The Man And The Plan - [Acts 2:22-23]

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Please take your Bibles and open them to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, as we continue our relentless march through the book of Acts.
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You know, there's a dangerous place we can go. And when
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I initially say it, you'll go, I sort of like it. You ever stroll down memory lane?
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Now it can be good, right? I mean, we have a lot of good memories. But I don't know about you guys, maybe it's just me, and probably everybody's sitting there going, yeah, it is just you.
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But if I linger too long on memory lane, what do I start doing? What if?
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What if I did this? What if I did that? So I was thinking about that last night, and of course, what do
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I do? I look up a list of top ten what ifs. This has to do with World War II, because who doesn't like World War II?
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Did you know, here's a what if. Number ten, there were actually two Japanese proposals to invade
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Australia. Number eight, there was actually a German plan to invade
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Switzerland. I found this one interesting. I mean, Australia had a strategic purpose. Switzerland was just because Hitler hated
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Switzerland. Number six, I found also interesting.
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Britain and France actually planned an airstrike against the
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Soviet Union. And this was in 1940, and you go, well, why would that be? Now listen and see if this doesn't ring a bell today.
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Because the Soviet Union was the primary source of German oil. Interesting, things don't change, do they?
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Number three, Japan intended to strike the United States with chemical bombs, which is a little bit misleading.
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It was actually a bio thing. They were going to launch some plague bombs on San Diego.
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That would have been ugly. Number one, Winston Churchill, after World War II, when the
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Soviet Union, I want to say Russia, but when the Soviets had occupied Eastern Europe, he went to FDR and said, you know what, we should attack them, drive them out of Eastern Europe.
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FDR just said no, you know, moving on. What if, you know, in our lives, when we look back on it, what do we do?
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What if I had done this instead of that? Or what if I had done that instead of this? And I thought to myself as I was working through this message, does
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God operate like that? Does he have branching trees of information? Does he ever look back in time and go, well, what if I had done things differently?
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Of course we know the answer is no, but today we're going to see really a stark example of that in Acts chapter 2.
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I'm going to start reading in verse 14. Acts chapter 2, verse 14, to give us a little context here this morning.
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And again, this is the sermon of Peter at Pentecost. But Peter, standing with the 11, lifted his voice, lifted up his voice and addressed them, men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words.
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For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet
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Joel. And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.
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Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.
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And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
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The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the
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Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the
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Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words.
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Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
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This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
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It's quite an opening. And just by way of review, since it's been a while, the
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Acts of the Apostles, or we could say the Acts of the Holy Spirit, because that's what we're really watching, is how the
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Holy Spirit works through the church. Or we could even say the Acts of Jesus Christ. We could view it in a multitude of ways.
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What is it? What kind of book is it? It's a historical narrative. It covers more than 30 years of the work of our triune
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God as he builds the church and as he works through these 12 men to spread the gospel.
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They're given this great commission to go throughout the world, and that's what they do. And this is the history of that.
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It's written by Luke the physician, who also wrote the gospel according to Luke. He's a
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Gentile and a traveling companion of Paul the apostle. He also wrote, of course, well,
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I said the gospel of Luke. He wrote more of the New Testament than, I think, than any other writer.
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It's really close with him and Paul in terms of words and whatnot. He's very careful.
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He's very meticulous, as befits a man of his education, being a doctor. Luke starts with the ascension of Jesus Christ, his going up into heaven.
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And if you put yourself in the position of the apostles, even though you've seen him after the resurrection, you've seen
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Jesus after the resurrection, the ascension has to have a strengthening effect.
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It has to be galvanizing. It has to put some strength in you. I mean, these men had been weak and then rejoicing after they were weak after the crucifixion, rejoicing after the resurrection, but still not fully getting the fact that they had a mission to do.
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But when they see Jesus go up into the heavens, it definitely strengthens their fitness for their work.
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In Acts 1, verses 9 -11, we would read this. And when he had said these things, Jesus had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
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And while they were gazing into heaven and as he went, behold, two men stood by them in robes, two angels, and said,
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Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.
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He's coming back. He's going to do the same thing in reverse. In fact,
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Luke tells us that all believers, as a result of this, in verse 14, were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers.
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They were getting together all the time, daily to pray. Then in chapter 1, they choose
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Matthias to take the place, I mean, they don't, they cast lots, but Matthias has chosen to take the place of Judas Iscariot.
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So there are again 12 apostles, 12 men commissioned by the Lord to tell the world about him, to take the gospel into the four corners of the earth.
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And then on the day of Pentecost, if you recall, Pentecost is a day where Jews from all around the empire would come into Jerusalem to celebrate.
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And so on this day, we read in Acts that there's a loud noise. And that noise,
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I mean, we have to kind of fill in the blanks, but it seems obvious what happens. There's a large crowd, as there would be, drawn to this noise.
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And the disciples, the believers, start talking to these unbelievers in their own languages, in known languages, not babbling, right?
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And we know that because in chapter 2, verses 7 and 8, it says this, the crowd says of these, of the believers, are not all these who are speaking
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Galileans? They're amazed because these uneducated rubes, these hillbillies, are speaking in their languages, their more sophisticated languages.
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And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? They recognize the unlikely nature of this.
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And the last time we were in Acts, as we just read, we saw that on the day that Jesus returns to judge this world, all who have trusted in him for salvation will not face the wrath of God.
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So this morning, I have really four summary points that just kind of get us to the essence of Peter's message in verses 22 and 23.
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And we're going to look at the man Christ Jesus and the plan that he came to fulfill. Our first summary point, as Peter talks to them, he tells them of the man they hated, the man you, the crowd, hated.
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First notice that all eyes are on Peter. And he makes sure of that. He addresses them, he says, men of Israel, he's trying to get their attention.
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In verse 14, he addressed them as men of Judea. Well, why did he change? Judea is a region, right?
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It's a location. But now switching to Israel, he's establishing a rapport with them.
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He's talking about a national bond. A religious bond and even a covenantal bond, right?
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They're all sons of Israel. They all are sons of Abraham. They have this covenant with God.
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And so he's talking to them not like they're pagans, not like they're unbelievers, because even though they're not believers in Christ, they are believers in Yahweh.
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So he's stressing not what they have in difference, not what their differences are, but what they have in common.
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They had just experienced, as I said, all the disciples speaking in known languages. And that clearly seemed other to this crowd in the sense that it was shocking.
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They knew that this was not humanly possible. So they knew that something other had happened, something external had happened.
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They might even think those things, I mean, they talk about, are these men drunk, et cetera? But Peter's going to bring clarity to that.
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And in verse 22, he goes on to say, hear these words. And I'm going to suggest to you, he might as well have said, what
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I'm about to tell you is going to leave a mark. All right, get ready. Strap in, because it's going to get rough.
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Now, I said, the man you hated. Well, was Jesus hated? Look how
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Peter addresses, or how he talks about Jesus. First he says, Jesus of Nazareth, that's what he calls him.
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Now, if you're not really a deep student of scripture, this might seem a little unusual.
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Jesus of Nazareth, why? Because we call him Jesus Christ. That's his, not his last name, by the way.
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It's what? It's his office. We could say Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the anointed one.
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But he calls him Jesus of Nazareth here. Why? Because that was how he was known. In fact, if we think back to Matthew 13, what happens when he goes to the synagogue in Nazareth and he teaches there?
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They say, boy, Jesus, that was some really great teaching. Or do they say, they reject him.
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And he says, essentially there's, you know, prophet is without honor in his what?
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Hometown. This is where he was from. That's why he's Jesus of Nazareth. Matthew 26, 71 says this.
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And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him and she said to the bystanders, of course, this is
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Peter. She's talking about this man was with whom Jesus of Nazareth, John 18, four to seven.
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Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, whom do you seek? This is when he's getting arrested.
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They answered him Jesus of Nazareth. This is what the Romans called him. Jesus said to them,
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I am he Judas who betrayed him was standing with them. When Jesus said to them,
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I am he, they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, whom do you seek?
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And they said, Jesus of Nazareth, John 19, 19 pilots also wrote an inscription, put it on the cross.
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And it read Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. This is how he was known.
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But Nazareth was not well thought of. I'm not going to make any analogies to Massachusetts.
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I'll just say this. Nazareth was not well thought of. John, John one verses 43 to 46.
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When he's just gathering the 12 disciples in the very beginning of his ministry, the next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
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He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now, Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
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Philip found Nathanael and said to him, we have found him of who Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote.
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Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Good news, right? So what does
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Nathanael say? Nathanael said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
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Nazareth was not highly considered.
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It's the same with Jesus, right? When did the crowd love him? They loved him when they thought they were going to get something out of him.
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When they thought they were going to get free food. When they thought he was going to overthrow the Romans. That's when they love
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Jesus. But when Pilate says, look, we got this guy
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Barabbas. You guys all know who he is. He's a horrible human being.
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Now I can either set him free or I can set this fellow Jesus free. They shout for Barabbas.
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It didn't take much for the chief priests to move that whole crowd.
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Isaiah prophesied rightly in Isaiah 53, when he said this, he was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief as one from whom men hide their faces.
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He was despised and we esteemed him not. Emphasis on despised.
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I think it's fair to guess that no one in the crowd Peter was addressing regretted yet what had happened to Jesus when he was crucified.
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Certainly they didn't think of themselves as guilty, as involved in the crucifixion of Jesus.
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But that's the first summary point is the man you hated when he's talking to this crowd.
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The second summary point, the man God showed you was your Messiah. Now it's getting harsh.
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They despised him. They rejected him. And by the way, that man that you respected or rejected, despised, that was your
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Messiah. Look how
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Peter goes about proving this. He says, doesn't appeal to, well, his first appeal is to God.
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He says, a man attested to you by God. This man was vindicated by God himself.
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But first notice that he was indeed a man. Why is that so important? Why do we have to stress that?
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He had to be a man in order to what? In order to obey the law of God. He had to be a man in order to be tempted.
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He had to be a man in order to suffer. He had to be a man in order to die.
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And he had to be a man with a physical body to be raised from the dead. When Thomas was doubting in the upper room after the resurrection, and he said, put your hand in my side.
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Why did he do that? To show that he indeed was raised from the dead, but also that this was
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Jesus, that this is where the spirit gone through. Put your hands in my, or put your fingers in my hands.
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Feel me. I have a real body. He ate with him after the resurrection again, before the crucifixion.
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He was hungry, thirsty, tired, did all the things that any man would do. So what does it mean here when
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Peter says he was attested to you? Well, it means to be shown to be genuine, to be endorsed, to be authenticated.
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And that's exactly the idea. In other words, this man whom you put to death,
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God authenticated. God put his stamp of approval on. And the way the
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Greek is phrased here means that God permanently displayed this. In other words, it was a one -time action with ongoing results forever.
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There's also pretty close to an accusation here, right? I mean, if you're talking to these people and saying,
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God authenticated him, but you rejected him. God did everything he could to prove that Jesus was the
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Messiah, that he was the anointed one, that he was indeed the Son of God, and you rejected him.
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Then Peter, like a lawyer would, presents his evidence. Verse 22 again, with mighty works.
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The NAS is much better here. It uses the word miracles because that's what it is.
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It's the Greek word from which we get dynamite. It's the power of God on display.
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Jesus was no magician. He didn't use sleight of hand. This wasn't some kind of fool us,
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Penn and Teller kind of thing. That's almost a modern reference. Jesus actually created food.
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He actually healed the lame and the blind. He actually cast out demons. He raised the dead.
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He raised Lazarus from the grave, and these people in this crowd knew that. Think about it.
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In a time with no Facebook, no Instagram, no all the other stupid social media things that we spend our time on, people, and guess what?
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No Hulu, no Netflix, no Disney. They had no entertainment whatsoever except what?
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Word of mouth, hearing stories. Do you think that when Jesus raised
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Lazarus from the dead, do you think that word got around? When he healed the man born blind, did that get around?
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When he multiplied food so that 20 ,000 people were fed, do you think that got around?
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Everybody knew about Jesus of Nazareth, and it was because of that that the
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Jewish leadership, the religious leadership, saw him as such a threat. Yes, he broke their rules.
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Yes, he corrected their teaching, but the fact that he wielded the power of God and could do miracles, that was the real problem.
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This was a man that they could not easily deal with. He goes on in verse 22, and he says, talks about he's done the miracles.
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How about wonders? These are something or things so unusual that they arouse close observation.
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People want to watch. They want to see. They want to study them. They want to scrutinize them. This is something for which there's no natural explanation.
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And he goes on, he says, signs. And if you recall, in John 3, when
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Nicodemus comes to him at night, what does Nicodemus, the teacher of all Israel, what does he say to him? He says, or this man,
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Nicodemus, came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.
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Why? For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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In other words, there are things that you do that none of my colleagues can do. I've never seen anybody do the things that you do.
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There's something about you that can only be explained if God is working through you.
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Miracles, wonders, signs. That would be one thing.
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What if you just heard about these things? That'd be great. But look at what verse 22 says, that God did through him, working through him, right?
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The Holy Spirit and even Jesus of his own might as God through him in your midst.
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They saw these things. They were witnesses to these things. Maybe they didn't see every miracle or every work, but the people there knew that these things were true.
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They were not done in secret. What would that be? These things were all done to authenticate
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Jesus and his ministry, just like God did in Moses, and Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha.
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Miracles, wonders, all done, why? To authenticate the messenger, to show that these were indeed men approved by God.
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Of course, the father approved of the son, but he put Jesus on display so that all of Israel could approve of him also, right?
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That's the purpose. God wants to take away any excuse for them to worship him.
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He wants them, they ought to worship him, honor him, love him.
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And it said they hated him and crucified him. So, so far there are two summary points.
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The man you hated, the man God showed you was your Messiah. These are things that were all going to be true of the
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Messiah. Point number three, the man who was the eternal plan.
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Not the man with the plan, but the man who was the plan. Verse 23, this
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Jesus, this very person, delivered up. That's a passive, right?
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Something that is done to someone else. Jesus didn't deliver himself over, he was delivered over.
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Well, who could deliver up the God -man? Who could deliver up the son of God? Only the father.
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Some of you might be thinking, well, surely it was Judas. Judas betrayed him. Judas led the
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Romans and the Jewish leadership directly to him. Let's think about this for a moment.
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Martin Luther said what? That the devil is God's hardest working servant or he's, you know,
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God's devil. Meaning what? That God's even sovereign over the devil. That Satan doesn't do anything that God doesn't permit.
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That same way, Judas, being filled with Satan, did exactly what
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God ordained. God was not blindsided by the arrest of Jesus.
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Far from it. Matthew 26, 18, Jesus said, he said,
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Go into the city to a certain man and say to him, The teacher says, he's talking of himself,
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My time is at hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples. When he says my time is at hand, what did he mean?
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He meant that the end was in sight. It was time for him to go to the cross. In John 13, 27, at the last supper,
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Then after he, speaking of Judas, had taken the last morsel, Satan entered into him.
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Jesus said to him, What you are going to do, do quickly. Why? Because he cared about the speed of it.
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If you recall when I taught through this many, many years ago, The point was this.
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I have a time frame. I need to be crucified on Friday.
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You need to get going. What you do, do quickly. Every moment of the situation was fully in the control of God.
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Again, clear in verse 23. Listen to this. According to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God.
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Definite plan. The death of Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, was planned by God.
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Well, when did God plan it? Was it Thursday before the arrest? Maybe right after the fall.
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Sometime in Genesis, chapter 3. God needed a plan to rescue sinners.
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And he said, you know what? Jesus, how about you go and rescue people? Of course not.
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I'm going to go to a few verses here. Demonstrate the eternal nature of this plan.
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What is definite plan if it's not planned from the beginning? Ephesians 1, verses 3 to 5.
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Ephesians 1, verses 3 to 5. Paul writes, Blessed be the
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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
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Isn't that good to just think about that? We have every blessing we need from the Father. Because we're in Christ.
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But listen to verse 4. Even as he, the
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Father, chose us in him. That is to say, in Christ. Listen. Before the foundation of the world.
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Before time existed. Before there was anything. That's when he chose us.
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Now, how do I know that this plan is all set in motion at that point?
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Listen. That we should be holy and blameless before him. Okay. So the
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Father's plan. God, the triune God's plan from before the foundation of the world.
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Before anything existed. Was that we would be holy and blameless before him. How is that going to happen?
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How are we ever going to be holy and blameless? And you say, well, you know, maybe if Adam hadn't fumbled the ball.
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Okay. Was God taken by surprise in that? You know, and maybe in light of the playoffs,
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I should say. If Adam hadn't thrown the ball out of bounds. Sorry about that.
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Holy and blameless before us. Moving on in verse four. Listen. In love.
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In love. He, the Father, predestined us. For adoption as sons.
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You think that's great. But it's even better because this is the reality. Through Jesus Christ.
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It was never, ever going to be on our strength. It was never going to be on our performance.
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We were never going to be holy and blameless before God. Because of what we did.
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It had to be through Jesus Christ. And so it is.
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He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. According to the purpose of his will.
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This is the eternal will of God. Listen to Jesus himself in John 17 verses 3 to 5.
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And this is eternal life. That they know you, the only true God.
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We have eternal life by knowing the true nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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And Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Listen to what he says in verse four. I have glorified you, the
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Father, on earth. Having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. Well, when was that?
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When did he give him this work? We find out in verse 5. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence.
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Bring me back. Put me on the cross. Take me back. Glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you.
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Before the world existed. Before anything was.
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Before even time existed. That's when the plan was made.
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That's when Jesus was given this work to do. Listen to our
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Confession of Faith. 7 .3 for those of you who want to look it up later.
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This covenant. Talking about this inter -trinitarian agreement. Not that there could be disagreement.
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But this covenant. This pact between them. That this is what the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were going to bring about.
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Is revealed in the Gospel. First of all, to Adam in the promise of salvation in Genesis 3. By the seed of the woman.
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And afterwards, by father's steps. Until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament. And it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction.
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That was between the Father and the Son. About the redemption of the elect. And it is alone by the grace of this covenant.
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That all the posterity of fallen Adam that ever were saved. Did obtain life and blessed immortality.
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What does that mean? It means exactly what I'm talking about. It means that it was determined.
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Our salvation was determined before anything existed. And that in time,
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Jesus brought it about. He was the plan. Only Jesus could do this.
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So, summary point number 1. The man you hated. Summary point number 2. The man God showed you was your
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Messiah. Summary point number 3. The man who was the eternal plan. And number 4.
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The man you put to death. The man you put to death.
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Verse 23. This Jesus you crucified.
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You say, well, wait a minute. As a matter of historical fact, that's not correct. The Jews didn't crucify him.
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And that's true, right? They could not do it. When we went through that, only the
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Romans. The Romans had a number of rules. They were willing to let the Jews have autonomy.
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And almost any people group to have some autonomy. What they could not do was carry out a sentence of death.
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They weren't supposed to. Of course, they did it on occasion. But they weren't supposed to. And legally, they could not do it. But Peter, inspired by the
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Holy Spirit, puts it on the crowd. He says, you guys did it. And when we think about it, you know, consequently.
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A consequence of their decision to free Barabbas and not Jesus. It was ultimately that that put
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Jesus on the cross. Verse 23. Again, later on.
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Next phrase, it says. And killed by the hands of lawless men. In other words, they crucified him.
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Not by doing it themselves. And this is what we see, right? They were using the Jewish leadership.
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Was using the rules and the laws of the Romans. To get them to do.
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To get the Romans to do the dirty work that they couldn't do themselves. So, Peter is here saying.
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That you did it. You are responsible. You killed him. The Romans here are referred to as lawless men.
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Simply meaning they didn't have the law. And they were then, they carried out the murder of God's anointed one.
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The Messiah, the Christ. They did it. But the Jews were responsible because they manipulated the system.
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To make sure that Jesus was crucified. And we have a little phrase that we like to say.
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God is sovereign, but man is responsible. And this is a proof text for that.
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It's a classic example. God's eternal plan was for Jesus to rescue his people from their sins, right?
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That's playing from Genesis to Revelation. Over and over and over again, we see that.
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And that's why, when we talk about the crucifixion.
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Why did it happen? Why did the worst event in history, the innocent person, why did he get crucified?
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Well, it's because it was the plan of God. He sovereignly superintended that plan. And he used human means to accomplish it.
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For anyone to be rescued from the wrath of God. And to enter into his rest. Someone had to obey the law and pay the price for our sin.
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And that someone could only be Jesus Christ. Now, when
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I opened up, I was talking about, you know, what ifs going down memory lane. Isn't it good that God never goes down memory lane?
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Isn't it good that he will not and cannot change his mind? Some scriptural illustrations of that.
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Malachi 3 verse 6. For I, the Lord, do not change. He's incapable of changing, even if he changed his mind.
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And we, you know, I'll answer all the questions about repented and all that later. But if he actually changed his plan, then what?
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That there's something wrong with the plan in the first place. And there's nothing wrong with the plan.
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It's perfect. And he brings it to fruition. James 1 17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the
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Father of lights. With whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
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He doesn't change. Can his plan change? Again, no. Our Confession of Faith 3 .1.
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For those of you who are keeping score. God hath decreed in himself from all eternity, by the most wise and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to pass.
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Yet so as thereby God is neither the author of sin, nor has fellowship with any therein.
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In other words, he's not tainted by sin whatsoever. Nor is violence offered to the will of the creature, the secondary means that he uses.
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Nor yet is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established. In other words, God was sovereign in crucifying his son.
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But guess what? The Romans were responsible and the Jews were responsible.
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God is not responsible, but he sovereignly planned it. You say, well, how did those things work?
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Well, you know what Spurgeon said when he was asked, how do you reconcile the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man?
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What did he say? You don't reconcile friends. In our minds, we don't get it.
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But in the mind of the eternal God, it all makes sense. Francis Turretin, great theologian, said this.
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Not only is change denied of him, but even the shadow of change, that he may be contrasted with the sun, the fountain of material light, liable to various changes and eclipses by which its light is intercepted.
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In other words, compared to the sun, which seems steady, God is far better.
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But God, the father of lights, acknowledges no tropics and cannot be obscured by clouds since there is nothing to intercept his influence.
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The immutability of the divine will and counsel in particular are asserted.
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A few more scriptures before we close. Isaiah 46, 9 through 10.
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Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning.
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And from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, listen, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.
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Psalm 33, 11. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart to all generations.
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For Samuel 15, 29, and also the glory of Israel, will not lie or have regret for he is not a man that he should have regretted.
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In other words, change his mind. Finally, Hebrews 6, 15 through 18.
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And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, not always patiently, but having patiently waited, obtained the promise.
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For people swear by something greater than themselves. And in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.
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In other words, if people aren't getting along and they're having difficulty, when they finally solve things, they take an oath.
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And what is their oath? In those days, they did what? They cut a covenant. They would cut these animals in half and then they would walk between and they'd say, listen, if either one of us fail to keep this, may be done to us what's been done to these animals.
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Verse 17 of Hebrews 6. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable nature of his purpose, he guaranteed it with what?
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An oath. He took the oath. He put Abraham into a coma and he took an oath by himself.
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He went through the smoking oven, the torch. He went through the separate animals.
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Why? So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to the refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
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In other words, since God cannot lie, since God took this oath, since God made this covenant with himself, can we rely upon him?
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He cannot change. He cannot lie. And his will cannot be changed. His will cannot be thwarted.
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Nothing can stop the hand of God. God set about to rescue his people.
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He sent the Lord Jesus Christ to do that. Jesus took on human flesh.
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He lived the perfect life that we could never live, fully obeying the law.
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Every jot and tittle of the law. Every small little note of the law.
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Everything that we should do and don't do, he did. Then he went to the cross, a willing and innocent victim, laying down his life for the sheep.
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This was the eternal plan of God, to rescue men who had no hope apart from the work of God through Christ Jesus.
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Let's pray. Father, we think even as we look at this verse, and we think, to us, it seems incredible, impossible, to just, the number of possible variations that could have taken place, the things, the what -ifs that could have taken place.
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From our perspective, the fact that Jesus was even born, historically, is a miracle.
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All the efforts by Satan to thwart that, the temptations of Jesus, everything that he went through, the fact that so many things had to go just so, and to us, as we look at it, well, how could the
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Jews possibly rely upon the Romans? How could the Romans allow such a thing to happen?
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How could all these things happen? How could Jesus be up on the cross? How could the Lord of Glory suffer so?
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Because you willed it for our good and your glory.
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Father, let us leave here rejoicing today that we have a sovereign God who sovereignly sets his affection upon us and can never, never, never change his mind.