Sunday School - Partial Notes On Matthew 7 Part 3

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Sunday School - Patial Notes On Matt 7 - Part 4

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as it reveals all the intentions and thoughts in its heart, and everything will be laid to bear before the

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King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Father, we do pray, God, that you would grant us even now a hastening for that great day, a hastening for the day of the

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Lord to come, and also, Lord, an anticipation in our own hearts, as we apologize to the Lord, that we would be ready, that we would be found approved, that we would be found bearing fruit on that day.

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We ask these things of you. So I've got these, we're going through kind of my notes in Acts chapter seven, and my notes are like just a couple of verses, they're like 30 pages.

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And so it's actually maybe like four verses, I've compiled off 30 different pages of course of material.

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And so I'm kind of skipping over a couple of things that may not be relevant to what we're doing, but essentially what we're looking at is

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Matthew chapter seven now, verse 19. I want you to look at that, we don't have the verse in front of you.

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Just look at that text with us. Matthew chapter seven, verse 19. And it says every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn, cut down, and cast into the fire.

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Now, what did we establish earlier on in our notes in our series in Matthew seven? What is it that Christ is looking for?

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What is it that Christ commands of his people? First and foremost, faith and truth, what else?

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What does faith produce? That's a great question. Fruit. Produces fruit.

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Did you say fruit? No, no. Faith produces fruit.

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And the fruit that Christ is looking for is the fruit of obedience. It's the fruit of the works.

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Now, let me be very clear about this. We are good, warm, evangelical Baptists who believe that we are saved by faith through grace, not of works, so that no man may boast, right?

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There's no doubt in regard to our doctrine of what we believe.

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We're saved by faith through grace. Grace through faith. However, where evangelicals tend to go wrong is that because we're saved by grace through faith, we don't focus on works.

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I had in my previous church, one of my elders was so allergic to the word works.

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Anytime I mentioned the word works, he would get like an allergic reaction thinking I was an

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English or something. And that's the hyper -grace that has infiltrated church today, which says it's grace, grace, grace, grace, we don't even talk about works.

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Let's be all praise to a work of exaltation. Now, that's an error, and the error in that is because Christ has called us to do the works.

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Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, by grace we've been saved by faith, not out of ourselves, it's the gift of God. For God saved us, verse 10, unto good works, in which we shall walk, and in which he's waiting for us on the fourth morning.

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We were saved for good works. And so that's an exactly, so Paul's theology, I was just watching this right online, but someone's been controversial, they've been saying that Paul's theology should not be held to a higher thing than Christ's theology.

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What's wrong with that statement? They're the same. Some people want to pit

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Paul's theology over Christ's theology, some people want to pit Peter's theology over Paul's theology. You have this back and forth of these supposed contradictions,

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James versus Paul, for instance. James chapter two, works with Paul, faith is dead, and you have

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Paul saying, oh, by grace you've been saved. You have people sitting against each other and the issue is that there is no contradiction.

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They are teaching the same theology, so Christ's theology is indeed Paul's theology and vice versa.

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And so Paul and Jesus are teaching the same thing in regard to salvation, fruit, and works.

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So when Jesus says, every tree that brings not forth good fruit is cut down and has to die, what does this tree represent here?

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Close? What does it represent? What is the tree? I was going to say it would be the individual, but in some sense it would be

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Israel. Yes, that's really important. That's a great point.

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As a matter of fact, in the rest of my notes, in the rest of my notes, I actually don't go really deep into that, but I do do that today.

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But Israel is the tree that Christ's life talks about. Now, we can bring it down a little bit and say it is also true of the individual.

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What's true of the collective Israel is also true of the individual, right? And so there's a personal application that can be made for individuals today.

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That if your life is like a tree, you can, as a matter of fact, Psalm 1, verse 1 talks about a tree planted by a tree, right?

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And so there is that personal connotation that can be drawn through the text, but it's not the meaning of the original text itself.

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Does that make sense? One could derive that from the text, but it's not necessarily what

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Jesus was originally talking about. So, for instance, in David, I do have this on top of your notes,

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Isaiah chapter 9. You have verses 10, 13, 16, 17, and it talks about Israel being a fig tree.

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It talks about how Israel had a pleasant place. It's talking about coming on God's planting,

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Jacob and his inheritance, putting him in that land, making that his possession, making that God's treasured possession.

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Good morning.

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Good morning. Good morning, sunshine. Thank you. So we're still just talking about looking at some notes from Matthew 7, verse 19.

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So when Jesus says, Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is hewn out of it without a passage by water.

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Now, I would say, what Jesus is actually talking about here is national election. He's talking about two key peoples.

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He's talking about two key nations. Jesus has said some pretty interesting things.

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Why don't you turn to Matthew chapter 21?

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Matthew 21. And start getting in reverse.

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Let's look at verse 41. I'm going to be telling you what a parable it is. And Jesus says that this is his parable.

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When they said to him, we will put those wretches, we will measure that out, and we will let out the vineyard and other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seeds.

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Again, Jesus' favorite use in a parable is usually laws, something regarding agriculture.

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And that's important because that is the language of the time. It's like Jesus, you know, he said to the people of Wisconsin what he talked about.

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He talked about farming, cheese, and cows. That's what he talked about. He was here in Silicon Valley while he talked to them about microchips and I don't know, whatever else they talked about here in Silicon Valley.

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But for Jesus, he's in agriculture quite a bit because it also accomplishes something wonderful when we reverse the teaching here.

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He goes on to say, Jesus says in verse 42, Have you never read these scriptures? The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

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This was the Lord's doing and it's marvelous to our eyes. This is the key, verse 43.

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Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you. Talking to who?

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Who are you talking to? You're talking to Israel, the Israelites, the Jews. And given to a people, what?

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It's fruit. Now when you go back to Matthew 7, Jesus says, talking about the trees, trees that bear good fruit, trees that bear bad fruit.

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It's not so much that he's talking about the individuals, although we can, again, we can deduce that and we can make personal application.

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That's totally fine. But what we are, what we should actually be looking at in regard to what

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Jesus is teaching here is nationalization. He's talking about the

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Jews, the nation of Israel being a nation that is not losing for it to be cut down and thrown into the fire.

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He's talking about the coming destruction, actually, in the year 70. Jesus is pointing towards their future destruction there.

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And so when he talks about the tree that's not producing fruit, that's going to be hewn, cut down, tossed into the fire, he's talking about the destruction of Israel that's pending.

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It's the day of the Lord. So it's not, it wouldn't be wrong to look at Matthew 7 and think, well that's talking about me.

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I've got to produce good fruit. That's good. We should think that way. But it's not the original intent of the

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Scripture. The original meaning of the text is talking about nationalization. God taking Israel and destroying her for it to be nationalized.

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And so he's talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, the year 70

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A .D. Any questions on that? So it would be pretty clear when you look at Matthew 7 now that that understands this lens that he's talking about what's often referred to as national election.

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So there's individual election obviously. God elects his people in beauty and rule whom he has predestined in Christ.

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But he's also talking about a national election that God's people of Israel were nationally elected through Abraham covenant.

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But God has now chosen a new nation of all tribes and nations including the remnant of Israel.

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Does that make sense? So look, the new nation is essentially the Gentiles. Well, the new nation is the church.

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Or the Christians. Yeah, or Christians. That's right. So the tribe that God now has approved is the

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Christian tribe. Right? But the Christian tribe is not a ethnic group.

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It's a multi -ethnic group. It's made up of Jews, Gentiles, people of all colors and all languages. And that's the grand vision that we see in Revelation chapter 7 on that day where it says there's a great multitude of Jews, Gentiles, gathered on the throne.

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And they all sing salvation. We go up to the land and we're going to sit on the throne. And so this is the

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New Testament church. And so with regard to, again, the idea of bearing fruit, being cut down, this is all talking about the context of the national election.

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He's talking about Israel being the tree that is producing bad fruit that will be cut down. It's the false prophets.

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As a matter of fact, well, it's a big long story.

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And you might catch it by surprise. But in Revelation, there's three bad guys. You know who they are?

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Who are the bad guys? It's actually not. But that's another discussion.

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Uh -huh. That's a good one. But really the three main big bad guys in the book of Revelation is the serpent, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.

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When you look at Revelation chapter 16 onward, those are the three main bad guys. And the false prophet in my opinion, and I've got a lot of compelling reasons for this, is actually

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Israel. Israel is the false prophet of Revelation. You also have the beast, which in that time was

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Rome. Rome, under Nero, was the beast. And that's where it appears in 666, even the other, so there's a variant in that text of Revelation 13, and it says, the

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Bible says, the beast number is Man's number, and it's 666. There's no other variant of that, 616.

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You don't buy that stuff. Both are variants, 666 or 616.

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But the

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Bible says, the beast number is

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Man's number, and says, the it says, the beast number number, and says,

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Man's beast number is Man's number, and says, the beast number is number, and says, the beast number

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Man's number, and says, beast is from a false prophet. And so part of, also one of the reasons why

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I believe that Israel is a false prophet is because verses in the Bible, Isaiah chapter nine.

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Isaiah chapter nine talks about the death of Israel, God chose Israel, Israel is like a tree of victory that he had chosen, he had planted in a pleasant place.

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But then he says Israel's root is withered and they're bearing no fruit. This is because of their persistent apostasy, turning away from Yahweh, turning to other gods, being apostasy, being a whore, okay?

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And then, so let me be very clear too, in regards to the statements he made about false prophet in Revelation.

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I would actually say that it's the religious leaders purging of Israel that was acting as a false prophet, not just the nation collectively.

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I would say the nation collectively is actually Babylon, but the nation's leaders acted as a false prophet because they had consistently false prophesied regarding rights and the independent destruction.

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Similarly, as we see in Jeremiah and Isaiah, when Jehovah prophesied doom over Israel, either to the

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Assyrians or the Babylonians, what did the prophets of Israel then try to say? Do you remember what the prophets of Israel said when the true prophets were prophesying calamity?

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Peace, they say peace, peace, peace. Don't listen to these damn pastors. They won't listen to these guys who are just always so negative and down, and they prophesied peace, but what are those prophets saying?

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They're saying there is no peace. There is no peace. Peace in our times, right, and how did that work out?

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And that's exactly what we see happening here in this picture of scripture here.

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The false prophets of the time of the New Testament, I don't remember which one, the

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Jews, the clergy class, the Pharisees have to say, no, no, no, no, we're gonna make it through the back.

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Josephus, who's a first century historian, I've had this while in his passing, and we reread it. It's really, really incredible, and Josephus reports that as the city of Jerusalem was being camped by the

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Romans during this three and a half year siege, which is exactly the time period that says this is gonna happen, the religious leaders all gathered, right, as the city was being ransacked by the

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Romans, they all gathered on top of the temple complex, and they were all essentially, they're saying, come here, we're gonna gather here, and we're gonna see, basically, the

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Lord is gonna deliver us, so we're gonna all just gather here and we'll be delivered, and then we're all destroyed, and it's in the very last minute hope that God would intervene, but Jesus says, no, the intervention was gonna be through him.

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If they had faith in Jesus, that was gonna be your detection, but if they had rejected the Messiah, you'd be destroyed, so Jesus was the true prophet.

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The leaders of Israel were the false prophets, and so Jesus talks about rightly that their men would come and they would be destroyed, but they were a nation, a tree, that would not produce any fruit.

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They were unbleeding, they were unregenerated, and so now we understand, basically, the big idea here, the tree in Matthew 7 represents the nation of Israel, the one that's produced the calf fruit that's gonna take that down and destroy it, that is what

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Jesus is actually teaching in that text. Now, again, it's not incorrect for us to kind of microscopically bring it down to our level and have a computation for us, right, so we can use certain truths from Scripture, even if it's not the original text, it's still a computation that we've received.

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Any questions so far? Yes, yes. I was gonna say, years ago,

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I was reading through Mark and was very upset that Jesus, who was supposed to be holy, would curse the fig tree for not bearing fruit, and when

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I was reading Mark recently, I was thinking, okay, that's the answer. He's talking about national

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Israel. Yeah, so let's look at that for a second. It's Matthew 21. And Matthew 21 turns over to verse 18.

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It says in the morning, as he was returning to the city, now this is again what we just read earlier, verse 43, which means he's talking about King Caleb gone away from them and couldn't get the fruit produced from the fruit tree.

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This is where we get this whole idea of promise. We're seeing verse 18 and onward.

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And seeing verse 18, seeing the fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but a leaf.

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And he said to it, may no fruit ever come for you again. And then the fig tree withered at once.

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Now, that's a powerful imagery that Jesus looks at that tree. Just remember, keep

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Matthew 7 in mind. It says, every tree that produces good fruit, it's gonna be blessed.

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Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is gonna be cut down. So you see that the tree already is not producing fruit.

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It's already not producing fruit. Understand this, that Christ's first coming is the greatest eschatological fulfillment of until even today.

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The only thing that will supersede the first coming of Christ will be the second coming of Christ. So Christ's first coming is of such eschatological importance.

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It is the visitation of the Lord. It is Christ's visitation to the earth. And throughout the prophets, what have they been warned?

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To be ready. To be found ready on the day of the Lord. And they were not. Which is why

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Jesus also gives a lot of parables about his second coming. I would say, don't be like the unfaithful servant.

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Be like the faithful and wise servant. Don't be like the terrible virgin, the terrible talent, the terrible manager.

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Be the good man, be the good one waiting for their master because Israel was born also in Israel.

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So we have to be ready. We have to be found expecting him, yeah. I remember the commentator that I read once, someone whose theory was, after the fig tree, and Jesus says, if you have faith, he'd say this fig tree be thrown in the sea, he'd say this mountain be thrown in the sea.

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And that mountain would be the mount upon which to temple. So that would refer to seven deserts.

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Have you heard that before? I would agree with that, yeah. I can't remember who wrote that. Yeah, I think Gentry wrote that.

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No, Gentry did, yeah. But that's, I would certainly agree with that sentiment. He goes on to say in verse 20, when the disciples saw a big marble saying, how could a big fig tree be thrown together at once?

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And Jesus answered them, truly, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to that mountain, take, be taken up in order to see what will happen.

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And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive in that day. So that's exactly what we were just alluding to,

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Pastor. I believe this is a clear reference to Jerusalem's destruction, Jerusalem's fig tree.

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How do we know this? Hosea chapter nine, the fig tree is Israel, it couldn't be clearer. Jehovah says in Hosea nine, that Israel is the fig tree.

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Other places too in scripture will receive the same thing. Israel is the fig tree. So we're going through, what?

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Oh, oh. Matthew, let's just look at that real quick, in Hosea nine, just so you don't mix this up.

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12th line of Proverbs, Hosea nine. So let's look at verse 10 first,

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Hosea nine. It says, like rapes the woman that found Israel.

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Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw your fathers.

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But they came to Malchor, they prostrated themselves, but they came, a testament, a testament, like the thing being loved.

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They came down, all the way down to verse 16. Ephraim is stricken, their root is what?

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Is withered, dried up, and they shall bear no fruit.

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Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. My God will reject them, because they have not listened to Him.

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They shall be wanderers among the nations. My goodness. Isn't this incredible?

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By the accuracy of Bible prophecy, and that they are now essentially a nation that is, it's a wandering nation now that of course, they've come back to the land, many of them, and they have their own nation in Israel today.

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Which I think could be significant. But the scripture prophesies that they will be rejected, because they have not listened.

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The fig tree that Jesus verses, is because there is no fruit, no fruit shall come, it says in the scripture.

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It's dried up, and they shall be a nation of wanderers. Wow, wow. That's exactly what's happening.

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That's exactly what's happening in Bible prophecy. And so clearly Israel is the fig tree. So again,

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Matthew 7, our main text is clearly showing how the cursing and the blessing, it is a covenantal blessing.

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It's not lawful for anyone. Blessing of obedience, cursing of obedience, and the nation of Israel is now coming full circle, full flourishing.

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The paranormal blessing and cursing is now coming upon their heads in the visitation of Jesus Christ, okay?

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So Jesus is going to enact the judgment on Israel, because the Lord has come personally in Jesus Christ.

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He's judging, he's judging Israel, which is why again, this is of such as logical importance for the people of God.

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Now there's a law associated with bearing fruit, okay?

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And it's really interesting, if you look at my notes, a fruit -bearing tree may not be cut down for use in battle.

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So in the Old Testament, there were trees, we'll look at what

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Deuteronomy says. But not fruit -bearing fruit may be cut down. So notice what it says in Deuteronomy 20, verse 19 to 20.

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When you shall besiege a city a long time and make war against it, take it, you shall not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an act against them.

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You may eat of them, and you shall not cut them down, for the tree of the field is man's life.

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To employ them in siege. Only the trees which you know that they may not bear, that they may not be trees for fruit trees, you shall destroy them and cut them down.

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And you shall build wall works against the city that makes war with you, even though it may be subdued.

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There's a law associated with bearing fruit, trees that bear fruit.

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So if you were in a time of war, and you were to go to the city to ransack it and to have dominion over it, and there were trees that bore fruit, you're not supposed to cut them down.

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You're supposed to leave it. Why? Why was that? It is a man's life.

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It's the way they found sustenance. It's the way they found food. It's the way they were able to feed the army.

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That was the end, okay? Similarly, there's a spiritual principle behind this. This is what Jesus is pulling from.

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The Bible's pulling from the scriptures, the Bible's pulling from the Torah. As he's talking about ideas of trees that are bearing fruit in Matthew chapter seven.

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A tree that bears fruit is to be protected because when it bears fruit, it demonstrates life.

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When we as Christians bear fruit, what are we demonstrating? The life of Christ.

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We're demonstrating that there is spiritual life in us. If there is no spiritual life in us, then we won't bear fruit, which is evidence that we're not

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Christians, right? Similarly, in the election of nations, when you have

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Israel collectively not bearing fruit, they were collectively apostatized.

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They were collectively rejecting Christ. Now there was a remnant, and that's what the Bible apostates talk about when they're renegotiating

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Israel. You can see that in Isaiah, you can see it in Jeremiah, you can see it in Mosiah. They're all talking about this remnant of Christ.

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I'm out. These are the believing Jews of the New Testament church. But if a tree did not bear fruit, what do you think they do with it?

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They cut it down. You know why they cut it down? Besieged city was to use the wood for weaponry, for fuel, for other classes so that they could use that.

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And so, church services as well. When a people or a person does not produce fruit, they are cut down, okay?

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And they are used, for instance in the New Testament church, as examples of unfaithfulness, of disobedience, and used as fuel to further the work of the

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Christian church. Similarly, when you look at national elections, Israel serves as an example of what not to do, right?

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They are a memorial of disobedience, of a covenant breaking people.

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And so, there's a law associated with the bearing fruit, the cutting down of trees, that has spiritual implication, which is exactly what

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Jesus is capitalizing in on in Matthew chapter seven. Now, there are fruitful trees that are blessed and endured.

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So, look at Psalm 13, you're here in the notes. A nation will be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water, that bring forth his fruit in his season.

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His leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

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What is this? Who is the man of Psalm one? Who is the man of Psalm one?

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New Testament church, yes. Overall, yes. What does the text say? Verse one,

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Psalm one, do you remember Psalm one? He said, this man who walks not in the council of the ungodly.

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That's right. But delights in what? His delight is in the law of the Lord. His delight is in the law of the

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Lord. That's Psalm one. Who is the man of Psalm one? The man who delights in the law of the Lord. Who was that man?

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Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the true man, who walked not in the council of the wicked, but who delighted in the law of the

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Lord. He was the faithful one. He was the man that was truly planted by the rivers of water, who brought forth fruit in his season.

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And we, as Christians, get to partake of Christ through obedience, by being like Christ, being like the man who is planted by the stream of water, by the stream of living water that Jesus offers.

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Psalm 92 says, those that be planted in the council of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our

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God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourish.

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So what is the condition of the man who was planted in the council of the

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Lord? He's what? He flourishes.

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He flourishes. He flourishes. Can I tell you something? If a man, any person, plants himself in Christ, plants himself in the council of God, that means we use the prosperity gospel stuff.

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But, he prospers. He prospers.

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He prospers. He prospers, not just in material things. That connection can be an awful bit.

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But we're talking about spiritual blessing. Spiritual. Do you know what money can't buy?

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Money can't buy peace. Money can't buy time. Money can't buy love and happiness and all these things.

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And it can certainly help. It can amplify things. Money really has an amplifying effect.

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If you're miserable, you're probably more miserable than you're rich. Okay? If you're happy, you're more happy than you're rich.

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But money has an amplifying effect. Whatever it is that you're heart, the condition of your heart is down, money will just amplify that.

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Okay? But the prosperity of God's people, the prosperity of God's apostles, those who are planted, those who are rooted in the council of the

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Lord, those rooted in Christ, is that they shall bring forth fruit in old age.

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Now, what's interesting about that is, as things get older, they usually become less and less fruitful. It's not true of the

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Christian life, though. The older we get, the more effective we become, in a sense, right? The more faithful we are, over time, over longevity, the more value we actually bring to the kingdom.

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Isn't that wonderful? And this is why, even in old age, in the New Testament church, we value those who are older.

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Even the terms that we use in the Christian church, elders, in terms of the way that we refer to pastors, elders and pastors might be interchangeable in the same process.

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Elders, pastors, are referred to as the older men, even though I'm not that old.

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In the Old Testament, I might be pretty old. Back then, I might have been 20, 60, 50, maybe, so.

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I'd be middle -aged. So I'm an older man at that time, right? But even men like Timothy, who are young men, we know that.

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That text of scripture was also a pastor. So older men were revered.

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Older women were also revered in the New Testament church. If you look at 1 Timothy, the welfare system that was put in place to protect older women, as well.

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And so older people were revered, were looked to, and looked upon in the

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New Testament church because of the value of the fruit that they were able to bear.

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And so let us never forget this, that regardless of whatever age we are, what life we're in,

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God values us. God values the fruit that we bear. For me, one of my favorite texts of scripture is

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Hebrews 6 .10, it talks about, it says that God is not unjust to us if we forget the lovely labors you have shown towards this day, and how you administer it to the saints.

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And so God is not unjust to forget. That's really important. So sometimes as we get older, and as we get jaded, and as we see things, and as we experience things, how can this be?

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Because God is not unjust. That's the whole overall look of love and ministry that we always share and never take away.

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Any questions so far? Yes. I was just thinking about Simeon and Anna, waiting, you know, for her, looking toward the

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Lord. That's what I'm preaching on today. Is it? Mm -hmm. It's gonna be, yeah, that's very, very appropriate.

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Jeremiah 17 says, for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when the heat of fire comes, for her leaves shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought.

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Neither shall she cease from yielding her roots. Now, that's pretty appropriate because in the time that we're in, in California in the last two years, there's been a major drought.

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And this is giving us an image of a tree that's been planted by the water. Again, another example, there's two verses here that allude to that.

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The tree that's been planted by the river is to be treated as much by the water. So what it does is that the root has a source of water, regardless of the exterior conditions, whether it's raining or not, you know?

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And so it has a source of water where it's continued to be nourished, even in years of drought.

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What is that picture? What are our own waters?

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Jesus is certainly the living water. And the water that he gives that bubbles up to eternal life is the word of God.

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It's the word. The word is that which swells up into us, leading to eternal life.

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And the tree, you know, generally, it talks about initiation, but we can again bring up a personal occasion to us that as individuals, what kind of tree do we want to be?

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We want to be a tree that's far away from the source of water, and we want to be a tree that's close to the source of water.

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An interesting thing, Psalm 1 -3 especially, I think the other two follow the same wording, if I recall, is that the river is not just a stream that happens to be there.

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It's one that was intentionally prepared. The tree intentionally planted. So there's this passive part of it where the tree's planted itself, and the water is provided.

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It's not just a root that happened to be there. It's a canal, if you will, that the

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Lord put in place. We want to be a tree that's planted by the waters, that its roots are spread by the river, as the heat comes, the trials and temptations of life, the difficulties of life come, and the droughts of life come, will not cease.

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You'll be able to hear the word. Will not cease. We'll do what the Lord requires of us, which again, to bear fruit, to be a people, to be a nation, that's produced fruit.

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Remember what Christ said to the nation of Israel. He says, the kingdom of God will be taken from you, and given to a nation that produces fruit.

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We need to be a people producing the fruit that Jesus promised, that Jesus said we would follow and walk in.

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Again, we're not saved by works, but works as what?

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It's evident, right? So I put it this way. Fruit is the, works is the fruit of salvation, not the root of salvation.

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What's the root of salvation? What's the tree being nourished by? By Jesus, by the waters of the living water, by the streams of mercy, by the word of God.

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This is salvation. It's Jesus, the word of God. But, if we're being nourished by the waters, will we be naturally produced?

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This is proof. This is the evidence of the Christian nation.

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It is a people producing good fruit. Now, what does good fruit look like? You know, it's one thing to kind of think about, you know, metaphysically, because that sounds like a very renalogy, but what is it?

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What is good fruit? What is it that Israel failed to do that we must?

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Remember, they weren't bearing fruit. Yes. Faithfulness is certainly a fruit.

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Amen. Galatians 5, 16, love, joy, peace, own self and kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.

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That's the fruit of the spirit. Is that where you're going? Because that's very individual. That is very individual. That's true.

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It's one of the aspects of it. It's one of the things I want to see in the Christian life. You know, walking in the spirit, magnifying the desires of the flesh, and through the fruit of the spirit being, again, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control, again, such things as there's no wall.

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Those are certainly true. But I want to, and that is more so about individual. But what I want to talk about collectively, what is the fruit that he's looking for?

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To point towards Jesus. What's that? To edify towards Jesus. Absolutely. That's part of it.

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Amen. Obedience. Yes. But obedience of what?

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I'm looking for specific answers. Obedience of Jesus.

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I'm not sure you're ready. Are you going towards a great commission? I think so. Why don't we look at Ephesians three for a moment?

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There's a great mystery at play here. And let's go to Ephesians chapter three.

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And let's look at verse six. This mystery is that the

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Gentiles are fellow bearers, members of the same body, partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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Of this gospel, I was made a minister, a gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of his power.

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To me, through the will of the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the

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Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. So there's part of this mystery. To preach to the

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Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ in society. And to bring light for everyone.

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What is this? The land of the mystery of hidden ages in God who created all things. What are one of the things that Israel failed to do?

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God says, I want you to be a light to the nations. What did they fail to do? They failed to be a light to the nations.

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They failed to be a light to the nations because they began to become like the world instead of showing the world what the light of Yahweh looked like.

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And it goes on to say, in verse nine, again, to bring light for everyone.

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What is the plan of the mystery? Hidden for ages in God who created all things so that through the church, that's what you need.

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Here's the thing that God wants from you. So that through the church, the inalienable wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers, the courts, and the

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Catholic places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

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So I ask you not to lose heart from what I have spoken for you, which is your glory. So here's the thing that God wants from you.

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He wants you to be a light. He says, let your light shine before men so that your Father in heaven may be glorified.

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So that your Father in heaven may be glorified. You must shine the light. What light is that? It's the light of the gospel.

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What does that mean that we're all partaken? We're partaken of the great commission of the Lord. You have to be able to preach the gospel.

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We gotta preach it, we gotta live it. It's not just preaching it, we gotta live it too. It's relations, that's where relations five comes in.

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The outworking of the spiritual life, the outworking of the spiritual fruit. But you gotta preach it. You gotta preach it.

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Israel failed to do that. You know, Israel became a very insecure, like a perfect kingdom, in a sense.

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Where they were like, oh, everything outside of here is bad, bad, bad. We don't want anything to do with the nations.

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And then what did they actually begin to do? They began to process themselves as nations. Instead of being like them, they began to make alliances with Egypt, Syria, all these nations, and they began to process themselves with them.

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And yet, what we're called to do is to be a separate, distinct people.

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A peculiar people is what Acts 15 calls us. And a people that's preaching the gospel, that's preaching the manifestation of God, that's shining the light of the gospel, so that men, women, and children that we really have the knowledge of Christ will still be saved.

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That's the fruit that God wants to see in these people. That's the fruit. That's the major fruit.

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It's part of his true purpose that he's been realizing Christ. It's for you and me. And so, now it kind of gives us an importance.

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We see the importance of the Great Commission, the importance of the mission, the importance of the missions. God's will for us isn't simply that we gather together in our own little social club called church.

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That's not the goal. The goal is for the family of God to grow. It's to grow.

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And that's why a mission, and that's why it's so important that we as Christians be like that tree that's planted by the waters, being nourished by the word of God, and yielding fruit.

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Fruit, you know, this is, I don't have time to do all the goals now. But the last picture we see of the population of the wilderness is this river.

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It's a river that is coming down from the throne and trees everywhere on both sides of the river.

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It says that all you yielding fruit, not just in season, but every single day in the fruit that it's producing is the healing for the nations.

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Isn't that so cool? It ends with that picture. That's the picture that my Bible ends with.

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And that shows the church, you, the nation that God has chosen, producing fruit that's bringing healing to the nations.

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That's our goal. That's our mission. That's what we gotta do. And man, what a beautiful picture that is.

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I was reading last night in a study note that there is no river in Jerusalem, but there was a river in the

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Garden of Eden, and there will be a river in Jerusalem. Now, fun fact, there wasn't a river, but there was a, what do you call it?

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Some small creek or a brook or a little cistern that would run off the water.

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And, yeah, in Wisconsin we say creek. There's a place called Fish Creek.

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Long story, but go on. Yeah. But the temple mount, where the temple was, in the site where they were purchasing their genocides, there was a creek that was right through the middle of the temple mount, so that that's where the priests would have their purification, or have their, you know, do the washing there.

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And fun fact, that's not the same location as what Jews think the temple mount is today. That the temple mount today is not the temple mount.

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I'm just gonna put that out there. If you wanna know more about that, you can ask me later. That the temple mount today is not the temple mount.

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That is the port of it, so it's not the original site of the temple. So even though the

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Jews think it is, and they wanna build a river temple there, it's useless because it's not the actual site where David bought the site from the

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Jebusites or Solomon consecrated the temple before it existed. That's pretty much it.

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Well, maybe one day we'll all go to Israel, and then we'll see these cool sites in person.

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Just as a quick excuse, is it the same place that Jacob built an altar to the

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Lord? I think they called the place, was it Bethel? Bethel. Is that the same place? I don't know if that's the same place.

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I always actually say that. It's certainly likely that it's the same place where Isaac was offered.

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But certainly where David made the atonement for his sin. Right, yes, yes.

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The site where he purchased it from the Jebusites. The threshing floor. So yeah, very interesting stuff.

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Yes. So you mentioned that Israel failed to do this thing. Right. Israel didn't have, they were supposed to be a light, but weren't they supposed to be a light in it, in some other way?

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Yeah. Like keeping themselves apart from each other. By being distinct, just like we are, right? We're supposed to be a distinct people today, and yet the way that we pray the gospel is, you know,

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God wants a missionary people. God is the greatest missionary. There is no greater missionary than God.

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He's the one that goes after people. He leads 99 to one. He is the greatest missionary, but he wants a missionary people.

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And Israel was to be wholly distinct and separate, but they were also to bring the light of God.

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Isaiah 61, I think it is, talks about a great light that shines, and that it's the light of Yahweh.

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And it ultimately points to the resurrection, I think in Isaiah 61, verse 14 or something like that, talking about the coming light that's gonna come, and the

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New Testament writers take that mercy and apply it to the resurrection of Christ. So Jesus is the greatest, he's the truest, who brings that light, but where Israel failed,

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God's appointed the church to succeed, right? And that's gonna be included in the proclamation of the gospel by being a distinct people, but yet not being in the world, not of the world, and to live in the great commission, yeah.

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I'll point out to Sarah's point also, a few months ago we had a Sunday school and we showed that Israel was not ethnically pure Israel, that many other peoples were incorporated in, and one of the most profound priesthoods was given to Phinehas, who was actually a

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Cushite, an Ethiopian. So that infusion of other peoples was always part of Israel, but not as distinct as in the gospel.

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So yeah, they didn't have the gospel of the pope, but they did have the gospel of Israel.

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Yeah, it's still good news, right? I mean, the Bible, clearly the gospel actually comes from the Old Testament. It's, there was good news to be prepared.

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I think that's it, yeah, it's a good thing. Beautiful words of peace. Yeah, that's right. And so you still have that theme, you still have this kind of, you know, this gospel that's present throughout the

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Old Testament, and it's good news about the light that's coming to the world, which is ultimately fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

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Yeah, it's like, it has a six -letter response. I shine for your light, come the Lord, the Lord has risen on you from old darkness shall cover the earth.

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You can think of it as the peoples. This is the spiritual likeness of the ancients. It says, the

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Lord will rise upon you, and his glory will be upon you. And the nations will come unto you in light, and the kings of the righteousness of your righteousness.

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You just retrospect that, and attribute it to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that Jesus is the fulfillment of this, and that he's the

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Lord of the Lord, whose life was seen, and whose resurrection will be. And so we as Christians, we have the fullness of the gospel, but even as, it uses three points out.

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This miniscule was held for the long ages, and it was revealed to the apostles and the apostles, and it's now made manifest to all people through the preaching and proclamation of the light of the gospel of Christ.

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Interestingly enough, 2 Corinthians 4, verse four talks about the light of the gospel being veiled by the god of this age,

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Satan, the devil. It says, for the god of saints, by the might of the holy leaders, they may not see the glorious light of the gospel of Christ, right?

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So there is a blinding that is happening in the world through Satan, but yet we are still men and women preaching this gospel of the light to the world.

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Any thoughts or questions, yeah? So out of that mystery that's talked about in Ephesians, there's a so that, the mystery is being, the gospel is being brought forth, so that, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

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Who are those rulers and authorities that this gospel is being made known to? I preach that when

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I preach for Ephesians, and to me, I think it's pretty clear that the rulers and authorities are the powers, the spiritual governmental structures.

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So just like we have governmental structures today in this world, obviously, in the

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United States, in China, in Russia, there's layers of authority, layers of power and structure.

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So too, there's an unseen world, an unseen sort of system. The word that's used often is the term age, ion, aeon.

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Now, the term word aeon can also be translated as system. It's a system, it's not just a time period.

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Like, if we think of age, we think of a time period. But that's not the connotation, it's not just a time period.

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It's a structure, it's associated with a time period, okay? That's what we're working on with age means, is it's a time, it's a structure associated with time, okay?

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And so, when you look at the rulers of this age, we're talking about the power structures associated with a particular time.

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And these are unseen power structures that we can't see, that we don't know, that no one else has, or are very much real, and they're usually a reference to demonic forces.

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I don't remember the purview, the dominion of Satan the Devil who was the great prince of this age.

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Ephesians 2 says that we all once walked before the prince of the power of the air.

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The spirit does not like disobedience. And so, the prince of the power of the air is a reference to Satan.

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He is the prince, the main principality of deception, and he has other principalities of deception that are under his dominion.

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So, these are spiritual principalities, spiritual beings, spiritual governmental structures that are opposed to the reign of Christ, okay?

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And so, and then often, so I would say, I would go so far as to say that behind every governmental structure that we see in this world, there's a spiritual governmental structure behind that system as well, okay?

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And so, the reason why certain nations are as wicked as they are is because they carry wicked principalities behind them.

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So, yes? How could they be?

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Did it get the gospel just a little bit off? Didn't it just,

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I mean, a Pharisee, a girl, right? So, they were like workspace, and Jesus was preaching the gospel of repentance and faith, faith in God.

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Remember, though, we live in a different dispensation as the old covenant people. And so, the old covenant people were responsible for the life that they had received, and that was the good news.

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The good news for the Jew was that God had chosen a people out of all the nations. That really, the good news in, not that much different from today, was the good news of election, that God had chosen a people.

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And that's still true today. The good news today is that God, through the death, birth, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, has chosen a people, there's an election, and that through that election, through that salvific work of Jesus Christ, we are now called out of the nations, out of the world, into marvelous life.

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And that started with Israel. That started with God calling a people out of darkness, out of the nations, into his life, into the revelation of his life.

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And so, though they didn't have the fullness of the revelation of the life, because Ephesians 3 says that it's in Christ that that fullness comes, they had received enough, right, in order to be stewards of life they had received, but they failed in their stewardship of the good news that they had received.

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And so, we too must beware not to fall into the same trap of not being good stewards of the good news that we've received, the fullness of which is death, birth, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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Yes? I think it ties in with what you had taught on before, that that seed of the gospel was right after the first sin in the garden in Genesis 3 .15,

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that the seed of the woman would bear the fruit that would crush the head of the serpent or the seed of the serpent.

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Last follow -up questions? Yes. Or you can speak more on an individual basis about fruit and another?

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Yeah. Okay, and I'll hold my question. Good. All right. Well, that'd be great. God, thank you so much that we can study your word and find these precious and wonderful truths.

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Lord, we thank you for a perfect election. We thank you, Lord, that in your goodwill and sovereignty, you have chosen the people in times past through the covenant you made with Abraham.

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And even now, Lord, you have given us a new covenant, a covenant that has been made sure through the still blood of your son,

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Jesus Christ, that by means of faith in him, we have entered into this grand inheritance and promise of eternal life.

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We thank you, Lord, that you have chosen a new nation, a nation to be planted by the waters of the streams of living water, and that from the stream of living water, we can receive not only eternal life, but also produce fruit, fruit that brings healing to the nations.

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Lord, help us now to be a light to this world, to preach the gospel in its season and out of season, so that regardless of the circumstances around us in the world, we can begin this work of bringing healing to the nations with the glory and the majesty of Jesus Christ.