'm going to make this a part one.
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I believe we'll get to part two, God willing, next Lord's Day and we'll have communion. So yes, I'm going to have to shorten it up a little bit so I can finish up the sermon next
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Lord's Day. But today, we're going to look at part one.
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And I opened with that quote from Tozer because as you well know, there's strong medicine in the
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Word of God, but we need strong medicine. And I titled this again,
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Words of Warning from our Loving Savior. Because He loves us so much,
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He warns us. And it's amazing to me as I read this portion of chapter 8 as we will look at in just a minute, as I was studying and contemplating and meditating on this portion,
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Jesus is speaking this to self -righteous, hard -hearted, unbelieving, unwilling to believe in Him Pharisees.
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He is so patient. He is so kind to even be there to give them this truth.
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And as you well know, the truth that He always aims at is who
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He is. Who Jesus Christ is. It's all about this one person.
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Destination, eternal destination I would say, is hinging on whether we believe or do not believe in this one great person,
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Jesus Christ. John 20 verse 31 is the theme.
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We see it time and time again. The Apostle John says, but these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name.
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That is the overall arching theme of the whole entire gospel of John.
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So as saying that, please turn with me in your Bible to the gospel of John chapter 8.
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Chapter 8. We've taken our journey through John and here we are at a very important section in this chapter.
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It's a very serious, very solemn debate that the
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Jews have with the Lord Jesus Christ and the debate is about again, as I mentioned, who
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Jesus Christ is. Who He is.
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And in this particular section in John chapter 8, I read this from Pastor John MacArthur.
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He has a great outline on this. I'm not going to use it today, but I think it's really wonderful. Jesus revealed, quote,
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He revealed the consequence of the rejection of Him as the Messiah and the
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Son of God. These verses reveal four ways that ensure someone will die in their sins and as a result experience spiritual death.
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Number one, being self -righteous. In verse 20 to 22.
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Being self -righteous. Two, being earthbound.
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Being earthbound, worldly in other words. In verse 23 and 24. Third, three, being unbelieving in verse 24.
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Fourth, and being ignorant. In verse 25 and verse 29.
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And I was listening to his sermon on this and I believe he added, I don't know if he added another one or he reworded it, but it's being faithless.
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Being faithless. And it's all about who we place our faith in.
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He goes on to say, the Jews who rejected Jesus displayed all four of these characteristics, end quote.
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Now, I say that because, beloved, these are some of the most serious, solemn, terrifying words that ever came from the lips of our loving
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Savior, Jesus Christ. Yet, as you well know, the one who warns you the most, loves you the most.
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And there's absolutely no one that loves us more than Jesus Christ.
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And in saying that, let me read the text before you today. Now, you can honestly say that Christ even loved the self -righteous
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Pharisees to give them this truth. Even though they were very hard words, very strong words, they were words of warning from our loving
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Savior. So, John 8, beginning at verse 21 to verse 30.
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Hear the word of the living God. Then Jesus said to them again,
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I am going away and you will seek Me and will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.
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So the Jews said, will He kill Himself because He says, where I go, you cannot come?
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And He said to them, you are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, cosmos.
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I am not of this cosmos, world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins.
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For if you do not believe that I am, He, that's actually omitted in the original, but He says that I am.
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You will die in your sins. Then they said to Him, who are you?
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Who are you? And Jesus said to them, just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.
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I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent
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Me is true and I speak to the world those things which
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I heard from Him. They did not understand that He spoke to them of the
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Father. They did not understand it. Verse 28, then
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Jesus said to them, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am
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He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.
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And He who sent Me is with Me, and the Father has not left
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Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. And as He spoke these words, many believed in Him.
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Let us pray and bow in the presence of our
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Lord, our Father and our great Lord. I want to say a small but very short prayer, which is long enough.
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Speak, Lord, for Thy servant hears. And let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight,
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O Lord, my strength, my Redeemer. And we ask this for Your honor and Your glory in the name that's above all names,
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Jesus Christ, for Your glory. Amen. I believe it was
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C .H. Spurgeon from the Treasury of David, I read this quote,
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You cannot repent too soon because you do not know how soon it may be too late. You cannot repent too soon because you do not know how soon it may be too late.
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Beloved, as long as God lends us breath, as long as you and I live and can mentally comprehend that you have the opportunity to believe and to repent in Jesus Christ for our eternal salvation, we must do it quickly before it's everlasting too late.
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Because the very second that we die, it will be too late. As soon as someone's breath is taken from them, it is too late.
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As you know, J .C. Rowe said, Hell is a truth known too late. There is no repentance in the grave.
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No repentance in the grave. So if we're going to do our repenting, we need to do our repenting while we're living and breathing.
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Now that's just not the opinion of godly men, of Spurgeon and J .C. Rowe, or anything that I say, or any other saint of God, but something that our loving
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Savior says over and over and time and time again. Actually, He preached repentance and the kingdom of God over most of all the
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Gospels record. That is the message our Savior and our
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Lord brought forth, was to repent, or you likewise will perish.
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Again and again and again, Jesus is patient, Jesus is loving.
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He warns us to believe in Him and who
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He is and who He claims to be while there's still time.
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It's absolutely critical. As a matter of fact, our eternal destination, whether we have eternal life or eternal death, is resting on who
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Jesus is and who He says He is and by believing in Him.
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Not just about Him, the devils can do that, but believing in Him, trusting in Him, leaning on Him.
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Three times in our text, verse 21, twice in verse 24, Jesus warns these self -righteous
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Pharisees that they will die in their sins unless they are willing to believe.
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But Jesus told them they were unwilling. This means that they will face
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God's eternal judgment for their sins. And this means that the world at large in which we live that do not know
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Jesus Christ and are rejecting Jesus Christ will face the eternal judgment. It is appointed for once men to die and after this, the judgment.
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The judgment of God. And the judgment of God is guaranteed according to Acts chapter 17.
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And the one thing, and the one great event that guarantees that great judgment is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
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His resurrection guarantees that.
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Because in verse 31 of chapter 17, because, this is Paul the Apostle, let me back up verse 30, truly these times of ignorance
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God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.
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Because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom
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He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising
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Him from the dead. That gives the assurance that there is an eternal judgment that's for every single person because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and He and the
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Father has appointed His Son Jesus Christ to judge this entire world.
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All the way from Adam until the very last person that will be born until Jesus Christ comes back again.
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Jesus warns the Pharisees that they will die in their sin. This is severe. And Christ's final warning contains a word of invitation as well, just not warning, but of a word of hope in verse 24b.
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If you notice, for unless you believe that I am, E, you will die in your sins.
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So really, if you look at it, there's an invitation that's there, unless you believe that I am the
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Lord. That's who He says when He says, I am. I am the Lord.
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That you will die in your sins. You can change that.
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That you will not die in your sins if you believe. But here, they were unwilling to believe because of their self -righteous pride.
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Now, He didn't say again, believe about Me. The devils believe and tremble.
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They can do that. Jesus says, believe in Me. Believe that I am
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He. I am. And when He says, I am, He's talking about,
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He is the great I am. He is deity. He is divinity. He is the Lord.
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We must trumpet this, beloved. The Lordship of Jesus Christ is everything.
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And tell Him, people, and tell Him the lost. He's just not Savior. As a matter of fact, there's people now even in churches that are dividing
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Christ. Oh, you can have Him Savior and not have Him as Lord. And you can accept Him as Savior now and accept
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Him as Lord as later. That is false teaching, beloved. You do not accept a divided
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Christ. You take all of Christ. Because as you look at it, time and time again, through the
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Gospels and through the Epistles, He is Lord and Savior. He is
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Lord and Savior. You cannot divide those. You cannot have Jesus as Savior unless He's Lord.
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So He's Lord. For Him to be Savior, He must be Lord. So you don't divide
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Him up. He is Lord and Savior. And it's so critical that we truly understand clearly who
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Jesus' claims are and who He says He is and that we believe in Him, we trust in Him, we lean on Him, we throw our whole entire life on Him, we humble ourselves before Him, we submit to Him, we live for Him, we die for Him.
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And before we die and face God's eternal judgment, this is what it is. We are to trust in Him.
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And this is what Jesus is talking about. Believe in who I am.
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To keep this simple today and stay true to the text, I'm just going to have a couple of things I'm going to look at.
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The truth, number one, will be the truth about who Jesus Christ is. And second, the truth about man.
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Man. The truth about man. We're just going to look at that in a simple way.
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So I hope you recognize this. It is absolutely impossible to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ without first of all understanding the truth of who
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Jesus Christ is. Who He is. This is why we study the
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Word of God and to come at the feet of Jesus as Brother Keith was talking about this
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Syrophoenician woman that came to the Lord and just bowed at the feet of Jesus.
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These women such as Mary Magdalene that sat at the feet of Jesus learning about Him and savoring
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Him and soaking up who He is. We must do the same. Beloved, let me say this.
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We cannot understand who Jesus really is of our own intellect. We may think we're smart, but we're not.
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It takes the Spirit of the Living God to apply the Word of God to our hearts and mind.
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Well, Pastor, do you have a chapter and verse to back that up? Absolutely I do. If you go to 1
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Corinthians 2, we see here the Apostle Paul speaks to the church of Corinth, to the
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Corinthians, and he says right here in chapter 2, he speaks about Christ crucified and truly understanding
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Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It takes the Spirit of God. Notice what he says in verse 9.
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But as it is written, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which
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God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit.
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For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of man except the
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Spirit of man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the
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Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the
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Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
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These things we also speak not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the
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Holy Spirit teaches. Comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned. But the natural man does not receive the things of the
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Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
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But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. For who has known the mind of the
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Lord that He may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. There you have it. And you see these self -righteous
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Pharisees fall under the category of verse 14 that the Apostle Paul is saying the natural man does not receive the things of the
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Spirit of God. They do not receive it, because they cannot. But yet God will not be charged for their rejection of Jesus Christ.
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Each man is responsible, each and every person will be responsible for the decision and the choice that we make regarding Jesus Christ.
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Now I don't know how it works, but MacArthur says this, and I agree with him 100%. The sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man travel parallel.
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God is absolutely sovereign, and He has the elect that come to God, to Himself.
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And He has ordained that before the foundation of the world. But we don't know who the elect are, right?
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I think like Calvin says, who are... Someone asked him one time, he said, who are the elect of God?
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And he says, those that are elect of God are those who believe who Jesus Christ is. So we must know what it means to believe in Jesus Christ.
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So that's critical. So we must understand by the
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Holy Spirit, and secondly, the truth of who we are, understanding who God is, the truth of who we really are.
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That's very important, isn't it? James chapter 1 verse 21 says this, starting with verse 21,
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Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. Receive with meekness the implanted
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Word, which is able to save your souls, but be doers of the
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Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
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For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror.
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For he observes himself, he goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
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But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, that's the Word of God, and continues in it.
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Jesus said that. That's where James gets this. He says, Jesus says, if you are my disciples, you continue in my
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Word. You abide in my Word. So we must continue in the Word. We not only look into it, but we continue in it.
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And he says, and is not a forgetful hearer, God help us not to be forgetful hearers, but a doer of the work.
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This one will be blessed in what he does. He's talking about obedience, folks. He's talking about fruit to the root.
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So that's very critical. So if we fail to truly understand who Jesus is, then we will not see him in his beauty.
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We will not see him as being precious to us, because to the true child of God, he delights in God.
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He delights in the things of God. He delights in who God is. And he's precious.
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He's precious. And if we fail to recognize who we really are, we will not understand the greatness of our need.
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How greatly we need God every single day that we live, every breath that we take.
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May God spare us from falling into apathy and saying, oh yeah, here we go, just another time to go to church, and just another time to hear a sermon, just another time to hear...
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Folks, it must be living and breathing inside of you. If you've lost the fire, fall on your face before God and ask
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God to bring that fire back through His Word and through prayer, and He will meet you. But it's these great two truths which we are to grasp, and it's by the grace, and it's by the power of the
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Spirit of God to see the glory of God in Jesus Christ.
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We are to run to Him and to cling to Him and lean on Him and recognize who
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He truly is because He's our only living hope. He's the only hope to this world that's in darkness and that's just going headlong to the death of the grave and rushing into judgment.
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These two great things, the indescribable, unsurpassed glory of God in Christ Jesus.
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Paul speaks about this in 2 Corinthians.
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I love this chapter, 2 Corinthians 4. Paul says,
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Therefore, since we have this ministry, we have received mercy. We do not lose heart.
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We do not faint. We do not give up. We have received the compassion of God, the mercy of God, but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the
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Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
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But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the
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God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God, should shine on them.
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For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves for bondservants for Jesus' sake.
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For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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And that's the Apostle Paul, word for word, of our mission, that it's the light of Christ's gospel that we are to shine into a dark world.
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And I really do believe this, beloved, as the world will grow darker, the light will grow stronger as well, especially if you're a child of God, living in a dark age.
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We reflect the light. We are a light. Jesus is the light. And the greatness of man's need for Jesus Christ is great.
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Well, let's look at a few verses in John chapter 8. Notice verse 21 and verse 22.
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Then Jesus said to them again, He again says, He's very patient, isn't He? Jesus repeats
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Himself. Verse 21, Then Jesus said to them again, Our Lord is very gracious and patient.
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I am going away and you will seek Me and will die in your sin.
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Where I go you cannot come. Verse 22, So the Jews said, Will He kill Himself?
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Because He says, Where I go you cannot come. You see how they're so blinded, they do not understand what
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He is telling them? Jesus repeats His message from John chapter 7.
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Look at John 7. Chapter right before in verse 33 and 34.
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Jesus said here, Said to them, I shall be with you a little longer, a little while longer, and then
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I will go to Him who sent Me. Talking about the Father. You will seek
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Me and not find Me. And where I am, where I am you cannot come. So that's why the text says,
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He says to them again. Because He's already mentioned it to them in chapter 7, verse 33 and 34 here.
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And Jesus shows His perfect knowledge of the future. That right there should be enough that speaks of His deity.
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Just not only His miracles, miracle after miracle, evidence after evidence of who
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He is and who He says He is and who He claimed He was. The evidence was massive.
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But they still was unbelieving. He told His critics He was going away.
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Which actually was referring not only to His death and burial, but also to His awesome resurrection and His ascension back into heaven.
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The Jewish people would continue to seek the Messiah, not realizing that they have rejected
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Christ on the day of His visitation. This is the day of visitation here. And they had rejected
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Him because of their unbelief. Horrible rejection, folks.
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I told a man one day that was riding with me in the milk truck and he was helping me.
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And he's been through some pretty hard tragedies in his life. He had a six -year -old little girl that got ran over right in front of his eyes.
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Can't imagine losing a six -year -old child like that. And he mentioned other tragedies about his brother and one tragedy after another.
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And you could tell he was not a believer. And he said, yeah, I drank here and I smoked here.
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He was very honest with me. And I said, you know, friend, my heart goes out to you.
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I said, but I want to also mention to you. And he knew I was a Christian. I said,
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I'm not to bring you any words of condemnation. I won't give you words of hope. But I do want to mention one thing to you, sir.
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I said, smoking and drinking and all those things is not what sends people to hell. I said, but you're rejecting
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Jesus Christ, the one who loves you the most, will send you straight to hell. He hasn't ridden back with me since then.
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That's okay. I know the truth offends people. You know that, right? It's offensive.
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It's hard. It's hard sayings to go up to people that's been through some hard tragedies.
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And yes, you tell them God loves them, but you have to tell them, you know, the Lord commands you to repent, my dear friend.
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You must turn from your sinful way for this is the reason why the Son of God was manifested to take away that sin.
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Because we must see our sin. Jesus tells these self -righteous
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Pharisees right here in this particular verse, I don't know if you noticed this, but if you pay very close attention to what
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Jesus is saying, notice what He says. The other times in verse 24, the twice
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He says sins, plural. Here He says sin, singular.
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Why does He say that? Because here the sin is singular in the
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Greek, basically meaning that they would be forever prevented from entering into heaven because they will not be forgiven.
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They reject Him outright because of their unbelief towards who
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He is, the Messiah. He came unto His own, His own received
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Him not. They rejected Him. Don't you love that part in chapter 1 of John?
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It doesn't end there, and then it says verse 12, but as many as received Him, to them
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He gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that even believe on His name.
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Great hope. So where the Lord was going in heaven, they didn't know.
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This is such a serious, serious, solemn truth. Those who outright refuse and reject
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Jesus Christ have no hope of eternal life.
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They will not be forgiven. How dreadful it is, as I mentioned a couple weeks or a day ago, how terrifying it is to fall into the hands of the living
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God. I don't think there's anything worse than that, beloved. To fall into the hands of the living
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God. To die into one's sins without God, without Christ, without hope forever and ever throughout all eternity.
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Folks, this should be putting ourselves on our face before God to cry out and to intercede for our lost loved ones that's on their way to hell.
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God, give us a burden. If we don't have that burden, we need to go to God in prayer and ask God for that burden.
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And Jesus said that burden's light. His burden's light. That's His burden.
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Beloved, it's much lighter than the burden of sin because the scripture says the way of the transgressor is hard.
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Oh, somebody say, yeah, but the way of the cross is hard. Well, folks, I'd choose the way of the cross any day than the way of the transgressor.
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Because the way of the transgressor will lead you straight to the pits of hell where the cross will take you right into the heights of heaven and where God will carry you.
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I'd rather choose that hard here in this life than the hard in hell. Thomas A.
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Kempis said this, carry the cross patiently and in the end it'll carry you. Hallelujah. Hang on, beloved.
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The burden that you may be carrying, the cross may be hard and heavy, but the Lord Jesus Christ is there to sustain you and to hold you fast.
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He holds His children. You're in the palm of His hand. Verse 22, the
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Jews did not understand because of their blindness. They're blind. It's like going to a blind person.
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Can't you see it? No, they can't see it. They're blind. They're unbelief.
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They're unwilling to believe in Him. And the Lord spoke of going back to heaven to His Father.
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What did He mean by going away? What did He mean that He would escape the plot to kill
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Himself by committing suicide? That's what they were thinking. Will He commit suicide?
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It's a strange thing that they should even think of this. Really strange. According to Josephus, the
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Jewish historian, Jewish tradition condemned suicide as a particular heinous sin that resulted in permanent banishment to the worst part of Hades.
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That was the Jewish tradition there according to Josephus. So if He were to kill
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Himself, there would be nothing to prevent them from doing the same and following Him into death.
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But it was just another example of the darkness of their unbelief and that's what caused their unbelief is their pride, their self -righteousness.
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You can almost see it in the text here. So the
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Jew says, will He kill Himself? Because He says, where I go, you cannot come.
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Self -righteous. Self -righteous. In verse 25, we'll look at this later again, but then they said to Him again, they said, who are you?
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You know what they're basically saying, who do you think you really are? Who do you really think you are?
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Self -righteous. Pride. Thinking that they are the great teachers of the law and the interpreters of the law and they have not even got the first base of understanding who
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God really is. Self -righteous. Prideful. Well, we need to gaze in the glory of God in Christ Jesus.
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Notice first of all that Jesus clearly says, He was from above. Look at verse 23.
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He said to them, first of all He says, you are from beneath. I am from above.
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You are of this world, this cosmos. I am not of this cosmos. He's from another world, folks.
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He's the one that made the worlds. This is a contrast here between the realm of God and the realm of fallen sinful man.
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And the realm is a large gulf of the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.
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Actually, that's what Luther battled before he came to faith in Christ. How can a sinful man be pardoned by a holy
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God? How can he be forgiven? How? How? Because Luther understood his sin.
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He struggled with this. And he understood it from the law of God. And he saw the judgment of God.
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Because if you read anything about Luther before in his BC days, he constantly had the frown of God upon his life.
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He did not know anything about the smile of God until one day he was reading in Romans 1.
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Hallelujah. And then he saw the righteousness of God is given faith to faith.
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The just shall live by faith. And then God opened up heaven to him.
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It was a divine impartation. And he saw all heaven open up.
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Well, here the contrast is between the realm of God and fallen sinful world. In his exposition,
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I found a good quote by John Gill, a godly man. I think he would rank in the
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Puritans, wouldn't he, Ben? John Gill. And during that time period, he says this.
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They were, for this verse, they were as they were born into the world, sinful, carnal, and corrupt.
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They were in it, they belonged to it, had never been chosen or called out of it.
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They had their conversation, that means manner of conduct, according to the course of this world, and conformed to its evil customs and manners.
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They were under the influence of the God of this world. They were taken with the sinful and sensual lusts thereof.
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They were men of worldly spirits. They minded earthly things and had their portion in this world and might be truly called the men of it.
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End quote. What does Scripture say? A well familiar verse.
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In 1 John 2, verse 15,
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Do not love the world. Do not love the cosmos. The system.
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Or the things in the world. Beware of the love of the world, folks.
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Stay unspotted from the world. The love of this world. Do not love the world.
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Do not. That's a command. Notice how God gets straight to the point. Do not love it.
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Or the things of the world. But if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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That's to the point. Jesus says, where your heart is, there your treasure will be also.
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For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the
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Father, but is of the world. And the world, the cosmos, is passing away and the lust of it.
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But he who does the will of God abides forever. That's a powerful verse.
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We're not to love the world. Jesus Christ dippers many respects from this world.
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In his awesome sermon, Centers in the Hands of the Angry God, Jonathan Edwards said this about this text.
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Every unconverted man properly belongs to hell. That's strong language, but he's preaching the
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Word, folks. That is his place. From thence he is,
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John 8, 23, you are from beneath, and tither he is bound. It is the place that justice and God's Word and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.
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Wow. That's sobering, isn't it? We are due this justice because God is a holy and a just God.
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And Jesus, again, differs from every aspect from his origins than ours.
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You and I are born into this world in the way that men and women are naturally born and are products of our earthly parents, stems all the way to the original sin.
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From Adam, we are born rebels, hating God. We have a fallen human nature.
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Psalm 51, 5, David cries out in his psalm appendix before God, he says,
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Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. Listen to that. And in sin, my mother conceived me.
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David is acknowledging that his sin was not God's fault in any way. That's what he's saying. It's not
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God's fault. It's on me. Yeah, but people say,
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I had nothing to do with Adam's sin. Yeah, that may be true, but it had nothing to do with Jesus coming and saving either and dying for us.
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One preacher said, I'm not going to fight him on that second one. We naturally are born fighting against God.
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We somehow want to lay the charge on God. But it's not God's fault.
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Is it? God's good. He's holy. He's patient. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and that all is eventually
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God's elect. David is acknowledging that this is his sin.
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He owns up to his sin. In verse 6, this is what he says,
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Behold, you, oh God, desire truth in the inward parts.
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That's what God desires, is truth in the inward parts. And in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom.
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So that sin nature that was Adam's sin is passed to all human beings, are bent, is to sin, is to go wayward against God, is to go against God, is to hide from God.
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I know many people right now, they think they're hiding from God, but they're not. I graciously remind them, you cannot hide from God with fig trees, fig leaves.
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God's eye is all -searching. He sees everywhere. He sees through it. He sees through everything.
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And as Brother Seth mentioned today about all those wonderful attributes of God, His aseity, His omnipresence,
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He's all -wise, He's ever -present, He's all -powerful. He's God.
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There's no one like Him. So that sin has been passed.
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Our disposition to sin is natural. We're naturally sinful, aren't we?
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Romans 3 .23, Paul sums it up right here, and you know it. For all, not some, all, all of us, all have sinned, and Paul shorted the glory of God.
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There's none good, no, not one. Not one. Oh, but beloved, but Jesus Christ.
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Even Jesus told them, you are from beneath, but I am from above.
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I am from above. His origins are heavenly origins. He came down from the heavens.
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That's why He said, the Father sent me. He came down. Notice how many times in the Gospel, He came down.
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I came down. The Father. I proceed from the Father. I came down from the Father.
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I came down. He comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
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There's no changing with God. And He came down to us from above. He condescended in great humility.
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That's Philippians chapter 2, verse 5 through 9. He humbled Himself to the point of death, to the death of the cross.
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It is true that Jesus was truly man. He had a human nature, but His nature in the true sense was without sin, the cause of the incarnation.
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He was born of the Virgin Mary. More could be said about that. That really goes deep of His incarnation.
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But Christ Jesus, the God -man, truly God, truly man, 100 %
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God, 100 % man. The Nicene Creed put it this way, I believe in one
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Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, born of the Father, before all ages, God from God, light from light, true
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God from true God, begotten, not made. Not made. I talked to someone Friday, claimed that He was made.
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Take a guess what cult that was. Amen, Jehovah Witness. And they denied the
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Trinity just because the word Trinity is not in the Bible. I opened up to, on my app, on my phone, went right to Genesis.
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I said, what are you going to do with this verse right here? When God said, let us make man in our image.
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I said, it's just not monotheistic, there's a Trinity. God is saying plurality here.
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I said, what are you going to do with that? She couldn't answer. She just went away. Eventually went away.
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First she came up with her damnable magazine. I noticed watchtower on it. She said, I'd like to give this to you.
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I said, you keep that magazine. Matter of fact, I started to tell her to burn it, but I didn't want to be mean to her.
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But honestly, I didn't want to see those damnable things. But I said, Lord, help me to be patient and gracious toward this lady.
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I asked her, I said, first of all, how long have you been a Jehovah Witness? Since 1985.
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I said, really? That's around the same time I've been converted to Christ, which is almost 40 years.
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I thank God for the opportunity. I pray my feeble words penetrated to her.
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First of all, I went to Genesis. Then I went to the baptism of Jesus. I said, I want to ask you something about the baptism of Jesus right here.
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I said, John the Baptist baptized Christ. He said, Jesus said, suffered to be so.
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John the Baptist said, I'm not even worthy to baptize you. I said, why do you think John the Baptist said that?
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Oh, he's Jesus, just another man. I said, he's not just another man. No, no, no, no. I said,
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John the Baptist, the forerunner said, he's not even worthy to unlatch his shoes. I said, read in the scriptures, any time
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Jesus never turns away worship. Went to Revelation.
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Go there in just a minute. Revelation chapter 1, where Jesus says, I am the first,
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I am the last. I am Alpha and I am Omega. So, the creed says, not made, co -substantial with the
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Father through him, all things were made for us men and for our salvation. He came down.
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He came down from heaven and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, became man.
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For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death, was buried and rose again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
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He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. We'll come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end.
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That's the Diocesan Creed. Well, praise His name forever. How did that conversation
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I talked about, about this Jehovah Witness, how did that end? She eventually walked away very mad.
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I said, that truth offends. And I was gracious with her.
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Pointing out in scripture, this is who Jesus is. This is who Jesus... And eventually I did tell her this.
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I warned her before she left. I said, Miss, I want to warn you right now.
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You better search the scriptures and you better not search it from that wrong translation you got. I said, you better find a better translation.
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And I mentioned a couple of translations. I said, you better search the scriptures. And Jesus said that same thing to the
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Pharisees. You search the scriptures and you read of me, but you think you have eternal life.
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She turned to me and said, who are you? Who are you? I said, who I am doesn't matter, Miss. It's who
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Jesus is. I said, that's your problem. You don't understand who
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Jesus really is. You think He was born just a natural man.
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And she even says, oh yeah, He's with the Father. Yeah, He's with the Father because He's God. And as soon as I mentioned
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God, oh no, no, no, my necklace, Hebrew, Yahweh. I said, Jesus is
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Yahweh. She said, no, no, no, Trinity, no Trinity. I said, yes,
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Trinity. She went away. I didn't get her name.
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I should have got her name to pray for us. But anyway, a lot of people out there, folks, needs
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Jesus. They have no clue who Jesus really is. Well, going on, the
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Word was made flesh, right? He became flesh, dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten, the
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Father of the Father, full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth.
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Look at verse 24. I'm not going to get through all this, but, therefore I said to you that you would die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am, that He is, actually, most translations you'll see is that I am
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He, that He is omitted in the original. The original should say, for if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.
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Jesus is basically given the I am statement. The legitimate sense may be
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I am who I claim to be or I am the Messiah. But the given
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Jewish audience and the context here, especially the
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Pharisees, who were very familiar with the Old Testament, Jesus was probably referring to the
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I am statements of Yahweh in Isaiah 40, chapter 40, all the way to verse,
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I'm sorry, to chapter 55, which is, in turn, allude to God's disclosure of the name to Moses in Exodus 3, 14, when
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God says, I am who I am. So Jesus was probably saying, unless you believe that I am the
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Lord, I am the Lord God, you will die in your sins.
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It's here many times in Isaiah. Let me give you a few verses and getting close to closing out this message.
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Isaiah 41, 4, God says, I am the Lord, I am the first, and with the last
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I am He. Revelation chapter 1, verse 8,
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I mentioned this to this little lady Friday. I said, what are you going to do with Jesus when
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He says, I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end? Says the Lord, Jesus is speaking, who is and was and is to come, the
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Almighty. That's Jesus speaking. Very clear scripture that Christ is the
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Supreme Sovereign. There's nothing outside His knowledge. He is the Almighty. Eight times in Revelation says
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He is the Almighty. He's King of Kings, He's Lord of Lords, well,
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He's the Divine Deity. A few more in Isaiah, and then
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I'll close this. I'll pick it up next Lord's Day, God willing. Isaiah says so much about this.
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Look at Isaiah 43, 13.
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Just a few verses. Start with verse 11,
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I, even I am the Lord, besides Me there is no Savior. I have declared and saved,
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I have proclaimed, and there is no foreign God among you, therefore you are My witnesses, says the
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Lord, that I am God. Indeed, before the day was, I am He.
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I am He, and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I work, and who will reverse it?
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Isaiah 44, 6. Thus says the
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Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first,
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I am the last, besides Me there is no God. Isaiah 43,
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I'm sorry, I already got that one. 44, verse 6. Isaiah 44, verse 6.
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Just read that one. Verse 11. No.
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I think that's another. I think I got all I needed. There's more in Isaiah.
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So Jesus is very clear about His claims. He is divine.
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He is deity. We must believe in who
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Jesus says He is. He says,
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I am who I am. Before Abraham was I am. That's when they picked up stones to crucify, to kill
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Him. He's only six months from His crucifixion, by the way.
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Well, to close it, some may think it's very unloving to talk about hell and judgment, but as you well know,
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Jesus, our Lord and Master, spoke more about hell and judgment than anyone else.
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The most loving God -man, Jesus, spoke and warned people about the damnation of hell.
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And the most loving thing we could do towards people perishing is to warn them about hell itself and the coming judgment.
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It's hard words, folks, but I'm telling you, we truly love people when we tell them the truth of the gospel.
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Jesus said it. He said, Repent, or you all will likewise perish.
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He meant every bit of that. We must warn people to flee from the wrath to come.
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Warn them to flee from the wrath to come. Spurgeon again says from the treasury of David, He that has promised pardon on our repentance has not promised to preserve our lives till we repent.
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And I believe another quote is that sin and death are married until repentance brings the divorce.
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The all -searching eye of God.
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Let me close with a prayer. A prayer from the
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Valley of Vision. And I'll close with this.
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Thou readest the heart, viewest principles and motives of actions, seest more defilement in my duties than I ever saw in any of my sins.
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The heavens are not clean in thy sight, and thou chargest the angels with folly.
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I am ready to flee from myself because of all my abominations. Yet thou doest not abhor me, but thou hast devised means for my return to thee.
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And that by thy Son, who died to give me life, thine honor is secured and displayed even in my escape from thy threats.
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And that by means of Jesus, in whom mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace has kissed each other, in Him the enslaved find redemption, the guilty pardon, the unholy renovation.
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In Him are everlasting strength for the weak, unsearchable riches for the needy, the treasure of wisdom, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge for the ignorant, fullness for the empty.
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And at thy gracious call, I hear, take, come, and apply.
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Receive His grace, not only submit to His mercy, but acquiesce in it.
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Not only glory in the cross, but in Him crucified and slain.
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Not only joy and forgiveness, but in the one through whom atonement comes.
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Thy blessings are as secure as they are glorious. Thou hast provided for my safety and my prosperity, and hast promised that I shall stand firm and grow stronger.
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O Lord God, without the pardon of my sin, I cannot rest satisfied.
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Without the renovation of my nature by grace, I can never rest easy. Without the hopes of heaven,
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I can never be at peace. All this I have in Thy Son Jesus.
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Blessed be His holy name. Amen. Amen. Praise His name.
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John 20 verse 31. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.