The Most Important Theological Lessons (part 1)

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The Origin, Necessity and Blessing Of Labor (part 2)

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The sermon today is going to get your attention, but not with pain, but with truth.
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Turn your Bibles, if you would, to Psalm 115, verse 1. Psalm 115, verse 1.
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We just sang a song with this verse in it. Psalm 115, verse 1.
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Right in the middle of your Bibles, you might see the liner notes. It says, Heathen idols contrasted with the
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Lord. All capitals, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Speaking of Yahweh, a
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God who keeps His promises, the personal name of God, God disclosed to Moses in Exodus chapter 3.
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He might go by titles like Adonai, He's the Lord or Sovereign. He might be called Elohim, a great creating
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God. But here, the personal name of God, and the psalmist writes, Not to us,
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O Yahweh, not to us, but to your name give glory.
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Now, I love that song, but I love it that this verse has an ending. Because of your loving kindness, and then sometimes we miss the end of verse 1.
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Because of your what? Truth. To give God glory, to extol
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His name for who He is, all His holiness and righteousness and His compassionate, tender mercies, but also for His what?
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Truth. We are to extol and praise God for His truth. This morning,
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I'd like to give you several truths that I've learned over the last 20 years, that I think are the most important.
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I may have 10, 15, 20. I don't really know yet, because I think I'll go this week and next week.
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But I was sitting thinking this week, what would be a good message to preach as I'm gearing up for 1 Corinthians. And I thought,
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I'd like to have someone come alongside of me and say, These are the most 10 or 15 or 20 most important truths
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I've ever learned since I've become a Christian. Since God has saved me, these truths must be learned.
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And so you say, well, I've already learned them. Good, I'll remind you. Or you might say to yourself, good, the sooner
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I know these truths, the better, because when I know truths about God, it helps me give His name what?
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Glory. We just don't praise God because we only have feelings.
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Feelings are good, but our praise is driven by who God is and what He's done. And the more you know about truth, mark it well, the more you can praise
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God. When you're just a kid and when you're just a brand new Christian, you say to yourself, Oh, I'm forgiven.
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And you sing a song like this with meaning. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so.
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And then you start figuring out that word love has many connotations. And you learn about propitiation and how
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God, the Son, bears the wrath of the Father in our place. And there's another kind of peace that you think,
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Oh yeah, that's what real love is, to send the Son to die for me. And then you learn about reconciliation.
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And you think reconciliation means to make up and friends who used to be enemies.
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And you think, I was God's enemy. I was an enemy of God, at enmity with God.
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And because of Christ, I've been reconciled. Or you may say, I learned about redemption and how
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I was in the slave pit of sin. And Jesus comes along by His own price,
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His own ransom, His own death. He buys me out of the slave pit of sin. And now you start to sing songs and you have a little bit more reason to sing.
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Because you know more truth. So I thought I'd do a sermon this week and next week. The most important theological lessons
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I have learned in the last 20 years of being a Christian. Now I won't talk about the virgin birth of Christ.
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I won't talk necessarily about His literal resurrection. Many, many important truths. Those are already a given.
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These are post -Christian truths that you need to know for one particular reason. Not just to know them intellectually so you can win
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Bible trivia games. I'm going to restrain myself. But so that you can praise
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God better with your mind. The more you know about God, the better you can praise
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Him. Why would God give us such a large corpus of truth if He just said, go for the bare minimum.
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Let's distill it down to the lowest common denominator. You just need some basics. I'll just write it up in the sky with some kind of permanent cloud.
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Jesus loves you. That's all you need. No. He likes us to know details.
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I think when you first were dating your spouse, if you're married. Or maybe you're engaged now. You would just watch and look.
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And I remember just watching Kim and how she would talk and how she would look. I wanted to get every little detail down.
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I never noticed that before. I like that. I didn't know the way she talked. This way. I like that.
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And you get to know your spouse. And you think, I don't want to just go, well, she's a woman. We're set. It's good.
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She's female. Good to go. No. You begin to know the personality. And then you think,
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I really, really love my wife. I really, really appreciate her because I know the details.
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So don't let anybody ever tell you, well, you don't need to know the details. You know enough. Now just emote. We have a
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Bible for a reason. And God wants you to know this Bible so you can precisely praise Him. Because of your truth,
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God, we want to give your name glory. These are foundational truths.
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They are relevant truths. They are pillars for your Christian life. If you're on a desert island, you need to know these before you go.
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Because they're all going to relate to your life specifically. Maybe to praise. Maybe to increase trust.
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But you need to know these. Some you already know. Some maybe you don't. I could ask you this question maybe at the beginning.
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If you had to come up with a list of the 20 most important theological truths to teach your kids, what would your list be?
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Would you have 20? By the way, don't hold me to the 20. I don't know how many we have. That's the fun of it, isn't it? By the way, if you're a kid and you're saying the first point he talked for like 25 minutes, this is going to be a long series.
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You always talk the longest on the first point. And then you go faster on the other points. And the pastors in the congregation all know that.
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The most important theological lessons I have learned in the last 20 years, you need to know as well so you give more glory to God with your mind.
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To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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Truth number one. You must believe that God is utterly sovereign over everything in this universe.
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That part's easy so far. Including who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. God is ultimately sovereign in this universe over every single person and everything else.
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You need to know that truth. You need to know that truth for lots of reasons. I'll tell you one reason you need to know the truth.
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As my kids get older, to win their hand, if you want to win my girl's hands, you'll need, as a young man, to know this truth.
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I'm just not going to give my daughters away to people that don't understand the sovereignty of God. You want my daughters' hands in marriage as they grow older?
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Number one, you need to be a man. Number two, you always need to be a man. Number three, you better be regenerate, made alive by God's working grace alone.
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Alone working grace. And you need to know this truth. John Calvin said,
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Ignorance of sovereignty is the ultimate of all miseries. The highest blessedness lies in the knowledge of it.
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That God is sovereign over everything, including heaven. This is like second blessing to me.
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Some people say, I got the second blessing and I spoke in tongues or something else and they'll go on and on. You want to know what my second blessing is?
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This is it. The most important truth after salvation is understanding this truth in my mind.
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R .C. Sproul was asked, what's your favorite doctrine in all the scripture? As a
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Christian, he said, the sovereignty of God. He said, by the way, it's God's favorite doctrine. And he said, if you were
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God, it would be your favorite doctrine. Look at verse 3 of Psalm 115.
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But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.
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Let me repeat that. But our God is in the heavens, contrasting with the gods who are on earth sitting there.
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A little piece of wood or clay. He does whatever he pleases. These other gods can't do what they please.
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They can't even move themselves over without the help of human hands. Verse 4, their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands.
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They have mouths, but they can't speak. They have eyes, but they can't see. They have ears, but they can't hear. They have noses, but they cannot smell.
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They have hands, but they cannot feel. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throat.
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Beware, verse 8, those who make them will become like them. Skip down to verse 18.
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But as for us, we will bless Yahweh the Lord from this time forth and forever.
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Praise the Lord. A human sovereign will be limited by his military might.
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A human sovereign or king would be limited by his own IQ and intellectual prowess.
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But human kings, no matter how great they are, are what the Chinese would call paper what?
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Tigers when it comes to comparing themselves to God. Less than advertised.
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Mark this truth. There is not one thing in the world or one person that impinges upon the sovereignty of God.
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No encroachments. Ever watch football and sometimes the guy across the center, he's called a nose tackle or a nose guard.
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He jumps away. Forget the football illustration. Back to the text.
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I know how to do it. I just don't know how to explain it. When the defense jumps across the line and hits somebody, it's called encroachment.
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What jumps across the theological line into God's utter sovereignty? Anything, anyone, that's a truth you need to learn.
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Abraham Kuyper said, There is not a square inch in the whole domain of the human existence over which
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Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry everything
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God looks at and says, This is mine. I own it. I control it. You can't talk about God and include words like democracy.
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You can't discuss the Lord theologically and have words like oligarchy or republics, majorities.
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He rules over all. He reigns over all. And when I say all, I mean all.
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The culture says, Well, God's like kind of a benign grandfather. Kind of George Burns. Just kind of unconditionally love.
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The society promotes that kind of God because natural men and women, unbelievers, don't like an utterly sovereign
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God. Now do they? They want to be sovereign.
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They don't want a sovereign ruling over them. They like words like, God is my co -pilot.
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We reign together. We kind of rule together. Me and God. Spurgeon's oft -quoted words are timeless.
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There's no doctrine more hated by whirlings, no truth of which they have made such a football as the great, stupendous, and yet most certain doctrine of the sovereignty of the infinite
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Yahweh. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on his throne.
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They would allow him to be in his workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They would allow him to be in his almonery to dispense his alms and bestow his bounties.
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They will allow him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, our light, the lamps of heaven, our rule, the waves of the ever -moving ocean.
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But when God ascends his throne, his creatures gnash their teeth.
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And we proclaim an enthroned God and his right to do as he wills with his own, to dispose of his creatures as he thinks well, without consulting them in the matter.
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Then it is that we are hissed and exasperated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on his throne is not the
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God they love. God won't allow you to be a co -regent with him.
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The world says, self. God says, sovereign.
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I was even studying the army's culture of I am sovereign, me -ism.
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How about the recruiting slogans as time has gone on? Do you remember duty, honor, and country?
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If you're a kid, you probably don't, but you probably do remember, be all you can be. From the transcendent protecting the country, it's now gone into individuality.
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And recently, when the recruits were down, the army just switched to the new slogan, an army of one.
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One army ad corporal, Lovett, said, even though there are 1 ,045 ,690 soldiers just like me,
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I am my own force with technology, with training, with support. Who I am has become better than who
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I was. The Navy's new recruitment slogan was, accelerate your life.
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Turn with me to Psalm 103, just back up a hair. Quite different from the world's view,
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God is the only one on the throne. The world revolves around God now, figuratively speaking.
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Now doesn't it? Not around us. Psalm 103, verse 19.
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In a sweeping statement on the sovereignty of God. The Lord, Yahweh, has established
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His throne in the heavens and His sovereignty rules over everything but New England.
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Everything but man's will. It rules over everything except Hurricane Ivan.
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It rules over all. No boundaries, no limits. His authority is full, complete, and binding.
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And Charles Hodge said, God's sovereignty can neither be ignored nor rejected. It's like some big elephant in the room, the utter sovereignty of God.
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And try as you will, you can't get around it. God is hands -on.
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With holiness and goodness and righteousness, He micromanages atoms, molecules, protons, neutrons, the
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DNA of the universe. He is sovereign over and He does whatever He wishes with it.
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Ephesians 111 says, He works all things after the counsel of His own will.
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Turn with me to Daniel chapter 4, please. Daniel chapter 4, establishing the fact that God's sovereign over everything.
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It's an important lesson that everyone here, I think if you've been around the church for any length of time, you already know it.
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But for the series sake and to remind you and for the new people, we need to be reminded of the utter sovereignty of God.
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It'll help you trust the Lord more. It'll help you be less anxious before you take your child in for surgery on Tuesday.
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It'll help you be less anxious when you bury your father or loved one.
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This truth is relevant. It matters. And listen to this summary statement in Daniel 4, verse 34 and 35, about God's ultimate rule.
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And it's interesting who actually says it. Daniel 4, 34, but at the end of that period,
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I, Nebuchadnezzar, raise my eyes toward heaven. My reason returned to me.
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And I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion.
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What was happening with Nebuchadnezzar? Nebuchadnezzar thought he was sovereign, that he was in charge, that he was number one, that he did all the rules.
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And God said, you know what, when you act like that, that is insanity.
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So what God often does is He says, if you want to act insane, then we'll turn it up from 2 to 10.
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You want to act insane? You think that all of a sudden this just popped into existence, that you used to be primordial goo?
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By the way, Nebuchadnezzar wouldn't have been an evolutionist. He would have said, I am the sovereign.
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Maybe I am some kind of deity. God says, you're going to act like there's no God who rules everything? That is insanity.
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And if you want insanity, it's time to learn this little statement, Nebuchadnezzar. Moo. And now he's thinking properly about the utter sovereign.
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And his kingdom endures from generation to generation. Unlike human kings, they die.
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They get assassinated. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as full of self -esteem and self -worth.
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You're wonderful. You're beautiful. Can't live without you. No. As what? Nothing.
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He does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And no one can ward off his hand or say to him, what are you doing?
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What has thou done? Nobody can do that. You can't stretch out your hand against God's rule and frustrate it, as Isaiah 14 says.
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Now here's the rub. God's utterly sovereign. And most people say, I think he's sovereign over many areas.
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Many areas. Like? He's sovereign over creation. Most Christians would agree. Turn with me to Psalm 135, please.
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Psalm 135. And you say, we're kind of jumping around a lot. Well, in one sense, it's a topical message.
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And so I'll preach one topical message a year. And then I'll repent and go back to verse by verse. But it's biblical.
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There's nothing wrong with the topic. Psalm 135, verse 6 and 7.
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Most would agree that God can create anything he'd like. He could have created 10 million
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Mount Everest on earth. To have an earth that big to create it. He could have said the earth is going to be 95 % land and just a little bit of water.
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Verse 6 and 7 of Psalm 135. Whatever the Lord Yahweh pleases, he does. In heaven and in earth.
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In the seas and in all the deeps. He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. Who makes lightnings for the rain.
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Who brings forth the wind from his treasuries. We believe as Christians that with meticulous work,
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God creates the universe. It is his handiwork. Most don't disagree. I love to train dogs.
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And if I had more time, if I ever get fired, maybe that'll be my new job. I don't know, but I love to train dogs.
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This whole dog whisper thing has just made me want to do it all the more. And I love to say things that dogs like.
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Stay. Roll over. Bite Luke. Bang, you're dead.
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You know, 360, spin in a circle. Jump up into my chest so I don't have to bend down to pick you up.
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I like that. I like to take the dog out like last night. I think, dog's got to go to the bathroom, so I just have a command for her to go to the bathroom.
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Hurry up. And then she goes to the bathroom on command. I go, I like this. Can you imagine?
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God says those kind of commands to the earth and the sun and the moon. That's how God talks to those planets.
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If he would talk, he'd talk with this, sit, stay, you evolve, you go fast, you go this way, you go around there, and you go, where'd you get that?
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Psalm 119, verse 90. Turn with me, if you would. Psalm 119, verse 90. The servants of God are the moon, stars, and sun, just like my dog is my servant.
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With fascinating obedience, these galaxies respond to the precise commands of God.
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Psalm 119, verse 90. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations.
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You establish the earth, and it stands. Sit. They stand this day according to your ordinances, for all things are your what?
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Servants. Sit, stand, jump, spiral out of control. God does it all.
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John Calvin said, it is certain that not one drop of rain falls without God's sure command.
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Most Christians think God is sovereign over the weather. When we complain, we're not acting like it, but we agree he's sovereign over it.
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Furthermore, most Christians would agree that God's sovereign over all history. I'll just read you
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Daniel chapter 2. Daniel answered and said, let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him.
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And it is he who changes the times and the epics. He removes kings, he establishes kings. He gives wisdom to wise men and knowledge to men of understanding.
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God made from one every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and boundaries.
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Acts chapter 17. We agree with that. Furthermore, number three, God's rule over the specific details of life are in agreement with the majority of the population.
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Proverbs 16 .33. The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the
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Lord. Most Christians say, yeah, God made everything. He made the times and places and individual things.
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And he also takes care of intimate details of life, intricate details. Let's all take a lot.
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Let's all grab straws. Who's got the shortest? And the lot fell on... Are you surprised when the lot fell on Jonah?
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God was sovereign over that. Luck, fortune, and random chance don't exist in God's universe.
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They only exist in the vocabulary of uneducated pagans. Odds in Las Vegas are 100 % certainties in the plan of God.
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God makes them happen. Most people agree with that. Furthermore, most Christians agree that God's sovereign over your birthday and your funeral.
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Job 14 .5. Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with thee, and his limits thou hast set so that he cannot pass.
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The day you're born, the day you die. Psalm 139.
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Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me.
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Yet as there were none of them... Excuse me. When as yet there was not one of them.
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David's in the womb, and he knew... Well, later he was writing, and he said, even when
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I was in the womb, you know the day that I would be born, the day I would die. And most Christians agree that God's sovereign over every act committed by man.
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They don't argue with that. Pastor Steve read from Acts chapter 2.
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I'll read from Acts chapter 4. Same story. For truly in this city it was gathered together against your holy servant
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Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your purpose predestined to occur.
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In other words, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was not an accident. It was predestined to occur.
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The evil acts of men were in the sovereign control of God. Most people don't fight over these facts.
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But here's where the fighting comes. This is a lesson that you need to learn. That God is sovereign over the eternal destiny of every person.
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That's where the fighting words come in. God alone chooses the destiny of every human being.
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That is offensive to people. Ever run real fast with some flip -flops on and you accidentally trip and you stub your toe and the toe, the big one, splits open?
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If your big toe nail is cracked in half and you feel the blood start seeping and it starts pounding to every heartbeat, doesn't it?
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That's that heartbeat of rage and anger similar to, I can't believe he's sovereign over everybody.
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This will stub the toe of most people. What needs to be remembered is we are all born rebels and we all deserve what?
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We all deserve hell. Eternal judgment. And when we start saying things like, but how could
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God? Friends, if I could tell you this in a nice way as your pastor, questions like that betray your ignorance of grace.
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Grace doesn't owe. And when we say, yeah, but why didn't God? That's O language, that's obligation language.
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That's obligation language that cannot be found in grace. You take one part of grace and you add a micron part of works and what do you get?
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Romans chapter 11 verse 6 makes it clear. You can't take one part of work and add it in the beaker of a thousand parts of grace because you'll get works.
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No one left in their sinfully fallen state from themselves and for Adam can find their way into heaven without the grace of God.
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I can put it this way to you. God must be sovereign over who enters heaven since salvation is something done to you by God.
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If God chooses to save, then you go to heaven. If you could save yourself, then somehow sovereignty of God and your cooperation somehow go together.
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But here, since salvation is done to you, salvation is something that God does in your life.
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If he regenerates alone, then of course he has to decide who goes and who doesn't. All deserve hell for God.
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Is he not allowed of his own good pleasure to take a few out of the many? Thomas Arnold said, the distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these others, men are found seeking after God while Christianity is
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God seeking after men. And mark it, he seeks sovereignly.
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Take a look with me if you would at John chapter 1. John chapter 1. It is strictly the delight of God to save sinners.
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And he is delighted for his own reasons, very personal reasons, not arbitrary reasons, but he is delighted to save.
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And like King Ahasuerus, when he is delighted to stick out his scepter and say, you can come into my presence, we are able to.
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But it's not because of us. And if it's not because of us, it has to be of God. And if God does it, then he chooses to do it.
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None of us here, I don't think, are universalists somehow thinking, all go to heaven. Why do some go to heaven and some others don't?
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The answer is, sovereignty of God. John chapter 1, 12 and 13.
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If you ever read this section, don't stop in the middle of a sentence. You think that would probably be good Bible hermeneutics?
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Keep reading the full sentence. By the way, if you're not signed up for my class on Thursdays, it's not too late. 21 signed up.
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We've got room for 30. Everyone in this church needs to take a Bible hermeneutics class someday before they die.
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Three books to read, some homework. This Thursday.
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It's not too late. And I will tell you in hermeneutics, don't just read half a sentence.
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John 1, 12 and 13. This is good news. Because left to ourselves, we couldn't save ourselves. But as many as received him.
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What a wonderful promise. To them, he gave the right to become children of God. Can you imagine we used to have
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Satan as our father, and now we'd have God as our father? You understand the fatherhood of God. You understand
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Christianity. He is God. We're his children, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood.
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It's not because you're a Jew or Father Abraham, nor of the will of the flesh. And then a third thing, just to make the emphasis in a
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Hebrew -Greek way, nor of the will of man. You don't get into heaven because of who you are, what you've done, or what your will does, but of what?
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Of who? But of God's will. It's God's will who saves you. James 1 says,
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In the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. If you read the
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Bible, this should not surprise you, because it's everywhere, the picking and choosing of God. You say, well,
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God looks down the corridors of time and sees that I believe, and then picks me because of that. You can get last
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Sunday night's message, but if God looked down the corridors of time, first of all, he never learns anything.
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Show me a God that learns something, I'll show you somebody that's not God. Can you imagine? God has never learned anything.
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I actually like to learn, but for God, he doesn't learn. He doesn't go, huh, look at Mike and his friend
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Scott. I have a friend that I grew up with, Scott, and Scott has a long beard down to here.
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He's still a drunk, and I don't know if he's still a drug addict or not, but why am I going to heaven and Scott isn't?
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He has such a long beard, they called him the anvil. We grew up together. We spent time in the summers together. I think he went to his girlfriend who had his child with a gun, and went to shoot her, and the gun misfired, thankfully for him and the woman.
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Why am I different? Well, God looks and he goes, 1989,
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Mike kind of takes a baby step. He doesn't want to call it grace, or he doesn't want to call it works or anything, but Mike took a baby step and said,
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God, I tried everything else in my life. I might as well try Jesus. God goes, good,
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I can save him. Friends, A, God doesn't learn anything, and B, when
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God looks down the corridor of time, I'll tell you what he sees. A corpse. Somebody dead in their trespasses and sins.
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Somebody enabled. Friends, why send Jesus to die for people who can kind of halfway do it?
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That'd be a horrible thing to send Jesus to die for Jesus to kind of cooperate with people. No, Jesus has to die in our place and live in our place because we can't contribute at all.
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People say, well, it's unsettling. Of course it's unsettling because in our woof, in our woof, woof, this dog training thing is coming back again.
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Woof. In our warp and woof, in our fiber, in our being, we're born rebels, and rebels say, manifest destiny.
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One man, one vote. We exist here in New England because we stood up against the monarch.
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2 Thessalonians 2 says, but we should always give thanks to you, God, for these people who are loved by the
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Lord because God has chosen them from the beginning for salvation. You say, well, the obvious question then is what happens to those who do not get saving faith granted to them?
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They get what they deserve. They get what we deserve, but God said, I'll snatch some of you out of the fire and rescue you.
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1 Peter 2 .8 Don't miss it. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense. For they stumbled because they were disobedient to the word and to this doom they were also appointed.
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Why do people go to hell? Theologically and exegetically, here's the answer. Because they deserve to go based on their disobedience and they've been appointed to go.
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That's what 1 Peter 2 says. Romans 9 .22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make
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His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? Martin Luther said of the sovereignty of God, mere human reason can never comprehend how
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God is good and merciful. And therefore you have to make to yourself a
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God of your own fancy who hardens nobody, condemns nobody, pities everybody. You cannot comprehend how a just God can condemn those who are born into sin and cannot help themselves, but must by a necessity of their natural constitution continue in and remain children of wrath?
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Who could figure that out? Luther says the answer is God is incomprehensible throughout and therefore
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His justice as well as His other attributes must be incomprehensible. It is on that very ground that St.
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Paul exclaims, O the depths of the riches of the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
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His judgments and His ways past. You need to know the lesson that your evangelistic fidelity does not save anybody.
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That's a good thing, isn't it? Who's the great evangelist? Who doesn't stumble? Who doesn't live the
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Christian life the whole time? Who says, you know what, I'm going to evangelize this person. Can you imagine the pain and the angst and the inability of you to save anyone at all?
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But God says, I choose. I save. You be responsible to just go evangelize. You say, well,
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I don't know if I really like the doctrine. Here's the question before we move on to number two. It's not a matter of liking and disliking.
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It's a matter of accepting biblical truth or not. And as you mature in Christ, you'll just say, I accept the truth.
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Man's responsible. God's sovereign. But if I had to hold on to one, I'm going to hold on to both. God is sovereign over everything and I must yield to that as I yield to Jesus' words and the apostles' words.
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You need to learn that lesson that God is sovereign over who goes to heaven and who doesn't. Because your options are this, that God's sovereign over the weather, over your birthday, over your funeral, over the details of your life, who you married, how many kids you have, who you didn't marry, how long you're going to live, if your families are white or black or Indian or whatever, and you go,
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I agree with all that, but somehow God leaves this corner of the universe over to our free will and then
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God just lets it be. Friends, that free will that people say they have as an unbeliever is tainted by sin, dominated by Satan, and influenced by the world system.
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And God has to say, I'm victorious sovereignly over sin, over Satan and the world system. You're mine. Number two.
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I told you the first one was going to go longer. If you say
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God is sovereign over all, make sure you say over individual destinies too. Or dare
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I say, you're taking praise away from God and you're giving it to man. Number two.
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Second theological truth that will help you, praise the Lord. There are no shortcuts for holy living.
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There are no shortcuts for holy living. Friends, we like things fast in our culture, don't we?
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If we go to the checkout line and it says eight or less at Stop and Shop, and we notice somebody's got nine and a half articles, it is time to call the
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Worcester PD. I mean, there's an order. You drive up and you go, all right, here's served in one and a half minutes or less at McDonald's, or else
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I'm going to go to Wendy's and you better make sure my food's fast. Everything's got to be fast and microwavable. It's a fast, fast, fast culture.
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And so what do we as evangelicals do? We want it fast. I mean, we've got football games to watch and we've got picnics to do and let's even have the service fast.
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People promote services and they go in and out in 30 minutes or less. Did my job. We'll go.
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The worship service? First of all, that robs this culture of the
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Jews back in these days where, and I see some of it in the Eastern culture when I'm in Africa or when
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I'm in India, and it's just whole life.
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It's about people. It's not about speed. I'll never forget when Bob Bowman kind of got after me a little bit.
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I said to all the Shepherds Conference guys, now guys, there's 10 of you who are going to the Shepherds Conference and I don't want to be your mom.
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I just want to be your pastor and friends and have a great time. But when we say leave at 8 o 'clock, can you just be there at 8 o 'clock for the sake of other people?
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Because if you're there at 8 .15, there are 10 of us. 15 minutes times 10. You've just wasted 150 minutes.
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And Bob sat there and he listened to the whole thing and Bob was living in Bolivia I think at the time and he said to me afterwards, that's rude.
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You don't talk that way. It's who you're with. It's like when people say, well service starts at 9. Well what time does it really start?
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The western German in me wants to go, it starts at 9 .01 and a half on the dot. It starts when you kind of get there.
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It's not about time. It's about the people. Most of us here are westerners and we want things now.
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And what we'll do is this. We'll say, I think maybe for my Christianity I'll do what
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I do at work. I'll work smart. I don't have to work very long but I'll be smart about it.
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I work smartly. Really? Or maybe some people say with my
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Christianity, I think I'll pay others to study for me. I'll learn by proxy.
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I'll audit classes. I'll do the least amount of work that I can. Frankly, you know what
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I'll do? All this Christianity stuff, this die to yourself, pick up your cross daily, work and sweat and toil and labor and strive and all that, even though it's under the grace of God, all that kind of language,
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I don't want that. So if I walk up to the front of the church and the pastor hits me hard enough in the forehead and knocks me down so I kind of shake on the ground a little bit,
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I'll get zapped by the spirit and then I'll be holy that way. They might feel holy and they might feel dizzy and they might feel all kinds of other things.
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Why is that big stain there, right there in the front anyway? I don't know. Maybe that's some old blood stain from the zapped and Holy Spirit things.
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I don't know. But I'll tell you this, you go home just the same theological wreck of sanctification that you were before you were slain because the ends of growth and the ends of sanctification have a means and God has determined that the means are, of course, driven by the spirit of God, work and study.
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Turn with me to Romans 6 if you would. If you want a jump start in your life, can
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I be so bold to say, open your Bibles and begin to read? That is the ordained way you'll grow.
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I've been listening to the Bible on tape the last couple weeks and I've been having a great time learning about the character and nature of God.
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I try to get up in the morning and I try to have my coffee and read my Bible and just try to understand the mind of God.
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It takes work, day in and day out. And you can't say, well, if I work really hard for the next five years then
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I don't have to do it any longer. I don't think you'd say that about a relationship that you have and certainly not with God either.
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It takes work. Let me give you a few verses in the Bible that would shun laziness.
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Romans 6, verse 12. Diving into this great chapter about sanctification,
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Paul says in verse 12, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust.
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And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
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For sin, verse 14, shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
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What then? Lay back and let God, Paul says. Can you see it there in the liner notes?
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Just float. Just coast. It's like when I remember swimming in the ocean and when I got dumped off the boat into the ocean in this ocean swim and they said,
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Here's where you aim and you better swim really hard for 50 minutes or you're not going to get there. And then one person said, one of the racers said,
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What if we just decide to float? They said, Well, you'll be underneath the Golden Gate Bridge in about 50 minutes and you'll float out to the sea and die.
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I go, I'm motivated to swim. This is not some kind of floating. I remember my mother on the
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Missouri River, she'd have a really bad day and she said, I just need to go out to the river and have some float time.
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Get away and just kind of float. That's not the language here, is it?
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You want to be a good Christian? You want to follow Paul's footsteps? Even though Paul worked night and day and he taught and he said no to sin and yes to righteousness, you
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Christian, you just lay back and bad news is we know it to be true but then we let everything else in our life invade the time where we say,
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I need to learn about God and open this Bible this week. I'm so happy you come and listen to 55 -minute sermons but friends, this should just be the icing on the cake on day one of the week,
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Sunday and it should motivate you to have your Bible open. Wouldn't this be a good week to say,
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Lord, I'd like to be more sanctified in my life and in my marriage and at work and everything else and just to get to know you better, would you help me read my
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Bible every day this week? If I had everybody raise their hand, who reads their Bible here every day of the week?
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I think you would be shocked, even at our church. I'm not here to hammer you. I'm here to say, you want to grow?
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It's right before you. Look down at verse 17, But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed and having become freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness, a new master, to work for the new master, the good master, the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13 if you would, just to give you an idea that if you'd like to be a better wife or a better husband or a better co -worker or a better single person, you want to be a better Christian, you want to look more like Christ, the only way you'll ever look more like Christ is as the
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Spirit of God applies the Word to your life. There are no shortcuts. Don't buy anybody who says, here's the shortcut.
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Down at Morningstar or down at Valley Book and Bible or whatever the stores are around here, how to be a
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Christian with a one -minute manager. You think that book sells? The one -minute Bible, do you think that book sells?
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It's sold tons. I want to do the least, get the most. It does not compute in the land of the
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Bible. Now, what I love about Hebrews, how many chapters in Hebrews by the way? Thirteen chapters.
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And by the way, it's a pretty tough book talking about the superiority of Christ over angels, over revelation, over high priest, over Moses, over the old covenant, over all kinds of different things and people.
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And most people read Hebrews and they go, wow, that's deep. For the writer of Hebrews, maybe it was deep, but I don't think so.
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I think this is introductory learning for the modern Christian back in those days. This is one of those books where we go, oh yeah,
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Hebrews. It's like kind of Jude, I got it figured out, no problem. I kind of know I can put it together and if I was asked, could you please tell me what's in every chapter?
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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, all the way to 13. Yeah, I could just, I know it. It's about Jesus' superiority and I've got that,
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I got that down. Superiorly, superior, superior, superior, with superior study,
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I've got it down. But Hebrews chapter 13, verse 22, this is brief.
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Hebrews is a brief mini letter. You ever write a really long email and a short little blackberry note?
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Comparatively, this is the short little blackberry note of what we should really come to find out as Bible truth.
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Hebrews 13, 22. But I urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation.
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For I have written to you, what? Briefly. Can you imagine?
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Here's a brief little letter. Want to get together and memorize a brief little letter together? Oh, sure. Let's memorize
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Psalm 117 together. How about Hebrews? Friends, it is very, very difficult to buy into the
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Virginia Slims lie that says you can have it all. You can be a great mom.
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Remember Virginia Slims? You can be a great mom and you can be a great worker and you can smoke quality cigarettes.
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Virginia Slims, you can have it all. Somehow, if you smoke these cigarettes, you can do it all.
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You can't do it all in life. You can't be an expert at your work and an expert in sports and an expert in everything else and be an expert in the
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Bible. We can't do it. I'm not saying you have to get rid of sports.
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They're fine to watch. But I remember when I was a kid, I basically worshipped sports because I could tell you batting averages and all these other things.
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I probably will step on some toes here and now, but that's okay. I guess that's just what I do.
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Who has time for some rotisserie league baseball team? I don't get that.
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Well, I think I won't even do real baseball. I think I'll spend like 15 hours a week doing all this other fake baseball.
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And while my life is just going to pot, I have not met anybody who's got it so together they can waste their time with invisible sports.
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But I digress. Call me a legalist. I don't care what you do with your time, but you've got 24 hours a day.
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Use it wisely. Number three.
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Number three. The third truth that I think will help you.
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These are just truths that I've learned over the years that I think will help you, the congregation in whom
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I've been granted. God does not love you more when you obey.
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If you're a Christian, God does not love you more when you obey. Turn with me to John chapter 17.
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I try to say this about every month here from the pulpit, so Bethlehem Bible Church, you may be very familiar with this truth.
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God doesn't love you based on your performance. And when you sin, you should be sorry for it.
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But you have your status before God in the work of another, Christ Jesus.
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See, things aren't going well in my life, and I've dropped the ball here. I've sinned. I haven't measured up.
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It's just so easy when you understand this truth to go, I'm a sinner. I'm a wretch. I haven't been a good dad.
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I haven't been a good mom. I haven't been a good this or that. I haven't been a good husband or wife. I just fall on the sword when we learned from 1
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John a couple weeks ago. I'm just guilty. I did it. You don't have to run around and go, you know, if I do the right things, then my dad will like me.
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You know, if I do the wrong things, dad's super mad at me. Well, when you look at John 17, that chapter where Jesus is praying, it is the best.
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By the way, how did John know to write this when he was oversleeping? He celebrates
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Passover. I'm sure he's tired and stressed and disobedient. I'm sure he's had some Passover wine and he's tired and he's sleeping.
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How did John know to write this? Answer, the Spirit of God writes it for John, doesn't he?
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People say, well, I don't believe Moses wrote Exodus 34 about his burial.
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Well, Jesus talked about the words of Moses and the way I just think about it is maybe
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Joshua did write those things or maybe Moses, while he's alive sitting there on Mount Nebo, says, here's my death as the
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Spirit of God inspires it. Where was Moses when God made the universe in Genesis 1 -1? He was nowhere but God gives him the information perfectly and precisely to write about it so why are we concerned that John was sleeping when
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Jesus preached these words? And if you get John 17, the father and the son and their relationship just exudes out.
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Verse 20, let's pick it up there. If you're a Christian, God loves you as much as He loves
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His Son, Jesus Christ. And there's nothing you can do for Him to think less of you.
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Shall we sin now to somehow prove it? Of course not. But if a God would love you like that, wouldn't you want to obey?
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If a father could love a son that way, wouldn't the son say, I want to obey and honor you? John 17, verse 20,
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I do not ask on behalf of these alone, not just praying for the disciples, but for those also who believe in me through their word.
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You, if you're a Christian, that they may all be one even as you,
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Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
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Verse 22, the glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one.
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I in them and you in me that they may be perfected in unity so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as, you better underline this, even as you have what?
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Loved me. How much does God love you? You know, we sometimes make it some trite thing.
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How do you know how much God loves you? And then put your hands out like this, like you're on a cross. He loves us this much.
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I don't want to be trite with it. We know we're loved because of the cross, of course. But this is where I would focus
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He hasn't even died yet for these men. You've loved me and you love them as much as you've loved me.
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Verse 24, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am so that they may see my glory which you have given me for you loved me before the foundation of the world.
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Oh righteous Father, although the world has not known you, yet I have known you and these have known that you sent me.
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I have made your name known to them and I will make it known so that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.
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Friends, if you're a Christian, don't think about God as judge any longer. Let me restate that.
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Don't think about God as your judge any longer. He's the judge of the universe, of course.
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He will judge one day our works. He has the beam of seat. He will judge the great white throne judgment, the unbelievers.
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But in terms of a judge saying, I can't wait for you to mess up, I've got you. I remember when our kids were little,
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I think they're kind of edgy. They need some discipline but I can't discipline for no reason. And so, I need to catch them.
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So you just open up the door and kind of peek through and I go, it's just a matter of time. They're on edge and they're going to think I'm the omniscient, all -seeing dad and they're going to do something and I'm going to swoop in like some kind of helicopter and go, caught you in the act.
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Now I have proof. Now I can discipline you. They're like, you have eyes in the back of your head? No, I'm peering through the door but I never told them that.
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Alright, now you've done this and now it's time for your discipline. And I was hoping that the kids would every once in a while think, is dad watching me?
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And then eventually teach them, of course, that God is watching. You don't have to say to yourself, I've just sinned.
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God has seen it and now he's going to smash me. Oh, you might say,
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I've sinned and God has seen it and he might discipline me for his own glory and my own good.
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He loves me enough not to leave me as I am so I might receive the discipline. That's true but you will always keep his name.
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God's not going to make you lose the last name. Remember one time I was driving my father's car and he said,
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I want you to come home by one o 'clock at night. I was 18 or whatever and I was driving home and it was about four in the morning and I'm driving home.
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Why am I so stupid? Driving home and I go, I know what I'll do. I'll turn off the lights two blocks up the street and then
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I'll turn off the car and just put it in neutral and coast into the driveway and I'll coast up into the garage.
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And then I didn't have the lights on so I hit the side of the car to the garage and then
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I just went to bed. He won't know just a little kind of minor scrape.
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He'll thought some kind of some door guy did it or something at some supermarket Piggly Wiggly or something and they did it.
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Some of you smile because you know Piggly Wiggly is like Stop and Shop. I should have been kicked out of the family.
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My dad should have said, from this day forth you are out of here. What kind of first it's 4 o 'clock then it's the deception then it was the car then you didn't tell me.
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I mean the list goes on and on. It's almost like when you like some kind of dog you get beat too much and just like cringing going,
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I know the hammer's coming. But you know what? Even though my dad was not a
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Christian I hope he got saved at the end. He didn't kick me out of the family. He didn't take away my name.
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He didn't throw me out of the house. He said, I love you but I love you enough that there's going to be discipline.
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Friends, if you're a Christian God can't love you more. If you're a
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Christian God can't love you less. Paul says you're in Christ. Ephesians chapter 1.
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If God could love Jesus less He could love you less. If God could love Jesus more
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He could love you more. When we're saved by grace why do we consider our relationship with God one of works?
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Paul says in Galatians don't do that. So if you've got a father that loves you that much do you go, well then I'm going to brazenly sin?
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No, you say, I want to honor that kind of father. I want him to be proud of me. I want his face to shine on.
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More truths next week. These aren't Bible truths just to know them. They're Bible truths so you think differently about God, evangelism, life and death and worship.
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Let's pray. Thank you Father for this day. I just pray that you'd bless these truths and your words into the hearts of the people.
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Maybe some know them. I pray that you would stir up these good memories about how you love us and how you sovereignly love us.
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Lord, I pray that you'd give us by your Spirit's power a real desire and a hunger for your word this week.
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And Father, maybe you've given us so many trials in the church this week. The Garcia's loss and the
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Nelson's loss. Now the surgery on Tuesday. Karen Binney in the hospital and just getting out.
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Blake. Many others. Maybe it's because we would search you more and you'd use those vehicles that we might rely on you more in the word.
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And Father, if that's the case, thank you for being such a good Father. Thank you for loving us with an everlasting love.
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And a God like you who does that to us deserves all the glory. Not unto us, but unto thy name receive the glory.