The Better Sacrifice (Hebrews 9:23-28 Jeff Kliewer)

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The Better Sacrifice Hebrews 9:23-28 Jeff Kliewer

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Good morning, everyone. We are going to get started this morning with a few announcements.
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We're so thankful and glad that you could be with us here this morning to worship. Our Isaiah study is continuing to meet.
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It will be meeting this week as well. We are up to Lesson 26. If you're unable to attend in person on Wednesday, that we have this inherent knowing that we have.
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If you could stand with me. Praises rising, eyes are turning to you.
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We turn to you. Gold is staring, hearts are yearning for you.
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We long for you. It's when we see you, we find strength to face the day.
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In your presence all our fears are washed away. Washed away.
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Hosanna, Hosanna. You are the
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God who saves us. Worthy of all our praises.
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Hosanna, Hosanna. Come have your way among us.
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We welcome you here, Lord Jesus. Hear the sound of hearts returning to you.
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Return to you. In your kingdom broken lives are made new.
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You make us new. It's when we see you, we find strength to face the day.
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In your presence all our fears are washed away.
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Washed away. Hosanna, Hosanna.
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You are the God who saves us. Worthy of all our praises.
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Oh, you hear,
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Lord Jesus. It's when we see you, we find strength to face the day.
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And in your presence all our fears are washed away.
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It's when we see you, we find strength to face the day.
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And in your presence all our fears are washed away.
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Washed away. O Zeno, O Zeno You are the
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God who saves us Worthy of all our praises
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O Zeno here,
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Lord Jesus O Zeno, O Zeno You are the
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God who saves us Worthy of all our praises
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O Zeno here, Lord Jesus O Zeno, O Zeno You are the
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God who saves us
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So freely from above Lifting gratitude and praises
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For compassion so amazing For we've come to give you thanks
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For all you've done Because of your love
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We're forgiven Because of your love
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Hearts are clean We lift you up With songs of freedom
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Forever we're changed Because of your love
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Sing that again As we come into your presence As we come into your presence
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We remember every blessing That you poured out so freely from above Lifting gratitude and praises
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For compassion so amazing For we've come to give you thanks
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For all you've done Because of your love
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We're forgiven Because of your love
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Our hearts are clean We lift you up With songs of freedom
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Forever we're changed Because of your love
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Because of your love, Jesus And Jesus told it to Jerusalem As he led them toward the city gates
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An amazing thing happened The crowd around Jesus became bigger and bigger Hundreds and thousands of people
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Poured out of the city to welcome him Cheering and shouting They called him the son of David It was a welcome fit for a king
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Just outside Jerusalem There was a wooden hillside Called the
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Mount of Olives When Jesus reached this place He sent two of his disciples to get a donkey
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Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey Many of the people tore palm branches
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Off the nearby trees And waved the palms for Jesus The people saw
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Jesus as their king The one who would deliver them from the Romans But Jesus was not that kind of a king
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He rode on a donkey to show the people That he was on a mission of peace When Jesus entered
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Jerusalem It seemed the whole city was shouting Hosanna to the son of David Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
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Lord Even as the people cheered him that day in Jerusalem Jesus knew they would soon betray him
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Kill him and he would rise from the dead Today Jesus is seated on his heavenly throne
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Ruling and governing his church from heaven The way Christ governs his church Is through the
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Holy Spirit That regenerates and sanctifies the heart Of those who believe and trust
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Christ For personal forgiveness from sin Crown Him with many crowns
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The Lamb upon His throne
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Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
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All music but its own
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Awake my soul and sing
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Of Him who died for me
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And hail Him as thy bachelor's king
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Through all eternity Majesty Lord of all
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Let every throne before Him fall
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The King of kings O come adore
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Our God who reigns forevermore
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Who triumphed o 'er the grave
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Victorious in the strife For those
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He came to save His glories now we sing
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Who died and rose on high
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Who died eternal life to make
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And lives that death may die
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Majesty Lord of all
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Let every throne before Him fall
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The King of kings O come adore
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Our God who reigns forevermore
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All hail Redeemer hail
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For He has died for me
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His praise and glory shall not fail
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Throughout eternity All hail
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Redeemer hail For He has died for me
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His praise and glory shall not fail
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Throughout eternity Majesty Lord of all
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Let every throne before Him fall
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The King of kings O come adore
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Our God who reigns forevermore
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Praise God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the
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God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore
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You're the God who reigns forevermore You're the God who reigns forevermore But I wanted to read for you page 19 of this letter
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I got from my Aunt Pauline where Paul tells the story of his reunion with his wife
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Now when he was on that train he began to store food because he didn't know if when he was getting back his family would have had food themselves
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So he had a little bread box 11 by 7 where he had packed as much Russian bread into it as he possibly could
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So he had his Bible and his bread box on the train on his way back to see his family
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I took my little bread box in which I had the Russian black bread and my
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Bible my bread of life I took both my Bible and my bread box to the USA as mementos of my time in Russian captivity
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Because the Bible was given to me twice it has become especially valuable to me The Russian bread box has turned into a shoe polish box
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This is him writing in 1966 We walked through Grano Park and I was chatting with the mail carrier
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Jacob Benz We turned a corner and suddenly I saw my wife coming toward me
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She wanted to be sure that she was the one to get me from Grano A Mrs.
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Fast who now lives in Canada had come with her This reunion remains totally unforgettable
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We were reunited by the hand of our good shepherd To him be all praise
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We walked together to the resettlement center in Ypres I was used to camp life
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We walked past the refugee hospital not knowing that I would have to spend time here to heal my lungs
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But the physician of all physicians has done everything well As we neared the camp our children came toward us
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They did not recognize their father This was the greatest wound
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I had ever received Now remember he had been shot He had been crushed
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But he said this was his greatest wound The bond between father and children had been broken
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Seven years But thank God this did not continue for long
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After the children became Christians they were fully restored To God's glory I can say that all of our children have received full assurance of salvation
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And I can testify as the nephew of Henry and Herb and my
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Aunt Marty and one of my aunts I didn't really know, Aunt Tilly She died in a car accident
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Herbie, Willie, Henry all of them and my father Walt, all of them know the
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Lord and have walked Four of them have passed on to glory But they continued with that assurance of salvation which was the most important thing to Paul It says at the entrance to the camp
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I was greeted with a song from my family and relatives It could hardly contain my tears
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They were singing worship music as he came in There was a welcome cake God will reward those for their love
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What happened to my black bread I do not know, but my wife had just received some white bread This wonderful reunion occurred on August 8th, 1948
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For over seven years we had lived in servitude and domination by two power hungry men
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More or less I had suffered under both Because when a dictator rules you are enslaved
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Here in the Mennonite center run by Christian men and women from America, freedom ruled
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In this center nobody needed to be hungry or cold Here we had freedom of religion, freedom to express our opinions and freedom to work
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Here in America we have freedom The question is why is it that in Germany the most
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Christian of countries the seat of the Protestant Reformation the place where Martin Luther nailed the 95
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Theses, how is it that many years later it became the seat of totalitarian nationalism
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How is it that Russia which was Orthodox and supposed
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Christianity departed so far that it banned Bibles and burned the ones that they could find
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What happened? The story does not begin with Adolf Hitler It really comes to climax with Adolf Harnack who died in 1930
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He was the most popular theologian in Germany and he along with the German higher critics had dismantled the
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Bible Harnack's work that he wrote was against Christian dogma
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Harnack said that the enemy was the dogmatic teaching of the doctrines of the
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Bible But he wanted to keep Christianity and redefine it in social terms
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So Walter Rauschenbusch who studied under Harnack in Germany came to America preaching the social gospel
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And in the 1910s that movement gained strength in America The best selling book in America was written on the social gospel by Rauschenbusch However when the first world war happened the
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German teaching of higher criticism went into disfavor And so America didn't go that way but Germany did
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And by the time Hitler came to power the so called Christians in Germany did not believe the doctrine and the dogma of the church.
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There were very few left in that remnant church in Germany That explains what happened They chose a social gospel over the dogma of Christianity And Russia the same thing without having biblical doctrinal teaching
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They got swept up in a political social movement instituted and instigated by Karl Marx Communist Manifesto It was born forth in Russia in the
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USSR That explains how it is that nominally Christian people can turn into totalitarian lunatics and destroy the world
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Couldn't happen here though right? Because we rejected that in the 1910s Just this week
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I read from the leading anti -racist in America His name is Ibram X.
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Kendi He wrote the book How to Be an Anti -Racist But interestingly language in Newspeak Orwellian Newspeak often means the opposite of what the word is given
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Anti -racism can mean racism But the real enemy of Kendi is the evangelical who preaches the old rugged cross
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It's actually not a political issue What the Russians did demonically under Stalin was opposition to the dogma of Christianity And Hitler's hatred was ultimately a hatred of God In the same way when
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Kendi is writing today and popularized all across America Jesus was a revolutionary and the job of the
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Christian is to revolutionize society He's only repeating
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Rauschenbusch He's only recirculating the old social gospel
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The job of the Christian is to liberate society from the powers on earth that are oppressing humanity.
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So who are the powers on earth that are oppressing humanity? In short those powers are the evangelical
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Christians That is the enemy of liberation theology.
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Liberation theology opposes Savior theology according to Kendi. And what is
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Savior theology? He says the form of Christianity that 80 % of white evangelicals have when they voted for Donald Trump This is the job of the
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Christian to go out and save individuals who are behaviorally deficient.
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Now watch this Those evangelicals and he's concerned about who they vote for not
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I These evangelicals are trying to change people who are behaviorally deficient.
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This is very important. In other words we are to bring them into the church. These individuals who are doing all these evil sinful things and heal them and save them
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Well that goes right in line with racist ideas and racist theology
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Evangelicals say the reason many people are struggling on earth is because what they're doing is behaviorally wrong
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And it's my job as a pastor to sort of save these wayward black people or wayward poor people or wayward queer people
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That type of theology breeds bigotry So anti -racist must fundamentally reject
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Savior theology Liberation theology breeds a common humanity against those structures of power that oppress us all
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Catch the language of Kendi because it's the language of Harnack Before there was an
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Adolf Hitler there was an Adolf Harnack And before the next totalitarian arises there will be many theologians going out claiming to be
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Christian but opposing the message of the cross We preach a heavenly message
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We preach about invisible realities What Christ accomplished on the cross
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The death for sinners And in that gospel we call men to repentance
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We call sin what it is And we call for people to repent of sin and turn to Christ who was crucified.
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We preach the meaning of the cross which is the subject today in Hebrews 9 23 -28
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We are looking in Hebrews 9 23 -28 about the meaning of the cross, the better sacrifice, but I set this story up this way for a very important reason.
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Our culture is beginning to silence Christians the way it was done a hundred years ago in Germany and in Russia and any place that communism has ever gone it is the message of the cross that must be silenced
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Let's read from Hebrews 9 23 -28 The context of Hebrews 9 23 -28 is about Jesus being the superior
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He is the superior person, he is the superior priest he has a superior covenant and now in chapter 9 we are seeing how his sacrifice is superior but these are heavenly realities these are doctrinal matters and the teaching of social religion is that doctrine doesn't matter heavenly realities are just private beliefs what matters is society and politics and social religion that's the teaching of our culture but it stands in direct opposition to the word of God and the necessity of the death of Jesus for sinners.
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Let's read it first and then we'll see three points. How the death of Jesus was heavenly, it was satisfactory and it saves those who wait for him thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these for Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands which are copies of the true things but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world but as it is he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment so Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will appear a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him so when
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Jesus came to Jerusalem the first time what were the people looking for a political revolutionary, someone that can overthrow the oppressive
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Roman power structure, the ones that were holding down the Jews when
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Jesus didn't do that and the Jewish people saw him beaten and bloody and about to be crucified they turned on him very quickly he didn't come for that kind of social deliverance from oppression, he came to deliver from sin, he came to save sinners like us and he will come again to bring righteousness to the earth and full justice in every way, shape and form but that appears at his second coming here in verse 23 we see the first major idea the necessity of the death of Jesus now as we look at these verses 23 and 24
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I want you to see the contrast between Old Testament bloodshed and the offering of Jesus and this is precisely what the world does not want us talking about this is very heavenly this is very invisible and you know the death of those animals that Moses instituted that began 4000 years ago and it stopped in 70
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AD the death of Jesus that's almost 2000 years ago and so it's very arcane and the world wants to say it's irrelevant, that's just a matter of private belief and history and whatever you want to think of it, that's how the world will cast this conversation but the word necessary the fourth word here, thus it was necessary for the copies indicates how important this subject actually is as old as those sacrifices were, the sprinkling of blood on the book and on the altar and on every article in the tabernacle, this was very important and especially so because it reveals something about Jesus Christ in my
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Bible I've circled the words but, not and but in verses 23 and 24 the reason
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I did that is because the meaning here is one of contrast we're supposed to see one thing in contrast with another, there's some reality that we're supposed to look at and then look at Christ and by seeing the two things in contrast to one another the glory of the superior shines forth thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites we need to think about all the bloodshed of the
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Old Testament how everything had to be sprinkled with blood, but the heavenly things with better sacrifices than these, all of that bloodshed in the
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Old Testament was to point to a heavenly reality, the idea here is that what was happening in the tabernacle was earthly the articles were man made, the tabernacle itself was made by human hands but what
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Jesus does in contrast to that is heavenly you have earthly sacrifices and now you have a heavenly sacrifice for Christ has entered verse 24, not into holy places made with hands which are the copies of the true things but into heaven itself the idea here is that the tabernacle with all its articles, that was made after the pattern of what
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God saw in heaven so when you picture heaven I want you to imagine what the tabernacle held being there tables and show bread cherubim, angels not carved and made by human hands, but actual angels worshipping in the presence of God, holy holy holy, kadosh kadosh they sing all day long picture that but the essence of heaven is found in verse 24 it is the presence of God you see when
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Jesus died on the cross he didn't just merely do an earthly transaction as he was hung up between heaven and earth from heaven's viewpoint he was entering heaven by his dying and opening a new and living way tearing the veil between God and man he was opening heaven to us you see here's the problem sinners cannot go to heaven the sexually immoral cannot go to heaven those with fits of rage can never go to heaven the liar can never go to heaven the thief can never go to heaven there can be no sin in the presence of God think of that for a moment his eyes are too pure to look upon evil this is the issue, it says in verse 23, it was necessary to cleanse the earthly things how much more the very presence, the very throne room of God, the presence of God was shut off from us, unless someone can go there on our behalf and open the way, we need a forerunner verse 24, so here he goes on our behalf, so the big first idea is that we're dealing now with something heavenly his sacrifice is not merely earthly we are talking about eternal heavenly realities and here is where the essence of the gospel comes forth, verses 25 and 26 nor, nor is a contrast right, nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world but as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself so the analogy here that we're to think about, shifts to Leviticus 16, there's a great high priest, once a year he can go into the holy of holies and offer blood on the mercy seat but even though he does that as soon as he does it they're accruing sin again and the very next year on Yom Kippur, he could go in again, he must go again and offer the same sacrifice all over again so the point of contrast is that a high priest has to keep doing the same thing over and over again 1500 years this goes on and it never satisfies
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God it's never satisfactory now kids, have you ever gotten an
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S on your report card when you were in elementary school S means satisfactory but it's not the best grade right, it's not excellent it's like okay, it's satisfactory you pass, you can move on now when
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I say satisfactory I don't mean it in that sense satisfactory means it meets the needs of the case turns out that what
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Jesus does in satisfying God's demand it is outstanding and it's perfect and it's absolutely grand and amazing but I want to talk for a moment about the meaning of satisfaction because this is the essence of the gospel picture these priests again and again offering the same sacrifice as a covering for sin but it never satisfies it's never satisfactory do it again another year rolls around do it again, the contractor comes to your house and he rebuilds your kitchen and it looks worse than when he started, you say do it again, it's not satisfactory it's a job left undone, satisfaction by contrast to those earthly sacrifices this heavenly sacrifice is satisfactory satisfactory it accomplishes the thing that it was sent to do this is so important for understanding the gospel turn with me or look in your notes,
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I have it here printed if you have the notes to the sermon to Isaiah 53 verses 10 to 12
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Isaiah 53 is one of the clearest pictures of the meaning of satisfaction we've already been told in Isaiah 53 that all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to his own way but the
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Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all we're wandering sheep, we're just doing what we want to do sinfully but God has given a lamb and laid the sin of the wandering sheep on the lamb now look at verses 10 to 12 this explains the concept of satisfaction yet it was the will of the
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Lord to crush him he has put him to grief when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, the will of the
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Lord shall prosper in his hand consider that for a moment when
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Jesus died on the cross did he die a victim? did he try to lead a revolution?
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but failed to lead the revolution for lack of power and victimized by the
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Romans he was strung up on the cross is that the case? God forbid says in verse 23
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I'm sorry, in Isaiah 53 10, it was the will of the
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Lord to crush him he has put him to grief the father crushed the son how could this be?
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when his soul makes an offering for guilt he shall see his offspring we are the offspring of this transaction he shall prolong his days though he be crushed, he will rise the will of the
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Lord shall prosper in his hand, listen to this out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied, the doctrine of satisfaction is crucial for understanding the gospel that the father was satisfied with the death of the son as a payment for a particular people, who are these people?
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it says by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities, there is a people called the many, whose iniquities he bears in his body this is a substitution there are many people, now, the
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Israelites thought it was only them, in Leviticus 16, the high priest would go in and he would offer a sacrifice only for the assembly of Israel he wasn't paying for the
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Amorite and the Moabite and the Egyptian anybody else on earth it was for the assembly but in the
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New Testament, in Ephesians 3, we learn that God has extended this out to anybody who calls on the name of the
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Lord and what seemed like a small group, the nation of Israel, is actually the many all the earth, all who would come in faith but notice, it's particularly for their iniquities the many's iniquities therefore
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I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors now
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I recognize we are wading into some very deep waters I also recognize that the spirit of the living
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God can make heavenly realities known to the minds of children, deep subjects taught by a deep
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God, the spirit of God can teach us these realities and the essence of the gospel is that the
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Father has accepted the death of Jesus, the one and his one time payment for sin in the place of the many in Mark 10 45 we're told that Jesus is a ransom for the many in Ephesians 5 25,
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Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
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Jesus gave his precious blood in our place a heavenly transaction that actually satisfied
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God when Jesus was nailed to the cross his blood flowed but he intended that blood for you who believe in him it counts and here's what many people miss if God were to look upon a sinner and just wink at that sin and say you know
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I'm going to be merciful to you and pass over the sinner and not punish that sin if God were to do that he would not be a just God when we speak of justification justification means to be declared righteous and we are declared righteous before God but justification is not only a declaration over us it is the justification of God how is it that a righteous and holy
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God can be holy and yet admit sinners like us into the very presence of the throne room of God how can sinners stand in the presence of a holy
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God if he's just he must punish sin Romans 3 24 and 25 teach us that he made a propitiation for sin in the blood of the son in order that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in him in other words
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God vindicated his own righteousness he upheld his own justice he demonstrated to the world that he is righteous and he actually punished your sin if he doesn't punish your sin if he only has mercy he's not a just God but if he does punish your sin without mercy you go to an eternal hell away from him this is the great conundrum this is the great human problem we fell in sin in the garden and God is too holy to just overlook that and so the meaning of this life the meaning of life is that God sent his one and only son they call him
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Jesus and he was hung on a cross to take into his body the payment for sin that we deserve this is the gospel this is the meaning that I'm afraid that most evangelicals who claim the name evangelical in America do not understand know or believe that God it was necessary go back to Hebrews 9 .23
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it was necessary for God to punish sin in this way to satisfy his own character the attribute of his justice which is a part of himself to satisfy the demands of justice he had to sacrifice the son in our place he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself does that make you love him?
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does it make you love the priest who did not bring blood not his own verse 25 like all the others had to do for all those thousands of years blood not their own sprinkled on the mercy seat but our priest sacrificed himself he brings his own blood and makes the payment of his own life lastly verse 27 and 28 we've seen the contrast in verse 23 and 25 earthly heavenly repeated final now we see a comparison that's a similitude 27 just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment so Christ so this is not a point of contrast it's a point of similarity and we often take verse 27 kind of as a proof text to fight against reincarnation and stuff like that and that's not wrong because it says what it says but look at the context here it's a similarity between one thing and another verse 27 is what all of you know and everybody who listens to this sermon you know this and verse 28 is the revelation that you can't know apart from this special revelation this bible 27 says just as it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes judgment you know according to Romans 1 20 that there is a
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God with eternal power and divine nature you know according to the law of conscience your own conscience sometimes excusing you other times holding you guilty you know that you cannot stand before that God it is appointed to man to die once and after that face judgment every person knows that but they suppress the truth
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I was watching a Ray Comfort video which I would recommend he evangelizes on the street
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Ray Comfort was out and there was a girl who had right here on her collar tattooed the word mortem mortem which means death and Ray Comfort picked up on that as he was evangelizing this poor girl and preached the gospel to her and pointed out that you bear death as a mark over you you know that you will die and the reason for death is sin but then he turned and preached the good news that there is one who died that turning to him you would not die but live and she rejected that gospel but you could see in her eyes that she knew every person that you talk to evangelistically knows that there is a
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God they suppress the truth and ungodliness they exchange the truth of God for a lie and make idols, images in exchange for what they know they're suppressing what they know there's coming a judgment every person knows that they're going to die.
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I preached a funeral on Monday and the text that I chose was Ecclesiastes 7 -2 because it says it's better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting because people recognize that they're going to die and they take it to heart you see everybody knows they're going to die but that is a thought that they suppress from their minds it's intrinsic to all people to know that you will one day stand before a holy
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God and so verse 27 draws on that common knowledge that's just common knowledge makes me think of I have a cousin, actually two other cousins became pastors
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John Fillmore and John Cleward John Fillmore was older than we were growing up and we were trying to quiz him because we thought he was the smartest man on earth and John if you ever watch that we still think that if he's watching online one day, but I just remember this one event that happened,
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I don't know why I'm telling this story just to lighten the mood for a second he said, we asked him, he said John, what's the capital of India?
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And he said Calcutta, and me and my brother's like what? How do you know this?
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That's amazing you know the capital of India, we had no clue the capital of India this guy knows everything and he said it's common knowledge and that's the point here in verse 27, listen there is a common knowledge just common knowledge, everybody knows that you're gonna die everybody knows there's a
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God and you'll stand in judgment now, here's the point of similarity and then we're done, verse 28 so Christ having been offered once so just as everybody's gonna die and you know that death is waiting for you, there is one who died, and he died once he didn't go to judgment for his own sin, he was judged on the cross and he bore the sins of many the same particular people that we saw in Isaiah 53 the many he will appear a second time not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him
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Jesus came the first time once, and made a heavenly transaction, a sacrifice that actually satisfied
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God he bore away our sin and put those sins away on the cross for who?
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The many, and who are the many? Those who eagerly wait for him you put your faith in what he did in his first coming, and you look for him to come and establish justice on earth, it's the believer so in closing the heavenly meaning of the cross that Jesus died for God he died to satisfy
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God's demand that the one who sins must die he died as a substitute sacrifice for us those who believe in him, the many all around the world who call upon the name and wait on his coming did you know that in 2016
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Russia outlawed evangelism they made it illegal to preach the gospel we actually had and have missionaries that we support that we are friends with that we knew from school, from seminary and Angela and Petra were kicked out of Russia because they could no longer evangelize there and that phenomenon is not
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Russia alone China is doing the same thing Nepal did the same thing Sri Lanka did the same thing you'd say well we're probably safe from that here in the west because we have the first amendment in America right, we're good just look at our northern neighbor
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Canada that just imprisoned James Coates for preaching the gospel fortunately by God's grace he's now out after a month in prison
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Anatoly Chendomarov was handing out tracts that said you must be born again in Russia this last year during the
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COVID thing he was fined 6 ,000 rubles Sergey Krasnov was passing out
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Christian newspapers and New Testaments in Krasnodar a city in the south, he was fined 5 ,000 rubles
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Soi Jen Wook, a South Korean met with about 10 people in a private home in the western
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Ural mountains to talk about the good news of Jesus he told the people they should come back and bring friends he was fined 30 ,000 rubles and deported in the first six months of 2020 more than 40 people had been punished for violating the
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Russian anti -missionary law Russia's only about 2 %
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Protestant, I don't know what percent we are politically it's not impossible that we will face a day where we will be told that you can no longer preach in this name it can happen in our lifetime easily by the speed at which things have progressed in the last year or two those who gather under the lordship of Jesus Christ under his headship, the lord of all obey him in gathering to worship him and yet governments, even in America with the first amendment, have saw fit to shut those churches down this happened and whatever reason that they give
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Christ is lord over that even if the government doesn't tell you that you must not preach in the name of Jesus the entire culture around you is saying exactly that your co -workers are saying that preaching the gospel according to Ibram Kendi is racist you're trying to impose your beliefs upon other people this is the
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America in which we live this is the
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Germany of the 1920's that Harnack was leading before Hitler took over I don't think it has to go that way here because what if every pastor who believes in the blood of Jesus and the cross of Jesus Christ and the supremacy of Christ overall were to stand up and tell the people we will not be silent we will preach in his name that's what
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I'm doing right now and my charge to you as we go from this place is no matter how much your culture or your school or your administrator or your boss tells you that you must not preach in this name the louder they get, the louder you get do not let them silence you
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I think that the German pastors were complicit in what happened certainly the state church, they bowed to the
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Hitler regime even the confessing church was largely compromised the holocaust wouldn't have happened if those who claimed to be
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Christians would have stood up when that tyrant stood but the culture was like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego the three of them stood against that wicked culture in Babylon where everybody else was kneeling to the idol going from this place today will you speak the name will you tell about the heavenly transaction will you call sinners to repent no matter what they call you
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I guarantee you they'll make fun of you I expect the day is coming where they'll look for ways to punish you certainly cancel culture will take you off of YouTube this might be my last
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YouTube sermon, I don't know but we'll keep preaching so let's pray so Father we're thinking about heavy things today
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Lord just realizing that it's less than a hundred years ago that the entire world devolved into war and that war was ultimately against the dogma of Christianity against the cross of Christ and yet greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world
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I thank you for sending valiant men mostly flying the banner of the cross to fight off Adolf Hitler, American soldiers and British soldiers
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I thank you for that political reality but Lord even more than what we can do politically raising our voice and voting and things of that nature,
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I pray that you would raise up a people who preaches the heavenly message
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I pray that you would stir up every Christian in this room right now and every person listening online that they would get bold with the gospel that they would no longer cower in fear of a culture that is rapidly departing a culture that's becoming aggressive against the gospel of Jesus Christ we do pray for Pastor Coates as he goes to trial in May in Canada, that he would be victorious we thank you for men like John McArthur who have stood up to tyrants like Newsome who would try to silence the gospel in California we pray for every pastor in this country that has failed to open and preach the good news of Jesus Christ that you would give them boldness this day, to say enough is enough and to gather and preach
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Christ and Him crucified pray that you would awaken that sleeping giant
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Lord, there are many who call upon your name in this land you said that it is the many that you died for and we pray that all those who are called by your name would eagerly look for you and stand for you until you come, give us boldness to go forth from this place preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ without fear, without shame not subject to false guilt messages that come from deceptive liars thank you
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Jesus for your cross thank you for dying for us thank you for your mercy towards sinners we don't deserve it for sin is great but your mercy is more in Jesus name we pray, amen let's stand and worship joyfully praise the
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Lord His mercy is more stronger than darkness than you every more our sins they are many
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His mercy is more love could remember no wrongs we have done omniscient all knowing
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He counts not their sum thrown into a sea without bottom or shore our sins they are many
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His mercy is more praise the
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Lord His mercy is more
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His mercy stronger than darkness than you every more our sins they are many
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His mercy is more patience would wait as we constantly remember our
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Father so tender He's calling us home our sins they are many
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His mercy is more praise the
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Lord His mercy is more oh stronger than darkness than you every more our sins they are many
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His mercy is more riches of kindness
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He lavished on us His blood was the payment
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His life was the cost we stood beneath the dead our sins they are many
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His mercy is more so much more praise the
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Lord His mercy is more stronger stronger than darkness than you every more our sins they are many
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His mercy is more praise the
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Lord His mercy is more stronger than darkness than you every more our sins they are many
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His mercy is more our sins they are many
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His mercy is more our sins they are many
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His mercy is more take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
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Spirit which is the Word of God praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the
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Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak