"The Gospel of Luke" (65) May 26, 2024

First Baptist Church Leominster

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read for us and here we continue to read about the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas and we learn of the not only of the glorious success of the gospel people coming to faith in Christ but we also read of the tribulation that Paul and suffered and others suffer and that that we too suffer and one of the lessons that Paul had to tell the young converts that we all through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God this age is the age of tribulation not just a seven -year period down in the future as some as many teach but we are in the time of tribulation in this world living as Christ in a fallen world and so may we be encouraged however at the prospects of the gospel converting people even out of this wicked world so acts 14 acts 14 now at Iconium they entered together into the

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Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed but the unbelieving

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Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers so they remained for a long time speaking boldly for the

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Lord who bore witness to the word of his grace granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands but the people of the city were divided some sided with the

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Jews and some with the Apostles when an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews with their rulers to mistreat them and to stone them they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derby cities of Lyconia and to the surrounding country and there they continued to preach the gospel now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet he was crippled from birth and had never walked he listened to Paul speaking and Paul looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well said in a loud voice stand upright on your feet and he sprang up and began walking and when the crowd saw that what

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Paul had done they lifted up their voices saying in Lyconian the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men

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Barnabas they called Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the chief speaker and the priest of Zeus whose temple was at the entrance to the city brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds but when the

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Apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out men why are you doing these things we also are men of a like nature with you and we bring you good news that you should turn from these vain things to a living

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God who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them in past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways yet he did not leave himself without witness for he did good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons satisfying your hearts with food and gladness even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them but Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and having persuaded the crowds they stoned

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Paul and dragged him out of the city supposing that he was dead but when the disciples gathered about him he rose up and entered the city and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derby when they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch strengthening the souls of the disciples encouraging them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God and when they had appointed elders for them in every church with prayer and fasting they committed them to the

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Lord in whom they had believed then they passed through Pisidia and came to Pamphylia and when they had spoken the word in Perga they went down to Atalia and from there they sailed to Antioch where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work that they had fulfilled and when they arrived and gathered the church together they declared all that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the

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Gentiles and they remained no little time with the disciples let's pray our father we thank you for the work that you have accomplished

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Lord we thank you for the miracles that you accomplished through the hands of Paul and Barnabas and for the many souls that were saved and Lord we thank you that salvation is of the

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Lord and we rejoice in these things Lord we rejoice that we know you we rejoice that the gospel was preached to us so that we could hear and believe and we pray

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Lord that we too would turn away from the things of this world and that we would turn to you and pursue you with our whole heart with all of our might with all of our soul with all of our strength and Lord we pray now that as we open up the word and continue to to worship you through the proclamation of the word we pray

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Lord that we would be mindful of what the word says that the Spirit would teach us guide us and lead us in your truth we thank you

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Lord for the privilege of being able to hear your word proclaimed thank you Lord in Jesus name

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Amen well let's turn in our

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Bibles to Luke 15 we learned that our

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AC is not working in the building Raymond informed us that he's got somebody coming in at the first of the week so it's a little warm in here particularly up there in the balcony

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I suspect there's a warm air rises but we could turn on the fans but that would just result in blowing the hot air from the fan down to you so we'll avoid doing that but it'll be repaired

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Lord willing before long well here in Luke 15 we continue to consider our

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Lord's teaching in the events that transpired as they continued in their journey to Jerusalem with the multitudes who went with him in this journey in our study of Luke's gospel we've encountered some very directly worded and challenging exhortations of our

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Lord Jesus regarding the nature need to become and live as his disciples and his words very confrontive challenging and they may even seem to be unrealistic and impossible demands nevertheless all who would be saved from their sin and inherit eternal life must come in the way that he is prescribed as we cited last week and we repeat this morning these very directly worded commands and conditions our

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Lord sent before us if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me and then we see what the consequences of failure are for whose whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or lost and so to fail to do as Jesus said before us will result in destroying oneself that is to lose one's own soul to eternal damnation the stakes couldn't be higher the consequences couldn't be more severe and it would seem to most hearers it is demands were too harsh to extreme as we read last week in which

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Jesus said if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother wife and children brothers and sisters yes and his own life also he cannot be my disciple and whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple for which of you intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost whether he has enough to finish it last after he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish all who see it begin to mock him saying this man began to build and was not able to finish or what

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King going to make war against another King does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with 10 ,000 to meet him who comes against him with 20 ,000 or else while the other is still a great way off he sends a delegation and has conditions of peace so likewise whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple in other words you cannot have salvation unless you do what

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Jesus says any honest and rational listener to these words would be quite taken back with astonishment perhaps even incredulity even those disciples who had been following him might think to themselves as they had expressed in another context who then can be saved as we'll read in Luke 18 some might doubt the possibility that they could meet such demands to become numbered among his disciples as a consequence perhaps the people listening to Jesus might have drawn false conclusions about the nature and ways of God perhaps doubting if God was truly willing to be merciful and gracious and receiving sinners like themselves some of us may think in those terms as well and given their sinful condition and their spiritual weakness and infirmity that might have been a reasonable conclusion from their perspective and so it is when the

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Word of God is taught and preached faithfully and God chooses to bless the message to its hearers a sense of personal sin and inability to do

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God's will and an awareness of God's righteous anger and judgment against the sinner becomes evident often shame and humiliation is experienced before God and God's people the sinner becomes keenly aware of his inability his hopelessness to arise out of his condition and come to God and sometimes not very often but perhaps more often that we might assume a person can become so distressed over sin to the point that he despairs of hope he perceives that even if he were to attempt to turn from his sin and turn to God in Christ that is to repent because of his great crimes and failed attempts to amend his life that God will not receive him but the passage before us in Luke 15 dispels such notions thankfully this discourse of our

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Lord Jesus corrects misunderstandings about God and his ways we see

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God portrayed before us as desired intensely the redemption of sinners and he rejoices greatly over every person who repents of his sin and turns to him but further we see in this chapter that it's the

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Lord Jesus himself that seeks and then recovers and restores those who are lost and helpless and toward the end of the chapter the

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Lord Jesus condemns the spirit of those who claim to know God but who refuse to embrace the pardoned offender or offenders the passage that emphasizes these realities comprise the entire 15th chapter before us it opens with an introduction in which the setting is established for Jesus to speak verses 1 through 3 which is then followed by three parables two rather short ones and then the longest parable of our

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Lord as recorded in the Gospels and so these three parables include the parable of the lost sheep verses 3 through 7 or 4 through 7 the parable of the lost coin verses 8 through 10 and last the parable of the lost son which is most popularly known as the parable of the prodigal son which is unique to Luke's gospel by the way well we hope to address the first two parables today and then the third on a later occasion by the way

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J .C. Ryle prefaced his comments on this chapter with these words few chapters perhaps have done more good to the souls of men let us take heed that it does good to us amen

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J .C. Ryle and so here are the first ten verses of Luke chapter 15 then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to hear to him to hear him and the pharisees and scribes complained saying this man receives sinners and eats with them so he spoke this parable to them saying what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors saying to them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost

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I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one does not light a lamp sweep the house search carefully until she finds it and when she has found it she recalls her friends and neighbors together say rejoice with me for I have found the peace which

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I lost likewise I say to you there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents it's unfortunate we can't deal with all three parables in one setting but that's just certainly not possible so we will address the first two today

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Lord willing first let's consider the setting for Jesus's teaching the setting of our

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Lord sermon is clear he spoke these words at some point on the road to Jerusalem to where he and his disciples have been traveling for some time and we read in verse 1 that tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to hear him now it's been pointed out in the arena of biblical studies that there were two scandals with respect to Jesus of Nazareth which the early church had to face an answer in order to be an effective witness for Christ in that world the first involved the way that he died how could

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Jesus be the Messiah when he died on a cross a form of death reserved for the most notorious of sinners one's clearly forsaken of God and of course the gospel presents the cross not as a scandal but it is the greatest display of God's glory that has ever occurred the second scandal concerned the kind of persons who became his followers and the fact that he seemed earnest to seek and enlist these kinds of people to be his disciples and both of these scandals were accusations leveled by his opposition the leaders of Judaism and here we read that tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around him and so that which

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God delighted and desired to see the Pharisees and their scribes viewed as scandalous must have been quite a sight our

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Lord had been speaking some very hard and direct words to those who desire to follow him who wish to become his disciples but rather than the

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Lord driving away the hardened sinners they're drawn to him tax collectors and sinners came up to him modern church ministry pundits would say that this is in no way this is no way to gain followers of Jesus by confronting them with hard truths and making the way seem impossible to come to him and as a consequence they these modern -day ministry philosophy pundits dumbed down the message they pair off that which they think will be ill -received and offer an attractive easy path to coming to Jesus but that's not what is displayed to us here in these these chapters

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God blesses truth even difficult to be received truth in bringing sinners to Jesus Christ for salvation in these opening words we see that a work of God's grace must be taking place in the hearts of these publicans and sinners we also see that this was by God's design in their seeking him gathered around to hear him actually he was seeking them wasn't he and know what it was that drew them tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him

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Matthew Henry drew the application for us note in all our approaches to Christ we must have this in our eye to hear him to hear the instructions he gives us and his answers to our prayers we are here this morning to hear him through his word we were to pray that he gives us spiritual ears to hear him and teaching us drawing out before us what we're to believe and what we're to do and so tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear him and Jesus would not turn them away but encourage them in their pursuit to hear him again

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Matthew Henry wrote great multitudes of Jews went with him with such an assurance of admission into the kingdom of God that he found it requisite to say that to them which would shake their vain hopes in other words he spoke to them hard words here multitudes of publicans and sinners drew near to him with a humble modest fear of being rejected by him and to them he found it requisite to give encouragement especially because there were some haughty supercilious people that frowned upon them the publicans who collected the tribute paid to the

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Romans were perhaps some of them bad men but they were all industrially put into an ill name because of the prejudices of the

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Jewish nation against their office they are sometimes ranked with harlots tax collectors and harlots here and elsewhere with sinners tax collectors and sinners such as were openly vicious that traded with harlots known ranks they drew near to him not as some did to solicit for cures but to hear his excellent doctrine they came to hear him and so we see this second scandal surface in verse two but the

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Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered this man welcomed sinners and each with them what these men thought was a scandal was intentional seeking the lost by the

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Savior what caused them disgust and generated their derision of Jesus was a cause of great delight to Jesus himself and to his father in heaven and even the angels were poised watching and anticipating a great celebration when even one of these sinners was brought home when he repented of sin and believed in Jesus Christ as his

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Savior and King and so sinners may be greatly encouraged by our

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Lord's words in this passage have we any sense of sin wrote one do we feel bad and wicked and guilty and deserving of God's anger is the remembrance of our past lives bitter to us does the recollection of our past conduct make us ashamed and we are the very people who ought to apply ought to seek

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Christ just as we are pleading nothing of our own making no useless delay

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Christ will receive us graciously pardon us freely and give us eternal life he is the one that receiveth sinners let us not be lost for want of applied to him that we may be saved amen well we then read in response to their

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Jewish leaders to discredit him verse 3 records so he spoke this parable to them say essentially

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Jesus taught through these parables here by the way these three are in collected as though they were one parable that it was right for him to seek sinners to have them repent of their sin return to God for God himself rejoices greatly when this occurs

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Christ justified himself in it by showing that the worst these people were to whom he preached the more glory would rebound to God the more joy there would be in heaven if by his preaching they were brought to repentance

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God gets great glory by saving great sinners and the greater the sinner that is saved brings greater glory to God through Jesus Christ we desire all sinners to be saved even little sinners so -called but it's a wonderful thing to see great sinners come to Christ it brings great glory to God among people who witness it but it brings great joy to God as well in Christ well we might draw several lessons from these few words one less being we should always be seeking to reach all people for the gospel of Jesus Christ we should be going to them becoming true friends to them as did our

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Lord Jesus he was a friend of publicans and sinners if we waited for all to come within the doors of our church before they heard from us we would not see many souls brought into the kingdom we are to go so far as to have table fellowship with them

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Jesus ate and drank with sinners as we seek their salvation and so this is the ministry of hospitality that Christians are to extend to non -christians and when

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I thought of this point I thought of the person today who seems to so wonderfully display this importance of Christian hospitality in evangelism there's a

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Christian woman who's become a very significant and influential voice in Christian circles through her verbal witness and the book she has produced

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Rosaria Butterfield she grew up attending liberal

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Catholic schools she was a liberal a post -modernist feminist and an outspoken practicing lesbian living with another woman very hostile to Christianity she became a tenured professor in the

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English Department Women's Studies program at Syracuse University she wrote an article criticizing an evangelical organization and she received much hate mail from Christians that when she saw she just tossed into the trash but she received one letter from a local pastor in Syracuse New York that she could not easily set aside this pastor and his wife had invited her to dinner intrigued by the strange offer she went and returned again and again for many months to have dinner with them they became friends over many months even as they sought to be faithful but kind and loving

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Christian witnesses to her it resulted eventually in her conversion and later she wrote her autobiography the secret thoughts of an unlikely convert an

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English professor journey into the Christian faith and she's now married to a reformed

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Presbyterian pastor in Durham North Carolina and lives there with their children she credits her conversion to Christian hospitality shown her and so it was said of her that in many of her books and interviews

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Butterfield highlights what she calls radically ordinary Christian hospitality having been a beneficiary of the practice herself she writes to me hospitality is the ground zero of the

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Christian faith Butterfield encourages Christians to get close enough to put the hand of the stranger into the hand of the

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Savior and that it hurts and it's good and the

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Lord equips in her book the gospel comes with a house key she indicates that her hospitality is not showy or fancy and that partying with the idols of consumerism and sexual autonomy is essential to making room for other people by the way

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Butterfield engages the corrupt culture in which we live quite clearly and boldly she writes some powerful books and last year she published her book it's on my shelf books to read which is getting kind of high frankly five lies of our anti -christian age in which her sections are organized in the following titles line number one homosexuality is normal consider where she was from which she came line number two being a spiritual person is kinder than being a biblical

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Christian line number three feminism is good for the world and for the church line number four transgenderism is normal and line number five modesty is an outdated burden that serves male dominance and holds women back it's directly worded hard -hitting but it is having a wonderful influence in effect and so the point of mentioning her is that she was converted to Christ through the means that Jesus used to reach sinners and for which he was condemned by his detractors she rightly advocates hospitality as a god -blessed means of evangelism this is what

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Jesus did and this is what we should do now in our dealings with non -christians we should not try and cloak our intentions but be honest and forthright as was our

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Lord this does not mean that we join them in ungodly activities or in places of Christians should not be found our

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Lord although seeking and longing for their recovery and who went among their company must have certainly been grieved by their behavior and repulsed by their ungodly jesting and coarse language and surely he did not go with them where they practice their sinful behavior but he dined with them he spoke with them he showed his concern and compassion for sinners and so should we do also however at the same time we should recognize there are some people that the

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Scriptures command us to avoid and we're to resolve to have no table fellowship with them the

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Apostle wrote to the church at Corinth he wrote of an epistle he had written to them but it was not inspired of God and they had misunderstood what he had written to them

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I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world you're supposed to keep company with them or with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters since then you would need to go out of the world surely that's not possible but now

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I've written to you not to keep company with anybody named a brother anybody who claims to be a

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Christian who is sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner not even to eat with such a person we read in the

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Holy Scriptures that God commands us not to fellowship with professing Christians who are divisive persons with disorderly persons that is those who refuse to heed the

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Scriptures and again with any professing Christian who is sexually immoral greedy idolater slanderer drunkard or swindler these are professing believers who refuse to order their lives according to the

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Word of God and we're not to encourage them in that they are to be avoided kept at arm's length so that they might be shown their behavior is inconsistent with that of the

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Christian and that their sinful attitudes and actions must be stopped perhaps one reason for the lack of power and holiness in churches is due to the failure or refusal to follow the

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Lord's commands in this matter and so breaking off table fellowship with the professing

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Christian who is disobedient is designed to affect his repentance and recovery but on the other hand the extending of friendship to the non -christian is designed to affect his repentance and recovery

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Jesus Christ was a friend of sinners and so we should befriend those whom we desire to see redeemed by our

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Lord well now we come to the parable of the lost sheep we read our

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Lord's words what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing and when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors say to them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost

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I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need no repentance so the

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Lord uses the analogy of the shepherd and his sheep really the analogy itself and somewhat of an understatement and this is for itself a point of emphasis an understatement it is designed to give emphasis and legitimacy to Jesus's behavior if a shepherd would do this with respect to a sheep should not hate

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Jesus do do any less with respect to men and women let's consider the words of this parable more closely we see first of all in verse 4 the search is begun our

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Lord opened this parable with a rhetorical question which is characteristic of the teaching of Jesus Jesus said in verse 4 what man of you having a hundred sheep if he loses one of them does not leave the ninety nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is lost until he finds it we recently mentioned the value of the rhetorical question and speaking to another you're attempting to persuade rather than just a forthright didactic statement the rhetorical question moves the hearer to ponder a matter and draw an answer or conclusion in his thinking and thus it speaks to the conscience of that person in one sense

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Jesus's parable may not have appealed to his detractors the Pharisees and scribes for they thought little of the profession of shepherding sheep a shepherd was the lowest of low but for an interested and hopeful listener the analogy of Jesus as a shepherd actively seeking his lost sheep would have been welcomed and appealing to these tax collectors and sinners clearly

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Jesus sets forth himself as a shepherd seeking a lost sheep now a scribe present hearing

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Jesus might have recalled the words of the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel who foretold that God himself would come as a faithful shepherd who would replace the unfaithful shepherds that would be the leaders of Israel here's

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Ezekiel 34 for thus says the Lord God indeed I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out as a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep so will

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I seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day and I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries and will bring them to their own land

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I will feed them on the mountains of Israel in the valleys and in all the inhabited places of the country

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I will feed them in good pasture and their fold shall be on the high mountains of Israel and there they shall lie down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture on the mountains of Israel I will feed my flock and I will make them lie down says the

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Lord God I will seek what was lost bring back what was driven away bind up the broken strengthen what was sick but I will destroy the fat and the strong and feed them in judgment and that's what the

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Lord Jesus is doing now in history he's judging the wicked in history but he's seeking and saving his sheep his people or perhaps the words of Isaiah would come to would have come to mind and it was declared that God would be a seeking shepherd of his people behold the

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Lord behold the Lord God shall come with a strong hand his arm shall rule for him behold his reward is with him and his work before him he'll feed his flock like a shepherd he'll gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young Isaiah 40 well in this parable and the one following we see an act of seeking of that which was lost the shepherd did not sit passively bewailing that the one of his sheep was missing the woman did not just lament because she lost a coin and Jesus Christ did not sit passively when he knows that his people are his lost sheep who are helpless and unable to return to him he purposes to go save them perhaps the most difficult question in addressing this parable is the meaning of the 99 sheep

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Jesus said that his shepherd leaves the ninety and nine in the wilderness to go seek his lost sheep and then at the end of the parable

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Jesus says that they are 99 person just persons who need no repentance who in the world are they well there have been a number of different proposals first it's possible the detail may simply be incidental to the story sometimes interpreters get themselves into trouble by reading meaning into details in parables which are there merely to fill out the story instead of a parable they make it an allegory there are a few parables that are being interpreted allegories but the

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Lord Jesus himself gave those interpretations thankfully he gave an interpretation of the parable of the sower or would be all over the map declaring what that meant apparently a hundred sheep would have been the normal size of a flock for a typical shepherd and so Jesus may have used this analogy not intending to have the 99 represent any particular group but that it simply is a fitting detail and telling the story however that does not seem to be the case here or would he not have simply said what shepherd having lost a sheep does not go out to find it there seems to be some emphasis on the 99 a second proposal is the 99 may represent redeemed people they're described in verse 7 as needing no repentance these 99 sheep are those who had already become his disciples of course the problem with this view is that even redeemed people are in need of repentance but these 99 are said they don't need repentance third some say the 99 represent the

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Jewish people of Jesus's day who thought that they did not need repentance John Gill advocated this view the

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Jewish nation seems to be designed by the hundred sheep who are frequently represented as a flock of sheep and that certainly is a truism and so this would understand the words of Jesus in verse 7 as ironic the

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Pharisees and scribes had no need of repentance or so they thought Jesus had once used the adjective righteous in a sarcastic manner in Luke 532 when he declared

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I've not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance they're righteous is clearly used sarcastically referring to those who are self -righteous who only think that they're righteous but Jesus was seeking sinners who knew that they were unrighteous before God that they needed righteousness and that could only be granted to them by God through faith in Jesus Christ alone perhaps the major problem with this view is that sheep are a common emblem of the people of God none of them who do not know

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God 99 sheep and in John's gospel the religious leaders who refuse to believe on the

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Lord Jesus are specifically said not to be his sheep rather they were goats or children of the devil and Jesus specifically said to them but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep as I said to you and so to say the 99 sheep were the

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Jewish people who were not converted doesn't seem to fit as well for it there have been those who have taught the 99 referred to holy angels because when you look at all of creation only holy angels don't need repentance this view teaches that the parable speaks of Jesus leaving heaven and the angels dwelling there the 99 sheep to come and seek his lost sheep one problem with this view is that Jesus left these 99 in the wilderness to seek his sheep and John Gill dispelled this this view pretty clearly the 99 left in the wilderness cannot be meant angels as some have thought even

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Calvin was sympathetic with this view by the way as as some have thought for angels are never called sheep and besides the one law sheep is one of the same kind with the 99 and according to this sense must design an angel or angels likewise whereas none of the fallen angels are sought up or recovered and saved and he's right fifth perhaps the hundred sheep should be understood to represent the total of the chosen people of God the number of the elect

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Christ did not lose one of them he was commissioned by his father to recover his hundred sheep and he'll be successful in the mission he will save all of his flock

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Jesus had taught on another occasion these words this is the will of the father who sent me that of all he's given me

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I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day and this is the will of him the father who sent me that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day

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I think probably this fifth understanding is best now we should not think that the

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Lord would say that the 99 were left abandoned in the wilderness neglected without care allowing them to stray while he searched for the lost one the issue is that he cares for all his sheep and will not lose even one of them certainly the idea suggested is that the shepherd assures the security of the 99 before beginning his search perhaps in the care of another shepherd it's not said it doesn't need to be said but even the threat of one of his own being lost moves him to take urgent steps for its recovery if you were a sinner you may be assured that God desires your recovery he does not delight in the death and judgment of the wicked but he doesn't apologize for it either

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God desires that men turn from their sin and return to him but of the ones that the father gave him in eternity his sheep he seeks them and finds them and returns them to his fold

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Jesus himself foretold of Gentile conversions probably most of us

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John 16 15 and 16 as the father knows me even so I know the father

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I laid down my life for the sheep that's definite atonement that's limited atonement and other sheep

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I have which are not of this fold those are Gentiles them also I must bring see it was in the will of his father and they will hear my voice and there will be one flock and one shepherd one people of God by the way our

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Lord's concern for seeking his sheep is particularly true if you're a professing believer who strayed from who has strayed from your master's side he desires your recovery restoration you may due to the blinding and deadening effects of your sin doubt his willingness to receive you but he's more than simply willing to receive you he's actively seeking you and he will not lose one who belongs to him take note he goes after the lost sheep and does so until he finds it the

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Lord does not play blind man's bluff with people in respect to salvation that is he does not grope around in the world is one in the dark hoping to latch on to one here and hangs on to them no he puts forth a definite effort to reclaim specific persons for he has been given a definite mission to save the people whom the father has given to him he regards these strayed ones as a shepherd does his lost sheep they are his property they are lost helpless defenseless vulnerable though perhaps careless and senseless they're not gonna find their way back to the sheepfold they're incapable of doing so they're lost they don't find

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Jesus Jesus finds them who's lost in this world it's not

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Jesus and you have to find Jesus oh I found Jesus oh did you know he found you and he'll go get them and again there are no failures in his endeavors with love for the ones given to him by the father the eternally begotten

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Son of God came down from heaven taken upon himself our human nature which is both body and soul yet without sin he came into this fallen world of wickedness misery trouble and trial he did so because this is where his sheep were lost and helpless ones who needed one to rescue them to save them from perishing and through his obedience his sufferings his death upon his cross he made an atonement for them paying for their paying their debt to the

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Holy God who would otherwise condemn them to eternal hell for their sin and purchasing through his life and death all the authority and power of God in himself as the enthroned

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God man he bestows all that is necessary to draw his people his sheep his elect onto himself he sent the

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Holy Spirit to his people through whom he continues to effectually call his people out of the world of sin from their sin onto faith and submission to himself he comes into the world even now by his word and spirit to save his elect out of the world he sends forth his gospel by which they come to know him be reconciled to him and be secured by him onto their shared glory with him one day so Jesus goes after them because he loves them not because of anything favorable in them regarding them as John Kill rightly wrote and he was a wordy guy but thorough now

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Christ goes after them till he finds them which denotes continuance is in defeat fatigable industry and diligence his resolution and courage and his success the reasons why he thus goes after them are not their number for they are the fewest of all nor their nature which is no better than others nor any previous dispositions or good characters not because they desire it or they're willing for those designed here were publicans and sinners nor any future improvements and service by them for they were the base and foolish things of this world nor because they were near at hand and so easily looked up for they were far off but because of his love to them and the relation between them as shepherd and sheep and because of his father's will and of his own obligation by covenant and because of his own interest in glory that's sovereign grace well then we see that the search is successful verse 5 and when he has found it he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing we see that the shepherd comes to the lost sheep in his lost condition there's nothing that the sheep does to contribute or assist the shepherd in his own recovery the

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Lord Jesus does it all and so when we speak of coming to Christ and repentance and faith we're not even remotely implying that one must clean himself up before the

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Savior can save him although sometimes some people may mistakenly think that is so no rather the point is this that the sinner comes to realize his condition and he calls and looks to Christ to deliver him from his sin to which he is bound what he repents of or turns from is his love of sin his resolve to go on in sin and his resistance of the

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Lord's commands to part from sin but the Lord himself must issue the command and grant the power for the sinner to break with his sin the sinner is helpless to affect his own deliverance the

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Lord must deliver the sinner from his sin for he is powerless to do so himself we come to Christ as helpless sinners not as sinners who have cleaned themselves up to some degree to make us acceptable to God because that cannot be

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Christ saved sinners guilty sinners no excuse sinners helpless sinners and then we read of the homecoming the shepherd is said to return home with the sheep on his shoulders and when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors say to them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost he's the

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Savior he alone can return his lost sheep to the fool this is his job that we are to entrust to him alone the power of our great shepherds shoulders can bear any sheep of his from any danger any sin and even the devil which poses a threat to his well -being and we are to have faith we're have to have confidence in our

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Lord in his ability to do this from first to last the work of salvation is his and his alone he seeks the lost they do not seek him for there's none that seeketh after God he finds the lost they do not find him he subdues their stubborn will they cannot submit to him unless he does subdue them he conquers their rebellious heart he brings them back to a place of safety security and fellowship in the fold of God salvation is by God's grace alone through Jesus Christ alone and so the principal lesson of the parable in verse 7

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Jesus concluded with the words I say to you that likewise there will be more joy and have it over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who no repentance the

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Lord states the point quite forcibly God rejoices over every sinner that's brought to repentance from sin to himself he rejoices greatly as do the angels when any and every soul is brought to experience salvation and so the main object of the parable the main lesson of the parable not only is the behavior of Jesus justified in eating and drinking with sinners because he's performing the work of a shepherd seeking lost sheep but the attitude of the

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Pharisee and scribes is terribly wrong and conflicts with the purposes of God and then

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Jesus gave a second parable that's recorded for us in verses 8 through 10 and we can go quickly through this because it's really the same lesson it ratifies and doubles the emphasis of this lesson the parable of the lost coin or what woman having ten silver coins if she loses one does not light a lamp sweep the house search carefully until she finds it and when she's found it she calls her friends and neighbors together saying rejoice with me for I have found the peace which

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I lost likewise I say to you there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents and so this parable is a repetition of the first with respect to its lesson the search has begun she searches high and low for her lost coin she's not satisfied until that coin is restored to her she's persistent she knows it's there she'll not cease to look for it until it's recovered once again to quote

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Matthew Henry he wrote of this silver coin and what it says of the lost soul that the

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Lord seeks to find that which is lost is a piece of silver drachman the fourth part of a shekel the soul is silver of intrinsic worth and value not based metal as iron or lead but silver the mines of which are royal mines the

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Hebrew word for silver is taken from the desirableness of it it's a silver coin for so the drachma was it's stamped with God's image and superscription and therefore must be rendered to him and yet it is comparatively but a small value it was but seven pence half penny

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Henry with his British coinage intimating that if sinful men be left to perish

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God would be no loser this silver was lost in the dirt he's really treating it more like an allegory a soul plunged in the world and overwhelmed with the love of it and care about it it's like a piece of money of the dirt anyone would say it's a thousand pities that it should lie there but again the search is successful just as the shepherd found his lost sheep this woman finds her lost coin and then immediately calls her friends to share the good news with them and then again the lesson is drawn the

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Lord again states the point quite forcefully God rejoices over every sinner that's brought to repentance from sin unto himself he rejoices greatly as the angels watch when any and every soul is brought to experience salvation the words of verse 10 are essentially a repetition of the words in verse 7

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Jesus said regarding the lost sheep returned to the fold by the shepherd I say to you likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and over 99 just persons who need no repentance and the

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Lord concluded with the same essential idea in verse 10 likewise

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I say to you there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents and by the way when

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Jesus said there would be joy in the presence of the angels of God perhaps he was referring to the angels themselves rejoicing or maybe he was alluding to God the

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Father rejoicing in the presence of the angels at the return of this sinner unto himself nevertheless

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I'm sure that all in heaven rejoice in the sinner's salvation as should we so again the main object lesson of the parable is this not only is the behavior of Jesus justified in eating and drinking with sinners because he's performing the work of a shepherd seeking his sheep but the attitude of the

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Pharisees and the scribes terribly wrong their desires conflict with the purposes of God a shepherd rejoices with the successful finding and recovering of his lost sheep a woman who's recovered a lost coin rejoices and it's most reasonable that her friends should rejoice with her and it should it not be most reasonable that people should rejoice with God in the recovery of a sinner why we should desire it and delight in it when we see

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God doing a wonderful work of grace in the most wretched of people because again the greater the sinner that saved the greater glory that's brought to God that he would even do such a thing amen may the

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Lord use us to be as our Lord Jesus seeking and saving that which is lost let's pray we thank you father for these encouraging words and though we've read some very difficult and hard sayings regarding becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ we recognize our

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God that our response to you in repentance and faith and becoming follower

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Jesus coming after him is truly due to a work of grace you having sought us out and subdued us onto yourself we surrender unconditionally to you our

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God and we thank you for bringing us into your kingdom Jesus Christ is our

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Lord and our Savior and we rejoice in that and help us our

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God help us Lord Jesus to be your instruments in this fallen world to call many lost sheep back into your fold that you would use us our

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God as your spokespersons help us our God to be friends of sinners

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Lord wicked people as we did truly desire their salvation that they would experience the mercy your mercy your love of your love