Jesus Christ is Man John 1:1 & 14

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March 7, 2021 Sunday Morning Service of Faith Bible Church, Sacramento, CA Message - Jesus Christ is Man - John 1:1, 14

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Well, good morning, good morning, and welcome to Faith Bible Church. It's a beautiful day outside, and we are blessed with some amazing weather right now.
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We need some more rain. We can be praying for that as well. It looks like we might get a little bit this week, but God is good through it all.
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And so we're glad you're here. And those at home, we hope the Lord is with you and that you are staying in the word and staying close to the
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Lord, because you don't want to get far from fellowship, because we are all like sheep prone to stray.
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And and so the closer to the flock you are, the better that is. So a few announcements this morning.
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Ladies Bible study is on the 20th. So ladies, mark that down. It's also the anniversary of Barb's 39th birthday.
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How about that? So early happy birthday, Barb. Thirty nine.
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Anniversary of her thirty ninth. Thirty eight. She's she's holding. She's holding firm on that on that that year.
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So anyway. So also next week is Daylight Savings Time change spring forward.
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So try not to be late for church. OK. This is the last time you you got to pass because you just got here early this time.
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You really got to try. So let's let's do that as well. That's right.
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We always turn everything off before midnight on Saturday night. So we're we're all set for the next day. So I also have a special announcement this morning.
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The elders have had the blessing of interacting with a pastoral candidate,
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Iljin Cho. He's a student, seminary student. Will be graduating at the end of this next term.
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This term, he's active in his local church and teaching and preaching. And this is in Illinois.
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And so we are blessed to have been part of that process after interviewing and corresponding with him and speaking with several of his references and his mentors.
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We've really tried to vet him and to talk to him and interview him. We do believe that the church would be well served if he were their pastor.
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So with that said, we've invited he and his wife to spend
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Resurrection Sunday weekend with us, which they have agreed to do gladly, I might add.
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We will have a morning social before the service to meet them directly so that the exact time that's not set yet, somewhere around nine o 'clock, probably
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Iljin will he'll also be preaching that service for Resurrection Sunday.
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So you get to hear him. So I really this is a this is your opportunity. You know, this is kind of a two way.
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You know, we're we're trying to impress upon him. He's trying to impress on us of what he's capable of.
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Is it the Lord's will for both? We want what the Lord's will is for the church. We want what the
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Lord's will is for Iljin as well. So resting in that, we'll be scheduling a business meeting on April 11th, which is the week following their visit here to get your feedback and to discuss, you know, do we do we call him as as a pastor?
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So exciting time there. Lord has directed us in this direction.
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It's not conclusive, but it's fun to see. It's exciting to see how God is working in our lives, in our small church and also in the life of Iljin and his wife.
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So they will both be coming out, he and his wife. OK, so let's continue to seek the Lord's will in that.
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So as we prepare our hearts for our worship service this morning, I'd like to read Psalm 28, six and seven.
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Blessed be the Lord, because he has heard the sound of my pleading. The Lord is my strength and my shield.
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My heart trusts in him and I am helped. Therefore, my heart triumphs and with my song,
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I shall thank him. And we need to do that with with joy this morning. Let's do that.
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So please join with me in prayer. Our dear, heavenly and gracious father, we thank you, father, that you have brought his here together.
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We thank you that you have brought Iljin before us, father, to consider being a part of our church.
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Lord, I just pray that you would give him discernment as he as he visits us and and to seize the life of this church.
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And we as well, father, will understand him more fully as the kind of man that he is.
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And his his desires and his fit for our church, father. So we do it.
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This is your work, Lord. This is your church. And we just acknowledge that, father, and all things,
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Lord, bless our service this morning that we might honor you, that we might lift our voices to proclaim the majesty and the glory of an amazing
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God. Lord, thank you that you love us, that you care for us and that you desire the best for us,
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Lord, and that we could honor you in everything that we do, father. So go before us, father, and prepare our hearts now, may we be filled with the
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Holy Spirit as we're guided in our service today. We thank you and give you praise in Christ's name. Amen.
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Brother David. Good morning.
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Let's stand and sing O for a Thousand Tongues. O for a thousand tongues to sing my great
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Redeemer's praise, the glories of my
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God and King, the triumphs of his grace.
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Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease, tis music in the sinner's ears, tis life and health and peace.
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He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free.
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His blood can make the foulest clean, his blood availed for me.
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My gracious master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name.
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What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. Christ has for sin atonement made, what a wonderful Savior.
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We are redeemed, the price is paid, what a wonderful Savior.
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What a wonderful Savior is
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Jesus my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is
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Jesus my Lord. Praise him for the cleansing blood, what a wonderful Savior.
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Conceal my soul to God, what a wonderful Savior.
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What a wonderful Savior is Jesus my
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Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is
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Jesus my Lord. He cleansed my heart from all its sin, what a wonderful Savior.
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What a wonderful Savior is
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Jesus my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is
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Jesus my Lord. Overcoming all
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Savior and triumph in each trying hour, what a wonderful Savior.
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What a wonderful Savior is
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Jesus my Jesus. What a wonderful Savior is
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Jesus my Lord. And glorious is his name.
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Glorious is the name of Jesus. O Savior, we adore thee, we thy love and grace proclaim.
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Thou art mighty, thou art vast, it's thy matchless name.
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Glorious is thy name,
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O Lord. Glorious, glorious is thy name,
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O. O saints of every nation, sing thy just and endless praise.
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Glorious is thy name,
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O glorious is thy name.
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O shame, how didst come to die a ransom, guilty sinners to reclaim.
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Glorious is thy name,
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O Lord. Glorious is thy name,
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O kingdom. Glorious is thy name,
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O Lord. First, Lord Jesus.
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O Savior, Lord of all nations,
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Son of God. Thank you all for singing.
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Hand it over to Pastor John. Well, good morning. Praise the
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Lord. Welcome to church. Please open your Bibles with me to the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John.
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We're going to be in John chapter 1. I was, you know, I teach at a
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Christian school, but I was talking to one of the teachers this week, and we were talking about how, you know,
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Romans 8, 28 promises us God causes all things to work together for our good. We understand that.
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You know, that's something we can trust, no matter what. I mean, we really can trust that.
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No matter what we think, no matter what we see, no matter what we feel, God is faithful. And I said, you know, one of the things from this whole virus,
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I wash my hands. See, I teach at a school. I wash my hands four or five times a day. I never knew that my hands could get so dirty.
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I go wash my hands, and dirt comes off of them. And I would go the whole day without washing my hands.
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Anybody else doing that? Maybe you don't work, yeah, but I work in a place where you need to wash your hands.
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Then my wife cuts my hair now, and I don't have to drive anywhere.
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And it's wonderful. We get to sit in, because we have a small house with small bathrooms, so we're very close to each other.
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And I tell you what, she does a great job. And she only charges me $20.
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Well, it's the first day of a new week.
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And it is so great to be worshiping together, isn't it? You know, last week we considered the truth and some of the ramifications of the truth that Jesus Christ is
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God, right? 100 % God. This morning, if you looked at your notes,
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Jesus Christ is man. And I challenged you last
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Sunday, and it's one of those questions that pastors don't really like to ask, but sometimes you have to, because it's one of those that he gently steps on your toes with.
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And it is this question, who is Jesus Christ to you? I just want you to understand this morning that according to God's holy, inspired, true word, this is the most important question anyone can ever answer.
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Who is Jesus Christ to you? And I just want to encourage you to be thinking about that, right?
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Beginning of this year, we're in March. We're just three weeks away from Resurrection Sunday.
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Looking forward to hearing Iljin Cho preach. I believe he's a very gifted young man in that regard.
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We were able to listen to two of his sermons online. And we started the beginning of the year setting in place a biblical understanding of the gospel, right?
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What is the gospel of Jesus Christ? Is it simply praying a prayer, right?
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Jesus, I want you to be my Lord and Savior, and now all of a sudden you're a Christian. Well, we understand that that's not true, right?
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And then secondly, we started last week dealing with this whole issue of the cornerstone of the church.
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And I tried to impress upon you the importance of our understanding of Jesus Christ and who
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He is. His character, His attributes, His ministry, right?
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And we took basically like a figurative hammer and chisel. And what I was hoping is we had in place this cornerstone, and we're slowly plumbing it, getting it square as we possibly can, using laser measurements from the
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Word of God to square that stone so we know for certain who
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Jesus Christ is. Last week, Jesus Christ is 100 % God.
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Today, Jesus Christ is 100 % man, okay?
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This is a dual truth that the Word of God teaches. Now, take a look at John 1.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
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Word was God. He, that is the Word, was in the beginning with God.
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All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
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And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was
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John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all through him might believe.
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Now, he's not talking about the Apostle John here. He's talking about John the Baptist, okay? The Apostle John, one of the inner circle of three, wrote this gospel.
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Now this is John the Baptist that he's talking about. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
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He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. Talking about Jesus Christ.
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Key verse. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him.
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Israel. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name.
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Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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Salvation is 100 % God. You can look at that verse and totally understand that it is all
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God. Verse 14. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.
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And we beheld his glory. The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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So last week, Jesus Christ is God from verses 1, 2, and 3.
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This week, in verse 14, Jesus Christ is man. Last week we looked at the deity of Jesus Christ, that he is in fact
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God. And today, we're going to be seeing what the Apostle John has to say about another aspect of the person of Jesus Christ, which is that Jesus Christ is 100 % man.
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Can I explain that? Well, fasten your seatbelt. Okay?
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Put your seat back in tray tables in their full and upright locked position. All right?
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Let's pray. Father God, we are so thankful for this day, for your Word, for the truth of your
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Word, God. Pray that you would open our eyes of understanding, Father, that the Holy Spirit might indeed be our teacher, not me.
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Lord, that this Word might bear fruit in our lives. First and foremost, that it might be seed planted in our heart.
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But secondly, Father, that it would indeed bear fruit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen? So, in the first three verses of the
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Gospel of John, John declares unequivocally that Jesus is
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God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
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Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. How much of God was in Him?
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How much of God was He, is He, and will He always be? Verse 3, all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
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And you say, well, wait a minute, we read in Genesis that God made the world. Yes, He did. Jesus is
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God. All three persons of the Godhead are in Genesis chapter 1.
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Jesus Christ is there, God the Father is there, and God the Holy Spirit is there. Because later on in chapter 1 it says, let us make man in our image.
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OK? I won't go down that rabbit trail and develop it as much as I want to.
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This is about, just so you know, this is about a two and a half hour sermon, OK? But the elders said,
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I cannot keep you here until 2 .30. And I'm going to honor them. But down in verse 14, equally, the
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Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So here's a biblical truth that needs to be locked down in our brains.
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Jesus is God. Jesus Christ is also a man. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is both
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God and man. Jesus is both, at the same time, 100 %
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God, and when He was here on the earth, 100 % man.
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Now, can I adequately, clearly, and succinctly explain these two truths, these two dual truths to my satisfaction, my complete satisfaction?
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No, I can't. Not totally. Scholars and theologians much brighter than I am, much better educated, have literally wrestled for centuries trying to explain these two equally important truths about Jesus Christ.
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They even went so far as to come up with a word that defines it. They had to create a word.
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It's the word hypostatic. You might want to make a note of that if you've never heard it.
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Hypostatic union. I believe it's in your notes. And what I'm going to do is give you a heavily edited definition of the term hypostatic union.
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Hypostasis is a Greek word normally first used by Eastern theologians in the early centuries of church history.
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We're talking about third, fourth, fifth centuries. To refer to the three persons of the
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Trinity. So originally the word hypostasis was used to refer to how
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God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit are one, yet three separate entities.
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OK, it caused confusion. So it refers to each of the three concrete and distinct
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Trinitarian persons who share a single divine nature or evidence.
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In other words, everything. Please stick with this. Please follow me. This is so important to understand.
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God, the Father, in terms of love, justice, power, omniscience, omnipresence.
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Jesus has those same attributes and characteristics. And so does God, the Holy Spirit. OK, the hypostatic union, in contrast, was then applied to Christ.
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It has a Christological designation. The doctrine, and there's books written on this.
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I mean, really, it's amazing. It's an attempt to describe the miraculous bringing together of humanity and divinity in the same person,
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Jesus Christ. Listen, such that he is both fully God and fully man.
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And you go, that's what I do. OK, and I've studied this for a while.
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It's just one of those things. How do you explain the parting of the Red Sea? How do you explain
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God saying, let there be light? And there was light. Come on. We just can't. Right.
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We can say, well. OK. And they're going to look at you with a blank look like you are.
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So in simple terms, Jesus is both fully God and fully man.
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Now, despite the difficulty in trying to understand and express the truth that Jesus is both fully
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God and fully man. What we want to do is clear away the fog if we can. And we want to zero in on the reality.
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That properly understood, these are the two most important truths about Christ's person.
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The fact that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man are two.
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Really, of the most important truths about the person of Jesus Christ found in God's word.
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Now, it's not only in John's gospel that we encounter this truth.
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In other words, when we always come back to if we believe the Bible says something. Listen to me.
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This is so important. If we believe the Bible says something about something, say, for example, the
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Holy Spirit. We cannot take one verse and build our house on the one verse.
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We have to let the Scripture interpret the Scripture. Do you understand that? We let the
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Scripture interpret the Scripture. We don't read into the Scripture. We let the Scripture interpret the
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Scripture. OK, so when we see here that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the
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Word was God. We don't take one verse in God's word. We don't take the voice of one verse to say that Jesus Christ is fully
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God. The Bible is full of references that indicate and prove that he's fully God.
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And the same is true with him being fully man. I'll give you three quick examples, one of which you're familiar with.
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It's the Old Testament prophecy of Isaiah. It's much quoted. Prophet Isaiah says for unto us a child.
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Oh, a child. You mean one that like cries and you have to change diapers? Yes. Unto us a child is born.
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Unto us a son is given. And the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called wonderful counselor, mighty
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God, everlasting father, prince of peace. So this verse teaches that the Messiah was to be one who was always
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God's son, but who would become a man at a particular point in human history.
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Hence the child as a child, he is born. But as a son, he is given.
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Now, hold your place here and just flip over to the right through the book of Acts to Romans chapter one.
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You have the same teaching. Romans one, three. I'm going to read more than I meant to.
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But look at verse one. Romans one, three, Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets in the
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Holy Scriptures. Pay attention. Concerning his son,
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Jesus Christ, our Lord. Who was born of the seed of David, according to what the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
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So Jesus Christ was made the seed of David, according to the flesh.
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But verse four, he was declared always to have been what?
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The son of God. Galatians chapter four. Galatians four.
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Remember General Electric Power Company. Galatians four, verse four. Galatians four, verse four.
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But when the fullness of the time had come. God sent forth his son.
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Born of a woman. Born under the law. To redeem those who are under the law that me, we might receive the adoption as sons.
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So as a son, Jesus Christ was sent. Hence, he was always
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God. Nevertheless, he was made under the law. He became man.
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See, the Bible is never hesitant to put the twin truths together of the full deity of Jesus Christ and the true and full humanity of Jesus Christ.
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Do I need to go to any more verses? Because I can't dismiss you at two thirty. Go to John again.
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What these and other verses talk about is taught by illustration and various events in Christ's ministry.
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For instance, if you look at chapter two. Chapter two of the Gospel of John. Remember in verse one, there's a wedding in Cana of Galilee, right?
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So Jesus is at this wedding. Now get this. Remember, there's the specific references to Jesus as God and man, right?
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Then there's the illustrations of Jesus as both what? God and man. And that's how you build your doctrine.
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You don't build it on one verse. You build it on all of God's word.
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So think about this. Few things could be more human than a wedding, right? Come on.
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Yet when the wine is exhausted and the family is about to be embarrassed, Jesus makes new wine out of water that had been standing around in great stone water pots that were used for Jewish ceremonial washings.
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Who but God could turn water into wine? And yet, who but man could be sensitive to the situation that you're at a wedding feast and they're out of wine?
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And by the way, it's not 15 % alcohol like we drink it. So God and man.
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Matthew. Matthew 8. Matthew 8.
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The disciples are crossing the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum to the land of Gadarenes while Jesus, he's exhausted.
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He's asleep in the back of the boat. A storm arises. It was so intense that they're frightened.
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Matthew chapter 8 verse 23. Now, when he got into a boat, his disciples followed him and suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with waves.
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Okay. God was asleep. No. The man Jesus was asleep.
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He was tired. Then his disciples came to him and awoke him saying, Lord, save us.
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We are perishing. We're going to drown. Verse 26.
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He arose and rebuked the winds in the sea and there was a great calm.
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See, what could be more human than our Lord's exhaustion and not even waking up?
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I grew up on the sea. I learned to sail when I was five. I was sailing to Catalina Island from Los Angeles with a 27 foot sloop navigating steering a compass heading when
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I was eight years old. You don't want to be at sea in a storm. It's scary.
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And he sleeps through it. You don't sleep through a storm when you're on the Sea of Galilee.
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What could be more human than his total exhaustion? What could be more divine than his stilling the wind and the waves so that the disciples look what they said?
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Who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him?
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So the same twofold nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's illustrated throughout the
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Gospels right town to the accounts of the death and resurrection. See, nothing could be more human than what the death of Jesus Christ.
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He didn't faint. He died. And nothing more be could be more divine than the darkening of the sky.
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The veil of the temple being rent in two and Jesus rising again after three days.
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Both truths, right? So don't make the mistake of thinking of Jesus as being merely divine man or on the other hand, being a merely human
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God. And people believe that there are cults that will tell you, oh, he's a great teacher.
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But he wasn't God. He's not God. The Christians are wrong. The Bible is wrong.
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Jesus is the God man. Which means that he is fully and uniquely
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God as well as fully and perfectly man. He is God with us. He is God for us. He is God in us.
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And as a man, he is the one who who has experienced all the trials, all the suffering, all the losses, all the gains, all the temptations, all the vicissitudes of life.
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This morning, my wife came out. I was meditating on my sermon in the chair and I fell asleep.
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Jesus fell asleep just like we do now. Why are these truths so important?
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What do they have to do with making plum our understanding of the chief cornerstone of the church or more particularly, as we discussed the importance of the deity and the divinity of Jesus Christ last week?
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Why is the humanity as equally important as his divinity?
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OK, now there are several reasons. I only have so much time. I think I got four of them for you in your notes.
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And the first one is. The first reason why is because Jesus Christ.
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The God man. Is able to die. See the incarnation.
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God becoming man. Made it possible for Jesus Christ to die.
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Over in Hebrews. Hebrews 10. This is clearly what the writer of Hebrews is thinking when he writes these words.
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Verse four. Hebrews 10 verse four. For it is not possible.
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That the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Man, I so want
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I so much want to teach this morning. I really have to tie myself down.
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Because you understand when you read the Old Testament, maybe you've made a goal to read through the Old Testament this year or the
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Bible. Great, great goal. You understand that all those goats and animals and pigeons and everything that was killed.
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Right. Was to show us the insufficiency of all of them and point us to Jesus Christ.
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Do you see what it says? It is not possible. That the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
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Therefore. When he came into the world. God said.
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Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. But a body you have prepared for me.
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In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. You had no pleasure. Then I said, behold,
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I have come. This is Jesus speaking. I have come.
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In the volume of the book. It is written of me. To do your will. Oh, God.
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See, having a completely human body made it possible for Jesus Christ to die.
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Now. You can read all kinds of books on the incarnation.
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Incarnation simply meaning God becoming flesh. But it's it's hard to find an illustration of of this aspect of it.
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See, the body was the vehicle of Christ's earthly ministry. See, a body, a human body.
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Was the vehicle was the. The canister, the container. For Christ's for God, the sun's earthly ministry.
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You think about a man or a woman who is called by God. Say, for example, to become a medical missionary or work in a distant corner of Africa.
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Their person and their willingness are one thing, right? But their training is quite another. So what do they do?
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Read the story of Hudson Taylor sometime called to China. He he trained.
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He wanted to go over there with medical training to be a doctor. And he had medical training.
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And that was part of the preparation. He had to go to China. Right. So they want to go to they want to go to Africa.
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They want to want to be a medical missionary, but they have no training. What do they do? They submit to years of training.
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They gain medical knowledge. They get some Bible training. So that so that to their person and original intention, they add.
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Watch. They add that was that which was necessary to do the work.
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Right. They're not ready. They want to go, but they're not ready. This is what
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Jesus did. In the beginning, in the eternal counsels of God that are beyond our ability to understand.
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Before there was a world. Before there was a lost race of of of men and women before Adam and Eve.
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Jesus foresaw as God, who is eternal, all of human history.
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And he knew that he was to redeem this race. And then in the fullness of time, in the days of Herod of Rome, he assumed a body so that he could then offer up that body.
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As the perfect sacrifice for sin. And see, this is this amazing and comforting truth is what we find throughout
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Scripture. The very name of Jesus looks forward to an act of saving significance.
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The angel said of Mary, she will give birth to a son. And you were to give him the name
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Jesus because he will save. His people from their sins back in the
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Gospel of Mark, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Mark eight. Jesus spoke of the suffering that was to come.
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Mark eight thirty one. Mark eight thirty one.
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And he began to teach them. That the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and scribes.
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And be killed. And after three days rise again.
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Mark nine thirty one over just a page. For he taught his disciples and said to them, the son of man is being betrayed into the hands of men and they will kill him.
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And after he is killed, he will rise again the third day. But they did not understand this saying and they were afraid to ask him.
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See, Jesus himself spoke of his suffering that was to come. And then he linked that suffering to the success of his mission to the crucifixion back in John, John, twelve.
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John, twelve, thirty two. And if I.
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I'm sorry, and I. If I am lifted up from the earth. Will draw all peoples to me.
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This, he said, signifying by what death he would die. So at several places,
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I don't have time to read them all. In John's gospel, the crucifixion is spoken of as that vital time for which
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Christ came and to which his ministry inflexibly proceeded. Moreover, the death of Jesus is in a real sense the theme of the
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Old Testament. Also, right promises what made Old Testament promises, what kept
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New Testament, right? The Old Testament sacrifices, as I said earlier, prefigure and point to Christ's suffering and the prophets explicitly foretell it.
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Paul teaches that Abraham was saved by faith. Just like we are.
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Galatians. Galatians. Wait a minute.
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Jesus wasn't around then. That's right. But you were saved under the old covenant by faith also, not by the law.
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Galatians three, eight. Galatians three, eight in the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the
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Gentiles by faith. Watch this. This is amazing. Preach the gospel to Abraham.
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What? Jesus hadn't even come. He was a twinkle in Mary's eye.
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Mary wasn't even born. She was a twinkle in her great great grandmother's eye. God preached the gospel to Abraham before him, saying,
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In all you nations shall be blessed. Look at verse 16.
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Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say into seeds, as to many, but as of one, and to your seed, who is
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Christ. Jesus taught the downcast
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Emmaus disciples that the Old Testament foretold his death and resurrection.
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Luke 24. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.
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John chapter one again. So in light of these texts and others, and we could just go on and on.
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I'd love to do it. I mean, seriously, I would just love to do it. It was it was all
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I could do to fit this into two and a half hours. It's not wrong to say that the most important reason for the incarnation of Jesus is that made it possible for him to what?
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Die. Right. Friends, you understand, if Jesus was not 100 percent human.
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He couldn't have shed his blood and died to pay the penalty for our sin.
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So when somebody comes along. In the next couple of weeks on some cable news special and they say, well, he wasn't really man and he didn't really die because he was
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God and tries to confuse you. You just come back to your notes from this message. And say baloney.
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I give you permission. My baloney has a first name. It's O .S
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.C .A .R. My baloney has a second name. It's M .E .Y .E .R.
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And then a second reason why Jesus being 100 percent man is important is because being human, man, if this doesn't get you,
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I don't know I will, because he's human. He understands us. This particular aspect of Jesus is human.
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Humanity is so humbling. And it's so fantastic when you begin to think about it. This is exactly again back to Hebrews.
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This is the amazing record and testimony of the writer of Hebrews.
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The fact that God, the fact that Jesus Christ took upon himself all that men are and know and experience also made it possible him for him to be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
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Look at Hebrews 4, verse 15. Hebrews 4, verse 15.
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We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.
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But was in all points tempted as we are. Yet without sin.
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Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help.
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Help in time of need. This should be such a comforting and encouraging truth about the humanity of our
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Lord. Jesus knew and experienced everything that it meant to be human.
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I put this long quote in your notes. I don't know why I after I printed him. I was like, why did
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I put that in there? But it's from J .B. Phillips. He's translated
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New Testament, some Old Testament books into a more contemporary translation. He's gone to be with the
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Lord. But I just think it's so powerful. If you want to follow along as I read it.
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The record of the behavior of Jesus on the way to the cross. And of the crucifixion itself is almost unbearable, chiefly because it is so intensely human.
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If, as I believe, this was indeed God focused in a human being. We can see for ourselves that here is no play acting.
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Here is the real thing. There are no supernatural advantages for this man.
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No celestial rescue party delivered him from the power of evil men.
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And his agony was not mitigated by any super human anesthetic.
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We can only guess what frightful anguish of mind and spirit rung from him.
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The terrible words, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?
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But the cry, it is finished, cannot be one of despair. It does not even mean in the original
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Greek. It is all over. Look at this. In the Greek, those words, it is finished, that are quoted every, you know,
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Good Friday. Means it has been completed. See, the experiences and sufferings of Jesus enable us to know that Jesus experienced all that we might experience in this life.
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You're tired right now, having trouble staying awake. Jesus knows about that weariness.
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Disappointed by somebody, discouraged by the behavior of somebody.
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Jesus knows about that hurt. He has felt that disappointment.
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Getting angry at a student in a school that you teach at because they won't listen.
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He knows. Upset at what's going on in the world.
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He knows. He lived the misunderstandings and the pain of living in a fallen world.
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And as God and as man, he is able to understand and help all those who are his own.
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Tempted or tried. That's why 1 Corinthians 10, 13 says, no temptation, no trial has seized you, has come upon you.
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Except what is common to man. And God is faithful, who will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.
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But with the temptation, with the trial, will provide a way out, a way of escape.
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What an amazing truth. So encouraging for our lives. And what we live with day in and day out in a fallen world.
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With Satan running around the world like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. See, so several reasons why the humanity of Jesus Christ is so very important to Christianity and the gospel.
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Number one, Jesus being 100 % human is important because Jesus, the God man, had to die.
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Number two, Jesus being 100 % man is important because being human means that Jesus is able to understand us completely.
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And a third reason why Jesus being 100 % man is important is that he can now be our example.
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See, by becoming man, Jesus also provided. He provided us with an example of how a life that is lived pleasing to God the
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Father should be lived. You see, believers should be concerned and praying about the state of the church today.
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That's why I'm so thankful, you know, I'm so thankful for Victor and Harold. You know, as a pastor, as somebody who's experienced ministry, the diligence that they basically purpose to be so diligent in vetting, checking this young man out before they present him to us as a candidate.
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You know, it's what needs to be going on in this in this world today. The fact that we will have a time that morning that he's here, he can only be here because his wife is a speech therapist and they have to fly back
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Sunday afternoon. But, you know, Sunday morning, I'm sure we're going to have muffins, hint, hint, donuts.
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Everybody should come right and interact with him. Because what's going on the church today, you can go to seminary for ministry training.
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I could tell you I could spend the rest of the day telling you stories about seminary graduates and what's happened to them and the direction they go.
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And they leave seminary without much of a message. They don't have an ability to lead the churches. You know, one author suggested that one reason for this sad reality,
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I'm quoting, is that they lack an adequate example of what the Christian ministry can be because they've never had contact with a strong church that is
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Bible centered and faithful to the God. John 13, John 13.
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I told people after two or three years, I said, the book I'm going to write, you know, if God ever allows it is the 78 things they didn't teach me in seminary.
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Seriously, it's just the way it is. John 13, 15.
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Here it is. I have given you an example. That you should do as I have done to you. You know what my scorecard is on that?
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Incomplete. Back to the first grade. Jesus is our model, our sampler, our example.
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We are to pattern our attempts to write out the Christian life on him. Peter uses the word sampler or copybook when he says to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving for you an example.
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The word there is a copybook that you should follow in his steps. In other words, by means of Jesus Christ becoming man,
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God wrote the characters of love and righteousness large so that we might buy his grace, might copy him.
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And one more example of why it's so important that Jesus Christ was 100 percent human is because listen.
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Jesus being a man and 100 percent human is important because it demonstrates the value of life.
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Now this might not immediately come to mind. Why the incarnation was important.
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And it's because through it God sanctified human life in a way that had not been done previously.
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Now you look back at the Old Testament and you think about history. You see, before the coming of Jesus Christ, life in the ancient world was cheap.
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And I think that we would all agree that with the departure from biblical values and biblical principles that we see about us, life is becoming increasingly cheap today.
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Do you know war can make life cheap? Continually hearing reports about car bombings, soldiers dying, battle deaths numb us to the destiny of that individual who died in the service of our country.
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The same thing is true with traffic deaths or deaths as a result of, I mean, what about mass shootings?
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The first time it happens we're shocked. What about 9 -11? Moreover, it's very clear that the laws that have legalized abortion have had this effect.
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I mean, church, listen to me.
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A million and a half babies are killed in this country every year.
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And we walk around like it's nothing. The New York State Legislature stood to its feet and clapped when they legalized partial birth abortion.
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See, the fact that Jesus was 100 % human demonstrates the value of life.
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You think it's gotten bad now? Wait till they roll in euthanasia.
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Wait till they tell you we can't do anything for you. You're too old. You're too unhealthy. What can offset this cheapening of human life?
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Only the values that Christianity bring to the table. Christianity values life.
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First, because God gave it. Second, because the Lord Jesus Christ sanctified it by assuming a full human nature by means of the
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Incarnation. Jesus Christ became like us, which we should be thankful for. And Jesus condescended to come to the earth fully human should lead us to bow down and worship
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Him deeply as our Lord and Savior. So, the hypostatic union.
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You ready for the test? I'll have the ushers pass it out. It's multiple choice. Jesus is 100 %
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God and what? 100 % man. He is the union and joining together of God and man.
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Two amazing truths about Jesus Christ. An amazing miracle that is hard to understand, even harder to explain.
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But suffice to say that apart from the grace of God, we all stand before the most tremendous truths of God's word.
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And we should respond to them. Believers should lift up their hearts and voices in praise of a
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God who can come from such an infinite distance in glories of heaven. Christ has for sin atonement made.
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What a wonderful Savior. We are redeemed.
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The price is paid. What a wonderful Savior.
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How can we not? How can we come to church and just sing a song with a
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Savior like this? John 1 again, before we close.
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John 1. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
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His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the
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Father, full of grace and truth. Do you think in heaven, when we are surrounded by the glory of God, that we're going to sit there and sing?
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Christ has for sin atonement made. Christ has for sin atonement made.
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Well, we're not like you, John. We don't have that. Oh, yeah. Everybody will be like that in heaven.
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I might be a little wired. That's just my personality. But you think that's the way it's going to be in heaven, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord? Read Isaiah 6 sometime. Read Revelation chapter 1 sometime.
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Read Ezekiel 1 sometime. Read anything where anybody meets God. Look at this.
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We beheld His glory. One Christian writer many years ago wrote this, and I quote,
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In six simple words, the word became flesh or was made flesh.
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The Apostle states the most profound mystery of human thought, how deity could cross the gulf, separating what is
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God from what is not God. The Apostle John breaks down the entire universe into two things,
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God and not God. How the word, meaning Christ, could be made flesh, meaning the creature, is one of the most amazing mysteries to contemplate.
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I leave you with verse 14. Before David comes to lead us in a closing hymn,
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I encourage you to meditate on verse 14. Make verse 14 your own.
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Ask God to help you to understand the importance and the richness that comes from seeing that Jesus is both fully
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God and fully man. The greatest truth set forth in the Bible is that this
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God, who became man, could love us enough to go to the cross and die for us personally.
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To be just like us, to better understand us, to be an example and to show us the value of life.
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So before David comes, would you take a moment or two with me and just reflect?
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Maybe on something I said, maybe something in the notes or this verse, and then I'll close us in prayer.
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So use this time now to pray yourself quietly to the
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Lord, and then I'll close in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, there's no secrets from you.
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You know our hearts. You know our weaknesses, God. You know how the cares of this world have been nipping at our heels all day long.
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Our old ways, old habits. You know every need of our heart.
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You feel exactly what we feel at this very moment. Every single one of us here.
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Because you're both fully God and fully man, you know every thought and intention of our heart.
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And at the same time, you know exactly how we feel. You know exactly how much we love you or don't love you.
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You know exactly how much we obey you or don't obey you. You know the struggle we might have to stay awake even in church or to open our
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Bible each morning and to read the Word and to feed upon the Word, to long for the pure milk of the
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Word that we may grow by. You know it all, God. There's no secret. We pray for your grace,
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God, that the impact and the revelation and the glory of Jesus Christ might indeed bear fruit in our lives.
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We pray in Jesus' name. Amen? Amen. David? Please stand for our closing song,
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There is a Redeemer. There is a