The Expected Prophet | Sermon 11/07/2021

Apologia Utah

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The past five Sundays, if you were with us, we did a series on Sola Scriptura.

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We are in the five Solas series. We talked about the Reformation the first time, and we are now in Solus Christus.

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And you might be wondering, well, I thought Sola Fide by faith alone,

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Sola Gratia by grace alone, and then Solus Christus was after that, and Soli Deo Gloria, but I just decided, you know, it seems to me that after going through God's Word, that we would go through the

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Word made flesh. We would go through Jesus Christ, for without Christ, I don't think you can fully understand faith alone, grace alone, and to the glory of God alone.

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So we will get to those, but we are going to have the next three sermons, including this one, are going to be

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Solus Christus, by Christ alone. And so when

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I thought about what I was going to speak on these three sermons, I thought maybe we could do the incarnation, the deity of Christ, and all the works that Christ accomplished, but in keeping in line with the

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Reformation, and how Christ alone, Christ is all we need, we don't need any other mediator.

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It made more sense to me that we would look at His offices, which are prophet, priest, and king.

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So those are the sermons for the next couple of weeks. Today is prophet, we'll be looking at Christ the prophet, and so this sermon is actually called the expected prophet, the expected prophet.

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So if you have your Bibles with you, you can turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 18, that is at the front of your

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Bible, Deuteronomy 18, or press the little buttons on your phone, but we will think that you're looking at something else.

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No, I'm just kidding. Deuteronomy chapter 18, starting in verse 15.

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My friends, these are the words of the Lord. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, and you shall listen to him.

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This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying,

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Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God. Let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.

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The Lord said to me, They have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.

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It shall come about that whoever will not listen to my words, which he shall speak in my name,

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I myself will require it of him. Brothers and sisters, that is the word of the living

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God. Let's take a moment to pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you.

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We pray that you would bless the service, God. Help me to speak in a way that is helpful and clear, and let it be true, dear

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God. And let no error ever come from this pulpit. God, please dwell with us now.

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Give me, Lord, the words by the Holy Spirit. Use me as a vessel,

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Lord, to deliver the message you want your people to have. And God, I pray that as we leave here, we would not just grow in understanding about Jesus Christ, that it not just increase our knowledge of him, but that after this,

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Lord, we would increase in our adoration and affections towards Jesus Christ.

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So Lord, please bless the message and be with us now in Christ's name, amen. You know, throughout my time as being a

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Christian, I have taught a variety of classes with varying age groups.

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Not a lot, but I have. I'm sure some of you guys have too at your old churches.

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Maybe you've volunteered and you've taught some children. You've taught some teenagers, or you've done some small groups or adult classes.

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I've gotten to teach a variety of them myself, and it is often very comical for me because when you have a series of questions after a lesson, with children especially, hands go up, or some blurt it out if they can't contain themselves, and they say every time the answer is what?

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Jesus. Jesus. The answer is Jesus. And you could say anything.

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You could talk about the ark. You could talk about Goliath. You could talk about Paul, the apostle.

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And for children, the answer is Jesus. And it's often very funny.

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And a lot of times they're right. I'd say they're right most of the time. Yeah, Jesus, you're right.

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And the adults would do it too, just in a different way and not to the same degree. In a slightly uncertain demeanor, an adult will go, was that Jesus?

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Was that Jesus? And it's not to disregard the thousands of men and women mentioned in the

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Bible and the part that they've played in redemption history. It's not to dismiss them.

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But at a very basic level, we all know, we all know, children included, that the

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Bible is about Jesus. All of it points to Jesus.

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Jesus Christ, the creator God, the Son of God, the Word made flesh, is at the heart of all

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Scripture. It's not to say that every story is about Jesus, but almost every story points to Jesus.

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Or David is a type of Christ, or Adam is a type of Christ, Moses, a type of Christ, except Jesus is the fullness of that.

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He is the real deal, for lack of a better term. He is the

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Alpha and the Omega. It begins and moves to and ends with Jesus, Alpha and Omega.

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That is from the Greek alphabet, Alpha is the first letter and Omega is the end.

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Christ is from beginning to end. It is about Him. And so, when we consider our five -solar study, each one, as I said, would not really make a whole lot of sense apart from Him.

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Christ alone, solus Christus, the basis of Christianity and the salvation detail therein is by Christ's Word, by His intercessory work,

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His mediation, His sacrifice, His divine power, His resurrection,

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His ascension, and of course His kingship. All these important elements are wrapped up in the offices

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He occupies, which as I said is prophet, priest, and king.

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And so, as I said, this sermon along with the next two will expound on Christ in these three offices.

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So the questions that we are asking ourselves now, or maybe you're considering are, what are the characteristics of an

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Old Testament prophet? What makes Christ the prophet to come?

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And how is He maybe similar to the prophets of old? And what does this mean in the new covenant and how does it change things for us?

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Let's try to answer those questions now and I real quickly want to mention Richard Belcher's book called

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Prophet, Priest, and King has been such a help with this study and so I couldn't recommend it enough. But our passage today is definitely the key text on what a prophet is,

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Deuteronomy 18. Of course the verses following ours describe how to determine if a prophet is truly from God or a false prophet.

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If you go on beyond verse 19 you'll see that, what a false prophet is.

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These verses go hand in hand no doubt. A prophet is someone who has been given

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God's word, given God's word and it's not of themselves.

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A prophet, he has been given God's word and they've been placed it says in their mouth and he is commanded to speak them.

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The Hebrews it says were afraid of God when they were at the base of Mount Sinai and to hear his voice or to see

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God's fire they say, they were afraid of such holiness and that it would kill them.

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So God says here in our passage, he says they have spoken well, they're right.

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He affirms he is holy and they acknowledge their fear and reverence of him and he is pleased with it.

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And so Moses was sent to speak on behalf of the people and then when given the message from God he was to then speak on behalf of God to the people.

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So think about it, the people said, Moses you go talk to God, he was sent by the people and then

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God speaks to him and God says go tell the people what I've said. So he then delivers that message.

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In this way a prophet is also what you would call a mediator. He is a mediator between God and man.

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A prophet is God's authorized spokesman. A false prophet then is shown to be someone who does not speak for God.

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He speaks things that God never spoke. He speaks for false gods and often leads, it says, people after other gods, false gods, away from the one true

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God. Moses said God will raise up for you a prophet like himself from among the people.

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There is no doubt historically and biblically a succession or line of prophets came after Moses and so we see this is definitely a general promise for a prophetic line.

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But if you look closely, it is singular. It also says prophet, I will raise up a prophet, singular.

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One day there'd be a prophet who would be similar to Moses. This prophet would have a face -to -face relationship with God that would rival even

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Moses'. So not only do prophets receive direct revelation from God but they are told to proclaim the words of the covenant to the people.

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Jeremiah 11 verse 6 says, And the Lord said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying,

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Hear the words of this covenant and do them. A prophet points people also back to words that God has already spoken in addition to any new revelation he gives them.

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He reminds the people there is a blessing in obeying the Almighty but there are curses in rebellion.

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A prophet is also a watchman, a watchman at the walls or a gate of a city where he stands guard and warns people of a coming threat.

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God tells the prophet Ezekiel that he is a watchman himself. He says,

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Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman to the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, warn the people from me.

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Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, they were given special callings from God to be prophets to give such warnings of judgment coming to a rebellious people.

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For Jeremiah, the Lord tells him that none will even hear his message. No one will turn from their ways because of the message that Jeremiah will give.

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That is definitely a hard ministry. Can you imagine that? I'm going to put my words in your mouth and every time you speak them, no one's going to listen to them and no one's going to turn from their ways because of what you said.

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That's what he tells Jeremiah in chapter 7 of the book of Jeremiah. I think that gives me hope because sometimes, you know, when you're faithful with the gospel,

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I've been out in the desert air just proclaiming the excellencies of him who's called us out of darkness into his marvelous light and nothing's happened.

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And I can walk away from that and just glorify God and say, well, I got the privilege to have those words on my lips.

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And like the prophet Jeremiah, maybe there's no fruit this time because of that. So that encourages me.

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I hope it does for you too. Prophets would act as advisors to even kings in Israel.

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For instance, you have the relationship of Samuel and King Saul. Saul was to obey all that God had commanded through Samuel.

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And as I preached just a couple of weeks ago, Saul disobeyed that word and God declared he'd no longer be king.

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Not a lot of prophets are mentioned during David's reign, but I'm sure a lot of us remember the prophet

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Nathan and his parable judgment of the ewe lamb and that he gives to David for his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah the

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Hittite. So you have Nathan there during David's reign. It says in 1

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Samuel 10 that a school of prophets had arisen in his time. God wasn't speaking much for a while until the time of Samuel.

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So Samuel potentially was training up men. Later, after the kingdom is divided between the north and the south, you have the prophets

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Elijah and Elisha come on the scene. Elijah's ministry was mostly in God using him to confront the people in their worship of false gods, while Elisha was more about encouraging the faithful remnant and reminding them that God is the true deliverer.

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These prophets, all of them, every single prophet relied on the Holy Spirit to give them the power to proclaim

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God's message. They acted not on any of their own authority, but on the authority of God.

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They spoke not of their own words, but they spoke the things that God directed them to speak.

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And we know the strength and courage that they had to do these things was gifted to them by God through the

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Holy Spirit. Typically, the prophet's message was a combination of the promise of salvation and coming judgment.

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Salvation and coming judgment. Which of course is the basis of Christ's earthly ministry in His preaching.

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To announce the Gospel, the salvation of God has come, but for the covenant breakers, woe to them for judgment is coming.

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You might have remembered Matthew 23, woe to you, woe to you, he says to them. And in Matthew 24, he prophesies of the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple, that not one stone will be left upon another.

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So Jesus comes preaching salvation and judgment. With all the marks of the

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Old Testament prophet and their duty to deliver God's message, hear this prophecy of Christ in Isaiah 61.

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It says this, This is talking about Christ, that Christ is saying this.

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And so what do you see? You see that the Lord, the Spirit of God is upon Him. The Holy Spirit is upon a prophet.

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The Lord, it says, has anointed me to bring good news. A lot of times prophets had oil poured over their head for an anointing.

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And so He says He's anointed. And it says that He's going to save those who are captive.

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He's going to bind up the brokenhearted. He's going to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And then

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He's also going to proclaim the vengeance of our God. Salvation and judgment.

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The prophetic formula. So right before the inauguration of Christ's earthly ministry, we see

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John the Baptist. He's out in the Judean wilderness preaching, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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In John 1 .21, John is asked specifically if he is the prophet.

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They say that. Are you the prophet? He says no. He says no.

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Then he quotes Isaiah 40, verse 3, I am the voice of the one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the

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Lord, make His path straight. He associates himself with who we know to be the forerunner, promised to come before the appearance of the

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Messiah. But he is not the prophet. After the minor prophets and the return from exile, there was a long period of prophetic silence, believe it or not.

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After the Babylonian and Assyrian exile. After that time all the way through the Maccabean period,

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God was silent to them. It even says in the book of Maccabees, which of course isn't in Scripture, we consider it a historical record.

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It says that they were awaiting, they were waiting for a prophet. They say it had been a terrible time of silence from God and the prophets had ceased from speaking

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God's word. They were waiting. So when John the Baptist, who

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Jesus confirms is a type of Elijah, arrives on the scene, the people are just wondering, who is this guy?

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What's going on? This is, everything's kind of lining up here. They were in anticipation of the prophet, the anointed one.

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John says that he baptizes with water for repentance, but the one who will come after him will baptize with the

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Holy Spirit and fire. And definitely the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is associated with the prophets and their activity in the

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Old Testament. You see things in Numbers 11, Joel chapter 2. The Holy Spirit is present with the prophets.

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John also says the one who comes will bring judgment. He says he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor.

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He will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and the chaff are going to be burned up. He says

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Christ is going to do that. Jesus will bring salvation to His people and judgment to the covenant breakers.

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And then comes the baptism of Jesus. Jesus' baptism by John inaugurated

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His earthly ministry. It says it fulfilled all righteousness and was in accordance with the law.

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Some people have speculated this is the beginning of His priesthood, but some have even speculated this is the beginning of Him being a prophet as well.

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Becoming a prophet. It was understood to be the call of the prophetic ministry in line with the prophets of old.

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And this could be confirmed potentially with the Mount of Transfiguration, if you consider that, as Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus.

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You might remember that we talked about that a couple weeks ago, the Mount of Transfiguration. And so Moses and Elijah, they represent the law and the prophets.

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But also they are both prophets themselves. Moses is the foundational

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Old Testament prophet and Elijah is the prophet who stood for truth in a time of apostasy.

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It says Peter wants to make three tabernacles, one for each of them. Let me make them for you,

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Lord. But he's missing the point. The prophet, the prophet is here.

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Someone greater than Moses and Elijah is here. And the Father says on that mount, this is

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My beloved Son, listen to Him. Listen to Him. Christ's Word is

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God's Word. He is the logos, He is the Word made flesh. I've said that. Listen to Him, the

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Father proclaims. This is the One now through whom God will speak.

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This is the final prophet, Jesus Christ. Listen to Him. You see

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Moses and Elijah up here? Listen to My Son now. And there are many parallels between Jesus and Moses to show

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Jesus is the prophet raised up where He says, like Me, like Me, as Moses says in Deuteronomy 18 .15,

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the first verse. There are many parallels between the two. Consider some of these striking similarities between Moses and Jesus as I read to you

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Deuteronomy 34 .10 -12. It says, since that time, this is at the end of Moses' life,

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Moses has died. Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the

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Lord knew face to face. For all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent

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Him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all His servants and all His land, and for all the mighty power and for all the great terror which

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Moses performed in the sight of all Israel. But Christ, Christ knows the

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Father face to face. Christ performed signs and wonders in the land.

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Christ brought judgment on God's enemies as Moses did to the Egyptians. In John 1 .1,

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a verse a lot of us know, especially those of us who do LDS outreach, it says, it calls

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Jesus the Word. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

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Word was God. In the Greek, that is, in archaiai na halagos kai halagos en proston theion kai halagos an theos.

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Now, John would have known, his readers would recognize that word proston theion.

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Proston theion, when it says with God. With God, okay? He would have known that that means

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Jesus was proston theion. Jesus was face to face with the

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Father. That's what that means. Proston theion means Jesus was face to face with the

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Father. He was face to face. No prophet had risen like Moses, who was face to face with God until Jesus Christ.

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Jesus Christ, and He has been face to face with the Father from eternity past and into eternity.

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Moses' face even shone, it said, like the sun after speaking with God on Mount Sinai.

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And in Jesus' transfiguration, it says His clothes shone like white light and His face shone like the sun.

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Very similar, very similar. But Christ is the better prophet over Moses, it says.

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In Hebrews 3, it says, Jesus was faithful to God who appointed

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Him as Moses was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses.

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He's been counted more worthy of glory than Moses, but just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

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For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all is God. Now Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later, but Christ was faithful as a son over His house, whose house that we are if we hold fast our confidence in the boast of our hope firm until the end.

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Christ is worthy for more glory than Moses. Amen.

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Moses was used to deliver God's people from Egypt, but failed in getting them to the promised land.

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You might remember that. Moses didn't make it to the promised land. He failed to do that. But Christ doesn't fail.

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Christ doesn't fail the Lord, but accomplishes what Moses did not. Jesus delivers

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His people, He saves them, and He brings them into the eternal land of promise.

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He did what Moses couldn't do. Jesus states the Scriptures bear witness of Him in John 5 .39,

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and that Moses wrote about Him, He says in John 5 .46. Jesus fits the role of the

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Deuteronomy 18 prophet who was to come. He fits it. Remember the requirement of a prophet.

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He is to speak from God and is commanded to do so. Christ is

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God. He is the word manifest, but even in His role in the Trinity, He states in John 12 .49

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-50 as the prophet, He says this, think about Deuteronomy 18 and think about what

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I'm about to say now, okay? Jesus says, for I did not speak on My own initiative, but the

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Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.

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I know that His commandment is eternal life, therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the

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Father has told Me. And so we know Jesus is God, but He is fulfilling the office of prophet.

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He is fulfilling Deuteronomy 18 in His role in the Trinity. Now, we don't have time to go over all of these, but you can look some of these up yourself.

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In Stephen's defense in Acts 7, Stephen quotes Deuteronomy 15 implying

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Jesus is the singular prophet that is to come. That even

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Jesus was persecuted like the prophets were before Him. Stephen says that the

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Jews in front of him, he said that your father is mistreated. So he does that.

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The Apostle Peter also associates Jesus with the prophet promised in Deuteronomy 18.

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He quotes it as well in Acts 3 .19 and 23. So look into those sometime.

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Now that we've determined Christ is the prophet that was promised from ages past, what is

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He mighty in? What is He mighty in? In the Gospel according to Luke 24, you have the road to Emmaus conversation.

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We talked about how that would have been the coolest Bible study in the world to be a part of as Christ shows

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Himself in the Scriptures all the way back to Moses and into the prophets. At first, it says they were prevented from recognizing

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Jesus. They didn't recognize Jesus as who He was. And it says starting in verse 17,

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And Jesus said to them, What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking? And they stood still looking sad.

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One of them named Cleopas answered and said to him, Are you the only one visiting

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Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days? He's just incredulous.

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Are you telling me you haven't heard all that has just recently happened with Jesus? And Jesus said,

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What things? And they said to him, The things about Jesus the Nazarene who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people.

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They called Him a mighty prophet. Mighty in word and deed.

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Mighty in word. It reminds me of the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 and even similarities to Adam and Eve.

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Because Adam and Eve were tempted in Genesis 3, and not only did they add to God's Word when

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Eve lied, they then transgressed God's Word. Satan used the

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Word as a weapon to Eve. A way of temptation to them, and they failed. But Christ is mighty in word, it says.

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Christ had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, and it says

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He was hungry. He must have been starving. I'm going to be starving in about an hour here.

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He must have been starving. We're going to do corporate fast at some point too. That'll be good.

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But He was hungry. And so, Satan used the Word as a weapon and a way of temptation to Him.

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Satan tempts Jesus to command that these stones become bread. Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8,

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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Satan then took

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Him to the pinnacle of the temple and tempted Jesus to cast

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Himself off the top of the temple. Once again, like the garden, he even quotes

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Scripture from Psalm 91 that the Lord will send His angels to bear

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Jesus up if He falls, he says. Satan says do it to prove that you're the

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Son of God. If you are the Son of God, do it. That's what Satan says.

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And Jesus says it is written and quotes Deuteronomy 6 saying, You shall not put the

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Lord your God to the test. He uses Scripture. And finally, the last temptation, the devil takes

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Him to a very high mountain and shows Jesus the kingdoms of the world that if Christ bows down and worships

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Him then, not only would He escape suffering, but He would receive those kingdoms.

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But it is a bootleg kingdom. It is not what the Father had fully told

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Him He would receive that we see in Psalm 2, Psalm 110. An everlasting dominion.

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Jesus doesn't want the broken creation kingdom. He wants the eternal kingdom.

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And so Satan tempts Him and he says, Go, Satan, for it is written you shall worship the

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Lord your God and serve Him only. He says, I'm not going to bow down and worship you. There's only one true and living

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God. Think of all the other times that Jesus speaks, especially when

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He says, Truly, truly, I say to you. This is very similar to thus saith the

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Lord. Why? Because Jesus is God. So He is mighty in word.

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He can say, Truly, truly, I say to you. And that's Scripture. That's Scripture right there.

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That's like saying, thus saith the Lord. So He is mighty in word. But the prophet

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Jesus is not only mighty in word, but He's mighty in prayer. Think about even the time of Abraham.

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Abraham was called a prophet in Genesis 20. This is actually the first time the word prophet, which is

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Navi, Navi in the Hebrew, is used in Scripture. In Genesis 12,

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Abraham receives a call from God like other prophets. In Genesis 15, a word of the

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Lord came to Abraham like other prophets. Abraham has intercessor qualities like when he prayed to God to spare

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Abimelech, who had his wife, Sarah. Prayer becomes a large part of a prophet's role.

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Remember, Pharaoh would even ask Moses, Will you pray to your God to stop these plagues?

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And that's what they do. They said, Will you pray to your God that He would stop? Jesus, the prophet, intercedes for His people.

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We don't need to find any man to do that for us. I don't need to go to anyone.

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Jesus intercedes for His people. Luke 3 .21 -22 shows

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He was praying when the Holy Spirit descended on Him as a dove and the

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Father declared His love for Him. Jesus prayed all night before He chose the twelve apostles.

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He would often withdraw to places of isolation to pray. And He had three sessions of prayer in the

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Garden of Gethsemane. Wrestling with God and His humanity in prayer is an indication of His role as prophet.

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And so, Jesus was mighty in Word. He was mighty in prayer. But Jesus is also a prophet mighty in suffering.

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They called Him a prophet from Nazareth. But the people of Nazareth didn't take

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Him seriously. He said a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown.

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And I mean, I can really relate to that. Not in a huge way, because this is

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Jesus the prophet, but I don't know if maybe when you were saved and you went back home and you visited some family and they knew who you were before you were saved and they're like, come on man, you're just putting on an act now.

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Go ahead, grab some drinks or whatever. I'm not saying drinks are bad. But, you know, come on man, you know, quit messing around.

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Quit messing with us. And then once they learn that you're firm in your commitment, then they start razzing you and making fun of you and maybe you don't even get invited so much to things anymore.

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And it's like this, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown. They know who you were before and they can't accept that Christ has taken out your heart of stone and given you a heart of flesh and you're different now and you have new desires.

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So, it makes me think of that when He says that. It says that He decided not to do many miracles there too in Nazareth because of their unbelief.

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His family thought He was crazy according to Mark 321. And I don't know why, I feel like I've never read this before until recently.

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We got to read Mark more. Everyone goes to Matthew and Luke and John. Give Mark some love. Read some

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Mark. It says He appointed the 12 apostles in Mark 3.

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Jesus returns home and a crowd gathers having heard of the miracles He did in Jerusalem. And it says, when

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His own kinsmen heard of this, they went out to take custody of Jesus, for they were saying

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He has lost His senses. He's lost His mind. There are other times when

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Jesus' brothers mock Him and tell Him, go show Yourself to the world. Go ahead, go to Jerusalem.

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Show Yourself to the world. And they mock Him. And so definitely, we can relate to that.

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I think we've all kind of similarly gone through stuff like that. And we can take comfort that Jesus has too.

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Just like Jeremiah, Jesus was threatened by the people. He was threatened by the priests. He was threatened by prophets.

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He was threatened by kings and magistrates. Christ was threatened all the time. Crowds would form around Him with the intent to stone

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Him and kill Him. And I just love the whole like, the fact that it says Jesus would just slip away.

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I don't even know what that looks like. It's got to be supernatural. But, you know, that's just amazing.

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He's in a crowd forming against Him and He'd just slip away. It's got to be something like with Philip and Acts or something, you know, just, whoa, where'd

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He go? So, very neat. And I'm sure, you know, some of us have been threatened while evangelizing, right?

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I know Brian, our brother Brian has all the time. He's out giving the gospel at the abortion clinic. And, well, you've been spit on, hit countless times verbally.

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People have, yeah, people have held a gun at you. I've had someone point a gun at myself. Dusty knows, a lot of us know we've been there.

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And so, Jesus the prophet knows it all too well. And so,

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Jesus was mighty in word. He was mighty in prayer. He was mighty in suffering. And Jesus is a prophet mighty indeed.

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Mighty indeed. Just like the prophets of old, but He did even much more.

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Healing people, raising people from the dead, casting out demons, turning water into wine, right?

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The prophet Elijah demonstrated power over rain. He raised the widow's son from the dead, it says, and defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.

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But what about Jesus Christ? Jesus demonstrated power not just over rain, but over a storm on the sea.

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He made the storm to cease. He raised Jairus' daughter from the dead, and He raised, we know,

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Lazarus from the dead. Jesus could say one word and command that the centurion's servant be healed, and he was healed.

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He conquered the power of darkness by defeating demons who were possessing men.

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That's power. That's power. Elijah, it says, slayed 450 prophets of Baal, but Christ vanquishes all

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His foes with the two -edged sword that comes out of His mouth. One word and Christ has the victory.

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One word and it is done. Christ is victorious. Elijah was considered to have done even more profound miracles and works than his predecessor

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Elijah, but even Jesus does much greater deeds than him. Jesus restores sight to the blind.

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He cures those with leprosy. He makes the paralytic to walk again, and He causes demons to flee and to go into a herd of swine that were previously possessing men and demons that possess children.

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He could just command it and it would be so. Christ the prophet is mighty indeed.

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And Christ the prophet does more miracles, signs, and wonders than all previous prophets combined.

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And so, Jesus the prophet, what makes Him so different?

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He is no ordinary prophet. He is the most effective and accomplished prophet.

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He is the prophet to come that was promised here in Deuteronomy 18. And it's because He is the

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Messiah. He is God. Remember, many unbelievers will call Jesus a prophet.

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Jesus is a prophet. Jesus is the prophet. He is the prophet.

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Muhammad is not the prophet. He is a false prophet who led many after another god.

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Joseph, Smith, and all succeeding Mormon presidents are not prophets. They fail the test.

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They've led many after other gods. They claim you can become a god. They give prophecies that don't come to pass.

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And they give prophecies that alter the commands of the one true and living God. They lead people after other gods.

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There is no infallibility of the Pope. He is not the vicar of Christ, a type of Christ on earth.

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The Pope is just a man and he's a fallible man. And the Pope's dogmas and heresies proclaimed from Rome are false teachings from a false prophet.

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Christ mediates for us. Christ is our intercessor who prays for us to the

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Father. The Pope can do nothing of himself. All we need is Christ.

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The Mormon president can do nothing of himself. We need Christ. Christ will do it.

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We pray in Christ's name. We don't pray in the name of Mary or fallen saints. They can do nothing for us.

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They're worshiping at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ allows us to boldly approach the throne room of grace.

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We need no man to do that. Hebrews 1 says this about Christ the prophet.

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God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets and in many portions and in many ways, in these last days, has spoken to us in His Son Jesus.

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Spoken to us through His Son Jesus, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also

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He made the whole world. And Jesus is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power.

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When Jesus had made purifications of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the

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Majesty on high. You see, all those men I've mentioned and all the false prophets that I just listed off, before them and after them, whoever may come, they are not the exact representation of God as Jesus is.

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He is the exact representation of God. He is God. His Word is infallible.

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His Word is unfailing. And Christ came and established His doctrine. He gave

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His prophecies. He gave His teachings and they were codified in the

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New Testament by the apostles to whom He gave this Word to. He sat down, it says, and the canon was closed.

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When Jesus sat down, the office of prophet had ceased. Maybe there was miracles of prophecy here and there, but the prophet had come.

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And He says He sat down at the right hand of the Father on high. In these last days,

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He speaks to us through Christ. He has given a word sufficient for salvation and to have peace with God.

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Jesus is the prophet of the prophets. He has finished the line.

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The expected prophet of Deuteronomy 18 came. And don't forget, we have the prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts,

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Peter says. Well, the day has dawned and the morning star has arisen in your hearts, beloved.

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And that is Christ. That is Christ. He has come. Here's the thing, church.

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Adam spoke directly with God in the garden. It says Enoch walked with God.

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The Lord spoke with Noah and made a covenant with him. Abraham spoke directly with God time and time again.

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He was called a friend of God. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, they heard the voice of God.

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And as we discussed, Moses had a profound relationship, communion, and speaking connection with God.

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The promise that Christ made was to be the Word and bring us His Word, and He did.

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That heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will by no means pass away. We saw through our

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Sola Scriptura series, God delivered us His Word in a supernatural way.

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He preserved His Word. God spoke directly with these men and we ask ourselves, why doesn't

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God speak directly to us now? Why doesn't He speak directly to us now? And He does.

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He does. God speaks to us through His Word. He speaks to us through His Word.

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This is the fulfillment of Jesus Christ. The final prophet came and He delivered this

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Word and you have exactly everything that God had intended for you to have and it is in this

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Word. And it is sufficient, brothers and sisters. We just often turn our ears away like the

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Israelites did to the prophets of the Old Testament. He says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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We are not in the line of prophets today. We are not, but we have God's Word. We have

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God's Word. And Christ will one day restore to us that instant access.

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You will one day walk with Jesus in the cool of the day. He will speak to you.

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Can you imagine that? One day you're going to embrace Jesus Christ. You will be able to hug the

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Savior who gave His life for you, who took the wrath that you deserve. And you will see Him face to face like Moses did.

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That's incredible. One day it will be regained. It will be glorious. C .H.

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Spurgeon expounds on this when he states, The Lord knew that man would be unable to hear his

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Maker's voice. And God therefore determined not only to speak by Moses, but ever and anon, ever and anon, to speak by His servants, the prophets.

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Raising up here one and there another, and then He determined as the consummation of His condescending mercy that at the last,

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He would put all the word He had to say to man into one heart.

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He put all the words that He wanted to say into one heart. And, excuse me, that word should be spoken by one mouth to men, furnishing a full, complete, and unchangeable revelation of Himself to the human race.

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This He resolved to give by one of whom Moses had learned something when the Lord said to him in the words of our text,

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I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I command him.

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Spurgeon finishes and he says, We know assuredly that that is our

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Lord Jesus Christ, our prophet. Our prophet. And so I'm finishing up right here.

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Okay? Finishing up. So what are we to do? Brothers and sisters, what are we to do with this information?

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The fact is, we need a prophetic voice today more than ever.

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We need a prophetic voice. We don't need new prophecy. That's not what I'm saying.

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We don't need new prophecy. The words of God have come through His prophets and apostles, and now we need to share them.

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We have to be watchmen like Ezekiel. There is wickedness in the land.

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There are enemies at the gate. Sin is running rampant in this country, and we have to do something about it.

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How can we expect the blessing of God on our land with so much idle worship and turning away from God?

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The prophetic voice of Christians need to sound the alarm.

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Don't be like the crazy street screechers. You know, that's not what I'm saying. The turn and burn guys.

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But at the same time, like the prophets of old in Christ, the prophet, they preach salvation and judgment.

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We do that in love. We do that in love. We must do that today too, church. Be the prophetic voice.

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Where are the bold pastors? Where are they? The pulpit has become a place of shallow men and sinners.

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Men who fear death more than they fear the living God. What's going on with the pulpit in America today?

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It's outrageous. No one speaks about these things anymore. They're afraid to speak about sin.

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They're afraid to speak about what's going on in the culture. You know, where are the bold men?

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Where are the courageous churchmen who used to be willing to die for their faith and freedom in Christ?

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We are to preach prophetically to this culture because God will not be mocked. God will not be mocked.

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God will not bless men laying with men and women laying with women.

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He won't bless parents mutilating their children's bodies to make them something other than what

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God had made them. God will not bless parents who bring their unborn children to an assassin in our neighborhoods to have them butchered.

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God will not bless a nation that makes the government its deity. God will not bless pornography that fuels sexual deviancy, rape, trafficking, and abortion.

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That's what pornography does. But God will bless the downcast soul.

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That's what He will bless. He will hear the cries of the captives to be set free.

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He will help those in sin and those who want a Redeemer. Those who need a Redeemer.

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He will grant to those seeking Christ life and life eternal. He will bless those who want to leave their master sin and become a slave to Christ, it says.

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So we are to preach the message that God is holy. Really, preach it.

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Preach the message that God is holy and that men have sinned and that it is appointed, it says, for men to die once, then comes the judgment.

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To repent from their sin before that day and turn to the only One who can remedy our poor estate.

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Jesus Christ. The only God who lived a life of perfection and obedience to God in the law, who died on a cross meant for us and received the wrath of God that would have afforded us an eternity in hell.

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Preach that Christ. Preach that death and the grave couldn't keep

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Him in its grips. Preach that He rose again and lives forevermore and that He's seated at the right hand of the

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Father on high. And with a prophetic voice, brothers and sisters, preach that He will cause the dead to rise again.

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That's a promise. He says, I am the resurrection and life. He who believes in Me, even though he may die, he will live.

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Preach that. There will be a resurrection one day. We will rise again.

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Christ will raise us up again. We have died with Christ. We've been buried with Christ. And we will be raised with Christ and He is the first fruits of that very promise.

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We will be raised with Christ and glorified in Christ. And that day will come, beloved.

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That day will come. Preach that to your families, in your jobs, neighborhoods, cities, states, and across the globe.

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To the glory of our Prophet, Priest, and King. Let's preach that message and let's pray now.

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Heavenly Father, Lord, please bless the message that went out for the glory of your namesake. Teach your people,

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Lord. Comfort them. Help them, Lord, to find solace in what

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Christ has endured. Lord, to know that Christ is the final prophet, that He's mighty in word and deed and suffering and prayer.

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And we look to Him as the one mediator between God and man. We look to Him as our intercessor who pleads for us.

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So that even when we don't have the words to say in prayer, Christ knows our needs and He prays on our behalf.

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Lord, please bless the message. Let it leave the four walls of this church and impact our walk with Christ.

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We praise your name. In Jesus' name, Amen. So we are coming now to the most glorious part of our worship service.

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We are going to approach the Lord's table. And so, as a minister of the

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Gospel, it is my great honor and privilege to introduce you to this table. This table is not only a reminder and a memorial of what

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Christ has done, that He has died, that He was buried, that He rose again and He ascended, and He said that day on the cross that it is finished.

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But that Christ is especially here with us now and He is pleased in what we are doing. And so, we remember what

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Christ has done. But as a minister of the Gospel, it's my duty to also warn you and to let you know to come in a discerning way as you approach this table.

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To come confessing and then rejoice. Confessing and rejoicing so that if you have anything against a brother or sister in the room, if you maybe had a tiff with your wife on the way here, it's time to make that right and to confess your sin to one another.

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Then it says to come rejoicing. And so, you don't have to be a member of Apologia Church to take of our table, but you do have to be a

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Christian. You have to be one who ascribes to the triune

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God of the universe, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that Christ has paid for your sins and you are reconciled to Him and that you have bowed the knee to the

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Lord Jesus Christ by repentance and faith. So, all that to say, if you are a believer in Christ, if you're a

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Christian, you are welcome to this table. If you are not a Christian today, then I would urge you to repent and turn to Christ.

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You've heard the truth of the Word today. If you have any questions, I'd love to talk with you.

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I really would. So, let me know if that's the case. But if you are not a Christian, this table is not open to you.

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It's for believers only. It's a privilege that we have. Likewise, if you are from a like -minded church and you have been put under formal discipline by that like -minded church, and you've been asked to refrain from taking of the

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Lord's Supper, we would just ask that you wouldn't go around that discipline and take of our table today.

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But if you want to be reconciled to your pastors and if there's any way that I could help, we could help come talk with us.

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But with that said, let me read what the Scriptures say regarding the Lord's Supper. It says,

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For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

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And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

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In the same way, Jesus took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

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Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes. And here's the warning. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks of the cup of the

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Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must come examining himself in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

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It doesn't say you have to be perfect. It says come examining, confessing, and rejoicing.

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So come and receive the table. Logistically, you're going to come down hugging the inside of the aisles here.

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You're going to come down and take the elements. You can take them at your discretion with your family up here, wherever you'd like.

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And you're going to go back down the same aisle you came on the outside. And then we will sing songs and finish the service, which will be glorious.

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So let's pray right now and come and receive the supper. Lord, we thank

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You for this reminder that Your blood has been spilt for the remission of sins and that we have salvation in You, that Your body has been broken,

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Lord, and that that spear was cast into the side of You. You died on that cross,

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Lord, for us. And so, God, we confess our sin as we did, and we come rejoicing in what

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You've done, Lord, remembering that You are our Savior and You've bought us with a price.

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So, Lord, thank You for this sweet time of communion. Pray this all in Christ's name.