Enough Said (John 12:36b-50 Jeff Kliewer)

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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org Enough Said

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Thank you for joining Cornerstone Church this morning. I always want to make everyone aware if you're new here or if you've never filled out one of these connection cards it just has the ability to get us involved with you.
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So just your name and information allows us to send you a thank -you card. Thank you for coming this this morning if you're new.
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If you are in need of one of these connect cards I can have Brad walk through and just give a quick glance if anyone raises their hand they can get one of these connect cards.
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We'll give you a pen to fill it out. You can give it to one of us up here or you can drop it in the offering box in the back.
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Thank you so much for for doing that with us. I know people are going to be kind of drooling in a little bit as as the hallway was crowded this morning so just make an eye out for some chairs that are open as people filter in.
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Thank you again for being here and John Laskin has some announcements for us. Good morning.
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Great to be with you again this morning. I find myself this this past few weeks
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I'm spending time in Proverbs now just being more and more aware of the difference between the folly of the world and the wisdom of God.
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We come here we are privileged because we get to hear the word spoken without compromise because there is one truth and that's the truth of God and if you are listening to any alterations of it it's it's not wisdom.
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There's a verse in Proverbs 1 verse 20 wisdom cries aloud in the street in the markets she raises her voice.
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I think we're almost so used to having the different messages of the world shouted aloud in the streets or taking up all the volume in the marketplace but this particular passage says that wisdom cries aloud in the street and in the markets she raises her voice.
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The reality of God's sovereignty is as much as the world tries to shout out its message and this is all coming from Satan the father of all lives as much as the world tries to call out its messages it cannot drown out truth.
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It will try to drown out truth but it cannot drown out truth. It's in the it's in the noisy street it's in the noisy marketplace where truth needs to be proclaimed we can't just run away from it for shyness or or whatever else because that's the truth that needs to be heard and I want to encourage you because scripture is really clear
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I don't care how much how loud how aggressively the world proclaims its small g gospel message it cannot defeat the gospel message it's the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes.
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I think you're gonna speak with that one later on pastor Jeff it is the power of God. Some announcements that are coming up we have some some some great opportunities coming up first of all in about four weeks maybe it's five on the 11th of June we're gonna have a baptism service right here out on the property probably be some food rumor has it there's going to be a bounce house for the kids to jump on and I asked
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Pastor Jeff and he said it doesn't count if the kids jump from the bounce house into the baptismal that that does not count but we are having classes to prepare you for baptism the first one is today if you're interested in baptism and didn't know about it couldn't make the class we will work with you on that but just contact us as as the classes continue and as we have the baptism and then as we all join together in fellowship encouraging one another and hearing the beautiful testimony of hearts that have turned to the
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Lord come back tonight please come back tonight let me try that again please come back tonight at six o 'clock we know that our our
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Lord has plans for us again his sovereign will we do have this land that has has come and God has given it to us we're growing in numbers where do we go how do we proceed do we build here do we build there the cost of construction is unfortunately going high we need the wisdom that God provides we have identified a 24 -hour period of prayer and fast the main focus of that is wisdom that God can give us to where we are going to go but I think
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Jeff you mentioned in the first service time of prayer and fast with that as a focus boy just adding on to that our personal relationship with God and surrender to him tonight at six o 'clock we come together we normally have a prayer meeting in one of the rooms we're going to be in here we're going to have a time of praise of prayer of singing of hearing scripture and preparing us and starting our 24 -hour prayer and fast seeking
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God's wisdom that'll be tonight tomorrow night at six o 'clock we will come together in fellowship and break our fast with food and fellowship and again time of praise and prayer as a family together so tonight come together as we started tomorrow night at six as we as we conclude the fast and then you can just stay here because it will be the first week of our four -week evangelism class very exciting stuff so you can just be here to start right in with it after the first class you'll be hooked you'll stay for all four so that's coming up in a week and a half a week from this coming
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Saturday not this Saturday but next we're gonna have a cleanup day here at the church spiffing up the building and the grounds more information it'll be in the morning like from nine o 'clock till noon something like that Tim Robinson is still working with the youth so he's asked me to continue to announce the initiation of a young adult fellowship that we're kicking off the first day will be the 27th of May that's a
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Saturday it will be an evening affair Jeff I'm sorry I think they said you're no longer a young adult anyway young adult is going to start that doesn't mean singles that just means young adult so married single whatever and I had just as I know by the way for those who are somewhat concerned or whatever just be aware that the elements that we do use for the
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Lord's table are gluten -free for those who want to know that there it is let's go to prayer
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Lord we come to you this morning we come to you at all times as sinners yet as your children who have been cleansed by the blood of the
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Lamb we come to you as individuals who are attacked by the deceits of the world yet we come to you as individuals who are blessed by your truth
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Lord we come seeking after you seeking after your truth
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Lord give us eyes to see ears to hear hearts that will believe we pray we pray
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Lord for your wisdom we know as the Proverbs says wisdom cries aloud in the street in the markets she raises her voice father give us through your power of your
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Holy Spirit the desire and the courage to speak your truth in the marketplace in a dark world that desperately needs to hear we come to you this morning
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Lord in worship and surrender to you and we pray this morning we pray that you would open our hearts let us see let us understand let us grow closer to you
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Lord we continue to pray for those in need Lord be with them and empower our pastor
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Jeff with the words that come from you this morning we pray in Jesus name Amen seats and servants all creation praise
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The name of the Lord, might and glory. Sing His glory
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Now and forevermore. Earthly kingdoms, all dominions bow before Him and praise
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The name of the Lord as holy, as worthy, now and forevermore.
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Now with adoration he is high above the nations, who is like the
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Lord our God, who is like the
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Lord our God. But Jesus, what a weakness to redeem us, praise the name of the
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Lord in his kindness. He will keep us now and forevermore.
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Now with adoration he is high above the nations, who is like the
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Lord our God. He raised us from the ashes, he has turned our faith to gladness, who is like the
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Lord our God, who is like the
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Lord our God. Holy, weak, and lonely, there is no one like you, our
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Messiah here beside us, there is no one like you.
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High and holy, weak and lonely, there is no one like you, our
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Messiah here beside us, there is no one like you.
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Now with adoration he is high above the nations, who is like the
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Lord our God. He raised us from the ashes, he has turned our faith to gladness, who is like the
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Lord our God, who is like the
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Lord our God. There is no one like our
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God, there is no one like our
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God. He is our God and there is no one like him.
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We are here standing before him because he is holy and the earth is filled with his glory.
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We can look around anywhere and everywhere and see his glory. He is worthy of our praise.
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Let's sing and understand about his holiness and our position to him, glorifying him through our voices.
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Who can light the fires of a thousand burning suns, blazing in the heavens, there is only one, he is our
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God. Who commands the nations, building up and tearing down, silences revivals, there is only one, he is our
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God. He is our
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God. You alone are holy, in your glory, holy
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God. Who can come to save us when we turn away his love, conquer us with kindness, there is only one, he is our
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God. He is our
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God. Holy, you alone are holy, matchless in your glory, no one is like you.
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Worthy, you alone are worthy, we adore you only, holy
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God. The King on the throne, who was and is to come, and to the
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Lamb who was slain, be your glory. Now to the
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King on the throne, who was and is to come, and to the
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Lamb who was slain, be your glory. Holy, you alone are holy, matchless in your glory, no one is like you.
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Worthy, you alone are worthy, we adore you only, holy
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God. Lord, we can't stand before you, before your throne, your holy throne, because you are the
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Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, the mighty God of everything. We know that you are the great
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I Am, the Prince of Peace. We are thankful to you, because of your sacrifice on the cross, so that we may stand at your throne, redeemed, allowed to be among your holy.
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We know that you are holy and mighty, and worthy of our praise. We pray,
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Lord, that every day we will sing to you, with every being and every part of our hearts.
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We love you, and we worship you all the days of our life.
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You are holy, you are mighty, you are worthy, worthy of praise.
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I will promise to love you,
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I will love you, and adore you, millions and millions.
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Let's raise our voices to him again. You are holy, you are mighty, you are worthy, worthy of praise.
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I will follow you, you are my
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Prince of Peace, and Prince of Peace.
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Good morning, everybody. We're going to celebrate communion this morning, and what a blessed time it is to be with all of you, and to realize the oneness we have and the unity we have in Jesus Christ.
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And it's just a joy to be here with you all. When you think back 2 ,000 years ago, and the
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Lord was with his disciples at the Last Supper, and they were in Jerusalem, and it was the time of the feast, but they didn't really have a home in Jerusalem, so they needed a place to go, and Jesus said that there would be somewhere to provide a room, and there was, and they went to that room.
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Now, normally what would happen is that the male, the eldest male of the household would be the officiator of the
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Passover meal, well, they didn't own that household, but as that group was in that room, it appears that Jesus ended up being the presider of that Passover meal, based upon the words we see spoken, and the position of the people who were in the room.
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So Jesus was the host of that meal that day. And I want to talk for a second in communion, because we hear the word host mentioned in the communion, and there has been some teaching about the host in different churches in the communion, and I want to bring to your attention a few of the things we've heard, and discuss whether those things are really true about the host.
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So the host, many feel, are this wafer or this cracker before us, the bread that is broken.
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The reason it's called the host to some is because they feel that there is some miraculous or mysterious thing that happens to the host where the bread actually becomes the physical body of Jesus Christ by some miraculous event.
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Well, is that true? Well, what we see in scripture is that there are no teachings like that in the scripture at all.
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And that teaching comes from John chapter 6, where Jesus calls himself the bread of life.
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But why does he do that? Jesus had just fed 5 ,000 people through a miracle of breaking bread, multiplying it right before their eyes, and the people were focused and enamored on the bread that Jesus supplied.
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And Jesus said, no, your attention should be on me. I am the bread of life.
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If you believe in me, you will have eternal life. And he tried to get their attention off of the bread, the physical bread, and onto the person of himself,
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Jesus Christ the Lord. And his teaching in that time is not that we should eat of his physical body, but that we should believe in him and his words that he taught.
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But in addition to that, those who would say that the host becomes Jesus Christ, they say, well, when the wafer has become
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Jesus Christ, they say, well, we are partaking of his crucifixion over and over and over again.
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If you know the scriptures, you know that Romans, Hebrews, several times, and 1
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Peter chapter 3 said that Jesus offered himself once for all, a sacrifice never to be repeated, that his death was sufficient to pay for sins for all times, past, present, and future.
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His sacrifice is not to be repeated again. So the host is not the cracker in Jesus becoming the physical body during this communion service.
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But there are also those who say that it's called the host, the cracker. We remember because the word in Latin, hostia, means a sacrificial victim.
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So when we're taking part of the wafer, we're remembering that Jesus was a sacrificial victim.
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That is also untrue. Jesus Christ was not a victim going to the cross helpless before evil men.
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Jesus Christ went to the cross because he was our high priest, and he willingly offered himself and laid down his life for his people.
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We need to understand that he was not a victim going to the cross. In Luke chapter 23, we see
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Jesus with his cross on him, and Simon of Cyrene was also there.
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But as he was going, the women of Jerusalem were weeping and lamenting over him, and he says, Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
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Because he knew what was coming upon Jerusalem. But he says, Weep not for me, because he was not to be pitied, but he was to be worshipped.
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He was to be believed on. He was not to be pitied as a victim.
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And then when we see in the scriptures, the Bible teaching about the plan of God, it says in Acts chapter 2, that this man,
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Jesus, who attested to you by many miracles and signs and wonders, was delivered up by the predetermined plan and the foreknowledge of God.
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The predetermined plan, this is why Jesus went to the cross. Not because of evil men, although evil men will be held responsible, for it says,
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And by evil men you nailed him to the cross. But then to show he was not a victim as well, he was raised from the dead.
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And it said that death could not possibly hold him in the grave. That is how
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Jesus brought an end to sin, death, and Satan's rule over this world.
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He is not a victim. So when we think of the host this morning, there are a lot of erroneous teachings about what the host is.
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But is there a host for this communion service this morning? Some would say, well, it's you because you are speaking to us and you are going to distribute, or maybe it's the men who are going to come and distribute the elements, so we'd be hosting the communion meal.
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Well, I think it's Jesus himself still, because Jesus has provided for this communion table for us.
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It is called the Lord's Table because he is at the table with us.
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He is here now, not in his presence taking part in the cracker, but he is here through the
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Holy Spirit joining us all together in his church, and he is with us in communion as we celebrate his life, his death, his resurrection.
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And we come all together to remember these things. So the communion is a blessed time.
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We remember our Savior and what he has done, and we remember that he is not a victim, but a victor through all of these things.
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So I'm going to have the guys come forward, and we're going to read a little bit in 1 Corinthians 11, what
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Paul said about Christians celebrating the communion.
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Paul was a little concerned, and he was very concerned really, that there were divisions among the church at that time, and they weren't celebrating the communion correctly, that people actually had exalted themselves over one another, and there was problems, he said, in the church celebrating communion.
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Some do it before others do it. Some do it, and they take all the food for themselves. Some are left hungry.
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There's divisions among you. He says you need to consider these things. Don't be guilty of the body of Christ when you take.
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So if there's divisions among us today, we should pray for that. If you have something against a brother, we need to pray about that, because we're all one in him, and we need to be celebrating communion as oneness with together and oneness with our
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Lord Jesus. So let's bow our heads just in silence for a moment and do that. Father, we want to come before you as a body this morning.
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We want to thank you, Lord, for the sacrifice of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you,
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Father, that this was the only way, and you, in your love, gave your
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Son for us. We thank you for the body that was given for us. We realize we are not worthy of receiving this gift that you have given, but today we are thankful to know that Jesus Christ is our
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Savior and our Lord and our King. We thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
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I'm going to have the men pass out their bread now. Jesus knew what he was going to go through at that last
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Passover meal, but in the Gospel accounts, in the book of Luke in particular, it says that he had earnestly desired to have that.
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It was joyful for him to have that last Passover with his disciples, and he said that he would not drink of the fruit of the vine until it would come in his kingdom, and there's going to be another time when we get together and we have a feast of remembrance for the
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Lord, except the Lord's going to be physically with us then when we're in his kingdom. I can't wait for that.
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But for now, we remember the Lord. And the night he was betrayed, he took the bread and he broke it, and he gave thanks.
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And he said, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. I do want to thank those who prepared this today and who served.
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And we remember the cup. We realize that a life had to be poured out. Blood had to be shed in order for our sins to be forgiven.
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The life of the eternal, spotless Lamb of God was given for our sins. Jesus said, this is the new covenant in my blood, which is going to be poured out for you.
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Do this in remembrance of me. All right, let's go to the
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Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great sacrifice, so great a salvation through the blood of the
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Lamb. We pray now that we would honor that sacrifice by the directing of our minds to pay attention to every word that you speak.
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We pray for a humble heart before you, that each of us would humble ourselves. We all bring our own traditions and our own presuppositions with us when we open the word.
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And we pray, Lord, you would empty us of those and allow us to hear straight from your mouth. Speak, your servants are listening.
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In Jesus' name, amen. Remember recently I spoke about the founding of Harvard University?
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How Harvard began when John Harvard gave half of his wealth as a gift.
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And that was a great picture of what Mary of Bethany was like when she poured out that expensive perfume on Jesus' feet.
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She was willing to give so much of her wealth as an act of worship. But in a similar way to how
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Judas was coveting that wealth, and then Judas ultimately proved to be an apostate, in the same way,
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Harvard University has turned apostate. It has turned away from the gospel of Jesus Christ in favor of another gospel.
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Well, Harvard was founded in the 1630s. And the event that so inspired
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John Harvard to give so much of his wealth was that many people were being led astray by false teachers.
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And at that time, the prominent false teacher that was most gaining attention was named
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Anne Hutchison. Anne Hutchison began Bible studies in her house, but that morphed into her hearing words from the
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Lord. And it's always dangerous when someone speaking prophetically claims an authority behind their words equal to the word of God.
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Through direct personal connection, she preached that behavior, even sin, did not affect whether someone would go to heaven.
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Now, we know that you cannot be saved by works. We're only saved by grace through faith. But what
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Anne Hutchison was teaching was that you don't need works as evidence, one way or the other.
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It's all a matter of faith, intellectual faith. By 1636, she was holding two meetings a week, and each time had about 80 people in attendance, including men.
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And one of the men in attendance was the governor of Massachusetts, Henry Vane.
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Now, at the outset, we know that there's error because 1 Timothy 2, 11 to 15 says,
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I forbid a woman to teach or to exercise authority over men. And then
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Paul will appeal to the creation order and the fall of man as the rationale for that.
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So right away, we know that there is error here, but her teaching was of great ruin.
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When she was called to account and the Massachusetts Bay Colony brought her in for a trial, she spoke a word of prophecy in her mind, declaring that this court and the entire
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Massachusetts Bay Colony would come to ruin as retribution because she felt so persecuted.
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With this and with this trial, she was banished from the colony and she went up to Rhode Island.
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Now, some of you know Roger Williams of Rhode Island was very much peaceful and wanted the separation of church and state, and so he gladly welcomed her.
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And that, by the way, is how Portsmouth, how do you say it, Portsmouth? Yeah, no mouth in there.
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Portsmouth, Rhode Island was founded. Now, she was there for a period of time and then ended up needing to leave there, went to New York, and the end of her story is very sad.
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Her family was homesteading in New York in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, and they were attacked by Native Americans, and 15 of them were slaughtered, including
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Anne Hutchison, by the Seminole Warriors. This was a terrible controversy, and it caused great pain in the
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Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was known at that time as the antinomian controversy.
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Anybody know what antinomianism is? Well, anti would be against.
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The nomos in Greek is the law, so against the law, lawlessness.
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This is the teaching of license to sin, that a
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Christian, as long as a Christian holds the right belief in the heart as a personal matter of faith between him or her and God, that the behavior of a person's life is really irrelevant.
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Essentially, it's let's go on sinning so that grace can increase. I bring it up because this controversy did not end in Massachusetts Bay in the 1600s.
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It is raging today. It came to the forefront in the 1980s with John MacArthur.
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In 1988, he wrote a book called The Gospel According to Jesus, and in that book, he is refuting what he sees as the new cultural
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Christianity, the megachurch movement, the seeker -sensitive movement. Try to get as many people to come to church as possible, and do so by minimizing sin.
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No longer calling for repentance, no longer identifying specific sins.
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Preachers tended to be very feel -good and therapeutic in their preaching, and as a result, they did grow large churches, but John MacArthur in The Gospel According to Jesus said that repentance from sin is part of the gospel.
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He used some of the language of A .W. Pink from the 1950s, a good theologian, although always would fail as a pastor.
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For some reason, he bounced around, but ultimately, he became a writer in England and wrote some great theology, and he said this,
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No one can receive Christ as his Savior while he rejects him as Lord.
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Therefore, those who have not bowed to Christ's scepter and enthroned him in their hearts and lives, and yet imagine that they are trusting him as Savior, are deceived.
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And from this, of course, we get the title of the controversy in the 1990s, which was called the
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Lordship Salvation Controversy. Must you accept Christ as Lord and enthrone him in your heart and bow to the scepter and live for him in submission to his
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Lordship, or is it enough that you simply ask him to save you and pray for the forgiveness of sin?
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MacArthur strongly asserted that one needed to repent of sin and believe in Christ as Savior and as Lord to truly submit to him.
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Now, the opposition to MacArthur came from my seminary where I went to school.
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I wouldn't go there for many, like a decade more later, but in the late 80s and in the early 90s, one of the chairs of theology at Dallas Theological Seminary was named
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Zane Hodges. Zane Hodges thought that the
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Gospel of John was the only book in the
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New Testament written explicitly to unbelievers, to the unsaved.
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And then he noticed that in the Gospel of John, you do not have the word repent.
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You never have Jesus saying, repent and believe the good news. You only have believe.
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These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing has life, have life in his name.
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He wrote a book called Harmony with God, in which Hodges says, what, what much, what must
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I do to be saved? Where does that question come from? Acts chapter 16,
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Philippian jailer, and in Acts 16, 31, Paul answers this way. Believe in the
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Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And Hodges said, listen, you're adding works to the gospel by adding repentance as an element of saving faith.
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Do you see the controversy? Now, Zane Hodges was not zany.
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Okay, I thought that was cute, but Zane Hodges was not zany. And he wasn't crazy.
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He wasn't, you know, some wild theologian. He actually was trying to preserve something important.
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And that is this. When Christ comes and preach the gospel, he says this, and it's according to the first servant song in Isaiah, a wounded reed he will not break off and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.
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Zane Hodges said to MacArthur and to others, under this lordship salvation, you're not being specific about what degree or quality or current visibility there must be to this necessary obedience.
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Do you understand Zane Hodges' objection? Look at your own life.
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Are you really submitted to the lordship of Christ? Then why are you still entertaining lustful thoughts?
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Why do you still have outbursts of anger? Why do you still disobey your parents? And why did you just cheat on a test last week?
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Zane Hodges is saying, well, if you're saying lordship salvation, what level is good enough and what level of visibility?
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Don't we all have sin? And who of us in the flesh is not still falling short?
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And so I sympathize with that because Christ is the gentle savior. And his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
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And Hodges was trying to emphasize that point of truth. And so are these just ships in the night, passing each other, emphasizing different things?
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Or is there some substance to the lordship controversy? There was substance to it.
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You see, when Hodges said that the book of John never calls for repentance, he missed the point of John at a number of places where he's doing that very thing in a different way.
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Genuine faith in the book of John is presented differently. John MacArthur summarized in 1994, as a part of his saving work,
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God will produce repentance, faith, sanctification, yieldedness, obedience, and ultimately glorification.
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Since he is not dependent on human effort in producing these elements, an experience that lacks any of them cannot be the saving work of God.
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And MacArthur's point here is to say, we're not claiming that Christians will be perfect.
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We're not calling for perfectionism. We are saying that a genuine work of the spirit of God that opens the eyes to see who
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Christ is will be accompanied by the sovereign work of sanctification and obedience and conformity to the image of Christ.
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It will be evident. There will be fruit to that tree. And if there's none of that, if you don't see that, then your own conversion is suspect.
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He's saying it's not enough to simply identify and come to the giant church and bow your head during the prayer and sing the song or even listen to the sermon.
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There has to be genuine transformation, conformity to the image of Christ in the life of a believer.
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And where that's absent, it is a false gospel. And for Hodges to say that repentance is not part of the gospel misses, in fact, the first preaching of the gospel in the
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New Testament. Turn with me to Mark quickly. One verse there, Mark 1, 15. Mark was the first of the four gospel writers, more than likely.
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And when Jesus first begins his preaching ministry in verse 14, he comes into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God.
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First sentence out of Jesus' mouth in Mark 1, 15. The time is fulfilled.
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The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
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Repentance is a part of the gospel. If someone says that they have faith, but there are no works to show it, that person is deceiving himself.
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One must repent and turn. You have to turn away from sin in order to genuinely turn to Christ for the forgiveness of sin.
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Repenting is to turn away from sin, to change your mind, and to now behold Christ as Lord.
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Turn from sin and bow to him and begin to follow after him, to heed his word, to abide and continue in the word.
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This is the point. So go with me now to John 12, where we come to the end of Jesus' public preaching ministry.
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He began, first sentence to preach in Mark 1, 15, declaring, repent.
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It is a command to repent. But now in John 12, we come to the end of his public preaching ministry.
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Chapters 13 to 17 will be Jesus with his disciples and he will wash their feet and he will teach them of the
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Holy Spirit and the deep things of God. He will offer his high priestly prayer in John 17 for the unity of the church.
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And then in 18 and following, he will be crucified and will rise from the dead. So here in 12, we have the end of his public preaching ministry.
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As we turn to it, remember, remember what John has been teaching us this far about the nature of genuine faith.
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It is not enough to simply agree intellectually about a set of facts concerning Jesus Christ, that he is the son of God, that he died, that he rose.
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There must be a subjective element, meaning not just objectively the facts, but subjectively in the person in the turning away from sin to follow and become a true disciple.
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This was first brought to us in chapter two, verses 23 to 25, when many believed in him, but Jesus says he did not entrust himself to them.
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Time will tell if this is a genuine conversion. He's not yet trusting their quote unquote belief.
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And then the key verse that is easy to remember because of the number given it in the 1500s by I think
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Stephanus in the numbering system. John 666, turn there quickly.
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666, providentially it arrives here. In John 6, you have 5 ,000 men, besides women and children, following him because he's multiplied bread and he's fed the multitude.
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And they wanted that physical bread. They wanted the miracles. But then he began to say some things that were hard to accept.
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In John 666 says, after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
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This is apostasy, turning away. After being identified as disciples, they were followers and then they were not followers.
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And so that initial following, maybe somebody raises their hand at a tent meeting or they sign their name on a decision card.
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They pray the sinner's prayer. It's possible they're not disciples because if they later turn away and no longer follow him, it was never genuine indeed.
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Also in John 8 verses 30 and 31, last one. As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
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And Hodges might say, see, belief is all it takes.
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But Hodges would be missing John's point here in verse 31. Jesus said to the
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Jews who had believed him, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.
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That means it is possible to have an outward appearance of being believing when truly the person is not a disciple.
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So there's a difference here in John 8, 30 and 31 between an outward show of belief or even a superficial kind of belief and the genuine thing, the real thing, saving faith.
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That's what John is concerned about. That those listening to the word of God would come to the genuine saving faith.
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It is no service to someone who's recently come to faith to assure them without a doubt that they're born again.
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It is a service to them to point them to 1 John, to the tests of genuineness and to teach them of the perseverance of the saints, the preservation of the saints, that if you're genuinely believing, you will remain and you must remain, continue in the faith, abide in him and abide in his word.
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Let's begin reading in John 12. With this in mind, John's view of saving faith and that there's a distinction between false conversion and genuine saving faith.
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We come to the last words of Jesus' public preaching ministry.
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Verse 36, While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.
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When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.
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Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.
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So that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?
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And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? Therefore, they could not believe.
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For again, Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.
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Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. We'll pause there and then continue on.
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Here you have those who had seen the signs, physically, they'd seen miracles.
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They have the prophecies of Isaiah and yet they still don't believe.
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They still don't believe. Objectively, the facts of who
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Jesus is as the son of God, as the Messiah, they're just saying no. Don't see it, don't believe it.
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They're just not there. Although they'd seen the signs. The problem is the revelation of the arm of the
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Lord. The power of the truth opening the eyes of the blind has not happened to them.
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They're still blind. Now notice in the last verse that we studied here, verse 41, that Isaiah had eyes to see.
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These were not physical eyes. He wasn't just looking at things as I'm looking at you right now.
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These were spiritual eyes to see a vision of Jesus Christ 700 years before he came.
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Now this is amazing because if you turn back with me to Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1.
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Isaiah 6, 1. We just learned something from John 12, verse 41 that we might not have known back in Isaiah 6, 1.
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In Isaiah 6, 1 it says, In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the
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Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up. Question, which member of the
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Trinity did Isaiah see? Did he see the Father?
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According to John 12, verse 41, he saw the second member of the Trinity. He saw
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Jesus. Follow the pronouns from John 12, verse 41 to the words that preceded it.
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It's the Lord Jesus that Isaiah saw. Amazing. Jesus made himself visible, pre -incarnate, to Isaiah.
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He says, I saw the Lord. Let's keep reading there at Isaiah 6 while we're there. You know the story.
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Verses 1 to 7, if you've never read it before, it's just an amazing passage.
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He sees the Lord seated on the throne. The train of his robe fills the temple with glory. There's smoke, there's angels.
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They're singing, holy, holy, holy. It is the throne room of God and Isaiah is there. He's undone.
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A sinful man with sinful lips. And so an angel comes and takes a coal from the fire and touches his lips and cleanses him.
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A picture of Isaiah being cleansed by the gospel. Then in verse 8 it says,
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I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?
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Then I said, here I am. Send me.
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Now some of you will remember the song from 1979 by Matt Schutt, a
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Roman Catholic, who wrote the lyrics of Here I Am, Lord. It is I, Lord.
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I have heard you calling in the night. Remember this? I will go if you send me. I will hold your people in my hand.
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Talks about I will be the one who cares for the lame and hold your people and heal them.
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Now I speak somewhat mockingly. You can hear it in my voice. Because Isaiah's vision in his commission to go preach is exactly opposite what that song communicates.
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Verse 9, he said, go and say to this people, keep on hearing but do not understand.
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Keep on seeing but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.
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Then I said, how long, Lord? This is a heavy weight on Isaiah. He's going to preach judgment and the hardening of hearts.
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How long, Lord? Until cities lie waste without inhabitant.
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Try singing that to shoot melody. And houses without people and the land is a desolate waste and the
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Lord removes people far away and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land and though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled.
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The holy seed is its stump. It's hard to hear, isn't it?
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This is the doctrine of judicial hardening. That just as God is free to give sight to the blind, he's free to confirm those who are actually blind in their sin and harden them still further.
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He's free to take the hard heart of Pharaoh and rather than softening it, the same sun that softens the wax hardens the clay.
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He is free to make Pharaoh's heart still harder. He is free to judge and to pass over a sinner.
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Stephen Furtick is a famous preacher from Elevation Church and he teaches there is one thing that God cannot do.
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He cannot override your unbelief. Now stated in those stark terms, many people say, oh, that's terrible because God can do anything.
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He can override unbelief. But the truth of the matter is that what
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Stephen Furtick states, God cannot override your unbelief, is the majority view in evangelical culture in America.
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It is probably the view of many of you in this room right now. Ultimately, the reason why the explanation for unbelief is that God is trying as hard as he can and he's done everything he can, equally and fairly throughout all people on the planet.
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And the reason why some people believe and other people do not is that God is honoring the free will of those who reject and he is unable to change their heart without violating their free will.
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It's not what our text says to us regarding the nature of unbelief, nor regarding the power of God unto salvation.
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Romans 1 .16 describes a power that is not thwarted by the dead and sinful heart of men.
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The gospel is the power of God unto salvation unto us who believe. 1
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Corinthians 1 .18 confirms that. To those who are perishing, the gospel is foolishness.
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But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And the paradigmatic example of what this looks like is
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Saul, who would later be called Paul. Because when he rode from Jerusalem to Damascus, intent in his heart, his hard, dead, cold heart, blind as a bat, no desire for God, his will fully set against the king of kings,
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God was able in a second to knock him down, to blind him physically and give him sight.
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His power can overcome the most hardened heart. In fact, unless this were the case,
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I would not have come, and neither would have you. There was nothing more inherently humble or better that brought you.
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It was the power of God, the supernatural miracle that God took your heart of stone and gave you a heart of flesh.
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He made your eyes to see. And as hard as this doctrine is for us to understand and to accept,
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Isaiah chapter 6 describes not a God who's wringing his hands, wishing that he could have done more, and lamenting that he could not save.
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It describes a sovereign God, who in his judicial freedom as judge, has decided to pass over a people.
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Why did he do that? How is that fair? Fairness would be for all of us to spend eternity in hell.
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And the better question is, why were you saved? Grace cannot be demanded that it was given to any of us.
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And Romans 9, of course, expounds upon this, that he mercies those whom he mercies, and he hardens those whom he chooses to harden.
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And who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Now, as if the pot could tell the potter what to do with the clay.
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They had seen the signs, but they didn't see. Though they had seen all of these signs, they did not believe.
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Their eyes were still blind. In Isaiah 53, you have the prophetic word of the coming
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Messiah and his suffering, that many would be astonished at him.
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Marred beyond the form of any man, men hiding their faces from him, and so yet he would sprinkle many nations.
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Isaiah 53 will go on to say that we, like sheep, have all gone astray. We've gone after our own way.
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But the Lord lays upon the Lamb of God, the iniquity of us all who believe in him, the many, as you go on to read at the end of Isaiah 53.
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Now, we're going back to John 12. But the point of John 12, let's turn there.
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The point in quoting Isaiah 53 is not to show that all of it points to the death of Jesus on the cross, which it does.
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It's a sign. It is proof. It is evidence that our gospel is true, and anybody who misses it is blind.
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That we know. But the point of quoting
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Isaiah 53, verse 1, in John 12, 38, is to make this point, that unless the
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Lord reveal the gospel, no one will receive it. Calvin calls this an abrupt interruption to the texts of Isaiah 52 and 53.
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He's going on revealing Christ, and then he interposes in 53 .1, and he says,
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Who will believe our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? What is
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Isaiah doing there? Who will believe? Few.
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Few will believe. Why? Why this unbelief? To whom has the arm of the
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Lord been revealed? It is not enough for me to preach that Christ was crucified and rose from the dead.
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In order for you to believe, it is also necessary for God himself to reveal the arm of the
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Lord in the power and full conviction of the Holy Spirit. The inward call, not just the outward call, the revealing of his arm.
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And that's why in John 12, 38, it says, Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?
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To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? The revelation of salvation in Christ, the opening of blind eyes, is a miracle, and it goes on to say in verse 39,
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Therefore, see it in the text. Don't just believe me. I'm telling you the truth, but see it in verse 39.
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Therefore, they could not believe. If you want to explain unbelief, it is not that God has tried and tried and failed, but he is sovereign in his choice.
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And the sinner who rejects the plain evidence of prophecy and miracles and all the signs is responsible.
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That is a real creaturely will. A human being has a real choice to make, presented with the evidence they harden their own hearts.
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And they're responsible for that. But you must hold that truth of human responsibility without rejecting the sovereignty of God because the presentation here is that God is sovereign over their unbelief.
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And he judicially hardens whom he chooses to judicially harden. If you see the truth that Jesus is the
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Christ, that he was crucified and that he rose. If Isaiah 53 screams
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Jesus to you, whereas most of the Jewish people say, I don't see him there at all.
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It's by a miracle of God's grace that your eyes see, but there's a second subjective element to salvation.
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This is the objective, that your eyes could know and believe and see the information, right? Look at the next two verses, 42 and 43.
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And I fear that someone here might be described in this way.
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Nevertheless, many even of the authorities, look again, believed in him.
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Remember John 2, remember John 6, 66, remember John 8, 30 and 31. See it again here.
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Verse 42, many of them believed in him, but is this genuine saving faith?
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No, for fear of the Pharisees, they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
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The blind man saw in John chapter nine. Remember that story? He was sitting by the gate and along comes
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Jesus and he spits on the ground and makes mud and he puts the mud on the man's eyes and he goes and washes in the pool of Siloam and he comes back seeing.
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It's a miracle, but it's typological of the opening of eyes to see. Consider the parents.
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They had known their son since he was born and they saw him now with vision.
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Everything in all of the world, all evidence pointed to them to say Jesus is the
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Messiah. But we're told in John 9, 22, they refused to testify for fear of being desynagogued.
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What was the difference, John 9, 36, with them and the parents, the parents and the blind man?
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The blind man now seeing. He actually gets desynagogued. They cast him out, it says, and he was willing.
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Remember how bold he was? He said, look, I don't know everything.
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I don't know how I'm seeing. I know this, I once was blind and now I see.
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Remember that line? And then even better, they kept pressing him and trying to get him to stop talking about Jesus and they asked him the same question.
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He said, well, why do you ask me the same question? Do you want to become his disciple too? Love that line, but it shows a holy boldness.
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This is someone who was willing to be desynagogued. He wasn't hiding. He wasn't afraid.
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He had come and followed Christ. He had counted his life as rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing
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Christ Jesus, the Lord. This is a man whose fear did not hold him from...
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What is the fear? It's the fear of man. Look at verse 43. They love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
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Lordship salvation. There are some that intellectually get it, but subjectively, do they so love this world that they're actually still at enmity with God for friendship with the world is enmity with God.
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Guys, we live in a culture where you can be culturally Christian and I'd say that's a good thing. I would rather live in America if there's country music singing the name of Jesus, although sometimes also a little off color or some song at Mission Barbecue on the radio about Jesus.
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I'll take that over rap that's blaspheming and cursing and et cetera, et cetera.
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By the way, I'm not a big country fan. The point is in our country, there is cultural
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Christianity and you can just look the part and go along with it. But have you really died to yourself and followed
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Christ? Has he become your Lord? If this were the 1930s, less than 100 years ago, and you didn't live in America, you lived in Germany and you were a pastor like Paul Schneider and they came along and they told you to accept the
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Nazi party or else renounce your church, that would be the choice before you.
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Following Christ to truly be saved would be to take him as Lord and bow your knee to the
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King of Kings and Lord of Lords and turn your back on the scepter of Adolf Hitler.
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Paul Schneider turned his back on Adolf Hitler to worship the Lord. They threw him in jail.
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And they came to him one day and they revealed a swastika and they said to him, if you will bow to the swastika, you can go free.
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We'll let you leave the country, renounce your church, you're good. And he refused to bow.
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They beat him with 25 lashes and they put him in solitary confinement for 15 months.
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When he came out of solitary confinement in the general population, a guard was mocking him and he said, if we let you out, what are you going to do?
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And he said, I will go to the nearest town to this concentration camp and I will turn that curb into a pulpit and I will tell everything that you do here and I will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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Paul Schneider. You see, to be a Christian is to take up your cross and follow
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Christ. Part of becoming Christian is you have to be willing to be considered refuse to the world.
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In Germany, it meant whipping and beating in solitary confinement. And for Bonhoeffer, it meant death.
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But here, it's just so easy to look the part and it might not cost you anything in the eyes of the world.
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But the question is, if you have come to saving faith, if it's genuine, have you surrendered to the lordship of Christ?
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That's the issue here in verse 43. They love the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
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Now lastly, in verses 44 to 50, I'll be very brief here. The Bible commentaries tend to agree that this was probably not spoken chronologically.
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John was looking for a place to record this because in the previous verses, Jesus has now stopped preaching.
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He's finished his public ministry. It doesn't matter because John arranges it here in verses 44 to 50.
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I tend to think he probably stepped back out of hiding to say this one last thing. And it is chronological.
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But either way, John arranges it as the last thing that Jesus preached. So we probably should pay attention, right?
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In verses 44 to 50, Jesus cried out. That's mercy that he would speak and cry out.
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Whoever believes in me and believes not in me but in him who sent me. He's talking about the father.
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Whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
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If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him.
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For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. Now listen, the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge, the word.
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The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
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For I have not spoken on my own authority but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment.
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What to say and what to speak. There when it says what to say and what to speak, the two
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Greek words are different. The first just indicates kind of the message and what to speak.
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The second indicates the very words, the very specific words, even the tone of how he said it.
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He's claiming authority in every little comment. And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
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What I say therefore, I say as the father has told me. And so in closing, the word of Christ, his words carry the authority of almighty
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God, the father who sent him. And if that's true, they then stand before the bema or the great white throne in the case of unbelievers and will condemn those who reject.
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This adds weight to everything Jesus preached during those three years. Do you think the gospel is safe?
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The gospel isn't safe. The gospel is saving.
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Those who believe the gospel will be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. But what
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Jesus is saying here is the word, having heard of Jesus and what he's done, that word is not safe because if you go on rejecting, not believing what he said, then those very words stand in judgment over you on that day.
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In other words, it will be worse for Tyre and Sidon than it will be for Sodom and Gomorrah.
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Sodom and Gomorrah engaged in lawlessness, sexual sin and perversion, and God sent fire from heaven.
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In the eternal judgment, hell will be worse for Tyre and Sidon than it will be for Sodom and Gomorrah.
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Why? Because the light shined in Galilee. The light shined.
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Jesus came and performed his miracles. He showed them, and they still rejected. He preached there a public ministry of proclaiming the truth, showing the evidence of the prophecies,
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Isaiah 53, and the miracles that he had done, and finally his rising from the dead, and yet they still rejected.
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So in closing, do you believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of the living God? And believing, have you forsaken the world, turned from sin, turning away, repenting, and trusted him for the forgiveness of sin, making him your
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Lord? Are you following him today? Jesus spoke of two sons of a father.
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One son was given a command, and the father told him what to do, and the son said, yeah, yeah, dad,
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I'm gonna go do it. I'll do the yard work. And then as it turned out, he never did it.
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The other son initially said, no, I'm not doing that. But later his conscience was pricked, and he went and did the work.
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Jesus says that it was the second son who obeyed that was justified. In the same way it's possible for you to say yes, yes, and raise your hand and pray a prayer, claim to believe, but if you're still doing what you want to do, you're not convicted for sin, you live as you please, then the
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God that you serve is really only a figment of your imagination. If you're not believing what the
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Bible says and you object to the teaching of the text, you're not submitted to the
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Lord. But if you're here this morning and you're listening, and your heart is saying, yeah,
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I know that I'm a wounded reed, I'm a smoldering wick, but then you begin to pray and say,
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Lord, forgive me for my sin and help me to be stronger and give me the help that I need. And if you're not beating that persistent sin, you go to an elder and ask for prayer or for help.
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You ask your mom or your dad to help you. You're genuine. You're serving him.
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You're not going to be perfect. You're going to stumble. And that's what Zane Hodges was trying to make sure we didn't miss.
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But are you following him and treating him as the king of kings in your life?
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Let's pray for that kind of faith. Father, my prayer for this congregation is that there would be no one here with a superficial and false faith, but that every one of us would believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the Son of God, and we would follow him and believe his word, every word that he has spoken. God, I pray for anybody here that's not genuinely converted, that you would convert them right now.
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Like you did for the Apostle Paul, I pray that you would open their eyes to see, that they would let go of the approval of man, the love of the world.
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They would humble themselves before you, bow the knee, confess
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Jesus as Lord, begin to live for you. They would not hide their sin, but bring it into the light, that you would set them free and help them to live in the joy of the
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Lord, with no pretense, nothing to hide. Thank you,
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Jesus, that you are a merciful savior, that your burden is light.
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Help us now to live for you, to follow hard after you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
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Will you stand with me? In Christ alone my hope is found
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He is my light, my strength, my song This cornerstone, this solid ground
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Firm through the fiercest drought and storm What heights of love, what depths of peace
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When fears are still, when striving cease
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My comforter, my all in all
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Here in the love of Christ I stand
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There in the ground His body laid
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By the well, by darkness slain
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Then rested forth in glorious day
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Up from the grave He rose again And as He stands in victory
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Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
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For I am His and He is mine
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Bought with the precious blood of Christ No guilt in my commitment
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This is the power of Christ in me My first cry to the final breath
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Jesus commands my destiny No power of hell, no scheme of man
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Will ever lock me from His hand
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Till He returns or calls me home
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Here in the power of Christ I'll stand
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I find my strength,
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I find my hope I find my help in Christ alone
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When fears are still, when darkness falls
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I find my peace in my soul
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To Christ alone I'll keep the road
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Till He returns or calls me home
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Here in the power of Christ I'll stand
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Here in the power of Christ I'll stand
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I know it's a big ask, but starting tonight at 6pm
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We're going to fast for 24 hours And I want to encourage everybody here to come tonight at 6pm
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Eat a huge meal at like 5 .45 tonight And that'll make it a lot easier
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But if we're fasting for wisdom What to do about building here, building there More important, you should also fast and pray
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About personal issues in your life Do that for 24 hours
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Be serious about your walk with Christ And then at 7pm, we break the fast at 6pm
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Monday night 7pm on Monday night, Philip the Evangelist will begin an evangelism class
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And listen guys, what I preach today has great implications For how you share the gospel
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How you call for repentance and use the law of God In evangelizing, all of us need to learn that and to do it better It's a four week class beginning
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Monday night Tomorrow night, at 7pm Let's do the benediction
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Now to him who is able to strengthen you According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ According to the revelation of the mystery
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That was kept secret for long ages But has now been disclosed and through The prophetic writings has been made known to all nations
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According to the command of the eternal God To bring about the obedience of faith