Good News for Dark Days

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Nahum 1:15

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You notice about that Psalm, I don't know if you picked up on it when you're reading, but when we're singing there, but each line of that Psalm starts with a different letter of the
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English alphabet. And that's because what they've tried to do is give that to us the way in Hebrew it is an acrostic.
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So as God inspired this Psalm, each line begins with the next Hebrew letter.
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That's really hard to do, bringing that over into the English, but I think that they did a good job. Now we're going to give them grace.
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On X, they put ekstol, which starts with an E technically, but you understand the concept.
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So now you'll wonder, how long is this Psalm? Well, you can just remember the alphabet as you're singing the
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Psalm. So I thought that was pretty neat, and it's a Psalm of Thanksgiving. This month is a month in America that we have this great feast of Thanksgiving.
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I'm actually going to talk about that a little bit more next week when we're in Nahum 115 again.
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But today, I'm going to start out the sermon with a name that you have never heard of.
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Stephanie said, fix your jacket. Something's wrong with my jacket. Is that fixed or what? Okay, all right.
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Thanks for technology. So none of you guys were going to tell me, but my wife loves me enough to send me a text.
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So thank you, Stephanie, and thank you for the technology of the cry room. So here's a name you've never heard of,
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Henry Winstanley. Henry Winstanley. Now, you can forget that name if you want, but Winstanley lived in 17th century
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England, and he is best known for this reason. He is the first one to construct the
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Eddystone lighthouse, the first Eddystone lighthouse on the perilous Eddystone rocks that are off the southern coast of England.
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So what you have here is these rocks, obviously still there, lay submerged in the
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English Channel, and so the lighthouse was built with this crucial purpose, and that is to warn the sailors of the imminent danger that they faced.
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Without this warning, and this happened too frequently, ships would perish, lives would be lost against these jagged rocks.
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Now, Winstanley's lighthouse, this first one, it only made it five years, and then it was swept away by a storm.
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But during those five years, no ships crashed in the
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Eddystone rocks. Quite an accomplishment several hundred years ago, because they were warned.
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So turn to Nahum chapter 1, and there are many metaphors that we can use for the church, but I think that one metaphor quite appropriate to use of the church is that in many ways, the church is a lighthouse.
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The church is to be a public, visible light to warn people of the imminent danger that lies ahead with sin and rebellion.
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A warning of impending doom for those who persist in sin, yet also a public, visible beacon of hope for those who come to Christ.
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I'm just going to tell you guys, I don't know if you're like me, I'm just trying to watch, hey, I'm just trying to relax yesterday, watch some college football, and I can't get past political ads.
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We live in a day that we need good news. Dark days, and this is the church's commission,
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Good News for Dark Days, that's the title of this morning's sermon. And here we are on the final verse of Nahum chapter 1, verse 15.
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Would you stand as we honor the reading of God's word? Behold, that's an interjection, that is an interruption.
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Stop, look, take notice, behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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Keep your feast, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the worthless pass through you.
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He is utterly cut off. Our great God in heaven, we want your name to be hallowed in our hearts, in our minds, on our lips.
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We want your name not to be blasphemed in this land. Give us grace to understand the gospel.
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What a great thing that you've done in Christ. We don't love it enough, we don't rest in it enough, we don't appreciate it enough, and yet there you are, the
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God of all grace, continually applying it to our souls. Help us to love this gospel more.
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Help us to love it so much that we can't help but talk about it. Talk about so many frivolous things, some of them good, but in comparison to the gospel, all frivolous.
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Let us talk about it more with one another. Lord, if no one else will be evangelistic, may this church be.
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May we take seriously your work. I hear the thunder.
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It reminds me of two things. One, that you're faithful. Thank you for sending the rain.
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Two, you are a God to be feared. We pray, Lord, that you would help us today to understand these truths.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Well, don't think that I wasn't tempted, right, to give this sermon a
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Christmas title. I thought about Go Tell It on the Mountain. I thought about asking Gunnar to play that this morning, maybe too soon.
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I thought about, hey, how many Christmas songs could I fit in one title? Like, Joy to the
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World, Go Tell, Good Tidings of Comfort and Joy on the Mountain, or something like that.
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But this title is going to work for us today. Good News for Dark Days. I think that it captures both our text and the historical context that we're in today.
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Good News for Dark Days. Now, I'm not going to really surprise you. You've known me long enough.
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It's not going to be a shocker. We're actually going to split verse 15 up into two sermons.
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Today, Good News for Dark Days. And then next week, I'm kind of looking forward to this, as I've thought through the text. But enjoy the gospel.
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Keep your feast, O Judah. Fulfill your vows. For never again shall the worthless pass through you.
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He is utterly cut off. But for today, the first part. Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him, let me just stop here for a second, who brings good news.
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Good news. Now, in our text, the phrase, the entire phrase there, who brings good news, that's translating one
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Hebrew verb. It's used other places in the Old Testament. It's used of the account of Saul.
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When the Philistines kill Saul, they want to carry the good news, in their perspective, of Saul's death.
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It's the same word. That's what's being translated. So the idea is bearing or taking good news to someone else.
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It's used in chapter 40, verse 9. I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation.
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So this is the idea of sharing the good news to those who need to hear it.
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Psalm 96, verse 2, this word is used. Sing to the Lord, bless His name. It's used here. Tell of His salvation from day to day.
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So the idea, I'm just communicating here for a moment, the idea of this Hebrew verb is verbal communication.
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Now, before we get ahead of ourselves, we'll get into the outline. Three things to tell you today about the text, about good news, from the text about good news.
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First, good news is, number one, good news is bestowed. Number one, good news is bestowed.
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Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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Now, I told you there a second ago that behold translates a Hebrew interjection.
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So this verse begins with a bit of an interruption, if you will.
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Behold, right? Stop. Consider. Think about it. Look. There's something you need to hear.
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There's something you need to know. There is good news. The news is pretty frustrating today.
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I don't got to tell you that, do I? So much of it is biased and untrustworthy, or you see clips here or there, and you find out it's just flat -out lies.
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It's like everything, or the rest of it is stuff that's not lies. It's just depressing and sad.
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This person's been kidnapped. This person's been raped. This person's been murdered. It's just so much bad.
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It's depressing sometimes. It's even worse in 650 B .C.,
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in Judah, because Assyria reigns. And Assyria hates God.
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They hate God's people. They are murderous. They are idolatrous. They are oppressive.
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So we hear, oh man, the interest rates are going up, and that's not good news.
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But the people of Judah hear, Ashurbanipal is skinning people alive.
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That's really bad news. That's terrible. You wouldn't have wanted to live during this time period.
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But then this. Then our text. Behold. Look. Look. Look there.
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Do you see it? It's a runner. It's a messenger. Look at his feet. He's up on the mountains around Jerusalem.
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High up he is on a platform. He's up there, and he's got something to say. What's he going to say?
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It's good news. Behold. Up on the mountains. The feet of him who brings good news.
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Now this is important for the sermon. Good news is bestowed. Now, the messenger is important.
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We're going to get to the messenger. Trust me. But before you get to the messenger, you have a message.
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And here is the message. God has done something. He has slain the dragon.
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Listen up, Judah. Listen up for a moment. Behold, Nineveh is overthrown.
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Your oppressors have been defeated. You didn't do it. You couldn't do it.
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But God. God has done it. John Trapp says, This, behold, is as the sound of a trumpet before some proclamation to bespeak attention.
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It's like a trumpet blast here. Listen up, O Judah. Hear the trumpet. There is good news.
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And B .H. Carroll says this, The cry, Nineveh is fallen, was the best news that came to the whole world at that time.
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God has overthrown this wicked city.
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The feet are bringing something beautiful to your ears that God has done.
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He is the deliverer of his people. He has worked salvation for them.
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He has freed them from their chains. He has shed the blood of another in order to save his people.
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Victory in Yahweh. Now listen, this is important for this sermon and for this portion of the text.
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It's not Judah and God have worked together to bring about this good news.
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This is good news bestowed by God. While Judah was lost in their oppression, while Judah was being oppressed by this tyrannical regime,
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God has accomplished something. He has brought shalom. That's in the text.
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Verse 15, Behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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You're probably familiar a little bit with that word shalom. It's a Hebrew word for peace.
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It's a peace that is much deeper than just on the surface. It touches everything. And God has accomplished this.
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Now listen, this ain't a hard jump to Jesus, is it? Right? The prophets used the temporal and physical deliverances of the people of Judah to point us past these events and to consider the full redemption that we have in Christ our
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King and the rescue of the church. Remember this worthless counselor in verse 11.
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From you came one who plotted evil against the Lord. A worthless counselor. Here's the good news.
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His head has been bruised. He's been defeated. You didn't do it.
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You wouldn't do it. You couldn't do it. But God did it. God has accomplished this in Christ without you.
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This is the grand narrative of the Bible. Man is lost and ruined by the fall. Man has been left in a state of sin and misery.
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The kingdom of Satan, if you just observe, you just even think about history and you just think about, man, it's just a small little group of people where God seems to be working, but all the whole rest of the world,
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China, all these places, the kingdom of Satan just seems to grow larger and larger and even within the people that God seems to be working in, they keep doing a lot of dumb stuff.
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And so it just seems like days are growing darker and darker. Men are at enmity with God. Men are at enmity with men.
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Evil seems to be growing. There's wars. Is this really the world that we live in? And then this interjection,
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Behold! Stop! Wait a minute. You need to hear this. Behold!
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Upon the mountains, the feet of Him who brings good news.
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God has done something about the world that we live in.
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God has accomplished something. The Son of God. We learned about it in our confession reading.
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The Son of God, eternally begotten, not made. Eternal, no beginning.
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The Son of God took on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He was born at the precise time.
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Not a second early, not a second late. He came into the world. Born under the law.
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The same law that we're all under, by the way. The law that we break. The law that is a mirror for our sin.
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That is, the law just points out where we've messed up and cries for justice, but it can do nothing to reconcile us to God.
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The law that will damn many a soul to hell.
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This law that stands over us. God in the flesh fulfilled this law. Christ our
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King kept the law in all righteousness. Then you hear the serpent hissing.
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No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. If God does not punish lawbreakers, so what that Jesus kept the law?
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Big deal. If God doesn't punish lawbreakers, He's not just.
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Therefore, He cannot both save His people and maintain His holy justice.
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And then Christ, on the way to Golgotha, takes His foot and puts it on the head of the serpent.
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He says essentially the end of verse 14 to Him. I will make
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Your grave for You are vile. On the cross,
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Jesus becomes sin for us. That God might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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I'm telling you this morning, Providence Baptist Church, good news! God has done something.
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God has accomplished salvation in Christ. Our sins are punished in our perfect substitute.
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Jesus sheds His blood. He dies under the wrath of God and He's buried. And by the way,
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He's buried and Satan's accusations buried with Him. And God accomplishes salvation for on the third day, the
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Son of God rises again from the dead. Death is defeated. Sin is defeated.
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Satan is defeated. God has delivered His people. God has done it.
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God has bestowed salvation. You didn't do it. You wouldn't do it. You didn't even want to do it.
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But God did it. Behold, the trumpet sounds. Good news is bestowed.
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It's not earned. It's a gift. It's not deserved. It's a gift. Peace is proclaimed.
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Peace with God. You don't have to live. You came in here this morning. I don't know. Maybe you're a teenager.
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Maybe you're a child. Maybe you're an adult. You came in here this morning at enmity with God. You don't have to leave at enmity with God.
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Peace is proclaimed. God's done something about your sin. Lay down your weapons against God.
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Lay down your pride. Lay down your rebellion. Even lay down your so -called good works.
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Lay it all down. Go to Christ. Repent of your sins and believe the gospel.
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God has accomplished good news. God has silenced all the powers of darkness by the blood of His Son.
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God has made atonement in His Son. For all who will look to Jesus by faith,
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God has done the work and we don't deserve it, but God has given this world good news.
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Listen to me, church. Whatever happens Tuesday, I know this. Jesus Christ is
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King. And good will win and peace will reign and evil will be vanquished.
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So first, good news bestowed. Secondly, good news must be believed.
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Behold, upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace. Now next week we're going to talk about this second half, but let me just address it momentarily here.
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Keep your feast, O Judah. Fulfill your vows. For never again shall the worthless pass through you.
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He is utterly cut off. This good news is meant to be believed. And this good news actually accomplishes a change.
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This good news actually brings about a difference in our lives. We see this physical example here.
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For Judah to believe the news was now for them to live joyfully under God's rule.
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Stop living under the rule of Assyria. Live under God's rule.
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Keep your feast. Fulfill your vows. Christ is King. Live now. You don't believe that Nineveh is overthrown if you keep living like an
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Assyrian. Paul says it this way in Romans 1 .16 For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
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To the Jew first and also to the Greek. This good news of what God has done here in Nineveh or here in the text about Nineveh and to Judah, the
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Jews were to believe it. And what God has done is Christ, we're meant to believe. In fact, let me just put it to you this way.
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Unbelief is not a condition. Well, I just can't believe. I just don't believe. That's just my condition. Or, you know, you may even accuse
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God. Well, I should have been predestined. No, unbelief is not a condition. Unbelief is rebellion.
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Unbelief is sin. That is, you can't blame anyone else for your unbelief.
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The only one you can blame is yourself. Imagine for a moment the people of Judah.
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Nineveh is overthrown. But you see people still living like they have to pay taxes to Assyria.
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You see them glooming. You see them walking around in chains. You see them serving the idols of foreign nations.
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And you think to yourself, or maybe even them, what are you doing? What are you doing? God's defeated your enemies.
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What are you doing? Don't you see? Behold, good news. God has done it.
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God has delivered you. Why are you still living this way? And the answer is they want to.
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They hear the crazy man preaching up on the mountains and they're mad at him. You're mad at the man bringing good news to you?
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Yeah. He's disturbing their conscience. He's interrupting their vain idolatry.
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The trumpet call of the gospel is an irritant to their ears. I say to you today, won't you believe?
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The good news is meant to be embraced. Believer, believe it again. Rest in it again.
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God brings the full force of transforming grace with the glorious gospel of His Son.
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Those who embrace it are changed forever. You don't believe this news and stay how you are. Christ has come.
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Christ has conquered. The enemy is defeated. You don't have to live in enmity with God.
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Look to Christ to be saved. The gospel call demands this response.
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Faith alone and Christ alone. Turning from our sins, embracing Christ. The good news is bestowed.
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Good news must be believed. Thirdly, good news must be brought. Now, this is,
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I guess, what word am I looking for here? Let me just give this point a warning. You're like, third point.
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I don't think you make it too much early. That's the warning. So it's a long third point, but just listen to me now.
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Good news must be brought. The text says, behold upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news.
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Now, can you just imagine for a second. Imagine, you see Nineveh overthrown, right?
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So you see a group of guys, they see Nineveh's defeat, and they begin talking. You know who needs to hear this?
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You know who needs to hear this? Jerusalem needs to hear this. Man, they need to... Nineveh's destroyed.
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Jerusalem needs to hear it. Well, why don't you go tell... I can't speak.
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I don't know how to talk. I can't do that. Plus, I'm busy. I'm doing these other things, right?
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I got these other... But man, somebody should go tell them. Maybe not. What would you say to that?
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All the while the people of Judah continue to live in subjugation and defeat while never hearing what
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God has done. Never hearing the good news of deliverance wrought by God.
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I think you already know, friends. The good news bestowed and the good news believed must also be the good news brought.
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Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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Now, if you're familiar with your Bible, you know that Nahum is borrowing here from Isaiah 52 -7.
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It's okay. The Holy Spirit does this often in the Scriptures. Isaiah 52 -7 says, how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your
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God reigns. And then in the New Testament, Paul uses... In fact, let's just turn to Romans 10.
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Paul uses this... Paul uses this theology to make this statement in Romans 10.
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So Romans chapter 10. Turn there with me for a second. Romans 10, 14 and 15.
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Well, let's start in verse 13. How about that? Now, you believe Romans 10 -13? Yes. I absolutely believe
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Romans 10 -13. Listen to it. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
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Now, verse 14. Well, how then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
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And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
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And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.
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So Paul picks up on this... By the way, it's already in the Scriptures. Paul didn't just make it up.
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It's Old Testament theology that Paul applies. In Paul's mind, under the inspiration of the
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Holy Spirit, these texts do not just refer to physical deliverance.
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This is how they understood the Old Testament. This is how the Old Testament works. Yes, there's a fulfillment in these physical things, but they point to something deeper.
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They point us to Christ. They point us to the accomplishment of Jesus for salvation for His people by His perfect life, substitutionary death, and victorious resurrection.
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And Paul understands, based on these texts, that it is the responsibility of local churches to both bring good news and send preachers to a lost and dying world.
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Interestingly, there's a Greek translation of the Old Testament. We say this sometimes. Let's set the groundwork.
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There's a Greek translation of the Hebrew in the Old Testament. It's called the Septuagint. We can learn some things sometimes about theology.
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We don't want to go overboard, but it's important to think through things. For example, in the Septuagint, the word in our text, so in the
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Greek translation, Nahum 115, the word in our text translated bring good news in the
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English is the Greek word euangelizo. Now you may already know that word, or maybe you can even kind of hear it, but that's the word that we get the
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English word evangelism. You understand? Evangelism.
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The idea I think the text bears is literally telling us behold, look at the feet of the evangelist.
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Look at the feet of the one bringing good news. He's on the mountains. The idea is, okay the text, behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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The idea is he's on the mountains that are surrounding Jerusalem. He's high up.
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He's proclaiming this from a platform if you will. Why? Why would it not be like behold in that corner over there the one man.
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No, no. He's not in the corner. He's not hiding on a side street. He's on the mountains above Jerusalem.
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That's why the song says go tell it on the mountain. You're not just necessarily looking for some hillbilly living on the mountains.
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That's great. That's fine. He needs the gospel too. But the idea is you're getting up on the mountains so that you can project and your voice is going to all
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Jerusalem. God wins. He's done something. That's the point.
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So that all may hear. God's done something that everyone needs to hear about.
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God's brought victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repent and believe the gospel.
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This is the good news that we have for dark days. Hey, pull out the trumpet and blast it.
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This is the job of the church. To bring good news.
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To proclaim peace. Alex will appreciate this. If you don't understand why I said that, talk to him later.
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I don't like the translation about publish peace in verse 15. Who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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Because when you think about publish, you probably think about writing. But the word is
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Shema. It's the same word used in Deuteronomy 6 .4. Shema, O Israel.
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Hear, O Israel. So the construction now, the way that the grammar is constructed, the verbs constructed here, it means one who causes peace to be heard.
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One who causes peace to be heard. That is, this publishing peace is an audible announcement.
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The good news must be heard. I don't know that he said it. Maybe he did say it.
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If he did say it, he's wrong. He shouldn't have said it. It's not a good statement. St. Francis of Assisi is attributed with this statement.
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Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words. Drive your car at all times, and when necessary, use tires.
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Eat lunch at all times, and when necessary, use food. None of that makes sense.
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You can't preach the gospel if you are not using words. That's the point.
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The Greek word for this hear idea is from, so I told you the Hebrew, but in the
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Septuagint, it uses the word apongaleo. And this is the idea of announcing.
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Announcing. So the New Testament uses apongaleo often, and it translates that word as declare, proclaim, tell, report.
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So it is the job, it is the responsibility of the church to declare, proclaim, tell, report peace.
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The responsibility of the church to publicly announce what God has done in Christ, to bring good news, to cause people to hear the proclamation of peace.
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And we proclaim a peace. We proclaim the shalom of God. It is a peace that touches everything.
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By the blood of Christ, God has brought peace between sinner and God.
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Hey, isn't there a song somewhere out there that talks about God and sinners reconciled?
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I'd love to sing that tonight, just to be honest, if I could put a bug in anyone's ear. God and sinner reconciled.
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But that's not all. Saint and saint reconciled to one another in the church.
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And one day, peace forevermore will reign in the new heavens and new earth. We preach the shalom of God.
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Now, we can't make anyone listen. I wish we could, but we can't. But we can and we must make sure they hear.
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That's our responsibility. Good news must be brought. Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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Now, there are a lot of implications. And I'm going to walk through these implications.
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And there's even more implications than what I'm going to bring out. But before I get to that, let me just, here's something
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I was thinking about. I don't remember what I was doing. I was driving down the road or something. I mean, I wasn't in my study.
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Because I remember I had to make a note of it. I'm getting to the age that if I don't make notes, I forget stuff. I'm sorry.
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So, this thought comes to my mind. And I'm like, I need to write that down. And the thought that I had is this.
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You know that we live in a world of preaching. We really do.
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I'm not talking about Christianity right now. There is a lot of broadcasting of news in our world today.
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You are inundated with, note the quotes, evangelists all the time.
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Billboards, social media, your television set, in the radio, people all around, people at your workplace, people in your family.
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You're hearing news all the time. You're hearing evangelists all the time.
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Except, they aren't bringing good news. They are preaching things like pride in their homosexuality.
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They are preaching their abortion. They are preaching to you how bad capitalism is.
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How everybody else in American history got it wrong and now we're the greatest generation and you people who still believe in the
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American principles of integrity and truth. You're just dumb.
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That's what you're hearing. You're a racist. You're a racist. That's what you're hearing. These are the preaching. This is the news you're hearing.
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So if you're in here today, so here's an argument I'm trying to bring to you based on that. If you're in here today and you just think, well, you know, we don't want to upset people today.
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You know, we don't want to upset people and preach a message that people might disagree with because you know, in our culture that we just don't do those things.
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We don't like to preach things in our culture that someone might disagree with.
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I'm trying to say to you, you've been duped. What culture are you living in?
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That's what the culture is doing today. The culture is preaching bad news.
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Preaching vile, wicked, rebellious, ungodly, dark, bleak news every day and they won't be quiet about it.
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Preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching, preaching. Sin and rebellion.
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So, don't buy into the lie that we live in just a passive, neutral culture that just wants everyone to love everyone and get along.
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That's baloney. It's a lie. Here's what the culture wants to do. The culture wants to stand up on the mountains, take their big old fist and shake it at God and dare
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Him to do something about it and the culture wants your children to go along with them.
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That's what you're up against. I'm just telling you that culture is full of preachers who are preaching bad news.
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They'll even call you trash on national television. They don't care.
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And so, what is my argument here? Not to rile you up. I hope to humble you a little bit here.
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If the culture is willing to do that, why would we be silent in the face of such onslaught?
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Because we have the answer. We have the hope.
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We have the good news. So, you just inundated bad news, bad news, bad news, rebellion, rebellion, rebellion.
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You're just going to say that. You're just going to say that. All I'm hearing is evangelism for Satan.
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And I'm just going to sit in my car, lock my doors, turn on Caleb, and I'm just not going to say anything.
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You miss it. Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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You live in a culture that preaches constantly against Christ. Therefore, never feel weird.
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Never feel ashamed. Never feel an outcast for proclaiming the good news of what
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God has done to rescue sinners in the blood of His Son. Don't feel wrong or weird in a culture that's always preaching to hear them say to you, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't preach.
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That's not what we want. We don't want to hear that stuff. No, listen, that's what they're doing. They want to say what's right for me is not right for you.
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They want to proclaim their message. They want to indoctrinate our children. They want to bring these things to bear upon our souls.
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But they don't want to hear you tell them the truth. And I'm saying to you, church, you can't buy into this.
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It is our responsibility. It is our commission to hear the wickedness of our world today and to put a stop to it by blasting the trumpet and saying listen, listen, listen, behold, stop, pause!
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You better look. God has done something about your sins in Jesus Christ.
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Repent and believe the Gospel and find reconciliation with God.
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Now, with that being said, I'll offer a few more implications. Well, I don't know how to do that, man.
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I don't know how to do that. I'm almost tempted to make everyone in here stand up. I'm not going to do that.
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There's two requirements that you need if you're a believer. Two things you need according to this text.
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You need feet. You need a voice. Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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The idea of feet and the idea of bringing show us that evangelism is not coming and seeing, but going and telling.
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That's probably a little bit borderline inappropriate to say, but it doesn't say behold the backsides of those who sit in their chair and people come to them.
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That's not it. Behold the one who sits in his house and shares good news with anyone who happens to come by and wants to hear it for a spell.
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The text pushes us to both an unapologetic as well as a compassionate going and telling.
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Okay, quattro. I'm tuned in. I'm listening. Tell me, what do I need to do evangelism?
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Two things. I need my feet and I need my voice. I need to walk somewhere and I need to tell someone.
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That's evangelism. Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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Now evangelism in many churches is this. We will get them to come here and then we'll tell them the gospel.
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Now, in many cases, many cases, the gospel is not ever actually shared.
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Let me also say this. Let me just interject this. I love inviting people to church. I hope that we are a church that invites people to church.
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And I'll tell you this. I'll make you a promise. Pastor Jacob will affirm this. Here's the promise from Pastor Jacob and myself.
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Anytime that you have Pastor Jacob or myself in this pulpit, the people you invite to church will hear the gospel.
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They will hear Christ. Invite them to church. This is good and I'm grateful for that.
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People get saved by coming to church. Go ask Miss Virginia about that. Glory to God.
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Now, with that said, listen to our text though. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news.
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The idea is that our feet must be bringing good news to those who need to hear it.
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Inviting someone to church, I affirm that. Let's do that. It's a good thing, but it's not enough.
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It's not what the text is pushing us to. We must be a people who bring good news.
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It's not about come here and see these things, but to take the news to the streets.
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This is actually something every church member should participate in. I don't have my wallet or I'd use another prop.
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It's one of the simplest things that someone can do. Do I have a track somewhere on me? One of the simplest things that someone can do is to pull out a gospel track and hand it to someone.
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I'm not saying that's the pinnacle of evangelism. I get it. It's not. Oh, but it's so easy.
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It's just a really simple way to say, hey, look, this is a gospel track about the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Would you read that? Maybe if it's someone close to you, hey, would you read that and let's talk about it?
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Let's text about it. Let's FaceTime about it. Let's meet for coffee about it. It's just a simple way.
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I wish that in every business meeting our finance committee was scratching their heads and saying,
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Brother Quatro, Pastor Jacob, I don't know what we're going to do. Oh, really? What's wrong? We're out of tracks again.
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We've got to keep buying more and more tracks. This is going to sink us financially. I wish that was a problem because we're so crazy about passing out tracks to people and telling people about Christ that we have to wonder, what are we going to do about our budget to keep buying more tracks because our church is so evangelistic because we're just dead set on letting every soul we come into contact with know
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God has done something for sinners in Christ. In less than a month,
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I like Christmas. You guys know that. In less than a month, December 1st, this is our third year to do it.
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I don't know if it's, I don't know how great it is, but I kind of like it. We're going to have in a
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Sunday evening service our annual evangelistic Christmas letter writing. This is something every person in this church can do.
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Just writing a letter. I don't know what to say. You tell them about Christ. You tell them about Jesus.
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You publish peace. I don't know who to write to. Everybody I know is saved. A, that may not be true.
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I'm not calling you a liar, but let's think about that. B, if it is true, you got to get to know some more people.
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Let me introduce you to some people, okay? So, you just write a letter to your neighbor, to your friend, to a family member.
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This is what Christmas is about. This is the gospel. This is the good news. Behold what
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God has done for unworthy sinners. Hey, listen neighbor. You can, hey, maybe you need to apologize.
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I've lived by your door for 15, 25, 40 years, and I've never taken the time to take my little feet 15 yards across the street and to knock on your door and to tell you about Jesus.
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I'm sorry. So, listen. Here's the good news. Merry Christmas, but what you need to know is that God has done something about your sins in Christ.
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If you keep going on in rebellion, you'll die and you'll go to hell, but God has put a burden on my heart to give you the gospel, and if you'll repent and you'll trust
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Christ, you'll be saved. Everyone can do that.
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In December, we'll do an evangelistic Christmas caroling. Taking the gospel to homes.
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We'll knock on doors, and it'll go just like this. Hey, listen. We're from Providence Baptist Church. Can we sing?
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We're here to Christmas carol. Can we sing a couple songs? Most people are like, whoa, you know, and they'd probably really do that if Alex finds a way to get us those little hats that you see in the graphic, but hey, we just want to sing.
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Can we sing? And they'll let us sing, and we sing like a couple songs, and some people, hey, you guys know that sometimes we sing really loud, but we don't necessarily always sing on key.
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I'm okay with that. Sometimes people are like, whoa, sometimes we sing really beautiful, but sometimes it's just loud. Hey, that's okay.
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And after we get done singing, we're going to say something like this. Would you mind if just for like two minutes,
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I shared with you what Christmas is all about? And I've never had one person in the Christmas caroling anyway that said no.
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You can participate in that. I'm just telling you, church, that our text compels us to go and tell, not come and see.
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Now, I'm not disparaging every come and see event. I've thought about out here. I've talked to Pastor Jacob.
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I don't know if this will transpire. I get a lot of good ideas, and then I just feel too stretched. We got this big field out here.
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I thought, hey, what if next October or next September, one of those months, and we just took four
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Saturdays. We had the field mode, and we said, hey, we're going to have a little kids flag football league here, and if you want to participate in that, you can, and so we just kind of set that up, and like for four
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Saturdays, the kids come and play flag football. We use this yard out here. That'd be fun, you know, except what we would do is every halftime, and it's not bait and switch.
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They would know, hey, you're going to hear the gospel at halftime. Every halftime, we would say, you know, yes,
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God is good, all those things, but we would specifically say this. Little children, we're doing this because Christ is king, and we're letting you know today that there is a way to be saved.
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You've sinned. You've fallen short. You've broken God's law, and what you deserve for breaking
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God's law is punishment. It's eventually in a place called hell if you continue in rebellion, but God has sent
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Jesus Christ who lived a perfect life, died on the cross for sinners, and rose again to save all who will turn from their sins today and believe the good news.
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You understand? You get the point. I'm not disparaging all go and tell. We've done pancake breakfast, stuff like that, but I'm just saying this, though.
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So many churches would be better served by focusing less resources on their creative pragmatism and more resources on simply taking their little feet to the doors of this community, knocking on them, and declaring with their voices what
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God has done in Christ. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes or announces peace.
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Nor am I opposed to you having lost friends. It's good to befriend lost persons, but you need to be doing that with a strategic mindset.
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You need to not say, I'm just going to befriend this person and I'm just going to try to be a good old boy to them, and one day if they want to ask me about Jesus, I'll tell them.
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Stop. Seriously, stop. That's a lie. That's a lie from Satan.
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You tell them. You befriend them with the purpose of, or with the strategic thought that, you know what, on this
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Thursday next week, would you meet with me and we're going to have coffee, and I've got something I've got to tell you.
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It's about what I believe. Or you're going to have them over for, hey, would you come over to our home for supper afterwards?
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Let me just tell you this kind of unique tradition that we do. We gather around the Bible and we read it, and we sing, and we pray, and we want you to be part of it, and we want to tell you about how to get to heaven.
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Don't be so intimidated. This is good news. If the world is going to just blast you, blast you, blast you, blast you, blast you with terrible news, why would you not be willing to share good news?
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Tell them. If they'll repent of their sins and trust Christ, God will free them. You don't got to be a homosexual.
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You don't got to be transgender. You don't got to be a slave to money. You can be free.
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God will free you. The world tells you the bad news. This is who you are. This is just how it's got to be. You've just got to go through all these surgeries, and you're always going to be miserable.
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And you might listen to the voices for a while, and you might feel empowered, and you might feel strong, but one day, you're going to regret it all.
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But I'm telling you, you can be freed. You can be set free. Why? Why? God's done it!
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In Christ! And we tell them this good news. And if they'll trust
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Christ, God will save their souls. Everyone who calls on the name of the
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Lord will be saved. Now, why would we sit on this news? The silence is not a
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Christian option. Also, I need to address this. Why would we ever oppose the public open air preaching of the
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Gospel? The text says, Behold, think about the imagery, upon the mountains, the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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Now, I will say this. This is a point I need to make. Outdoor preaching is reserved for qualified men.
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But the whole church can and should support this. You can support this and participate by praying for those who are preaching in the streets.
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You can support this by encouraging those who are preaching in the streets. You can go with them and maybe pass out tracks or get them waters while they are preaching.
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But here in the text, think about this. You have a man upon the mountains of Jerusalem. He's visible.
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He's high up. He's not in a corner. He's declaring to the whole city, as it were.
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He's blasting the trumpet. Behold, you need to hear this.
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God has done something about your sin. You keep going this way, and God's going to judge you.
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God will send you to hell. God will not bat an eye and cast you into the lake of fire forever.
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But you need to know today that God sent a Gospel preacher to this place and to let you know that you can be friends with God, as it were.
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You can be reconciled to God. You can worship God as it was meant to be. But you must stop where you're at, turn from your sins, and believe the good news of Christ.
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And then, of course, we share the Gospel. Now, there's ways street preaching can be done bad. I've seen it. I've heard about it.
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If hatred is the motive, that's wrong. Or sometimes people just want to preach law, law, law, law, law and no
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Gospel. That's wrong. But listen, just because some people do it wrongly doesn't mean we should abandon it today altogether.
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We are to be the feet that bring good news. Maybe everyone's not going to listen. Hey, they're not going to listen to you out there blasting the trumpet.
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Not everyone's going to listen. I know. But I'm going to do all I can to have everyone hear it. Why? Why do you care about it?
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Because Paul says in Romans 10, faith comes by hearing. I'm going to be preaching and I understand that God is going to plant seeds.
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Maybe people get converted right there on the spot. That can happen. That does happen. But often what God does is put a seed in someone's heart and maybe in a week, a year, five years, maybe ten years,
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God causes that seed to take root. So there's clear implication from our text to be a people who support the public heralding of the
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Gospel. Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace.
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Just think about all I've said today for just a moment. We make evangelism way harder than it's supposed to be.
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What do I got to do? Well, I got to have $15 ,000 in the budget so we can do this.
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No, no, no. It says one man said it this way. Evangelism is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.
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Hey, I found the One whom my soul was created for. Hey, I'm like the woman at the well.
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I found someone who told me everything I've ever done. Could this be the Messiah? I found the
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One with living water. I found the One who forgave me of my sins. I found the One who reconciled me to a holy
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God. Let me tell you about Jesus. This is evangelism. Feet that go and a voice that tells.
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It's going to lost persons and announcing peace. Look what God has done in Christ.
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You don't have to be enslaved in your sins. There's a way out of homosexuality. There's a way out of the
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LGBTQ alphabet mafia. There's a way out of lies and idolatry and cowardice. There's forgiveness if you've murdered your child in your womb.
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There's a way to be reconciled to God. But it's Christ alone. It's what He has accomplished. It's not you.
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It's not your works. But the vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
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And we proclaim this and we plead. Believe. Believe. Please believe.
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Repent. Turn from your sin and turn to God in mercy. And I want to see every soul in Perry County, all 10 ,000 of them, come to Christ.
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What did God give us? This zeal. But how are they going to do that if they don't know? And how are they going to know unless someone tells them?
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Why won't you tell them? This is evangelism. Bringing good news. Publicly announcing it that you may be you and a friend over coffee.
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Maybe a man preaching at a festival about goats or whatever. Or in a
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Christmas parade. That may be you taking a plate of cookies to your neighbor and telling them about Jesus.
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It may be in our door -to -door evangelism, but we are compelled to go and tell. We must use our feet.
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We must use our voice to declare the glory of Christ. Now I'm winding down. If our friends and neighbors and family continue in sin,
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He will cast them off into the lake of fire in righteous and eternal judgment. But right now,
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He has commissioned His church to tell the world about the hope of Christ. And that all men, all women, all boys, all girls everywhere are commanded to turn from their sins and believe the
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Gospel. To repent and trust Christ. Now the final implication. And like I said, we're winding down.
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Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace. If we won't do this, who are you depending on to do it?
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If you look at our town and our state and your friends and your neighbors and your relatives and your countrymen and you're saying, boy,
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I wish they'd be saved. Lord, I wish you'd send revival. Why aren't you going?
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Three years ago, I had to repent before God for my lack of evangelism.
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I was wrong. I was not eager enough. I was not zealous enough. I was not compassionate enough.
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I sat back, but no one came forward. I felt the burden.
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Quatro, if not you, then who? I want our church to feel that burden. If not us, then who?
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Are we going to leave our friends, our neighbors, our countrymen, our relatives to face the wrath of God without telling them that there's a way out?
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Are we going to leave the sufferings of our dear Lord and Savior as too paltry a thing to inconvenience ourselves to announce it to a lost and dying world?
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Now listen, God is sovereign. God will save His elect for His own glory. Zero doubt in my mind as to this reality.
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But listen, church. He uses means. He uses us.
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And we dare not leave the Gospel unheralded in Perryville and Perry County and central
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Arkansas on our watch. I can't control what's going on in New York or Montana or Nevada or Arizona or California.
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I can't control all those things, but we do have a measure of control here. And here we say, we will preach.
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We want to see, hear the Lamb who was slain receive the full reward for His suffering.
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So we go, we tell, we plead, we pray, and we trust God with it all. So what are you doing?
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What are you doing today? Every believer here, students in this room, teenagers, moms, dads, all the converted, where are your feet going to go this week?
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Well, I work. I work 60 hours a week. I don't got time after work to go tell someone about Jesus.
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You're misunderstanding me. Your feet are going to work. So what do you do at work?
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Why don't you tell them about Jesus, huh? Why don't you tell your co -workers about what God has done in Christ?
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Why don't you tell your boss? Why don't you tell those who work underneath you? Moms in here, you don't understand.
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I'm 80 hours. I don't ever get out of the house. I'm just sitting around with my children. Hey, tell them about Christ, right?
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Tell your children about Jesus. This is good. It's a worthwhile calling.
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Moms, dads, students, well, I'm just too busy at football practice. Tell your coaches about Jesus.
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Tell your teammates about Jesus. Take your feet where they are going. Open your mouth.
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Take your voice. Declare the glory of God in Christ. If no one else will do it,
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Providence Baptist Church will do it. What tracts might you hand out? I mean,
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I hope people are like, hey man, give me some tracts, right? If Providence Baptist Church ever gets lost, you can follow the tracts, right?
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You didn't get that one. Go. Pass out the tracts. Let's see what
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God might do if we take evangelism seriously. Listen, if you don't tell them who will, my friend
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Randall Easter says it this way, if you sow nothing, you will reap nothing. That's right.
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You don't pass out a tract. Alright, let me put it this way. You pass out a tract, you tell your coach, you tell your co -worker, you tell your boss, you tell your children, you call up your aunt, and you tell them about Christ, they may not get saved.
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That's true. But I can tell you this for sure. If they don't hear the gospel, they will not get saved.
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But if you share the gospel, God might use it.
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Interrupt someone's day like this interjection in our text. Behold, I got something
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I need to say. If you're not in Christ today, you don't need to proclaim the gospel.
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You need to embrace the gospel. Even now, where you are, will you put your faith in the finished work of Christ for sinners and be saved?
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And then church, hey, the waters of our day, they're so turbulent.
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They're so dangerous. There's hidden dangers beneath the surface.
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But God in His great love and mercy put a lighthouse in Perryville, Arkansas.
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Let's shine the light. Let's take assessment. If you need to repent today, amen.
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By God's grace, repent and run to Jesus. God doesn't save you because of how good your evangelism is.
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None of us would be saved. Jesus died for that sin too. But if we'll take it to God and we'll trust
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Christ, I believe that God will make our church better evangelists.
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Let's declare His glory. Father, thank You for Your Word. Help us to be a people who bring good news in dark days.
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Help us to be a people who don't just listen to the foolish, wicked messages and fail to push back.
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Let us push back with hope and truth and light in Christ. Speak to us today as You already have.
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Speak to our souls. Draw us to repentance, areas that we need to repent of. Encourage us, areas we need to be encouraged.
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Lord, even in this room, even right now, is there one that needs to be awakened? Oh God, would
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You do it? Would You bring them to Christ? You're good.