James White Preaches at Apologia Church

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian Church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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God's design for individual Christians to be part of a local Christian Church under the care of qualified faithful biblical elders.

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And so as much as we love all of you watching these sermons, and we're thankful to God that God uses them to bless you, to encourage you,

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I do want to encourage you as a minister of the gospel to get plugged into a local body of believers.

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Particularly, I think important a reformed church would be best. But we want to encourage you to get plugged into a solid biblical church where you can fellowship, where you can worship, where you can serve, where you can be connected.

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That is vitally important and actually a biblical command. And so as much as again as we love for your participation, your partnership, and we are so thankful to God that he's using these in your lives, we want to encourage you to get plugged into a local church.

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You can though actually partner with Apologia Church as we proclaim the gospel and provide a defense of the biblical gospel all around the world.

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All of that, and you're a part of all that God is doing with us in the world to proclaim, herald the gospel of the kingdom.

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You can partner with us, and I want to say one last word about that. Do make sure that none of your giving and partnership towards Apologia Church interferes with your giving, your worship, your tithes, your offerings to a local body of believers in your area.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. It is obviously an honor to be with you in a special way today, partly because Tuesday night when

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I got word about what had happened, I headed down to the ER and got to be with the folks that were there, and the first thing

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I said was, well look, we don't have to worry about Sunday. Okay, so whatever you need to do there, just be assured that I will do what

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I can, and if you want to meet me to do that, and of course they said yes, that would be a good idea.

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So here we are yet once again, and you're probably getting tired of this. This is two out of three weeks, but I was here last week as well, and I was extremely impressed last week, and what's interesting is we're going to be able to sort of continue last week in a sense with a study that I hope is very useful to you, but before we do that,

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I did want to mention, Luke unfortunately didn't get a chance to see

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Kelly who is with me today. Let me put it this way. I could say, well, my wife

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Kelly is here. We're obviously joining together, but the best way, the biggest cred that Kelly can have, is that Summer's mom is here, okay?

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So if you want to say hello, we'll be hanging around afterwards, so we're over here, and she's the one that looks like there's no way that she's married to me, because you know,

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I'm old, and she's not, so how did that ever happen, but I signed an agreement early on in our marriage over 36 years ago that I would do all the aging for the couple, and so that's the least

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I could do, you know? I'm seeing a lot of women looking at their husbands going, hey, that's not a bad idea, you know?

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Would you be willing to do that? Would you do that for me, honey? The guy is going,

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I'm already doing that, honey. Haven't noticed that recently, have you? Okay, so say hello to her as well, and obviously lots more to be said, but we need to dig into the scriptures.

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So here's what we're gonna be doing. I'm glad this is being recorded.

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I'm assuming that it is. I am glad that it is, because I hesitate to do studies and sermons where we're moving from place to place to place a lot, but this study sort of requires that, and I noticed

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Jeff didn't have any problem doing that all over the place. Last week, so I guess I'm in good company as far as that goes, and you can always grab the recording and go back and catch some of the references if they ran past you too quickly, but most of the references are to be in one particular area, so it won't be all that difficult.

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A number of years ago, I was asked to speak at a Wretched conference.

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How many of you know Todd Friel and Wretched? Okay, all right, and I was asked to speak on a text, and some of you may have heard me speak on this before.

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I hope I don't bore you, but it's such an important study that if you've heard it before, maybe a second time around will make it even more real to you, but I was asked to speak on the text that Christian apologists always turn to that defines the action of giving apologetics, and no,

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I'm not doing this to talk about the correct pronunciation of the Greek term apologia, but I've given up on that.

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This is Apologia Church, but when I teach in Greek, it still has to be the other way around, but anyway, and it's a text.

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Obviously, you're familiar with what it is, 1 Peter chapter 3. Many of you have it memorized, 1

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Peter chapter 3 verse 15, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always pros apologion, being ready to give a reasoned defense for the hope that is within you.

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Literally, it's the word that is within you, yet doing so, verse 16, with gentleness and reverence, keeping a good conscience, and for years,

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I mean, I started doing apologetics. Kelly and I, like I said, we were married young, unlike the current generation.

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I was 19, she was 18, and actually, she was 8. Did I say 18?

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No, I'm sorry, because then you could do the math and figure things out, but and very early on, it was, if I recall correctly, only a month after we had gotten married, the first two more missionaries,

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Elders Reed and Reese, showed up at my sister -in -law's doorstep, so Kelly is an identical twin, so they were talking to Shelly, her sister, and she asked me to come over and to talk to the missionaries, and that's what started

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Alpha and Omega Ministries and everything else, two more of the missionaries named Elders Reed and Reese. I'm sure they have been excommunicated for that, because, no, they probably haven't, but I've mentioned their names enough times that they've probably looked them up and gone, you guys didn't do a really good job there, and look what came of all that, but from that time onward, we started teaching classes at the church we were at at that time on the subject of Mormonism, and that ended up leading to opportunities of speaking in churches, first around the valley, and then, you know, now literally around the world, and when you're invited to do that, you frequently are going to be speaking from 1

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Peter 3 15, you'll be talking about the importance of giving a reason, defense, apologetics, all the rest of that kind of stuff, and I had done that for years.

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I had done that for years, and then Todd Friel asks me to speak on that same subject, and you would think you'd be like, well, there's a snoozer, but it wasn't.

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First of all, if you've ever been around Todd Friel, he's frightening. He's not just freakishly tall,

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Todd Friel. He can speak so fast, he doesn't have to breathe. He has gills, and so he can just take in oxygen from the air, and he doesn't have to stop, and so I knew he'd be asking questions, and so I said, you know,

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I need to, I probably need to look a little more closely at the text, and it's stunning.

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There is a real danger. I was raised in a Christian family. My, as far back on my father's side as we know, we've been ministers, and so my earliest memories are of church, and the

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Bible, and Sunday school, and, and all of those things, and that's a wonderful heritage.

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It really is, but there are some dangers to it, and one of the dangers is you get so familiar with certain texts of Scripture.

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You've heard them over and over and over again, and just like when you're reading a book, you, you run across a verse, you read the first few words, you know which one it is, and you just move on.

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You don't sit there and re -read the whole thing. You go on to what's being said about it, because you assume that you know it.

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Well, that's what happened with this. That there's, this is public confession here on my part. That's what happened with this text.

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I had spoken about it, and had presented it over and over again in church, after church, after church, but when

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I opened up the text and began looking at it, something all of a sudden struck me. The first danger of a verse that you know really well is that you may not know its context all that well, and I think for a lot of Christians, yeah, we know 1

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Peter 3 15, but what comes right before it? Well, let me look. It's not an exhortation about standing firm in front of the difficulties of the world in the sense of philosophical argumentation or anything like that at all.

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It's really, really super practical. You're Christians, you're living in a difficult world, and there's gonna be trials and tribulations, and you shouldn't be fearful of the people that are persecuting you.

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Huh. Okay, and when you're looking at it, and this is something that's very, very, very important to do.

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I don't care how old you are. If you're old enough to understand what I'm saying, this is something for you to make sure that you're doing when you're reading the

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Scriptures for yourself. The first thing you should notice is that verses 10 through 12 are a citation from what we call the

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Old Testament. You might as well get used to the fact that I like to use the term Tanakh. Tanakh means

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Torah, Nevi 'im, and Ketuvim, the Torah, the law, the Nevi 'im, the prophets, Ketuvim, the writings.

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It's sort of a really accurate description of what we call the

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Old Testament, but the Hebrew Scriptures, the Tanakh, it is a quotation, and I hope that whatever translation you use, it does a good job in warning you and waving a little flag at you that says,

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I'm quoting from the Tanakh. I'm quoting from the Old Testament. So that you can go back and look at what that was all about, and you can more accurately handle the

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Scriptures and see the intimate connections that exist between the Old and New Testament Scriptures, as we saw last week when we were looking at Matthew chapter 21, for example.

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And so I started looking at what was being said and what was being cited from the

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Psalter and other passages. And so I continued on and I was looking at, you know, being zealous for good deeds and so on and so forth, but then all of a sudden something struck me in verse 14.

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And in, now that this is where some of the, this is where most of the

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English translations fail us. I'm not aware of any

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English translations that actually would point this out, so I'm gonna be pointing it out for you. Maybe you can,

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I don't know if you mark your Bibles or what you do with your particular text of Scripture, but you might want to make a note here so that you keep this in mind.

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I'm looking at, some of you have seen this, and if you want to come up afterwards and touch it, you can.

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It's a, this is the, this is, this is how Jeff got a red ESV. Okay, let's put it that way.

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This is the Nessie Olin 28th edition that Jeffrey Rice did for me with the Alvin Omega in Boston and all the, it's pretty cool, and he has promised he will not do that for anyone else.

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So don't even bother asking. He's had at least a dozen people asking for the exact same one. He's like, no, I don't think so.

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So looking at the Greek text, I was reading it, and all of a sudden I realized, wait a minute, do not fear what they are fearing, neither be troubled, is in italics in my

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Greek text, and that's the Greek text way of saying this is an Old Testament citation.

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Now, how many of you have that in verse 14, that section, do not fear them, neither be afraid, neither be troubled.

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How many of you have that indicated in your translation as an Old Testament citation? Okay. Some of you do, some of you don't.

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All right. And so I looked over, and I see this is a quotation from Isaiah chapter 8, and so I'm like, oh, okay, well, that's, that's interesting.

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I wonder why I hadn't noticed that before, but you know, I, okay, it's a citation from Isaiah chapter 8 verse 12, and okay, all right,

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I'll take that, but then I noticed something else, and this is what caught my eye, and I hope it catches your eye as well.

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And I don't know of any translations, unfortunately, that, that do this. The first word of verse 15 in the

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Greek text is the word Lord. Now, we all know that word kourios. It's in the accusative case kourion.

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Lord, it is what the translators of the Greek Old Testament called the

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Greek Septuagint, which was the Bible of the early church. When the, when, when people got together in the early church, the only

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Bible they had was the Greek Septuagint, and that is the word that is used for Yahweh.

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Instead of using the divine name, they use the word kourios, Lord. And so the very first word of verse 15 is kourion, and it's in italics.

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Now, are there any, any translations in here where, when it has Lord in verse 15, that it's indicated as being an

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Old Testament citation? I've never found one. I've never found one. And that's a shame, because it hides something from you.

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It hides something from you. If you look back at Isaiah chapter 8, verse 12, here's what it says.

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This is, we're gonna be in Isaiah 6 through 11 most of the time, so keep your finger there, but we're,

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I'm just giving you how I got here. Isaiah 8, 12, you are not to say it is a conspiracy in regard to all this people call a conspiracy, and you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.

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So that's, that's verse 14 in verse Peter 3. That's where, that's where Peter's quoting from. Then the next verse, verse 13.

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It is Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy. It is

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Yahweh of hosts whom you should regard as holy.

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And the editors of the Nessie Allen 28th edition of the Greek New Testament recognized that Peter was not done quoting from the

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Old Testament. Do you know what that means? When it says in verse 15, but sanctify, and they also have that in italics because it's the exact same word in verse 13, whom you should regard as holy, whom you should sanctify, they recognize that what

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Peter is doing is Peter is taking verse 13 of Isaiah chapter 8, and he is fulfilling it in light of Christ's coming.

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And so what he's saying to everyone, this is not addressed just to elders or to apologists.

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There is no office of apologists. It is addressed to all believers, anyone who is going to be facing difficulties in the world and persecution in the world and and people pushing back because you bow the knee to Christ and not to Caesar, is to hear these words.

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And I had never in all those years of presenting this text in churches all over the place properly handled 1st

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Peter 3 15 because I wanted to get to apologetics so quick. There's a problem.

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There's something you got to do before you get to apologetics according to Peter. And what does he say?

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But we have Lord the

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Messiah, the Christ, treat as holy in your hearts.

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That's the first part. Now that's a command. And when you have scripture giving commands not just to elders, not just to heads of families, but to all believers, you want to know what that command is about.

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Because we want to fulfill those commands, right? So what does it mean? What does it mean to sanctify or to treat as holy the

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Lord as Messiah? But once you see the

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Isaiah 8 background, then you know who's actually in view here. This is talking about Yahweh.

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This is talking about the God of Israel, the creator of all things. This is a mental, he meant for his audience to have

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Isaiah 8 in their minds as they're hearing this. And so how do we then fulfill that command?

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Well, you are to recognize that the Messiah, you are to treat him as holy as Yahweh in your hearts.

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The Messiah was, what were we just singing? Emmanuel. Emmanuel.

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We didn't, I didn't talk to you about this, did I? I almost, I almost Facebooked you and said, hey, could we have something with Emmanuel in it?

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Thank you very much. I've been having a few providential things going on recently. Emmanuel means

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God with us. Now some people say, well, it just means God's on our side.

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Well, it could. But when you have repeated evidence in the text of Scripture over and over again that Yahweh is the one who is going to come, that the messenger who is sent before Yahweh, he is making the way straight for Yahweh to come.

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That's who John the Baptist was. When you see the New Testament writers applying texts that are specifically about Yahweh to Jesus in the

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New Testament, then you start seeing what's really going on here. And so what that means to you and I is we have this radical belief that the creator of this entire vast universe entered into his own universe in the person of Jesus Christ.

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And that means all of human knowledge is under his lordship, all of human government, everything.

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When we say Jesus is Lord, many people in evangelicalism think that what we're actually saying is

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Jesus is my favorite religious figure. But that's not what we're saying when we're saying

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Jesus is Lord. Because if he truly is the creator made flesh, then he is

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Lord over everything. Every atom, every government, every action, he is

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Lord. And for us, we are to have in our minds, all believers, this isn't just advanced information for the super -spiritual person in that's really interested in theology.

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That's not who Peter's writing to. Peter's writing to all Christians. All Christians need to understand this.

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And with the Holy Spirit's help, all Christians can. We should never dumb this stuff down.

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No. Allow the Holy Spirit of God to lift up. Don't dumb the truth down.

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And so what we're being told is you and I on a daily basis are to set apart as holy the

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Messiah as Yahweh in the very center of our being.

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So that everything else in our life is to be seen through the filter of recognizing what it means to be a servant of the incarnate one, the

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God -man. There is no higher calling than that. Everything else has to be filtered through this.

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And it is only when we do that that we can then be always ready to give that apologion, that defense of the faith.

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But you'll notice, has it ever, how many of you, has it ever bothered you that when you look at 1st

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Peter 3 .15, it says to everyone who asks you, because you see, we'd rather just sort of force them into the conversation, right?

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Trip them up, do whatever you need to do. Oh, sorry about that. Did you just trip? Oh, let me tell you about Jesus, you know, that type of thing.

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That's not what Peter's talking about here. That's not what Peter's talking about here. Be ready to give that reasoned defense for the hope that is within you.

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The hope that is within you, to anyone who asks you. You see, here's, here's, here's the tough part about 1st

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Peter 3 .15. What it's saying to you and I is that when you fulfill the command of the first part of the verse and sanctify

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Christ as Yahweh in your hearts, you place Him in the center,

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He becomes the defining element of everything else in your life, that is going to change how you live so that other people outside the faith are gonna look at you and go, you don't respond to things the same way the rest of us do.

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You don't respond to tragedy. You don't respond to things in the same way. Where did you get this hope?

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Because I, I don't have that hope. Where did you get this hope? And now you need to be ready to give the answer.

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And that's why these words are addressed, not to the people who just love to get out there and, you know, do the debates and everything else.

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There's nothing wrong with that. I've done a few myself, but to everybody, to every

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Christian, every Christian man, every Christian woman, when you live in light of the lordship of Christ, it makes a difference in how you respond to things.

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And people are gonna say, where'd you get that hope? And where to be ready? That's what it's about.

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That doesn't really fit with the standard apologetic use of 1st Peter 3 .15, but that's what it's about.

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And so in discovering that, all of a sudden, I started looking back at Isaiah, and I started thinking.

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How many times have you wished that you could have been on the road to Emmaus?

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I'm gonna tell you. When I read in Luke about Jesus coming up and joining those disciples, and they are supernaturally kept from recognizing him, the text is very clear about that, and they're sad.

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We thought he was to be the Messiah. And then Jesus starts opening the scriptures to them.

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Remember what they said later on? Did not our hearts burn within us as he opened the scriptures to us?

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Folks, we should never be looking for feelings. But man, we should be expectant that when the word is really open to us, our hearts are gonna burn within us.

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And that's what they experienced. They had the Messiah open the scriptures to them.

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And then when Jesus then appears to the disciples, what does he do for them? What's the first thing he does? He opens their mind to understand the scriptures, and he upbraids them.

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How could you be so slow to believe what the prophets have testified concerning me? And he starts from Moses and goes all the way through.

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First thing he does. Wow, I think that means it's probably pretty important. You know, when you've risen from the dead, the first thing you do with the future leaders of your church?

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Let me tell you what the scriptures say. Not how it's done in most seminaries today, sadly. But I would love to have heard that teaching on the road to Emmaus.

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I would have loved to have heard what Jesus taught the disciples during that time after the resurrection when he opens their hearts and minds to understand the scriptures.

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But you might say, yeah, well that was back then. That's maybe someday in heaven, right? No. We actually have a pretty good idea of what he said to them.

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Because they then wrote the New Testament. And it is a testimony to the problem that many evangelicals in our land have.

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As I've said many times, many people today are canonically challenged. Yeah, they have 66 books, but they're not really sure why they have 66 and not 74 or 73, depending on how the

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Roman Catholics count the Apocrypha. And to be honest, for most people, those

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Old Testament books are sort of... They're good stories for the kids.

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You know, David and Goliath. That helps keep, you know, the boys interested. And, you know, there's some good stories to keep the girls interested.

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But that's really what the Old Testament's about, right? No. All scripture is theanoustos.

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All scripture is God -breathed. Yes, even the genealogical lists. They're there for a reason.

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It's all... You know, let's not have any hyper -red letterism. That's a bad disease.

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But what it shows is how little we really know of the Old Testament and how it ends up in the

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New. And so once I saw this connection in Isaiah 8, and I saw that that this is in regards to the deity of Christ.

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The way that Peter uses Isaiah chapter 8 presents the deity of Christ.

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And I started going, Isaiah 8? Huh. And so I started going backwards.

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And that's what I'm going to invite you to do with me. Think with me for a moment. Isaiah chapter 6.

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What's in Isaiah chapter 6 that might be relevant to us here? Well, Isaiah chapter 6, of course, is what?

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The temple vision. It's Isaiah's commissioning as a prophet. And remember the vision in the year that King Uzziah died.

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I saw the Lord. It doesn't use the term Yahweh there. It uses Adonai. It uses Yahweh later on. So we know who it was that he saw, but it uses

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Adonai there. Why did I even bother to tell you that? The reason I bothered to tell you that is if you're taking notes, if you're going to record this, you're going to look at it later on, maybe write some stuff down when you're not taking care of the kids or something else.

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Sometimes when you share some of this stuff with some of the Jehovah's Witnesses and stuff that are out there, not only on the net, but going door to door, some of these people are incredibly prepared.

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And we've got to cross our t's and dot our i's if those are the type of people you want to be talking to. And they need us to be talking to them, by the way.

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But if you're going to do it, you need to make sure that you don't get tripped up.

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And in Isaiah 6 -1, initially it says, I saw the Lord, Adonai, lofty and lifted up.

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Later on, it identifies that Lord as Yahweh. It doesn't say right there Yahweh. It does later on.

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But you know the rest of the verse. And the train of his robe was filling the temple, right?

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Sort of. Sort of. What do I mean? I ran across this in 1997 -ish.

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And I'll be perfectly honest with you. Now, some of you are going to go, you're really weird. And now that we're here, you're going to find out in many more ways than you ever knew before.

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But, I still get goosebumps when

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I think about this. I really do. And you're going to say, you get goosebumps over textual variance between the

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Greek Septuagint and the Hebrew Masoretic text. Okay. So you're all going to be even more intent upon meeting

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Kelly because you're like, what kind of a patient woman is this? Well, she's very patient. In John chapter 12, turn with me, if you will, to John chapter 12.

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Some of you know this, some of you don't. But, it does give me goosebumps.

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John chapter 12, may I suggest to everyone that when you're, when you're thinking about Bible study, when you're thinking about things you want to, we have a new year coming up.

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Memorization of scripture, absolutely vital, super important. But may I suggest that a really functionally cool thing to do is to select some of the

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New Testament books, or some of the Old Testament books, and learn their outlines. Not memorize them, but learn

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Gospel of John, what's John 1, what's the first chapter of John about, what's the second chapter of John about, third chapter. Learn to follow the arguments, know what's, it is incredibly helpful and useful.

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And when you do that, you go, John chapter 12, oh, that's the close of Jesus' public ministry. That's where those

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Greeks come seeking Jesus. But Jesus doesn't show himself to them, it's really weird. He goes into this thing about judgment and blinding people and, and, and, all the rest of this kind of stuff, but he never meets with the

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Greeks, and it's, it's sort of strange. And then starting in chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, leads up to chapter 17, the private ministry to the disciples, and then 18, the betrayal, and you go into the crucifixion.

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And so chapter 12, the end of Jesus' public ministry. And so normally when we're reading chapter 12, we're thinking about those

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Greeks, and the tough stuff about blinding people's eyes and hardening hearts, and, and that's where our minds are focused, and appropriately so.

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I mean, that's pretty important stuff. And that's why we go right on past one of the coolest connections between the

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Old and New Testament, between the Tanakh and the, the Christian Greek scriptures. Look at verse 39.

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For this reason they were unable to believe. That's a phrase that gives all

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Arminians hives. They were unable to believe, because again,

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Isaiah said, and then what's verse 40? Verse 40 is a quotation from the

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Greek Septuagint of Isaiah 610. Isaiah 6, temple vision. So this is part of the commissioning of Isaiah, and it's talking about blinding their eyes, and hardening their hearts, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their hearts, and they, they turn, be, be turned.

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And I heal them. And then we have verse 41. Poor little verse 41.

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It just gets, verse 40 is so tough that everyone just goes right on by verse 41, and yet it is an absolute gem.

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And now you're going to know about it if you didn't already. These things Isaiah said, because he saw his glory, and he spoke concerning him.

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Because he saw taen doxon altu, doxology. Doxa, glory.

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Doxology, the word of glory. Study of glory, if you were doing a study, but what, in the doxology, it's a word of, of, of glorification of God.

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Doxa. Well, Isaiah saw his glory, and he spoke concerning him.

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Now the only him in the context of Jesus. The very next verse uses him of Jesus, about some of the

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Jewish leaders believing in him. So it's only about Jesus. Okay, here's the question.

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When did Isaiah see Jesus's glory? When did Isaiah see

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Jesus's glory? Well, the immediate context is the citation of Isaiah chapter 6.

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These things Isaiah said. What things? Isaiah 6 .10. Well, what did

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Isaiah see in Isaiah 6? And if you've memorized the standard translation of Isaiah 6 .1,

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or you're just familiar with it, in the year that king Uzziah died, Asa, the lord lofty, lifted up, sitting upon his throne, and the train of his robe was filling the temple.

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You might not make the connection that John's original readers would make. Because, see,

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John's original readers aren't reading an English translation of the Bible. John's original readers are reading the

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Greek Septuagint. And guess what? I had two master's degrees and was just about finished with my first doctorate before I found this out.

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And I found it out on my own. I didn't read it in the book. I didn't, it just, it was just.

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Because, you see, if you turn in the Greek Septuagint to Isaiah 6 .1, it's slightly different than Hebrew.

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Slightly different than the Hebrew. How is it different? It doesn't say the train of his robe was filling the temple.

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In the Greek Septuagint, it says his glory filled the temple. Doxa. Very same word.

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And so anybody listening or reading John who's looked back at Isaiah 6 knows exactly what he's talking about.

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Isaiah, whose glory did you see? I saw Yahweh's glory. John, whose glory did

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Isaiah see? Jesus's. Jesus's.

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It makes perfect sense when you look back at John 1 .18. No one has seen God in any time. Hamanaganes the unique God, he has exegeted him.

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He has explained him. That's the lens that John wants you looking through in the rest of his gospel that's provided in the prologue of John 1 .1

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-18. So Isaiah 6, who's upon the throne?

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Well, according to John 12 .41, Jesus's. Wow. Well, okay, so there's there's one.

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There's, that's interesting, Isaiah chapter 6. And then I go, huh? And then we've got

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Isaiah chapter 7. Does Isaiah chapter 7 remind anyone of anything this time of year?

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Isaiah 7 .10. And get used to this. I know I've probably explained it to you before, but we're gonna be hanging out a bit more.

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When I read the Old Testament, generally, when I encounter LORD in all caps,

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I don't follow the Jewish tradition. If you're talking to Jews, you might want to amend this.

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When I was in Israel, I did because I didn't want to close down all conversations immediately. But when

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I see LORD in all caps, I read it as Yahweh. So, then

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Yahweh spoke again to Ahaz, saying ask a sign for yourself from Yahweh your God. Make it deep as Sheol or as high as heaven.

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But Ahaz said, I will not ask nor will I test Yahweh. Then he said, listen now house of David. Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men that you will try the patience of my

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God as well? Therefore the LORD himself will give you a sign. Behold, a

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Beth, a Alma will be with child. I'll talk about that in a second.

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And bear a son and she will call his name Emmanuel. He will eat curds and honey at the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good.

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For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.

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So we all know here is the Emmanuel text. And very, very quickly be aware of the fact that the

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Hebrew term translated as virgin in most of our English translations is a

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Hebrew word that can simply mean a young maiden. There is a specific word for virgin

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Bethula that is not used here. And people will jump on this and I've seen it on CNN and all over the internet at this time of year, obviously.

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Always throwing it out there to try to trip up Christians who don't know the background of their faith. The fact is this text is cited in the

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New Testament. And when it is, it is cited from the Greek Septuagint. The Greek Septuagint was not written by Christians.

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The Greek Septuagint pre -exists the Christian movement. It was done by tremendously talented

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Hebrew scholars who were Jewish. And when they rendered Alma into the

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Greek Septuagint, they rendered it by the term Parthenos. Have you ever heard of Parthenon in Greece?

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And I can assure you Parthenos is a very, very specific

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Greek word that has one meaning and one meaning only, virgin. So the

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Greek translators of Isaiah understood the word to refer to virgin.

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Matthew and the others aren't twisting the Old Testament text here. They're taking it as it was given to them.

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Now very quickly in this situation you have a near fulfillment and a far fulfillment.

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It gives you a time frame here. There is a time frame where this has to be fulfilled and it was within like two or three years.

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And it was fulfilled within two or three years. There was a historical fulfillment of this particular prophecy, but so many, even the

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Jews understood. There's all sorts of stuff. Most of you know that I'm good friends with Michael Brown. Look at his series on answering

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Jewish objections to Jesus. There's tons of intertestamental Jewish material demonstrating that the

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Jews recognized that so much of the messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, yes, they did have a fulfillment back in the past, but it was only partial.

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They were looking forward as a body to something that was a much greater fulfillment and that's what we have in Emmanuel, God with us.

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Now this Emmanuel, are we reading something into it? I mean, let's be honest.

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We could read something into it. It could just simply mean God's on your side because there's all sorts of names in the

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Old Testament that say, you know, helped by God and gift of God and house of God.

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I mean, El is all over the place in Hebrew language. So are we reading something into this?

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Well, keep that in mind as we look through this section of Isaiah. And as we start seeing this this consistency, these texts that are all in one section here and they just start, they start mounting up over time.

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So Isaiah 6, John 12, Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14.

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We have the fulfillment in Jesus. We saw in Isaiah chapter 8, the citation by Peter, and notice 8 .8

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by the way, then it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass through, it will reach even to the neck, and the spread of its wings will fill the breadth of your land, what?

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Now, it depends on your translation here. The New American Standard, which I normally utilize, is not consistent at this point, and I'm not sure why.

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In 8 .8, it will say, will fill the breadth of your land, O Emmanuel.

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O Emmanuel. How many of you have Emmanuel there? How many of you don't have Emmanuel there? How many of you did not want to, how many of you wish

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I would not ask you to raise your hand during the sermon? Because that means you have to stay awake and focused, and that was, you know, that's why do you think we're recording this?

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We can watch it later. What, you know, I can zone out. It's okay. Keep that in mind, because look down at the end of verse 10.

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Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted. State a proposal, but it will not stand. For what? God is with us.

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Huh? It's the exact Hebrew phrase, not a scintilla of difference. It's Emmanuel. It's Emmanuel.

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Now, maybe this figured it would be too stilted, too difficult to translate it that way or whatever, but you have

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Emmanuel at the end of verse 8. You have Emmanuel at the end of verse 10 in chapter 8 as well, which continues that utilization from chapter 7, and then that's what's right before the conspiracy thing, and then it is

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Yahweh of hosts whom you are to regard as holy, which Peter then cites in 1 Peter 3.

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So we've got 6, we've got 7, we've got 8, but we're not even done with 8.

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Look at 8 .14. But to both the houses of Israel, who is this holy one? A stone to strike and a rock to stumble over and a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

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Many will stumble over them. Then they will fall and be broken. They will even be snared and caught. Hmm. Paul picked up on that, didn't he?

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You see how Peter's taking one section and Paul takes another section and they're putting them in different contexts and using them in different ways?

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Where do you think that came from? I think we're getting a little bit of an insight into what the conversation on the

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Emmaus road, what the conversation in the post -resurrection appearances of Jesus was all about. We're starting to see it because we have the

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New Testament to be able to look at it. And so, verse 18, Behold, I and the children whom

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Yahweh has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts who dwells on Mount Zion.

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If I recall, it's the writer of Hebrews that picked up on that. Boy, there is a lot of stuff they're picking up on. And so you go, okay, so you've got 6, 7, and 8, and then

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I went, oh, and then we've got 9. I hope as soon as I say

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Isaiah 9 this time of year, you're all going, yeah, you bet. Because, you know, the one thing that's really disappointing,

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I, last year, Kelly and I went and we saw the Messiah at Grand Canyon University. Did a great job.

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And I love Handel's Messiah. Any other Handel Messiah lovers in here? All right. That was a pretty small, that was a pretty pathetic response, okay?

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Are you saying you don't? How can you not love Handel's Messiah? It is almost inspired.

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I mean, every word in it is straight from scripture. So I just figure the music is just a later inspiration. So it's like the 29th book of the

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New Testament, something like that. But anyways, so one of the most beautiful songs in the

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Messiah comes straight out of Isaiah chapter 9, but before we get to 6, look at verse 2.

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The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.

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Hmm. We see that being used in the New Testament. And then it continues on.

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Verse 6. For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders, and his name will be called

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Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness.

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From then on forevermore, the zeal of Yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.

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Six, seven, eight, nine. And now you have this incredible a child will be born to us.

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That's the normal term in Hebrew for giving birth to a child. And I can't prove it.

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This could just be basic Hebrew parallelism. A son will be given to us.

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I think there's something more there. The son, kiss the son lest he be angry.

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A son given to us by the father. The government will rest on his shoulders, and then his name's

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Wonderful Counselor, El Gabor, Mighty God, used of Yahweh in chapter 10, verse 21.

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And then some people get tripped up by the phrase eternal father because Jesus isn't the father.

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Remember the names, the identifiers of father, son, and spirit are revealed to us primarily in the

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New Testament. The term of father, Abba, father. You're familiar with that term in Aramaic or in Hebrew.

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That term father is primarily used of God in the

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Old Testament as one who brings into existence or creates someone or something like a nation.

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But in this particular passage, the way the construction reads,

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Avi Ad in Hebrew, I would render this as father of eternity. It's emphasizing the creation on the part of God, whoever this is, is the eternal creator or maybe the creator of time itself.

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I would see the fulfillment of Avi Ad in Colossians chapter 1, where you have the description of Jesus, for by him all things made, whether in heaven and earth, visible, invisible, principalities, powers, dominions, authorities, all things created by him, for him he is before all things, in him all things consist.

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That's the Avi Ad. That's the fulfillment, I think. And then Prince of Peace, Shalom, Sar Shalom.

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What does Jesus give for us? If we believe in him, justification by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Tremendous texts, tremendous promises, continuing right along.

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And we see how the New Testament writers are walking through these texts and recognizing exactly what is being taught here.

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So Isaiah chapter 9. So I thought, okay, this is really cool because, you know, this is good enough.

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I mean, Isaiah 6, 7, 8, 9, Isaiah 10, that can't really be. Isaiah 10 is the

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Assyrians and it's one of the primary texts we use to demonstrate the compatibilism, the reality that you can have divine decree and you can have man's responsibility and these things are compatible with one another.

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So that's probably good. This could be the end of that. And then I started looking at it and went, oh,

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I'm wrong about that. Hmm. Because after the story of the destruction of the

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Assyrians, what do we have beginning in verse 20? Now in that day, a remnant of Israel and those the house of Jacob who have escaped will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on Yahweh, the

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Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people,

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O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

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And this, of course, ends up being the very terminology that ends up in Romans 9, 10, and 11 in the discussion of the remnant that God saves by his mercy and his grace in electing a people in Jesus Christ.

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Wow. Text after text after text in a row.

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So I figured that that obviously that's that's the end of that, right? I mean, you can't just go for chapter after chapter.

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And then I looked at in Isaiah 11, Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

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The spirit of Yahweh will rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of Yahweh.

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And he will delight in the fear of Yahweh. He will not judge by what his eyes see or make a decision about what his ears hear. But with righteousness, he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth.

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He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth that goes right into the book of Revelation. And with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked.

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Also, the righteousness will be the belt about his loins and faithfulness the belt about his waist. How many texts does it take?

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Before you start seeing the repetitive nature. Now keep something in mind.

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We are often accused we are often accused of twisting and manhandling the

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Old Testament text to try to shoehorn it into the New Testament reality.

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Okay, that's a that's a common accusation. I'm thinking of one of the leading Jewish apologists.

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If you want to know if you know your stuff, take on Jewish apologists. I mean they are extremely extremely difficult.

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And there is a particular Jewish apologist who would say look you are twisting every single one of those texts because they all had relevance to the people to whom they're originally written and they did.

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We do not do ourselves any favor when we try to deny that Isaiah chapter 7, the woman who's going to give birth, there's a time frame and there was a fulfillment.

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So we we need to be very very careful. Don't don't get don't get trapped into defending something that is indefensible thinking that it's it's really relevant to your point.

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It's not. Each what is beautiful to me is that each one of these texts as diverse as they are, different times in Isaiah's ministry, different historical realities taking place.

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Think about this with me for just a second. What what limit could we ever place upon the power of our

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God that he can decree history to flow in such a fashion that he can have his prophets interact with what's going on politically and in the reality of those times and yet the words that they write over centuries come together to form a consistent testimony to his son when his son enters into human flesh as the

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Messiah. So as to provide such a clear testimony that Jesus can say to his disciples upon his resurrection, guys, why are you so hard -hearted to not see what the prophets from Moses onward said about me?

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I'll tell you there have been times I've read that and I'm sort of like sort of cringe a little bit like,

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Lord, they're just your disciples. I mean, it's sort of tough. Actually, given that they have been raised with these scriptures and listened to Jesus teach for three years.

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Yeah, why were you so hard -hearted? Now that you start seeing these things, but think with me.

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How truly sovereign and powerful, not puppet master powerful, but powerful in the sense of being able to take creatures made in his image and to utilize them in such a way he never forces any one of them to do evil that they don't want to do.

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There's no, there's nothing in scripture that says God's standing behind good folks with a big old theological gun forcing them to do bad things.

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He works with them in such a way often restraining their evil so that tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, literally millions of people over centuries work in such a way that the resultant scriptures that prophesy events in history come together to prophesy even in a greater way of what

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God is doing in Jesus Christ and will do all the way to the end of time. And you think

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God can't work out your life? It is amazing how many people struggle with the idea that our

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God could be so big and so powerful that he could work with a

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Paul and a Peter and a Luke and a James and an Isaiah and a

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Moses all with different personalities and different vocabularies and different backgrounds and different experiences in life.

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And yet they write not as automatic writers like that.

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They're not just mp3s, you know, dictation machines. They write using their own vocabulary, their own experience and yet what they end up writing comes from God.

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And one of the least believed things in seminaries and Bible colleges today in our land and around the world is that God is big enough and sovereign enough and so wise in his creation of the very fabric and form of time that he can create human beings in such a way that he can use them and give us a word scripture that is truly reliable without just turning those people into dictation machines.

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People just don't get how that's possible. It's amazing to me and yet the whole message of scripture shows that our

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God is so wise and so powerful and is so intent upon accomplishing his purposes that he's been doing this all along.

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I don't know about you, looking at this world, looking at what seems to be utter chaos in this world, if I didn't believe

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God was actually in control and he was working out his purposes, I'd be on Prozac as half of our population seems to be.

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Seriously, we are a heavily medicated people today and there's a reason for that. We have this massive information overflow coming at us called the internet.

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God never designed our minds, which is why we all have attention deficit disorder now.

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He never designed our minds to have this constant flow of stuff coming at us and I personally blame

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Marcus for most of it. But anyway, we'll leave that aside. You gotta love me more now than you ever did before, bro.

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He never designed us to be able to keep up with this kind of information and so it comes at us and we are overwhelmed and we think we know what's going on, but we really realize we don't know what's going on and we really have to believe

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God better know what's going on. Well, the history of the church, the history of scripture tells us, yeah, he he's known all along.

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I need that confidence. I need that confidence. Looking around the room,

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I only see a few of you who can compete with how much white I have here. Thank you, brother.

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Appreciate that. How many grandparents do we have? All right,

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I'm gonna get to know all of you. I'm gonna tell you something right now.

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Nothing changes your perspective about the future more than having grandchildren.

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First thing that changes you marriage. Second thing, kids.

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But then you think you're done until your kids have kids. But you don't think it's really possible because you're too young for that.

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But that's when you really start seeing, you know what? There's generation after generation here and I've got to think about what are my grandkids going to be facing?

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And that's when you really start thinking and becoming serious about what's going on in the world around you and trying to make it a better place.

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Because you're thinking about them and you want to give them a foundation because if God calls them to stand against tremendous opposition, they need to have the foundation to stand upon.

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That changes you. That changes you. And as I think about what's going on in our country, as I think about the reality that the things that I say,

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I am literally stunned that the dividing line has not been bounced off of YouTube yet.

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Think of the things I talk about. Think of the debates I do. Remember when

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I was on the Dr. Drew program a couple years ago? With the transgender guy? The same transgender guy that threatened

01:00:02

Ben Shapiro. Remember that? In a very deep voice. When I think about what may well be coming our direction and what our brothers and sisters in other nations are already facing,

01:00:21

I cannot help but think, did I give my children the proper foundation and what can I do to help them to give the proper foundation to my grandchildren?

01:00:31

And that proper foundation has to start with an understanding of who God is. And what we've seen today,

01:00:37

I hope these are texts that you'll write them down. You're amazed with me at the tremendous testimony of the

01:00:44

Tanakh, of the Hebrew scriptures that then comes into the New Testament, but that you step back from that and you go, how awesome must

01:00:57

God be that he in his divine decree doesn't make a puppet show.

01:01:04

He makes the drama of redemption and it's a real drama and we're real people and what we do really matters.

01:01:12

And the proof of that is that the Son of God became one of us. The Son of God did not become a puppet.

01:01:23

So for anyone who uses that analogy, and you know I deal with people that use that analogy all the time, that's the ultimate refutation.

01:01:30

The Son of God did not become a puppet. And so we're not puppets. What takes place in time is important, but it's still the result of God's decree.

01:01:40

You've got to hold those two things because the Bible teaches those two things. And so when you see that God can so beautifully form this tapestry of time so that he can accomplish his purposes and he can write his scriptures, and then that he does this so that you could have consolation, you could have guidance, you could have a true knowledge of who he is.

01:02:04

Boy, that's called blessing. And that means we are a blessed people. And blessed people are thankful people.

01:02:13

And thankful people do not complain against God. And how much of the sin that we experience in our lives is a manifestation of our complaining against God.

01:02:28

And it all comes back to not really knowing who he really is. If we can just get a vision

01:02:36

Sounded like some MTVN there for a second. If we could just get a biblical vision of who

01:02:42

God really is. Changes us. Changes us. We can't stay the same.

01:02:52

So I don't know if Brother Jeff is going to have the opportunity before he gets back of hearing or seeing this, but there is a little part of me that's chuckling just a little bit.

01:03:08

That I got to talk about Isaiah 7 and Isaiah 9 and a little bit of Christmas stuff sort of before he did.

01:03:22

Because he's sort of different this time of year, if you know what I mean.

01:03:28

And that's a good thing. I love him. I hope you all know how much respect

01:03:37

I have for Jeff and for Luke and for Zach.

01:03:44

Because they're going to tell you before we made this announcement I said, guys,

01:03:50

I need to meet with you because I'm not an easy person to have in a fellowship. I'm not.

01:03:57

I'm a little weird. I attract some very interesting people. Always have.

01:04:05

What makes me happy about being here is Jeff does the exact same thing. And the reality is

01:04:14

Jeff has pretty much the same list of enemies that I do who are going to be blogging this week.

01:04:22

You watch. I can give you the names right now. So can you. Saying, oh, did you hear?

01:04:31

So pray for us that we will have wisdom as to how to respond appropriately to that.

01:04:37

But I want to let you know very briefly

01:04:46

I'm going to be traveling a lot over the next year. I'm going to be gone a lot. For example,

01:04:52

I leave in the middle of January. And I'm going to be teaching in Samara, Russia. And I'm going to be in Münster, Germany.

01:05:00

And I'm going to have to, we're trying to put debates together in London. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.

01:05:08

Yeah. And so that's a little difficult because I want to get to know everybody.

01:05:15

But it's sort of difficult when you're on the other side of the planet to do that very well. But I'll do my best. So I'm going to be gone a lot.

01:05:22

I already asked Jeff. I asked Jeff yesterday. I said, hey dude,

01:05:27

I said when I speak in churches all over the world I will very frequently start off by saying

01:05:34

I bring you the greetings of the elders and the people of Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church.

01:05:42

And I still love all those people and God bless the ministry there. But this is where the

01:05:47

Lord has brought me. And I asked Jeff, I said so can I keep doing that?

01:05:54

And he said we would be honored. And so I want to be your representative in greeting the saints.

01:06:03

We all know, I know you know, we are just one small part of something a whole lot bigger than ourselves.

01:06:11

And one of the things I've loved from the beginning with you guys is that you have been open to people who don't necessarily look exactly like you because let's face it there aren't very many of us who do look exactly like us.

01:06:29

But there is an openness. There is a, get in trouble here, catholicity with a small c.

01:06:36

A willingness to recognize the spirit of God as at work around the world. And yet a strong stand for sound doctrine and theology.

01:06:44

That's a hard balance to keep. And I am going to pray.

01:06:52

I commit myself to pray for that man right there and for that man right there.

01:07:01

And I'm a scary person to have around to keep you on the straight and narrow. In those areas, but I'm going to do everything

01:07:08

I can to do it. Because I've been able to be doing this for a long time now.

01:07:15

I've got 15 years almost 16 years on Jeff and more on the rest of them. But I want to invest myself in any way

01:07:24

I can especially in them and then through them everybody else. There are some really cool classes

01:07:31

I could teach around here. There really are. And I want to,

01:07:41

I want to see that happen as God gives us the ability to do so, but let's face it.

01:07:47

God's called us to do some tremendous things and we need each other to do it.

01:07:53

And I'm going to continue to press on and pray for me, pray for my wife, pray for my family, pray for my brother.

01:08:04

Summer and the kids are coming down for Christmas. So I'm really looking forward to that.

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We haven't had that opportunity yet. I'm excited, but I'm also just letting you know if you look around I'm not here for two or three weeks.

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It's because I'm somewhere on the other side of the planet and that's why I was sending out. This wasn't all that much of a secret because I sent out like 47 friend requests on Facebook the past couple days.

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And if I didn't send you one yet, I just haven't gotten to you yet. Summer was sending me names and I'm just throwing them all in there. Hopefully most of you will at least know where in the world

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I am and what I'm doing because of that. But I will be bringing your greetings to the saints around the world and I hope that that is something that encourages you.

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So let's let's pray and then let's get ready for the Lord's Supper.

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Our grace heavenly father we stand in awe of your word. We stand in awe of how you are the architect of time, the creator of all things.

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You have given to us your word. You have sculpted it. You have preserved it.

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You have caused it to relate to itself in such a beautiful way, a consistent way that testifies that Jesus Christ was the son of God, that he was the messiah, crucified, buried, risen and coming again.

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And you continue to build your church. You continue to place within the hearts and minds of your people all around this world that conviction and that's what unites us all together by your spirit.

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We are so thankful to be a part of that. We thank you that by your spirit you have been with us this day.

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You have given us a desire to look into your word, to believe your word, to trust your word.

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But Lord we know there is an enemy of our souls out there. We know we know he desires to trip us up.

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He desires to rob us of our testimony. We desire in this coming week to be a people who in our homes, in our personal relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, in our places of work that we reflect the glory of Jesus Christ and that we each day will in fact set

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Christ as Lord apart in our hearts. That we will live our lives in such a way that others will come to us and say, why are you different?

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That's our true desire Lord. Work within us. We know that that may require painful sanctification in our lives, mortification of sin.

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Give us the desire to be what you call us to be. We thank you for this place to meet, this day to meet.

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And Lord we do come before you and we do as a body ask for your supernatural healing hand upon our elder

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Jeff Durbin. We ask for the wisdom of doctors that they might understand what has taken place.

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We ask for patience and strength for the entire Durbin family and for all that are close to them.

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Lord we very often take for granted what we have until we don't have it.

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And so Lord, I would pray that the people in this fellowship would pray for their elders.

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They would do so daily knowing that the enemy focuses his attention upon such men.

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May you bless their families, their wives, their children. Protect them. Give them wisdom.

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Lord, we do not want to bring reproach upon the name of Jesus Christ in any way. We need your wisdom.

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We need your spirit's power. We can do nothing apart from your spirit. And now

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Lord as we remember, as we remember what you have done for us, may we truly do so in such a way that reflects our understanding of the great price of redemption that has been paid for us.