The Story of The Kingdom of God

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Good morning. How are you Saints? Good morning Let's get right into it.

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This is a study on the gospel of the kingdom There's so much to discuss and so much. I'm excited to discuss and actually after singing that last song

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I think we can probably just end now that kind of just told the whole story Jesus King of Kings.

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Is that my microphone? That's going crazy. It's this one Okay, so I'll be careful of that one

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If you would open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 4 the gospel according to Matthew chapter 4

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We have been in the study at Apologia Church for like 20 years on this book But I will do my best not to do that to you this morning

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We're gonna study Matthew chapter 4. We're talking today about the gospel of the kingdom the good news of the kingdom

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I want you to as you're getting there consider That Terminology the good news of the kingdom.

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Do we know what that means? Why is it good news? Because it's what Jesus was preaching.

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So in Matthew gospel according to Matthew Chapter 4 we're gonna start in verse 8 in verse 8

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This is actually right after some of the trial of Jesus the temptation of Jesus, you know the section of Scripture We're gonna leave or start the discussion here with this last temptation of the

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Lord Jesus in the wilderness in verse 8 Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said

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To them all these to him and all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me

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Then Jesus said to him be gone Satan for it is written You shall worship the

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Lord your God and him only shall you serve Then the devil left him and behold

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Angels came and were ministering to him now when he heard that John had been arrested

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He withdrew into Galilee and leaving Nazareth He went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali So that what was spoken by the

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Prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled The land of Zebulun in the land of Naphtali the way of the sea beyond the

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Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light and for those dwelling in the region of the shadow of Death on them a light is dawned from that time

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Jesus began to preach Saying repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand

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While walking by the sea of Galilee He saw two brothers Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen and he said to them follow

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Me and I'll make you fishers of men Immediately, they left their nets and followed him and going on from there

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He saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat was Zebedee their father

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Mending their nets and he called them immediately, they left their boat and their father and followed him and He went throughout all

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Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and Healing every disease and every affliction among the people as far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word.

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Let's pray together Lord we come before you today Redeemed forgiven not condemned because you've saved us

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Father you chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and Lord Jesus. We worship you we glorify you and give you all

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Honor because you live the righteous and sinless life that we have not that we do not and that we will not

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You died a death that we deserve and you rose again from the grave. You are ascended. You are seated.

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We give you glory We worship you and we ask God that you had blessed Lord this message that goes out today

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For the glory of Christ and his kingdom that you would change our minds and our hearts that you would adjust our

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Thinking Lord so that it is renewed and transformed into the way that you think We pray that you'd bless

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Lord the teaching today by your spirit that you'd get the teacher out of the way that people would forget Me and remember you in Jesus name.

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Amen So this is of course a familiar part of scripture for most people, right?

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I mean if again you're new to the Bible and you are New to the

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New Testament if you've at least started off at the beginning of the New Testament You've gotten to Matthew and that's the beginning portion of the

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New Testament and hopefully you've made it into chapter 4 But what's interesting here is a little bit of background

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Matthew is One of the four Gospels you have the synoptic Gospels the

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Gospels you can sort of put together It means seeing together and you've got the gospel according to John my favorite gospel very intimate

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Portrait of the Lord Jesus some of my favorite verses and all of scripture in the gospel according to John but in Matthew It's clear that Matthew has an orientation that is very specifically geared towards the

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Jewish mind the Jewish understanding and Matthew is Explaining the gospel in a way that somebody who has been to synagogue has heard these scriptures

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Understands Matthew is quoting he does so right here. He's actually quoting from Isaiah this is a

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Hebrew written book long before the time of Jesus is something written about that 700 years before the time of Jesus You can see in Matthew as he opens up He opens up with a direct line right back to the story of Israel So I would argue actually there's two different genealogies in the

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New Testament for Jesus. No, it's not a contradiction We need two different genealogies of Jesus or we don't have

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Jesus as a Messiah. That's a long sermon I can't preach right now, but praise God for the two different genealogies of Jesus.

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I would argue one is Mary Physical in the gospel according to Luke and one is actually here showing that Jesus has a right to the kingly line of David through his adopted father

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Joseph and so Matthew starts off with an explanation that Jesus has a right to the royal throne of David It's specific

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Matthew's gospel actually starts with the genealogy that leads back to the kingly right of the

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Lord Jesus whereas Mary's line is the physical descendant back to David we have in Matthew this immediate

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Testimony in the genealogy of Jesus that he's the king He's a long -anticipated king and that's really really important because Matthew's Emphasis is on the kingdom the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven and really important thing

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We need to communicate here is that oftentimes we bring our Gentile understanding to Hebrew Scriptures We hear the word heaven and we think of this sort of gassy

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Spiritual existence out there on the clouds with fat babies Using harps, right?

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So when we see Jesus talking about the kingdom of heaven We're thinking just about this spiritual existence that's out there somewhere

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Whereas in the Jewish mind, there's sort of a protection around the name of God So you'll see in the other

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Gospels where Matthew says kingdom of heaven They just say kingdom of God Matthew's trying to sort of protect maybe

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Jewish sensitivities surrounding the name of God So where you see Matthew saying kingdom of heaven think kingdom of God and what is the rule of God?

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It is his kingdom his rule his Authority over all the earth and all the world they were anticipating this

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So as Matthew opens his gospel and he's speaking about Jesus having the right to the royal throne of David that he is actually the king

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This is something that Jews were anticipating they were actually expecting it and I'm popping a lot aren't

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I is it this one? It's nice at this one here.

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Maybe we'll turn that one off because I don't really need it I don't even need the microphone to be honest with you So It's important to recognize here as you open up the gospel according to Matthew that this isn't a novelty now stop there

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And I want you to grab hold of that. Jesus isn't a novelty in history in the first century

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They were waiting for him the story of the gospel the gospel of the kingdom this entire

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Story of redemption of Jesus Christ is something that didn't just pop into history in the first century.

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They were Anticipating the whole thing is a matter of fact The Old Testament gives so many prophecies of Jesus that you actually have in the

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Old Testament all the details necessary to know Jesus Christ as Lord and in say and a

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Savior long before Jesus comes you have his Person you have the fact that he's

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God you have what he's gonna do You have where he's gonna come from you have why he's coming you have the whole story of redemption and even how he's gonna die for the sins of his people be cut off and die a violent death that he's gonna rise again from the dead in the

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Old Testament long before Jesus comes and Amazingly, you actually have a prophecy in Daniel chapter 9

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I can't even begin to unpack it right now that tells you that the Messiah is gonna come he's gonna be cut off He's gonna die a violent death before the destruction of the second

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Jewish temple Which was destroyed in 70 AD in the first century Jesus was cut off he died a violent death long before actually that Jewish temple was destroyed on time as Planned and interestingly in Daniel chapter 9 you actually have

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God giving to his people when the Messiah is coming Which is by the way Why there is this messianic fervor in the

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New Testament where everybody's essentially is this Messiah? He's the Messiah that's also why you had so many false messiahs in the first century

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We know about that in the New Testament record itself. We also know about it External to the

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New Testament and other historical documents that they were actually plagued with false messiahs in the first century

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Why is that? Because they were waiting because they were given word from God about when the

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Messiah was actually coming and Jesus comes on time and his plan so Matthew opens his gospel

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Immediately with giving you the details of Jesus genealogy showing you that he has a right to be king of the world

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He has the right to be the Messiah through his genealogy. Now, let's be honest most of us

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We get to the genealogies in Scripture. What do we do? We go? No, thanks. Let me move past I can't renounce most of those things.

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Anyways, right we just go right through it I'm gonna say praise God for that genealogy

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We need that genealogy to show us that God has kept his promises

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He's kept his promises, but as Matthew opens up you begin to even see that Matthew It's really glorious.

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By the way, Matthew is quoting Scripture He's saying this was to fulfill that verse and this was to fulfill that verse and he even begins to show

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Jesus as the true and perfect Israel Israel's story was but a shadow of Jesus Christ and his righteousness and his purpose his person where Jesus fails

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Sorry, where Israel fails Jesus is faithful. He is obedient So you begin to see that actually you have the story of Israel running alongside the story of Jesus where of course

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You know the story of of Herod trying to kill the baby Jesus and then them going and fleeing into Egypt and all the rest it's this

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Amazing story that's being retold but actually it's about Jesus now, you know this

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Israel has a history where Israel went into the wilderness and they wandered in the wilderness for how long?

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40 now what for they went into the wilderness and this is a time of testing where they were unfaithful

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God told him to do this and they did exactly the opposite They were bickering and they were moaning and they were disputing and they were arguing

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Israel goes into the wilderness Israel was supposed to be God's servant in the world. God's light in the world and Israel fails

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Israel disobeys God That's a powerful thing But Jesus the true and perfect Israel Matthew is showing you here in Matthew chapter 4 the

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Spirit of God drives Jesus into the wilderness Just like Israel But as Jesus is in the wilderness for 40

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Jesus the true and perfect Israel when he is tempted He goes directly to the

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Word of God. He is the faithful Israelite he is the one that we need we need his righteousness his obedience where Israel fails

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Jesus succeeds and Matthew is following that thought for the Jew.

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He is what we've been waiting for He is everything that we are not. He's the true king of the world

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It's a Jesus goes into the wilderness Satan Of course tempts Jesus and we get to this final temptation in the gospel according to Matthew and it's very interesting it comes at the very start of Matthew's gospel it for a

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Jew who knows the story of the kingdom the Expected story of the

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Messiah's kingdom. This will leap off the page It leaps right off the page

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Satanist is trying to give Jesus this trial and this temptation and Jesus is not only the that what

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Adam was supposed to be but what Israel was supposed to be and Satan is failing with Jesus because Jesus is going right back to obedience and Standing on the

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Word of God being faithful. He's rejecting Satan's temptations where Adam goes into it

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Jesus succeeds where Israel fails Jesus succeeds and prospers and in this section where it leaps off the page

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Satan tries to deliver the death blow to Jesus and what's he saying?

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He says as he takes him up to this very high mountain keep that in minds he takes

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Jesus up to a high Mountain and he does what? He shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

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Why is he doing this? Why is Jesus taking this this perfect Israelite?

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Why is Jesus taking the king to this high mountain and showing him all the kingdoms of the world and Their glory and he says to him all these

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I will give you if you will fall down and worship me That's it. What's happening here?

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If you know your Old Testament and you hear about kingdoms of the world and nations and a high mountain

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You know what's taking place here? This was what every Jew was expecting

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Isaiah chapter 2 Isaiah chapter 2 says that God is actually going to bring the nations

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He's gonna draw them up to his mountain The nations of the world are gonna flow up to God's mountain, by the way

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That's actually a really cool thing because water goes down mountains not up So God is drawing the nations up his mountain

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And it says that in this glorious story of the rule of God that the nations are gonna come up to God's mountain

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They're gonna come up to God's mountain and learn from God and love God's law and Satan brings

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Jesus who knows his Bible up to this great and high mountain and he says here's all the kingdoms of the world

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Here's all their glory. I'll give them to you. So Jesus no suffering. No cross.

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No pain You can get what you have come for king of Israel.

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You can have it all I'll give it to you now. No suffering. No cross. No wrath of God.

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All you have to do is bow down and worship me It's a powerful thing to offer to the one who's come to rule the entire world

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No pain, no cross. No suffering. No wrath of God Jesus. I'll just give you what you came for That's the summary of the story

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I'll give you what you came for if you would just bow down and worship me and Jesus of course has victory over Satan he says you shall worship the

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Lord your God and him him only shall you serve and Satan Tucks tail and leaves

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Jesus the angels minister to him But it's interesting here because it's one of those instances where I've said this a lot this week, right?

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God will say these glorious majestic things in his word and oftentimes we just let it go right over our heads

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How many guys are guilty that I'm guilty of that? You'll see things that are just powerful and audacious and amazing and you'll just let it go right past you

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And you won't stop to reflect on like what does it actually mean? How amazing is

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God and this hope we have for the future and oftentimes we admit this You'll read say the gospel according to Matthew you'll see

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Matthew quoting verses from the Old Testament and he'll say this was to fulfill what was written by the

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Prophet or in the scriptures and Interestingly, you just go right past it and you don't go check

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You'll see Matthew quote it and you don't go check. What was he quoting from? Why is that significant and what happens here after the temptation of Jesus is there's this quotation in Isaiah in verse 14 of chapter 4 it says so that what was spoken by the

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Prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled and There's a quotation here a section now stop.

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Don't cheat. Don't look in your phones Does anybody know what

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Matt and you can't say it either pastor, okay, does anybody know what what Matthew is quoting from?

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Nope, and I know a Matthew's quoting from right here Isn't this amazing because watch this if you know

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This is leaping off the page to the Jew who's been raised in synagogue. You see? Oh, he has the right to the royal throne

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Oh, he's the true and perfect Israel. Oh, he's being offered the kingdoms in this great and high mountain

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That's what the Messiah came for and then all of a sudden you have now this quotation in Matthew This was to fulfill what

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Isaiah said here. It's from Isaiah chapter 9 By the way, you know this section of scripture because it's that it contains the famous Christmas verse

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It contains the verse about the Son being given in the child and wonderful counselor El Gabor the everlasting father of the increase of his government end of peace there will be no end on the throne of David to establish you with justice and Righteousness forevermore the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will accomplish this. He's quoting from Isaiah chapter 9 I want you to see it go

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Isaiah chapter 9 go back in your Bibles to Isaiah Isaiah chapter 9 verse 1

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But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish in the former time He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea the land beyond the

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Jordan Galilee of the nations the people who walked in Darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness on them a light has shown

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You have multiplied the nation you have increased its joy They rejoice before you as with a joy at the harvest as they are glad when they divide the spoil

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So here is this this section that Matthew was quoting from he's taking pieces from Isaiah 9 saying this was to fulfill

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Isaiah 9 well, what else is in Isaiah chapter 9 Isaiah chapter 9 6

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Through 7 it says for to us a child is born to us A son is given and the government should be upon his shoulder and his name should be called wonderful counselor mighty

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God everlasting father prince of peace of the increase listen to it of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end on the throne of David and over his

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Kingdom to establish and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness

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From this time forth and forevermore the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. God's gonna do this

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He's doing this and in Matthew the gospel according to Matthew you have this powerful

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Testimony that Jesus is the fulfillment of all their hopes all their dreams He's the fulfillment of the promise of the promises of God in Scripture And Matthew is pointing us to the fact that Jesus came to receive this kingdom to draw the nations to God to establish

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Justice and righteousness to bring redemption and forgiveness. He's the fulfillment of it

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All Satan comes to offer it and says you can have it all with no suffering and Jesus obeys the father and here's what's interesting

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Jesus is preaching a message that would have been understood by the first century

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Jew and it's not so understood by the 21st century evangelical in the

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West This makes sense to them because this is the story God gave to them

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They understood that the kingdom of God the rule of the Messiah in the world meant the nations were coming to God salvation and forgiveness was coming and Justice and righteousness was gonna fill the earth because of the

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Messiah and his rule and his reign they understood this story It's leaping off the page. Oh Jesus is who we were expecting

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He's gonna bring that peace he's gonna establish justice and righteousness He's gonna draw the nations and Jesus is preaching a message that they understood

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They were waiting for this land is in darkness. This world is in darkness. There's so much injustice

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There is so much sin the nations don't know God They're rebels against God this world needs redemption

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God bring your kingdom Bring your promises to fulfillment they were just waiting and waiting and longing for this and then

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Jesus does something right after this It says in verse 23 and he went throughout all

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Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming here it is The good news of the kingdom the good news of the kingdom now, here's where we have to pause.

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Do we know what it means? Because you watch you ask that the average Christian today what's the good news and Well, typically have a good quick answer right good news of God's grace and forgiveness and salvation redemption

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Reconciliation and peace with God through what Christ has accomplished that solely as a gift through faith in his work

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You receive his righteousness. He takes all your guilt and shame God counts you as righteous and he doesn't count your sins against you

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We have this sort of down in terms of the heart of the gospel

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Justification through faith alone in Christ alone apart from any work Jesus did it all you got to come to him in faith and be hiding in him

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You can't bring your righteousness before God because it's just unrighteousness You can't brag before the throne of God You got to come to Jesus naked with empty hands and a mouth that is just open ready to receive living water

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This is a gift of God's grace. We tend to have that part of the story down We call it the gospel because it is the gospel.

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But what we're really talking about there is justification by faith in Christ It's an aspect of the gospel.

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We have truncated the gospel in the West today to simply mean justification by faith

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That's it as though that were all that the gospel encompasses justification by faith and when we typically mean and practice with this

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Is we mean that the story of the gospel for us today is really it's not about the rule of God in the world

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It's not about what Christ is gonna do in the entire world. Ultimately. You see the gospel is really very personalized

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It's just about me. It's about my own private intimates relationship with Jesus my own personal romance with Jesus That's really what it's about.

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It's about me, you know sort of maybe in some circles you know praying this magic prayer and then maybe one day

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I get to escape my Humanity and go off into this sort of lofty spiritual existence out there and leave behind this world and this

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Humanity to go out there to that higher story Someday people think sort of like that like the ultimate thing

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For the believers sort of escape this world in their humanity and go off into the spiritual existence out there somewhere, but that is actually not

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The whole story, let me give you an example here. Where will you spend eternity? Where where will you spend eternity when we're in the eternal state?

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Where will you spend eternity? Huh? here here

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You see we've been so Transformed in many ways by Gnostic thinking we've thought we've thought about heaven today as 21st century

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Evangelicals as again this gassy experience with clouds out there somewhere Whereas scripture actually tells a different story it talks about the rule and reign of Christ Salvation redemption coming in the ends of the earth and it talks about God bringing this old creation into a new creation

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It talks about God redeeming all of this It talks about God saving the nations establishing justice and righteousness and ultimately bringing about resurrection

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Where sin and curse came in Jesus goes and he finds that curse as far as it's found and he brings

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Redemption and salvation and renewal you will be in physical Resurrected bodies on this earth forever people ask that question.

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What are we gonna do in heaven one day my question what? What do you do now? What do you what do you do now?

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What do you mean? What do we do now? Look, what's heaven? What's heaven like? Look around you that yes, we're gonna have a transformed heavens and earth where heaven and earth are back together again

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Fully like they were in Genesis where God is walking among us.

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Yes, but where will it be? It'll be here in a physical world and physical bodies

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Resurrected renewed you see the story of the Bible is so much more comprehensive and beautiful But you see the

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Jews understood the Messiah was bringing a Kingdom and to them that was good news

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So when Jesus is here, he immediately says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand That means repent for the rule of God is at hands

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It's at fingertips reach right here and Jesus is going about proclaiming what they were waiting for The good news of God's rule the good news of the kingdom.

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The king is here. He's here to rule He's here to bring the nations He's pretty he's here to bring salvation and redemption and to bring justice and righteousness

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All those promises are going to be fulfilled in Christ. That's good news You see the good news is caught is called in Scripture the gospel it's also at times called

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God's gospel It's also called the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's also called the gospel of the kingdom

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Do we know what that means? Why is the kingdom of God good news? Well, I want to just ask the question is this peculiar Is this just a moment for Jesus that we don't know much about or was this the larger story that Jesus and the

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Apostles were? Preaching so we have limited time today So I just I'm gonna give you a just a couple of verses so you know where to go to unpack this later go to the end of the book of Acts the end of the book of Acts in Acts chapter 28

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The story just sort of cuts off right it Paul's awaiting trial in Rome and it just sort of ends kind of abruptly it's like almost like the story wasn't finished yet and What do you see the

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Apostle Paul doing is he's awaiting trial before he is ultimately beheaded What is he teaching?

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What is he preaching? It says in Acts chapter 28 verse 28 Therefore let it be known to you that this out this salvation of God has been sent to the

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Gentiles. They will listen They are waiting for that. They are waiting for not just Jews to come to God but also for the nation's that by the way is a promise over and over and Over and over again in the

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Old Testament that it was going to be Jews and Gentiles Experiencing redemption and salvation and that the families of the earth would return to worship

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Yahweh Psalm 22 That was the promise and now here we have Paul a Jew who knows the

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Jewish story Who knows the good news of God's kingdom and he's saying now what? This salvation of God has been sent to the

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Gentiles. They will listen and he it says this in verse 30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all

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Who came to him proclaiming the kingdom of God and Teaching about the

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Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance So as we finish the book of Acts that is as a sort of ends abruptly

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We don't really get the story here of like what happens to Paul for goodness sakes, right Luke help us out Like why you know why you're leaving us with a cliffhanger here, but he's there now

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And what is he preaching and teaching? It says that he's proclaiming the kingdom of God The Gentiles are coming

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He's proclaiming the rule of God the rule of God the gospel of the kingdom the good news of God's kingdom if You look also in the book of Romans to see the

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Apostles again giving this testimony of this story They anticipated in Romans chapter 1 listen to this closely

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It says Paul a slave of Messiah Jesus called to be an apostle set apart for the gospel of God See gospel gospel of Jesus Christ gospel of the kingdom gospel of God Which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the

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Holy Scriptures Concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the

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Son of God and power According to the Spirit of Holiness by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our

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Lord through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about here it is the obedience of faith

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For the sake of his name among all the nations including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ That little section there of the gospel of God and what this is about and this is promised in the

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Holy Scriptures This is a continuation of God's beautiful story. He's the master storyteller.

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This isn't a novelty this is from the Holy Scriptures and what were they expecting to bring about the

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Obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations

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Now watch this is the Apostle Paul's Systematic explanation of the gospel it is glorious If you don't know the book of Romans make it your life's goal to know this book front and back read it every day

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Once a day every day until you say I understand what's happening here You'll never mind the riches completely out of this glorious book

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But make sure you know that I would say this is the gospel according to Paul The gospel according to Paul.

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This is Paul's explanation of the gospel from soup to nuts, but he starts Romans 1 with this testimony

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What's the point of this is to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations?

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Now watch that's chapter 1 That's the beginning of his letter so he starts his letter with this

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We're to bring about the obedience of faith or the obedience that comes from faith for the sake of his name

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Among all the nations and watch how he ends the letter go to the end of the letter Romans 16 25 through 27 he says at the very end now to him who's able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to The revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages

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But has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all the nations.

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There it is again This is a continuation of God's story. We law we anticipated this.

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This is not a surprise to us. But what's he say? According to the command of the eternal

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God to bring about the obedience of faith Among what all the nations so watch brothers and sisters the

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Apostle Paul he starts his explanation of God's gospel with here's the point to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations and he ends it with this

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It's a command of God Bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.

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It's the same story So as he explains the gospel, which has our sin Justification through faith alone in Christ alone sanctification all that story that's there that's in the middle

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He bookends with the glorious story that they all understood. Here's the point This is about God's gospel

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Redeeming the world bringing the nations to the obedience of faith or the obedience that comes from faith

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That's the story why cuz Jesus is the ruler of the world You sang about it

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Right before this message That's why it was joking a little saying you don't really need to me to give the message today because you just sang songs to God about this story when you sing about Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and King forevermore when you sing about that You're telling the story of the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus but watch this like your pastor said

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I say it often in Scripture, it's not just a pithy slogan That Jesus is King of Kings and actually says in the book of Revelation that he's the ruler of the kings of the earth

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Do you know when that was said? That was said when Christians are being persecuted heavily by the

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Jews and the Romans That was said when the Christians were a small

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Minority in Rome and Rome is this ginormous beast of a government a pagan government declaring itself to be

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God And they have the audacity in this book to say that Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth and on earth

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During the time of the Caesars that Jesus is the king over the kings of the earth That he's the

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Lord over all the Lords that he is the ruler of the kings of the earth Yes, they have the authority to say that because that that's

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God's story You see the kingdom of God in scripture was never intended to drop as my friend says like the 82nd airborne out of heaven

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All at once Remember that verse I read to you just now from Isaiah chapter 9 What's it say?

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It says of the increase of his government and of peace There will be no end that sounds like the kingdom of God the rule of Jesus looks like this on a chart in history

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It sounds a lot like what Jesus said when he said that the kingdom of heaven the kingdom of God the rule of God is like a mustard seed

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That's not like it's dropping out of heaven like a building No It sounds like it's starting in earth's

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In the history of our story like a small seed that you can barely see in your hand

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But when it goes into the ground and it grows it grows into something as tall as a man Then the birds of the air nest in its branches

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Jesus talked about the rule of God in history like leaven in a lump of dough that Permeates the entirety of the loaf it fills the entire thing the rule of Jesus Christ Doesn't drop into history and obliterate history all at once.

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It is an increasing rule and reign throughout history How? through the proclamation of the gospel through the call to repent and to believe

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Reconciliation and peace with God is how this takes place in history But make no mistake about it the rule of Jesus Christ in history is good news

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It's good news, and it's not simply please get this because you'll get the major part of this.

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It is not simply good news because I personally in redeems

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It's not just about me and my story This is not just individualistic

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This is to his glory It's to his honor It's a good news story of a rule of the

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Messiah Watch that takes the nation's and brings them up to God's mountain for salvation

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Puts God's law into their hearts makes them alive from the dead takes a heart of stone and Actually removes it and puts a heart of flesh where it's soft and malleable

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It's a good news of a kingdom that actually affects the world it establishes justice and righteousness and peace

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You see this is this is a mate an amazing story of good news of a kingdom watch because it's about his glory

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It's not just about you It's not just about you and your story. That's beautiful.

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By the way all of our stories to God's glory. Amen and Hallelujah, but this is good news of a kingdom about what he's gonna do in the world to bring about ultimate redemption a couple things

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I Want to point you to and again, I wish we had more time like about three hours

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But just some verses so you can have them It's like what is Paul talking about when he talks about the command of the eternal

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God to bring about the obedience of faith Like what's what's he referencing? And how come Matthew seems to know this from Isaiah 9 like this is just something they just they kind of understood

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And here's the answer. They read the Old Testament Here's the problem.

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I'm gonna be honest. We don't You got you got you sort of like segments of like you got red letter

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Bible Christians like I read the red letters because those the important ones and all scriptures breathe out by God Not just the red letters and then you got people say well

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I could just sort of read the New Testament and they don't really get to the Old Testament understand like like this is the story That laid the foundation for that This is just as beautiful as that.

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This is the glorious master storyteller pulling together this entire thing Read your

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Old Testament. They did and that's why they called it good news of a kingdom Good news of his rule.

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He's coming to redeem the world. He's gonna he's gonna reverse all the brokenness He's gonna establish justice.

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He's bringing the nations to God. That's good news It's good news of a rule and what's interesting is that you see at the beginning of the

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Bible I would love to do this forever today, but I can't so here's what I'll say, you know this Abraham Abraham is promised by God that he's gonna have descendants as numerous as the what?

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stars You ever looked up to a night sky? Where there's no light light pollution and seeing the stars.

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It's overwhelming Shocking actually, I remember the first time that it happened to me Because I'm a city guy.

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I've been raised in the city and around light pollution my whole life Everyone knows me knows I hate camping so I haven't gone out like, you know a lot into the woods

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And but the first time I actually saw it it is a transforming experience. I was

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Years ago 20 years ago I was working with it with a collection of martial arts schools and this they gave their staff like a

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Three -day cruise to Ensenada, Mexico and one of the nights we were out on this cruise ship out in the ocean

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And I went up to the top with some friends and that was the first time I had seen

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The night sky with no light pollution and I probably sat up there for like two hours

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Just looking up at the stars. I couldn't believe it. I was like we're missing out on this all the time

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This is insane And what we know about the universe now What we know about the universe now and the stars and the vastness of the universe

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Here's what here's what God says to Abraham when there was no light pollution Look up like that That's how your descendants are gonna be like the stars of heaven that's a lot of stars

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That's a heck of a lot of stars And then God actually says and not just like the stars of heaven, but like the sand on the seashore

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You ever stick your finger? Into the sand on the beach and pick out your finger and look at your you can't even count on your finger and God says

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So shall your descendants be it's gonna be like this It's gonna be like a number you couldn't even possibly fathom and understand

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So, you know that part of the story But did you know in the same book in the opening year of Bible not only did talk about Abraham's descendants are gonna be so Vast and so numerous that it's impossible to even understand and count

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But then God also has little markers little points where he starts to sort of unfold this story of Messiah It's sort of like little teasers little wetting your appetites, right?

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They couldn't possibly understand what it meant but Genesis 49 10 There's a promise of Shiloh and it says that this

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Shiloh was coming and to him shall be the obedience of the people's Hey, what's

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Paul quoting there in Romans 1 and Romans 16? Is it Genesis 49 10 what they were expecting that this one was coming

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Shiloh and to him shall be the obedience of The people's what does what does

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Paul say when he opens his gospel and ends his gospel explanation? What's he say to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations?

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Where's that coming from? How about Genesis 49 10? How about that's the story. How about that's good news

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But there's more and I'm not exhausting this but we read it this weekend a lot Psalm chapter 2

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The father says to the son you have conversation within the Trinity in Psalm 2 Long before the time of Christ in the

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Incarnation before they even understood what Trinity really ultimately What? Comprehended it like what does it really mean and how's that look with God?

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The father says to the son has a conversation. So take that modalism has a conversation with the son

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He says ask of me and I'll give you the nations for your inheritance the very ends of the earth for your possession

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Ask of me I'll give you the nations for your inheritance the very ends of the earth for your possession and then the father

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Warns the kings of the earth. He says obey the Sun kiss the Sun or you'll perish

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You see that's what they were waiting for so this is like good news of his kingdom he's finally here his rule is here

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He's bringing salvation redemption all the peoples of the earth. They're gonna return to the Lord justice and righteousness forevermore

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Isaiah 2 is that beautiful story where you have this display of this vision of the mountain of God and all the nations are

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Drawn up to God's mountain and then it says that the law Goes forth from Zion from the people of God the

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Torah Goes forth you see the constituent a constituent element of God's redemption in history

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Listen to this which makes it good news for the world Is it as God saves people and he renews people his law?

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His law goes forth from the people of God His law is justice it is righteousness

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And so as God saves the nations they all of a sudden now have a change of hearts

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They now long for and love his righteousness his standards

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His statutes his law goes forth from the people of God. That's good news for the world

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How many guys know that? When you look around society today, we have a society that is so broken and so perverse

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We've so turned away from God that we've raised up all of these unrighteous statutes all of this perverse justice and It's broken and it's dark.

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It's good news to have God's Righteousness as the standard and Isaiah 2 says as God brings the nations

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He's going to have his law go forth from his people Isaiah chapter 9 we've read and that's the promise that God Will establish justice don't let it pass you don't do that.

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Don't let it pass you when it says on the throne of David to establish it with justice and Righteousness forevermore the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will accomplish this the mighty God is becoming a man a child

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How's that? God the eternal God the father of eternity the the creator of all things he's becoming a child and The government's gonna be on his shoulders and there's gonna be an increase of his government and of peace.

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It's gonna have no end He's gonna establish you a justice and righteousness forevermore brothers and sisters.

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That's good news That is good news Now listen, it's not just good news about your story, which is great news.

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That's wonderful. Yes, but it's also good news That is bigger than your story It's bigger than your story more importantly listen to this it's about God's glory not yours not mine and There's more

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Isaiah chapter 42 because the time will probably have to end on this particular one

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It's one of my very favorites and Isaiah chapter 42 we're in Isaiah a lot today, aren't we and Isaiah chapter 42

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There's another promise of Messiah and what he's gonna accomplish in the world

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And this is explaining why Jesus is preaching good news of a kingdom good news of his rule Here's what it says

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Isaiah chapter 42 verse 1 behold my servant whom I uphold My chosen in whom my soul delights

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I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations

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He will not cry aloud Or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.

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He's lowly He's humble and a faintly burning wick.

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He will not quench He will faithfully bring forth justice He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established

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Justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law

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Do you hear it? He's not gonna grow faint or weary he's not gonna be discouraged

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Until he has established justice in the earth brothers and sisters. That's a process That's a process in history.

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And here's here's the encouraging part of it for all of us It's his work It's his power.

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It's his plan. It's his kingdom. We get to participate in it Yes, but he's the one that's gonna fulfill it and he's not like you and me

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Where he has bad days and good days and he gets discouraged and he feels hopeless and he says

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I can't do this and he gets Tired this is a sovereign King who will not grow faint or be weary or be discouraged until he's done

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Establishing justice in the earth and did you catch it the coastlands are waiting for his law

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Good news of a kingdom the transformation of the world through the redemption of sinful unworthy people

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God transforming and making them alive giving them new hearts putting his law within them his law and standards of justice

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Going forth from the people of God healing the world. It's good news

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It's good news of the rule of the Messiah. It is truly truly good news.

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You see there is salvation There is transformation Paul sees it in Romans chapters 1 through 5 he explains how

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God does this in terms of redemption of Individuals and justification and Union with Christ, but then in Romans 6, what does he say and then sanctification and Then people who are dead and been made alive with Christ no longer go on presenting themselves as instruments to unrighteousness

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Do you see what happens? Salvation leads to transformation. That's good news for the world.

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That's good news for Jews and Gentiles Ezekiel told the same story in Ezekiel 36 of God putting his spirit within people

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Causing them to observe his statutes. That's good news for the world And by the way, what's amazing about this is we miss this so often in terms of the transformation of the world

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Bringing the nation's to God God establishing justice Oftentimes, it's sort of a jolt to believers today

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We're like, oh I kind of thought we were just trying to get out of here and sort of escape You know, I thought Bill Gates in the mark of the beast and the chips in the hand and all you know

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I thought we're getting out of here. Like that's that that's the ultimate goal. Let's get out as quickly as we can It's actually the other way

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Jesus says to his disciples as he's Going to ascend. He says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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That's heaven and that's earth here in this space He says it's mine.

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That was by the way a long time ago when he said that it has been given to me He says on this basis.

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Therefore go he says make disciples of all the nations Baptizing them in the name of the

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Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and he says what? Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you as people get saved as they are

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Transformed they now love God's laws God establishes justice in the earth through his people

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And by the way again, here's what I was getting at and I'll finish on this point Every Christian who loves

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Christmas sings about this every year you see there's there's an old way believers used to in history look at the purpose of the church and What we're gonna do in the world where we should be aiming

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So much so that it was just sort of like, you know common fair just kind of in the atmosphere just sort of understood

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We're trying to win the world to Jesus Christ the entire thing Bring everybody to the obedience of Christ every nation every tribe every tongue everybody

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I Love to tell this story. I'll just tell you quickly when the Christian missionaries went to the

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Hawaiian Islands in 1820 That's not that long ago when the Christian missionaries came from this country to the

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Hawaiian Islands in 1820 They converted the entire Hawaiian Islands in 20 years

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Over 90 percent of the Hawaiian natives were professing faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior So much so that in 20 years in 1840

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They had a Hawaiian Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom Forms and in the Hawaiian Constitution of the

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Hawaiian Kingdom It says no law of the Hawaiian Kingdom will be at variance with the laws of Jehovah God That is watch the nation coming to Christ.

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And now what loving God's law. I Love that story because it's so close to us in history

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The nation comes to Jesus and now they love God's law and they want to establish his justice.

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You might be saying well Then what happened we stole the islands, but that's another story But we've been singing about this we sing about it is typical in Christian history to understand that this is the goal and you sing

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About it every year You you sing about the gospel of the kingdom every year again, if you like Christmas if you don't

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I'm sorry for you Just kidding Joy to the world

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The Lord has come Let earth receive her King Let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing and heaven and nature sing and Heaven and heaven and nature sing joy to the world the

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Savior rains Not will rain Not might rain the

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King has come and He reigns today Let men their songs employ while fields and floods rocks hills and plains

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Repeat the sounding joy repeat the sounding joy Repeat repeat the sounding joy

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No more let sins and sorrows grow Nor thorns infest the ground

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He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found far as The curse is found

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That was written by Watts Not very long ago, by the way Did you know that it wasn't written as a Christmas song?

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It was just written as a song about the gospel of the kingdom has written as a song about the kingdom of Jesus. I Love that.

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It's Christmas song because at Christmas time we have so many post -millennialists singing But here's the point this isn't a foreign concept in the history of the

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Christian Church It's foreign today to say like well Wait a minute The the goal is the world and the nations and obedience to Christ and justice and righteousness

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Coming out of the world and and and him going as far as the curse is found That's the goal.

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That's the goal. And if you want to summarize it Matthew 28 18 through 20 He has all authority go get the nation's teach him to obey