Revive Us Again | Week 1 | Acts 1:1-8

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First sermon in a new series focusing on the gospel presentations in the book of Acts October 29, 2023 Pastor Jeff Rice Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, Tullahoma, TN

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Revive Us Again | Week 2 | Acts 2:22-41

Revive Us Again | Week 2 | Acts 2:22-41

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If you will at this time, take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to the book of Acts.
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Acts chapter 1. We're going to consider verses 1 through 8.
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Acts chapter 1. We will consider verses 1 through 8.
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So if you do not know, we're putting a pin in the
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Gospel of John right now to go through a series basically focusing on revival.
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We're calling this series, Revive Us Again, hence the song that we sung before we started, before the preaching.
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And my thinking is that we're going to touch on all the
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Gospel presentations. We're going to see the work of the Holy Spirit in the first century.
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And we're going to look at it in such a way, because we hear a lot of people saying that they want revival.
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What is revival? What does revival look like? And so we want to go to what the first revival that took place after Jesus left, and we want to see how it happened and what took place when revival came, right?
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When the passing of the old covenant to the new covenant, right? What took place?
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What actually happened? What should it look like? We're going to do so by going through the book of Acts.
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Now this is going to be a longer series than most series we went through as we have taken breaks through the exposition, but I think it's going to be good for our souls.
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I think it's going to be good for our learning, right? And also I think it's going to help us see how you and I as Christians can impact the world.
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So let's begin with the text. Acts chapter one, verses one through eight.
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The first account, O Theophilus, I composed about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up to heaven.
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After he had, by the Holy Spirit, given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over forty days and speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God.
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And gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave
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Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the
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Father, which he said, You have heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the
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Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they were asking him, saying,
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Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel?
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But he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the
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Father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the
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Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all
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Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
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Our overarching theme for this series is Revive Us Again.
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Make us alive again. He is not speaking to the world here.
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He is speaking to Christians. This is what this means. So Jesus is speaking to his followers.
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I'm speaking to you today who profess faith in Christ that revival is not the world coming to Christ.
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That's awakening. Revival is when Christians awake, wake up, are made alive again.
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The question as we begin this journey through the book of Acts is does the church need revival?
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Does it need to be made alive again? The answer to that question,
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I'm sure you already know, is yes, absolutely. Anytime that the church is on a downfall, the church needs to be made alive again.
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Does that mean that the church is not the bride of Christ? No. But the church needs revival.
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We speak a lot about in our time, especially right now, ever since 2019, 2020, that we want the world to be
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Christianized. A lot of people say these words. We hear terms like Christian nationalism taking place.
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Ladies and gentlemen, these things are just thoughts in our minds. How in the world can the world be turned upside down if the church has not been revived?
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The only way that the world is going to be turned upside down is if the church is made alive again. And so, just notice as we're going through this, today we're not looking at a gospel presentation.
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We're looking at what takes place before they present the gospel. So this will be our foundation.
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I believe that our nation is under judgment because the church has not done her duties.
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I believe those duties are to keep the commands of God and to reach out to the lost with the gospel.
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Our nation has in fact rejected God and has adopted everything but God and scriptures.
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You can believe in anything you want and not be persecuted for. But if you believe in God, Yahweh, and you believe
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Jesus Christ and this Bible, the Holy Scriptures, you will be persecuted. Romans 1 tells us that our nation has rejected
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God. Read Romans 1 and tell me that our nation has not rejected God. Romans 1 tells us that the nation that rejects
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God will be filled with unrighteousness. And we've walked through this before.
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What is unrighteousness? It's lawbreakers. Our world, our nation is filled with lawbreakers.
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And it gives a list of different things, right? Homosexuality. As I name these,
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I want you to ask yourself, is America suffering from these things? Homosexuality, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossips.
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Man, our churches are filled with gossips. There's a reason why we need revival.
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Slanders, haters of God, violent, ignorant, boastful, inventors of evil.
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Our catechism just told us about inventors of evil. Disobedient to parents, men and women without understanding, who are untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
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Has America rejected God? Do we fit this category?
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Was our nation once known as a nation that held to the, as a deist nation, right?
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I mean, as a nation that upheld God, a theistic nation. I said deist, but please forgive me.
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That's not what I meant. Now it's a deist nation. A nation that's rejecting
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God. You can believe in whatever you want to. You can believe in whatever you want to except for the
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God of Scripture. I heard it said all it will take is for one generation to not have kids and human civilization would come to an end.
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One generation. If one generation would stop having kids, no more humanity.
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We would cease to exist if one generation stopped having kids.
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And the same idea, all it took was for one generation of Christians to not keep God's commandments and share the gospel for our nation to become under the judgment of God.
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For our nation to be known as a nation that rejects God. So if revival was to come, what would revival look like?
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Again, there's lots of talks about revival. You had the Asbury revival that took place. And as I read this list that I'm about to read,
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I want you to ask, is that what the Asbury revival, is that what happened at the Asbury revival?
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Jonathan Edwards in his 1741 publication titled,
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The Distinguishing Marks of the Work of the Holy Spirit of God. If you did not know, those
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Puritans are those that came after the Puritans. Their titles to things were really long, right?
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The titles to a book was like a paragraph to some people today. And but in this book, based on 1
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John 4, he lays out five, count on five marks of revival, of true revival.
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So true revival is one that exalt, that Jesus is exalted in revival.
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It's a revival that lifts Jesus up, that proclaims Jesus Christ, that he is the
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Christ, the son of the living God. A true revival is one that the Holy Spirit acts against the influence of Satan's kingdom by preaching sin and repentance.
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It's a revival where a man filled with the Holy Spirit is proclaiming these things, right?
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We are telling people to repent and to put their faith in Jesus Christ. A true revival is one that the
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Bible is exalted and held in high regard, where the information that's coming forth from the pulpit is taken from the scriptures.
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A true revival is one that sound doctrine is taught and promoted. It's not one where you can believe what you want to believe.
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You know, Jesus can be anyone and everyone, that God is everything. Now, God is everywhere, but God is not the tree.
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God created the tree. A true revival, here's the last one.
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A true revival is one that loves, that love to God and man is promoted.
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And I feel like this message that I have today is going to be more drawn from that fifth one, to love
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God, love to God and man is promoted.
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Now, Jonathan Edwards took part in what's called the first great awakening. There's actually in our history two great awakenings, but only one of them were actually a true revival.
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If you were to compare and contrast the first great awakening to the second great awakening, you would see in the first great awakening, all five of these things took place.
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Not so in the second great awakening, which was not great nor awakening, right?
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It's what John MacArthur would call a great, what is it called? Great fruit, grapefruits or something.
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What does he say? Grape nuts or something like that.
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It's not fruits and it's not nuts. Grape nuts. It's not grapes and it's not nuts, right? And this revival was not a revival and it wasn't great and no one was awakened.
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The second great awakening. But I didn't come here to preach on that. In my opinion, the first great revival is the second great.
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I mean, the first great awakening is the second great awakening, because we're going to see in the book of Acts that it is actually the first great awakening.
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Now, as we move through the book of Acts, through the gospel presentations, I want to begin by renaming the book.
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So if you look in your Bibles, you'll see the Acts of the Apostles. Anyone have something different?
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My wife is smirking. The Acts of the
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Apostles. I want to rename it. I want to call it the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, because the apostles are weak and pitiful men just like me.
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Just like you. Something had to happen to them to drive them in order to do the things that we are going to see take place.
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And that, my friend, is the Holy Spirit. One of the primary things that we're going to see in the book of Acts is that the
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Holy Spirit is working through the apostle, and that's what brings about the revival that changes the course of history.
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Without the Holy Spirit coming upon the apostles, there is no change in the course of history.
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Jesus took ordinary men and women filled with the Holy Spirit, and he changed the world.
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He changed the world through ordinary men and women, weak and pitiful men and women.
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If what took place at Pentecost nearly 2 ,000 years ago did not happen, we would not be here today.
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You would not be sitting in the pool pews. I would not be standing in front of you, proclaiming victory over death, sin, and the grave.
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Our theme for today's message is to finish the work of Jesus.
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To finish the work of Jesus. Although Jesus has finished the work of salvation, he has called his followers to work, to keep
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God's command, and to finish the work by sharing the gospel of the kingdom.
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Ladies and gentlemen, if you are saved, you are saved by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.
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In his finished work alone and nothing else.
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Nothing else. You cannot add nor take from what's been done.
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If you are saved, you're saved because of what God has done for you in Christ.
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However, if you want an awakening to take place, a revival of the church must take place first.
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That means we have work to do.
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Christianity is not the lazy man's religion. It is a religion of intellect.
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But not for the lazy. You might ask yourself, is everyone called to change the world?
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And to that I give you a question. I ask you, are you a Christian? And if you are a
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Christian, you are called to take part in the changing of the world. And if you are not a Christian, you are the mission field.
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Our world should hold us to the standard of being a Christian.
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Amen? If you say you're a Christian, our world should hold us to the standard of being a
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Christian. But here's the problem. Our world doesn't know what a Christian is. Why?
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Because we haven't been good examples. In our outline today, we're going to see that we have work to do.
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Our first point is to do and teach. Our second point is the message. And our third point is by the power.
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We are to do and teach the message by the power. And that's how it's broken down.
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And that's how I'm going to explain it to you today. Again, this is the foundation of the message.
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And after today, we're going to walk through these presentations. But after today, you're going to understand how these weak and pitiful men and women were able to do the things they were called to do.
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Hopefully, if the Spirit of God blesses you through me. Now, as we transition,
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I want you to understand that, Ruth. Again, I said this in other words earlier, that revival is not, in one sense, it's not for the world, but rather it is for the church.
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In order for our nation to be spared the wrath of God, the church of the living
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God must wake up. We must wake up. We're sleeping.
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We must wake up. We must seek God on the behalf of our nation and not sit on our hands waiting for the second coming of Christ.
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You say, Jeff, that's hard. I know it. As I was preaching this, I had to ask for forgiveness.
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I had to repent. And when I stand in this pulpit,
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I cannot, one thing I cannot do is I cannot worry about hurting people's feelings. I cannot worry about that.
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I got to let the cards fall where they lay, right? Because listen, if you think you're convicted by this, ladies and gentlemen,
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I am more convicted by this. I am more convicted by this. Since we've,
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I'm just give you an example. Since we moved here, I have slacked. I have slacked in witnessing because the greatest witness we could have is our signs as people drive by.
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And I have been just allowing that one little black sign up there to represent our church.
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I need to be beating on our state's door saying, this is not enough. We want more.
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We've been talking that our outside isn't too pleasant on the eyes. We need a work day.
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We got to make sure that our building is, our part of the building is distinguished from everywhere else on this building.
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Our parking lot needs to be clean. When they mess it up, they need to see us cleaning it up.
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And I've slacked. And to that, I repent and ask your forgiveness. Point number one, to do and to teach.
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To do and to teach. The author of this book is Luke. And I won't go into great detail on how we figured that out.
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Just because we're not exposed. We're not going through this verse by verse exposition. This is just a series.
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Luke is the author of both the Gospel of Luke and Acts. Luke is also the only
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Gentile writer in the Bible. Luke wrote both accounts to Theophilus.
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Now, we know nothing about Theophilus outside of knowing that Luke wrote the book of Luke and Acts to Theophilus.
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That's all we know. He wrote this book to a man named Theophilus. There's nothing else we know about him, right?
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Just to be honest. Now, we can take by eternal evidence that Theophilus might have been a high ranking official.
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Because in Luke's Gospel, Luke calls him most excellent
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Theophilus. And you just don't call the common man at that. You didn't call a common person at that time most excellent.
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This was something that was reserved for a high rank official. We know that Luke was a doctor.
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Very, very intelligent. And there's other insights that I could give you, but I'm going to not at this moment.
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Again, all we know is that in our text, Luke is making mention of the Gospel that he wrote to Theophilus.
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And we see this in chapter one, verse one. Look with me. Chapter one, verse one. The first account of Theophilus, I composed about all that Jesus, listen, began to do and teach.
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You see where I get my first point at? Like, I don't have to make this stuff up. It's just right there.
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He's telling in my first book, the Gospel of Luke that I wrote to you. It was about what
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Jesus began to do and teach. Luke here is reminding O Theophilus about his writing of the
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Gospel and how he covered what Jesus did and what Jesus taught. Now, what did
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Jesus do in his life and ministry? As far as what
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Jesus did, Jesus kept the commands of God, right? He kept the law that we could not keep.
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Jesus kept the commands of God. Jesus performed signs and wonders, right, through the
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Holy Spirit. We looked at that a couple of weeks ago. And Jesus died for his bride.
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Now, as far as us doing and teaching and being like Jesus, we can't do that. As far as what
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Jesus taught, Jesus taught the Gospel of the kingdom. If you remember when we were going through John chapter eight, we had that common theme of following Jesus.
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Why? Because in verse 12, he says these words. He says, I am the light of the world and whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
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And I gave you that little illustration of me as a kid riding a bike, right? And there'd be a group of us guys, little boys together riding a bike.
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And there would be a leader. And whatever the leader did, we would have to do. It's called follow the leader. If the leader jumped a sand pile, we'd jump the sand pile.
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If he rode with one hand, we rode with one hand. If he rode with no hands, we rode with no hands. If he was riding, he threw his foot out.
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We'd ride behind him and throw our foot out. It's called follow the leader, right? And Jesus is telling us to follow him.
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Jesus lived his life as a way for us to desire to do.
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No, you're not going to be able to do everything Jesus did. And we was talking about this earlier, right?
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That desire for holiness. The Christian should have a desire for holiness. Jesus was holy.
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We are to have a desire for holiness. That although we are following our leader, the things that he's doing, we're not able to do just like he did.
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But that doesn't mean you get off the bike. We are to follow Jesus.
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And by following Jesus, you will not be left in darkness. So just as Jesus did and taught, you and I are to do and teach.
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We are to keep God's commands. And ladies and gentlemen, you're going to fail. Me probably more than you.
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I'm sure there's people in here today that are more sanctified than I am, who are much more qualified to be up here in this position teaching.
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We are to keep God's commands and we are to teach. Now, listen to me. Don't teach.
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This is very important. Don't teach if you are not doing. Don't teach if you're not doing.
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If you're not keeping God's commands, and listen, again, I said it, you're not going to do it perfectly.
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But if you're not doing it, don't teach. The Bible warns about this.
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If you're not keeping God's commands, do not be trying to teach. Now, the question is, is what are we to teach?
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And in short, the kingdom of God, right? That's what we see here. Look at verse three.
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It says, to whom he also presented himself alive after suffering many convicting proofs, appearing to them over 40 days and speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God.
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The work of God, I mean, excuse me, this work we are called to do is not a work of our own salvation, right?
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I said that earlier, the work that we are called to do is not the work of our own salvation, but it's for the salvation of our family and friends.
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So don't leave here today thinking that Jeff is telling us that we must do something to be saved.
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No, I'm saying when you're saved, there's work to do, right?
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Do you love your family and your friends? Do you love your neighbors?
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Because that's a part of keeping God's commands. Well, what's the most loving thing we can do for them?
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Preach Christ. Preach Christ. So again, the last thing
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I proposed was, the question is, is what are we to teach? And in short, it's the kingdom of God.
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And we see that in the next point, the message. So let's read verse one, and let's read all the way to verse three.
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In the first account, O Theophilus, I composed about all Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken to heaven.
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And after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen to whom he also presented himself alive after suffering many convicting proofs, appearing to them for over 40 days and speaking about,
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I mean, speaking about the things concerning the kingdom of God.
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Now concerning the kingdom of God, we as good reformed folks should understand that it's an already and not yet kingdom, right?
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I shouldn't have to explain that. The kingdom is now and it is to come.
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It is now, right now as we speak, and it is to come. The kingdom was inaugurated at the first advent, think first coming, and it will be consummated at the second advent, the second coming.
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This is the whole idea of the Jewish wedding. They were married before they were married, right? They were married at the betrothed.
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Then he would go and build a house. And once the house was built and he's collected the wine, he would come back to receive his wife unto himself.
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This is John 14. And when he come back to receive his wife, he would consummate the marriage.
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They could be married for months, even years without any consummation, but they were married.
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And ladies and gentlemen, the kingdom is already here. It came in the first advent, but it will be fully here at the second advent.
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You'll be able to see what you know in your mind, what you know in your mind, in your heart, what you see with your mind and your heart, the same way that Abraham saw a kingdom.
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Right now, we're in that Abraham stage. We're seeing things by faith. But one day when
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Jesus comes back, what we see in faith, we'll live in. We'll see in sight.
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We'll be a part of, it'll be tangible. You'll be able to grab it. Now his apostles in this chapter seem very confused.
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I mean, they ask him in verse six, Lord, is it at this time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel?
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They're still thinking physical Israel, right? Geopolitical Israel.
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They're thinking that God is focusing everything at Jerusalem.
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Again, we, this side of history as good little reformed folks,
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I understand that we are true Israel. We are true
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Israel. True Israel is made up of God's people.
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And as first John chapter two, verse 22 and 23 tells us, I'm going to break it down. Verse 22, who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the
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Christ. This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the
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Son. Ladies and gentlemen, if you deny Jesus, you deny the
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Father. Who in first century did not believe that Jesus was the
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Christ? The religious geopolitical Jews.
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What does first John tell us? They are. They're antichrist. They don't have the
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Father. Why? Because they deny the Son. Look at verse 23. Everyone who denies the
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Son does not have the Father. The one who confesses the Son has the
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Father also. Christians confess the Son and therefore have the
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Father. If you deny Jesus, you are an antichrist, period.
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That's what the scripture says. Now, whether you're for Israel, it doesn't matter.
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I'm for, I love my Jewish friends, right? I love my Jewish people. But they're not the children of God.
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They're not, they're antichrist. As long as they're rejecting Jesus, they're antichrist. We cannot confuse that.
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That is the biblical truth. If you deny Jesus, you are an antichrist.
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And if you confess Jesus, you have the Father making you true Israel. Remember, we are not the physical descendants of Abraham, though a physical descendant of Abraham can be a spiritual descendant of Abraham.
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Right now in the new kingdom, the here and not yet, the physical seed doesn't matter.
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What matters is the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now, we've read this a few times.
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So just for right now, let's go to it again. Galatians chapter three, look at verse six through nine.
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I'm gonna try to go through this a little fast because of time. Just as Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness, so too that those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.
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And the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, proclaim the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, all the nations will be blessed in you.
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So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer.
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Turn with me to Ephesians. This should, if you had any doubts about the church being true
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Israel, hopefully this will clear up those doubts. Ephesians chapter two, beginning in verse 11.
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Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so -called circumcision, so that's
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Jew and Gentile, which is performed in the flesh by human hands.
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Remember, look at verse 12, that you were at one time without Christ alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
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But now in Christ Jesus, you who were formerly far off, speaking of the
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Gentiles, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made both groups,
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Jew and Gentile, one, and has broken down the dividing wall, the partition, excuse me, by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might create the two into one man making peace.
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That should tell you that God does not have a bride and a side chick, one people, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in himself put to death the enmity.
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And he made, and he came and preached the good news of peace to you who are far off, and peace to those who were near.
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For through him we have access, we have access, we, excuse me, we both have access in one spirit to the
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Father. Now before I read verse 19, I want to read verse 12 again with 19.
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I think it's going to shed some light. Look at verse 12 again. Remember that you were at, you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
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Now look at verse 19. So then you are no longer strangers.
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Strangers to what? An Israel. And sojourners but our fellow citizens.
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Citizens where? In Israel. Not the geopolitical nation, but God's people.
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With the saints in our of God's household. Ladies and gentlemen, if you are in Christ, you are a true
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Israel. I would tell you a joke that I played on my friend Brayden, but we don't have enough time for that.
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Now the church is made up of both Jew and Gentile.
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Now the gospel of the kingdom is the gospel. The death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, which we read before we, the message began.
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All right. You cannot leave the ascension out of the gospel. And I would say you cannot leave the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and in this, when he ascended, he now sits at the right hand of God on the throne of David.
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And he's ruling and he's reigning and he's putting all of his enemies under his feet. And as we go through this book, we're going to see how those enemies are footstooled in order for them, as well as you and I to go and teach, we must have the right message.
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And the right message is the message of Christ. And in our text, it's speaking about Jesus presenting himself alive after his death.
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Point number three, the power. The power is taken from Acts 1, 4 through 8.
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But we're just going to start by reading verses 4 through 5. And as we read,
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I want you to notice what the promise is. What is the promise?
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So look with me at verses 4 through 5.
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And gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard from me for John baptized with water.
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But ye will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
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So the promise is the Holy Spirit. And notice it's putting us to what
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John the Baptist said about the Holy Spirit and this baptism from Matthew chapter 3, verse 11, which says,
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John speaking, for me, I baptize with water for repentance.
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But he, speaking of Jesus, who is coming after me is minor than I, whose sandals
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I am not fit to remove. He will baptize you with the
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Holy Spirit and fire. There's two things there that it says,
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Holy Spirit and fire. In our text, he just says Holy Spirit.
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Now, why is he just saying Holy Spirit? Because fire is judgment.
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If I'm speaking to someone who is a Christian, right?
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Or if I'm, you know, I'm not God. I don't know who the elect are, right?
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But if I had that kind of insight that I knew who the elect are, I'd let them know that they're about to be filled with the
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Holy Spirit. All right, just like when I'm out preaching. So if I'm out preaching,
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I have to mention both, right? If you do not, if you repent and put your faith in Christ, you're going to be filled with the
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Holy Spirit. Because faith comes by hearing, hearing of the word of God. And the Holy Spirit comes through faith.
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Paul says, did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing in faith? So the Holy Spirit comes by faith.
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But when I'm out there preaching, I'll say, if you repent, put your faith in Christ, you will receive the Holy Spirit.
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But if you do not repent and put your faith in Christ, you're going to be baptized in fire.
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The judgment of God is going to come upon you. Everyone's going to be baptized.
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Either with the Holy Spirit or with fire, either with the mercy of God or the wrath of God. That's how it's broken down.
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Jesus, speaking of this, the spirit baptism, when he's speaking to Nicodemus, if you remember that sermon, the little sermons where you preached on this, he said, you must be born again.
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You must be born again. He says, unless a man is born again, he cannot see with his eyes the kingdom of heaven, that he cannot enter in to the kingdom of heaven, that the new birth has to take place.
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And when you understand and you study, you understand that Jesus is, he's not speaking about physical birth because he condemns it later on in the text, but he's actually pointing back to an
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Old Testament prophecy about the new covenant. And we get this from Ezekiel.
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And if you, probably if you come in here once every once in a while, you've heard me preach on this because I say it all the time, right?
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It's one of the most amazing portions of scripture, a prophecy concerning the new covenant from Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 25.
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The Lord is telling Ezekiel, he says, then I will sprinkle clean water on you.
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So this is regeneration and you will be clean.
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So when he's saying that you must be born again, this is the prophecy that it's taken from.
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Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from your idols.
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Verse 26. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you.
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And I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful.
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Listen to do my judgments, my commandments. Now this only happens if regeneration takes place.
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If you are born again and in that process of being born again, he removes your heart of self -righteousness.
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I'm a good person and he gives you a heart of flesh.
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A heart of faith where no longer do you think you're a good person and you can earn credit with God by your good works.
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But that you are trusting solely upon the work of God in Christ Jesus. This is a prophecy of that.
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So it's not spelt out clear. But what we see here is the actual order of salutis.
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The order salutis. Regeneration, faith, and Holy Spirit. Turn with me to Luke chapter 24.
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Luke chapter 24, beginning in verse 48. This is after Jesus has revealed himself to his disciples.
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He says to them, you are witnesses of these things.
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And behold, I am sending the promise of my father upon you.
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But you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
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You see the two things in that verse. Promise and power. He's sending you the promise. And once you receive the promise, you're going to have the power.
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Once you have the promise, you'll have the power. The power to do what? To turn the world upside down.
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The promise of the father is also given to us from Joel chapter two. Because we see that the promise of the father, he's speaking about an axe.
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We see it from Ezekiel. He's promising regeneration, faith in the Holy Spirit. Right here,
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Luke's telling us that when the promise comes, it's going to come with power. And we see in Joel chapter two, verse 29, that even on male slaves and female slaves, in those days,
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I will pour out my spirit. So what must happen first?
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Power. I mean, the promise has to come in order for us to receive power.
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And before that has to happen, regeneration must happen. We must be made alive.
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Made alive. What is revival? It's being made alive. Right? Salvation is when the individual is made alive.
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Revival is when the church, a church full of those who are made alive, come together and are made alive.
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That's revival. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Holy Trinity.
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He was promised, and the promise was that he will be poured out on individuals in the last days.
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And we've been in those since the time of Christ. And in our text, the Holy Spirit is accompanied with power.
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Let's look at verse six through eight. So when they had come together, they were asking him, saying,
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Lord, is it at this time you will restore the kingdom to Israel? Remember, I've done covered this. But he said to them, it is not for you to know the times or the seasons the father has set by his own authority, but you will receive power when the
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Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth, from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
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Now, listen, as we walk through Acts, something I hope to point out here is that it begins in Jerusalem.
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Then it goes to Judea. Then it goes to Samaria. And then you see Paul, the apostle, taking it to the nations.
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That's how the book of Acts is laid out. Has it reached every nation in the world?
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No. Apostle Paul died.
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Many Christians after him has died. This is a big world. We have work to do.
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Power to do what? Power to change the world. The Christian source of power is the
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Holy Spirit. The promise of the Holy Spirit and our power to the promise, excuse me, the promise is the
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Holy Spirit and our power to do what we are called to do comes from the
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Holy Spirit. And what we are called to do is to teach. We are called to teach, but don't teach unless you do.
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Now, I want to go to one more spot real quick in Matthew chapter 28.
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It's kind of just, it's like another view of what takes place in Acts. Verse 16.
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But the 11 disciples proceeded to Galilee to the mountain which
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Jesus had designated. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted.
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And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying all authority in heaven and earth, excuse me, all authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth.
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Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
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They are told to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. Four things.
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Notice that each one of these are in fact a command. If I tell you to go, am
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I commanding you to do something? If I tell you to make disciples, I'm commanding you to do something, so on and so forth.
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And yet this is one command. Four commands in one command.
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We are to go, we are to make disciples, we are to baptize, and we are to teach. Also note that this command cannot be done without the promise of the
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Holy Spirit that's accompanied by power. By inference, that means if you have the
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Holy Spirit, you have the power that accompanies the promise to accomplish the power of God.
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I mean, to accomplish the purpose of God. And it's the purpose of God the Father to save his people.
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And in accomplishing this purpose, this work, he sends his son,
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Jesus, his only begotten son, the Christ, to live a perfect, sinless life, the life that you and I could not live, and to take our punishment because we could not live that perfect, sinless life in his death.
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This is why Jesus on the cross could say it is finished. That's why I mentioned earlier, if you are saved, you are saved because of what
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Christ has done and not because what you can do. And what you are called to do is to do and teach.
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God the Father, purpose to save a people, Jesus accomplishes this purpose, and the Holy Spirit applies the purpose through the message that is preached about the gospel in his kingdom.
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The message of Christ. The reason why our nation is the way that it is, it is because of unfruitful
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Christians in our past. Revival happens when
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God's people do and teach. That's how we promote love of God and love of man, right?
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We promote love of God by doing. We promote love of man by teaching.
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We pray, we seek, we love God, we love our neighbors, and we teach our neighbors.
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Listen, I might need to whisper this. To obey
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Jesus. To obey Jesus.
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Why do not, why don't churches teach that? We are called to obey
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Jesus Christ. And when
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God's people do that, that's revival. That's revival. When God's people do that, that's revival.
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And revival will bring about an awakening. Change in our world.
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Jesus took ordinary men and women filled with the Holy Spirit and changed the world.
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They turn the world upside down. You and I are called to finish the work of Christ, just like the disciples are, just like we're going to see take place in the book of Acts.
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You and I are called to finish the work of Christ. And it is not if I have time to do so.
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Listen, Christian. Remember earlier I said I cannot get up here and worry about hurting people's feelings.
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This command is not if you have time. It's a command and you better make time.
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That's what we're called to do. That's what we're called to do. Do you want an awakening?
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Then we better wake up. We better wake up. Because this world is not changing as long as the church is sitting on her hands waiting for her husband to come home.
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We have work to do. It's a command. And as we close,
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I want to ask two questions. First question. Are you ordinary like me?
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Second question. Are you filled with the Holy Spirit as I am?
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Are you ordinary? And are you filled with the Holy Spirit? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then
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God can use you. God can use you. If you have not been baptized in the
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Holy Spirit, then the gospel call is for you. And when you repent and put your faith in Christ, God can use you.
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The gospel is that God has made us righteous in Christ. If you were to sum it into a sentence,
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God has made the unrighteous righteous in Christ. He has made the lawbreakers able not necessarily to keep the law, but to be as if we kept the law because Christ has kept the law in our place.
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God sees us as if we've never sinned because of the life that Jesus Christ lived.
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And the death that he died, he took the punishment for my and your breaking that law.
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We broke God's law. God paid our fine by sending Jesus as a substitute to do the necessary condition so that men and women, pitiful, weak men and women like me and you can be in the presence of God.
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And through pitiful men and women like me and you, God can finish the work of Christ.
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But we must repent whether you're a Christian or not a
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Christian. If you're not a Christian, you need to repent and put your faith in Christ. Listen to me, if you are a
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Christian and you have not been keeping with the command of God by doing and teaching, the response is the same as the unbeliever.
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Repent and put your faith in Christ. Don't trust in yourself to fulfill this work, this great work, but trust in God.
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He's called you to do it. He's given you the promise. He's given you the power. Stop sitting on your hands.
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Now, as we close again, I am available. And I want to say, if you're here today and you're not, and if you're a
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Christian, if you're here today and you are a Christian and you don't feel like you have this power to do what
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God has called you to do, listen to me. When the service is over, please come and talk to me.
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I truly want to pray for you. I truly want to pray that you will see yourself the way
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God sees you, as a world changer. If you're here today and you're not a
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Christian and God has done a work in your heart and he has baptized you with his spirit, please come and talk to me.
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Me or Pastor Cal, we'd love to pray for you and to lead you to that next step.
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Let's pray. Oh God, Lord, again, as I've mentioned in the message,
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Lord, how I was so convicted this week. Sometimes I find myself just waiting for that every other
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Saturday to come so I can go out and do this work. When you have given me a life to live, a life in Christ to live before all men,
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Lord, please forgive me. Lord, we pray that your grace and your mercy will fall upon your church.
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Lord, that the fire that we'll see coming next week in Acts chapter two, that rested upon the apostles will come down and rest upon us.
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That it will give us boldness, Lord, to as we do and as we teach to speak the truth of God in that boldness,
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Lord. That we will not be afraid of what's to come. But in love for our fellow men, that we will stand boldly on the truth and proclaim the good news of what you have done for us through your son.
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And Lord, as we prepare to partake in this meal, God, Lord, I pray if there's anyone here today that's been living in sin,
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Lord, that they will confess their sins. And we know that when they do so, you are faithful and just to forgive them.
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And they will be able to partake in this meal with a clean conscience.
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And Lord, we know that you're going to use this as a means to grow us into the image of your beloved son to that day when he returns again to consummate the kingdom.
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And we will be known as we are fully known. We will be made complete as 1
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Corinthians tells us. Please, in his name, bless us this day, we pray.