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Let's turn in our Bibles please to John 3 once again. John, I trust
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I put the right notes in your hands this week. I didn't know I hadn't last week until after church.
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Why don't we pray quickly. Thank you, Father, for your holy word that is open before us.
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And we pray that you would take this word and give us understanding as to its meaning, its implications, its relevance, and its instructive nature to us.
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May the Holy Spirit, our God, illuminate our minds to the truth that is in Jesus Christ and stir our hearts, our
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God, so that we might be able to more effectively live before you this coming week.
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And so we give ourselves to you and yield to you for we ask in Jesus' name, amen.
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It's our intention today to move to a new section of this third chapter of John in which we read of the true bridegroom and the friend of the bridegroom.
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But first, we have to complete our consideration of the final paragraph of the last section, which we call
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Jesus the Brazen Serpent and Saving Faith, which encompasses, of course, John 3 .16.
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But here we have this final paragraph of this episode, John 3 .18
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-21. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten
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Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.
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For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deed should be exposed.
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But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.
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We considered briefly last Lord's Day, verse 18. There is a shift of emphasis here in this verse that may not be immediately apparent.
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To this point, the writer John, the apostle John, was writing about the world in general, generically.
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But that changes here with verse 18. The pronoun he, or I think one translation says the one, who believes in him is not condemned.
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And so we have here a directness. The individual application to everyone who hears and reads these words.
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And so the Lord here addresses he who believes and also addresses he who does not believe.
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This verse declares that the one who is believing in the Lord Jesus, again present tense that we emphasized, is no longer in a condemned state before God.
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That's how he formerly was, no longer. However, the one who has not believed, or is not believing, continues in the state of God's condemnation, having failed to resort to the only remedy that God has provided fallen humanity.
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And so each of us is in one of these two classes of people. You're either in a state of blessedness or a state of condemnation.
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There's no third party, no third avenue. You, I, each of us is in one of these two categories.
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Although we may remain somewhat hidden or obscure when we consider ourselves as a part of the entire world, and we can talk about God loving the world and the world doing this, doing that, here we're talking about ourselves as individuals.
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And the word of God becomes very direct and personal. And so you need to consider and think about yourself as to which class of humanity are you a part.
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There is individual accountability before God. The soul that sins shall die. Doesn't matter who your dad is, who your mom is.
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Doesn't matter who a fellow Christian is. It's who you are and your faith in the
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Lord Jesus. That's what matters. The one who is unbelieving is damned and will die in his sins and encounter everlasting death and damnation.
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But the one who believes on Jesus Christ lives forever, thankfully. Again, here the verb believes is in the present tense as it is throughout this passage.
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It's not talking about a one -time decision. Put that aside. I prayed that sinner's prayer,
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I bet you, 50 times, maybe 100 times when I was in my sins and under tremendous conviction.
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There was no faith mixed in that sinner's prayer, though. It matters not whether you prayed a sinner's prayer. What matters is if you have faith in Jesus.
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And it doesn't matter if you had faith 20 years ago. What matters is you have faith today and next week and next year, all the way until Jesus comes.
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It's he who believes as life. Not he who once believed or once did believe, but he who believes.
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And so the present tense is found here as well. It describes not a one -time profession of faith, but rather a continual faith in the
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Lord Jesus that's characteristic of all true Christians. And this present tense of this verb is important.
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It's there for a reason. As one very noted professor of Greek wrote, the present was the tense of choice most likely because the
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New Testament writers, by and large, saw continual belief as a necessary condition of salvation.
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Along these lines, it seems significant that the promise of salvation is almost always given.
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And then there's a Greek word there included in the text. It's actually a present participle.
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The one who believes. That's to whom the promise of salvation is most frequently given in the
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New Testament. And so the believing one is not condemned. That is, he does not lie under God's condemnation.
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Here the forgiveness of sins is not directly stated, but it's certainly implied. You're not condemned.
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As one wrote, although John does not explicitly appeal to Paul's justification by faith doctrine, the substance of the matter is here.
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It's clearly here that the person is no longer condemned. The believer is not condemned now nor ever shall he be condemned even on the final day of judgment when every one of us will stand before Jesus Christ, the
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Lord, and be judged for our words, our thoughts, our attitudes, every action.
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We'll give an account before the Lord. But the believer will be able to stand in that day of judgment.
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In other words, he'll not be condemned, not be rejected, ousted, but he'll stand for his sins are covered by the blood of Christ from condemning scrutiny.
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This is in contrast to the wicked who will not stand in the judgment. As David wrote so long ago in Psalm 1, the one believing on Jesus Christ will not be condemned on that great day even when his thoughts, his words, his actions are examined.
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Thank the Lord for that, or else all of us would be in a terrified state today, wouldn't we? But we're covered.
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However, it's a very sad state of all those who do not believe on Jesus Christ that they are already condemned is what
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John wrote for his 18B. He who does not believe is condemned already.
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He was condemned beforehand, and he remains condemned because he had not believed on the Lord Jesus. He would have passed out of a state of condemnation had he believed into a state of grace, but he did not.
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And so he remained in condemnation. Again, as one wrote, already in need of a savior before God's Son comes on his saving mission, this person compounds his or her guilt by not believing in the name of that Son.
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As with the arrogant critic who mocks a masterpiece, it's not the masterpiece that's condemned, but rather the critic.
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There's no need to await the final day of judgment, although it will come. The person who disbelieves in the
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Father's one and only Son stands condemned already, and God's wrath remains on him.
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And that's present tense also. Thus, the potential for condemnation is bound up with the mission of the
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Son to bring salvation. He brings salvation, but he aggravates condemnation to those who refuse or fail to believe.
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And so the state of condemnation, God's condemnation, remains, stays, continues on any and all who fail or refuse to believe on Jesus.
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The entire human race is condemned, being under the wrath of God. And so only through believing on Jesus Christ can this condemnation be escaped, can the wrath of God be removed when salvation is obtained and the believer is granted free and full forgiveness of sin, as well as granted the gift of righteousness,
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Christ's righteousness through faith alone. Again, as one wrote, but he that believes not the doctrine of Christ and does not on the terms of the gospel receive him for his
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Savior is already condemned for his obstinate infidelity. That is his stubborn unbelief, which is the certain cause of damnation.
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As we say of one mortally wounded, he's as a dead man, though he breathes for a while, and we speak in the same manner of a male factor convicted and attainted by a capital crime, though the sentence be not executed, because their death is inevitable.
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The not believing in the only Son of God who is able to save to the utmost all that regularly trust in him is such contempt of the merciful, all -sufficient, and sole means of salvation that it is absolutely necessary and most just that all those who refuse to be saved by him should perish by themselves.
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I think one of the greatest horrors on the Day of Judgment will be the realization of many unbelievers.
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I heard it over and over again, and I refuse to believe. A sense of remorse, regret,
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I just can't fathom it, but this will be the condition of everyone who has heard the name of Christ and the way of salvation but refused to believe it.
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Verse 19 describes the reason for their condemnation. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
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Men are sinners. They are described here as lovers of darkness, who prefer darkness to light.
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We've seen the ideas of darkness and light earlier in John's Gospel. We saw it in Chapter 1 in the prologue.
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But here John speaks of the matter more clearly and directly. As one wrote, the prologue described the darkness of the world, but verse 19, that is,
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Chapter 3, verse 19, explains it, explains the darkness and what that is. The world manifested its darkness by itself, love, and selfishness, both of which necessarily excluded
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God, for God should be loved and obeyed. It was only when the love of God came, when the light came into the world, that the darkness saw itself by means of contrast.
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It was only in the light that humanity could see that it was in darkness. And so the light exposed darkness and revealed to those in darkness that they were in darkness.
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Here, by the way, the light is Jesus Christ himself. We read earlier in Chapter 1, in him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
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Same idea as here. There was a man sent from God whose name was
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John. That's John the Baptist. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, and notice the
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New King James Version puts light capitalized because it's a reference to Christ, that all through him might believe.
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He was not that light, that is, John the Baptist was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
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That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.
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The preaching of Christ reveals the darkness of humanity. And so here in John 3, 19, men and women are said to have loved darkness rather than light.
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Because of sin, there's an aversion of people to Jesus Christ. People don't love
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Jesus Christ when he's presented rightly, as he's set forth in the Bible. They crucified
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Jesus in the first century, they'd crucify Jesus in the 21st century if he were to manifest himself in a similar way today.
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Because men and women are sinners. Because they love their sin, they do not and cannot love
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Jesus Christ. J .C. Ryle, who was a Church of England bishop, an evangelical guy, solid reformed guy, wrote of this cause for man's condemnation, but the real account of the matter is that men have naturally no will or inclination to use the light.
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They love their own dark and corrupt ways more than the ways which God proposes to them.
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They therefore reap the fruit of their own ways and will have at last what they loved. They love darkness and they will be cast into outer darkness.
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It's one description of hell, isn't it? Outer darkness. They did not like the light, so they will be shut out from light eternally.
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In short, lost souls will be what they willed to be and will have what they loved. That being darkness.
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The fact is all people everywhere are evil. Now that won't win many people today when that's proclaimed in the world, but that's the biblical reality.
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And they are shown that they are evil by the light of God's truth. When the light shines upon them, particularly as that light is shown through Jesus Christ, darkness is revealed.
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We're evil. Jesus Christ spoke to the Pharisees of the day. You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil?
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For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. We might say, Amen, Jesus, you lay it to those
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Pharisees. But the characteristic of being evil was not just true of the Pharisees. He said to his disciples, to you and me, if we were standing there, we are believers in Jesus.
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If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father who's in heaven give good things to those who ask him?
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Again, here are Ryle's pertinent comments. The words, because their deeds were evil, are very instructive.
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They teach us that where men have no love to Christ and his gospel and will not receive them, their lives and their works will prove at last to have been evil.
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Their habits of life may not be gross and immoral. They may be even comparatively decent and pure.
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But the last day will prove them to have been in reality evil. Pride of intellect or selfishness, love of man's applause, or dislike to submission of will, another's will, or self -righteousness or some other false principle will be found to have run through all their conduct.
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In one way or another, when men refuse to come to Christ, their deeds will always prove to be evil.
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Rejection of the gospel will always be found to be connected with some moral obliquity, that is, some deviation from the norm or what's right.
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When Christ is refused, we may be quite sure that there is something or other in life or heart which is not right.
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If a man does not love light, his deeds are evil. Human eyes may not detect the flaw, but the eyes of an all -seeing
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God do. See, it's not just a matter of ignorance, is it? There's a moral aspect to it.
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There's an ethical dimension to it. And unbelievers are evil.
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Believers are evil, but pardoned, and thankfully a work of grace has been conducted in their lives by God, the
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Spirit of God. And so rejecting the gospel of Jesus Christ reveals the presence of our evil nature.
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This reaction and rejection of Christ would characterize each of us, if it were not for a work of God's grace in our souls.
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We're no better and no different than anyone else. And so verse 20 declares, For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light lest his deeds should be exposed.
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People do not want their sinful condition exposed. They do not want their evil ways to be exposed to others, to themselves, and certainly most of all not to be exposed to God.
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But that will take place, of course, on that day. They love their sin, and they love themselves.
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But they know that in reality their souls are not righteous. They're in darkness. And there's a measure of understanding of that on their part because they hate the light and they don't want to come to the light because then it'll be shown.
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It'll be manifested. They know it's there already. So they'll choose to stay away from Him and refuse to believe on Him as Lord and Savior.
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As William Hendrickson, I think he may still be around, but a solidly formed expositor of the 20th century, he wrote,
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Such a person is always avoiding the light. He will have nothing to do with Christ, the source and embodiment of God's truth and love.
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And hence he never reads the Bible. He refuses to attend church. In his heart he really hates the light.
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That's the true spiritual condition of those who fail and refuse to believe on Christ.
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That was our condition before, again, God did a work of grace in our soul and shed abroad love for God in our hearts by the
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Holy Spirit. That was our condition. Matthew Henry, the
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English Puritan, wrote back in the 18th century, Observe how great the sin of unbelievers is.
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It is aggravated from the dignity of the person they slight. They believe not in the name of the only begotten
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Son of God, who is infinitely true and deserves to be believed, infinitely good and deserve to be embraced.
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God sent one to save us that was dearest to himself, and shall not he be dearest to us?
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Shall we not believe on his name, who has a name above every name? And how great the misery of unbelievers is.
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They are condemned already, which bespeaks first a certain condemnation. They are assured to be condemned in the judgment of the great day, as if they were condemned already.
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And secondly, a present condemnation, a certain condemnation, a present condemnation. The curse has already taken hold of them.
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The wrath of God now fastens upon them. They are condemned already for their own hearts condemned them.
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And thirdly, a condemnation granted upon their former guilt. He is condemned already, for he lies open to the law for all his sins.
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The obligation of the law is in full force, power, and virtue against him, because he's not by faith interested in the gospel defeasance, a reversal of sin.
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He's condemned already because he has not believed. Unbelief may be truly called the great damning sin, because it leads us under the guilt of all other sins.
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It is a sin against the remedy, against our appeal.
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However, we read of some who do come to the light, verse 21. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they've been done in God.
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It was God that made the difference. It wasn't them. The expression does the truth is somewhat unusual.
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And particularly in this context where there's so much emphasis on believing. We commonly speak of believing the truth or knowing the truth or loving the truth, but here it's doing the truth.
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True faith in Christ is seen in people obeying the truth, even doing the will of Christ Jesus their
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Lord. True faith is always an active faith, a doing faith, a doing of the truth, the conforming of oneself as the
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Holy Spirit enables us to the word of God. The true Christian knows and shows in this manner of his life that his deeds have been done in God.
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And every Christian knows this, every true Christian. There's no basis of boasting on our part, is there?
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Those who don't know the way of the gospel think that we are boasting. They think that we're self -righteous, that we're arrogant.
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I witnessed to a physician the other day. Nice guy. I really like him.
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But his main complaint, he doesn't go to church, is he can't stand a judgmental spirit.
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And that was his perception. He claimed to be a Christian, by the way. Oh yeah, I love the Lord Jesus. I'm a believer.
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I try not live a covetous life. I try and be true and faithful. And God bless him for that.
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But the thing that turns him off of church, he told me it was his dad, was a judgmental spirit of people in the church.
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And for those who are outside of Christ, when we advocate the moral standard of God's law, they perceive us as being arrogant and self -righteous, and that we are justifying ourselves.
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We're not. We're as the old adage, we are simply beggars also, showing a fellow beggar where to find bread.
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And that's what we do is we point people to Christ. You want to find a sinner? You know, I look no farther than myself.
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And I consider all the privilege and opportunity, advantages. And what's the result?
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If it weren't for the grace of Christ, every one of us would be damned. And justly so.
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And so when we recognize that, you know, if we do any good works, if we do the truth, it's all been done in God.
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And so one becomes a Christian. And especially when he can be compared and contrasted with that which he did before, it becomes apparent to him and others.
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God himself must be the author and finisher of this work taking place. It didn't come forth from him or her.
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Salvation is only holy to the grace of God working upon the souls of his people to bring them to the light, to bring them to faith in Jesus Christ.
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Because if, apart from grace, if the light appeared, we'd flee. Every one of us would do so.
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If he gave us a desire, an attraction for the light, it must be due to the grace of God working within us.
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Otherwise it wouldn't have happened. And so he places in the soul the love for the truth, the true light, love for Jesus Christ.
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Before we move on from this paragraph, let me just give a good summation of these truths and their implications.
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It was only when the light arrived in the darkness that the darkness was exposed as darkness. And the response of the darkness to the light made manifest its dark quality for it did not want to be exposed.
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Ironically, evil is aware of its own shame and it knows exactly what to do to stay in the dark.
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As the light of humanity, Jesus has exposed the darkness of humanity.
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While the world speaks naively of goodness and morality, for the Christian human, sinfulness and depravity are the norm and plumb line of human existence.
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And for this very reason, the Christian does not deny in any way their own sinfulness, but wears it as a badge.
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Not for their own honor, but as proof of the work of God in one's life. To speak of goodness or morality without Christ is to speak as a non -Christian.
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For the Christian is first and foremost a sinner who has been worked on by God. That is to speak of a general morality is to speak without God and to speak of one's own honor.
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The Christian finds their honor and significance in Christ, which means he or she finds acceptance and true identity as a child of God, not in spite of their sin, but by means of it.
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It's by our sin that we rejoice in the light that God has revealed to us and made attractive to us.
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That's why we came to Jesus Christ. Well, now let's move on to this next paragraph in John chapter 3, beginning with verse 22.
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And actually there's three paragraphs here in the New King James Version. It continues from John 3 .22
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through John 3 .36. Now this is a singular episode or the common word used in biblical studies that we introduced some weeks back.
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It's a pericope, an episode. And it continues from verse 22 through verse 36.
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And there is a narrative structure to this pericope or episode. And we pointed out this common structure, again, some weeks ago.
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It's common to many pericopi in the Gospels in particular. And here we have this typical four -part literary structure.
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We have an introduction in which the setting of the pericope is given. This is in verses 22 through 24.
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And then we have the setting forth of a conflict within this episode, which is the baptism debate.
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And then thirdly, we have the resolution of the conflict. That's the third stage. And then fourthly, finally, we have a conclusion and an interpretation given as to what may be concluded or drawn from this event.
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Within these verses, Jesus is once again set forth as fulfilling and surpassing
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Judaism. And so this episode, verses 22 through 36, is actually in just one more way showing
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Jesus replaced Judaism. And we saw it in three other earlier episodes.
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The Gospel writer is already shown to be Jesus as the one who truly cleanses from sin.
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This was set forth in the episode of Jesus changing the water into wine. He's the true purifier.
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The writer also set forth Jesus as the true temple through the episode of Jesus cleansing the temple, again surpassing
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Judaism. And then thirdly, the writer showed Jesus as the one who brings about new life through the new birth.
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People thought that they came to new life when they came into the temple. Jesus told Nicodemus, that's not so.
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And here the Gospel writer shows forth Jesus as superior to John the Baptist and that he was replacing the old order that John the
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Baptist represented. And therefore, this is the fourth successive section to point out ways in which
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Jesus fulfills and surpasses Judaism, as one very alert commentator wrote.
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And so let's work through these four divisions of this episode. First, the introduction, the baptizing ministry of Jesus.
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After these things, Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea and there he remained with them and baptized.
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Now John also was baptizing in Enon, near Salim, because there was much water there and they came and were baptized.
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For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Now that's the introduction to the pericope, the episode.
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Now we pointed out that whereas the Synoptic Gospels, that is Matthew, Mark, and Luke, record
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Jesus' ministry almost exclusively in Galilee, John's Gospel records
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Jesus and his disciples making a number of trips back and forth between Galilee and Judea. And John's Gospel records a number of events in Jesus' ministry that took place in Judea.
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We had just finished concluding the episode in which Jesus was interacting with Nicodemus, which must have been right in the environs of Jerusalem in Judea.
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Here we read in verse 22 that Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea.
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Now we might, in reading that, assume that this describes yet another journey from Galilee into Judea, but that wouldn't be correct.
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When the Gospel writer wrote that Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea, he was probably talking about them simply going into the wilderness of Judea.
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They were already in Judea. But they left the environs of Jerusalem and traveled into the wilderness areas of Judea where John the
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Baptist had been ministering. Here we read that Jesus was baptizing disciples.
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We read a little further in the passage that Jesus himself did not baptize, thankfully. Can you imagine the kind of sectarian spirit that would have brought about?
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I was baptized by Jesus himself. Rather, his disciples baptized new disciples in his presence and on his behalf.
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And so the writer makes clarification of this. Jesus was baptizing disciples in chapter 4, which is just right after this episode.
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John 4, verses 1 through 3. Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples, he left
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Judea and departed again to Galilee. And so Jesus was not only baptizing, but he was spending time with disciples.
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He went into the land of Judea and remained with them, the disciples, and he baptized. There's an emphasis there.
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Jesus, of course, was always making new disciples, but even while he did so, he was discipling further his own disciples.
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The process of learning and growing is a lifetime endeavor, and we never fully arrive until we take that step out of the grave into our state of glorification.
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We're in the business of growing. And a church should be concerned about its members growing in maturity, not just growing in numbers through evangelism.
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And it's important to keep those two aspects of ministry in balance, isn't it? We read that John the
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Baptist was in that region baptizing. It was in Aenon near Selim. There's not a definite understanding as to where this was located, but probably it was about halfway between the
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Sea of Galilee in the north, Dead Sea in the south, along the Jordan River. About halfway, a little more toward the north, perhaps.
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But we read that he baptized there because there was much water there. And actually,
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Aenon and Selim indicate that it was a place of many springs. And so, some translate it as there are many waters there, different waters.
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This, by the way, is evidence that John the Baptist was baptizing people by immersion in the Jordan River.
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He baptized there because there was much water there. I have Paido Baptist friends. They baptized infants of believing parents by sprinkling.
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And, of course, as Baptists, we argue that baptism in the New Testament is by immersion. You know, if John was baptizing by sprinkling, why did he have to be at Selim, where there was much water?
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He didn't need to be. There's no place in the Bible which commands or describes baptizing by the mode of sprinkling.
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Baptism by immersion is suggested and depicted everywhere in the New Testament. Even John Calvin noted this.
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Calvin, of course, was no Baptist, but baptized by sprinkling. Nevertheless, he acknowledged here on this text that both
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Jesus and John the Baptist baptized by immersion. And so, here are his words. It is probable that Christ, when the feast was passed, came into the part of Judea, which was in the vicinity of the town of Aenon, which was situated in the tribe of Manasseh.
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The evangelist says, that would be John, says that there were many waters there, and these were not so abundant in Judea.
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Now, geographers tell us that these two towns, Aenon and Selim, were not far from the confluence of the river
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Jordan and the brook Jabbok. And they added that Scythophilus, the town there, was near them.
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And then here are Calvin's words, which I emboldened, italicized. From these words, we may infer that John and Christ administered baptism by plunging the whole body beneath the water.
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Calvin recognized they were immersionists. And then he added these words, though we ought not to give ourselves any great uneasiness about the outward right, provided that it agree with the spiritual truth, with the
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Lord's appointment and rule. Now, Calvin was a great man, one of the greatest born of women.
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And of course, Calvin was right in his statement that Jesus and John baptized by immersion, as did all those in the
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New Testament. Calvin was wrong, however, in his statement that we ought not to give ourselves any great uneasiness about the outward right.
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He had no scriptural license to make that statement. If the word of God sets forth the mode of baptism as immersion, we would say baptism by any other mode is not biblical baptism.
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I don't think that's unkind or far -stretched. We're not to set aside the commandment of God by the tradition of baptizing by sprinkling, which only dates to about the end of the second century, by the way.
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And so there was a period of time, how long a duration, we really don't know, in which both John the
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Baptist and Jesus, that is his disciples, were baptizing in the Jordan River in the general region, same general region.
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This is not to set their baptisms as distinct and different from one another. It was the same baptism.
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Baptism by both at this early time was a baptism of repentance of sin with view to the soon inauguration, certain inauguration of the kingdom of God.
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King Herod had not yet thrown John into prison. That would occur before long, however, and when that did occur,
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Jesus and his disciples would once again leave Judea and go to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, saying, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.
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Repent and believe the gospel. And those that did, they would baptize. Now we read of the conflict, the second stage of this pericope in verses 25 and 26.
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It was not a direct conflict between John's disciples and Jesus' disciples. That's not the nature of the conflict.
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Although there is an aspect of this. The conflict was between John's disciples and certain
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Jews about purification. Or at least that's how the New King James version shows it or reads.
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But actually the English Standard version is probably the better translation here, the
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ESV. It wasn't the Jews, but rather a certain Jew, a
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Jew. Certain of John's disciples had a debate with a certain Jew about baptism and the matter of purification.
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That's the essence of it. There's no detail about the exact nature of the conflict other than it was concerning the matter of purification.
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But the conflict set the stage for John's response regarding the person of Jesus and his gaining prominence.
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As one wrote, the Baptist is about to announce what the narrative has already been showing the reader.
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In other words, the first three chapters of John's gospel. The gospel has always been about what God is doing and Jesus in particular, not the
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Baptist, who is merely a witness. Thus the reason for mentioning the dispute is to bring the focus on purification, not on the disciples of John or to the unnamed
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Jew. They like the reader to be directed to the true meaning and source of purification.
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The Baptist, in what will be his final appearance, is a witness to something other and for this to be made clear, it is time for his presence to be removed.
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And by the way, John the Baptist is passing from the scene in our story, in our narrative. And it's interesting, as we'll note, the last words recorded of John the
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Baptist. Now there were common practices in Judaism of that day.
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Common practice of baptism with regard to the idea of purification from sins. The Essene community at Qumran, John the
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Baptist may have been intricately involved with that. He grew up in the wilderness down on the northwestern shore of the
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Dead Sea. They would have daily baptisms and it was regarded as a purification of sins.
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And so maybe somebody came and was asking John about his baptism and the purification of sins.
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I don't know. That's just speculation. It may be. I don't know. But it was a problem and it unsettled the disciples of John.
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It must have unsettled the disciples of John to learn that the disciples of Jesus were baptizing more disciples than John was baptizing at this time.
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And by the way, the tense of the Greek verbs here in this passage is showing that John was still baptizing disciples.
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They were still coming to him and he was baptizing them, but Jesus was baptizing more than John. That's the issue that's being stated.
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And so his disciples came to him and said, Rabbi, and by the way, Rabbi, here in the early first century was not the distinct title of an official
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Jewish teacher as it was toward the end of the first century. Here, Rabbi was more of a general description or title of a respected teacher, but not an official position.
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They came, Rabbi, he who is with you beyond the Jordan to whom you've testified, behold, he is baptizing and all are coming to him.
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And so his disciples seemed to be concerned about perhaps the future and longevity of their master's ministry,
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John's ministry. Their Rabbi seemed to be diminishing from his prominence of his early days.
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There had been a time not long before when all the land of Judea and those from Jerusalem had went out to John and were baptized by him in the
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Jordan River confessing their sins. John was still baptizing, but now Jesus was baptizing more disciples than John.
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I hate referring to one so much today, but I had to. J .C.
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Ryle nailed this as far as a present application. I thought it was so good. We have firstly in these verses a humbling example of the petty jealousies and party spirit which may exist among professors of religion.
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In other words, among Christians, among churches. We are told that the disciples of John the
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Baptist were offended because the ministry of Jesus began to attract more attention than that of their master.
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The spirit exhibited in this complaint is unhappily common in the churches of Christ. The succession of these complainers has never failed.
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There are never wanting or lacking religious professors, that is, professing Christians who care far more for the increase of their own party than for the increase of true
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Christianity and who cannot rejoice in the spread of religion. That's an older English word for Christianity.
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If it spreads anywhere except within their own pale, there is a generation which can see no good doing except in the ranks of their own congregations and which seems ready to shut men out of heaven if they will not enter therein under its banner.
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The true Christian must watch and pray against the spirit here manifested by John's disciples. It is very insidious, very contagious, and very injurious to the cause of religion.
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Nothing so defiles Christianity and gives the enemies of truth such occasion to blaspheme as jealousy and party spirit among Christians.
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Wherever there is real grace, we should be ready and willing to acknowledge it even though it may be outside our own pale.
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We should strive to say with the Apostle, If Christ is preached, I rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
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If good is done, we ought to be thankful, though it even may not be done in what we may think the best way.
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If souls are saved, we ought to be glad, whatever be the means that God may think fit to employ.
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That's a good word. And there is a party spirit that frequently takes place.
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Please don't misunderstand. I'm a committed Reformed Baptist. We're a
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Reformed Baptist church. We try and declare what's true. But I hope that you could bear witness to the fact that we frequently pray for all the churches in this region that are attempting to set
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Christ forth in the gospel. And we desire God's blessing upon them expansion. We want the kingdom to be advanced not just our own little congregation here.
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And it would be wrong to think otherwise. In fact, I'm of the persuasion I hope other churches will be blessed greater than ours.
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I'd hate to think that the greatest blessing of God taking place in New England is in this congregation. We're in trouble if that's the case.
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And the Lord uses his people and he blesses his word. And we should pray that God would bless every church and every individual that is attempting to faithfully proclaim the scriptures,
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Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and that the blessing of God would be upon his gospel, not merely upon us.
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May the Lord help us and guard us from that. Because there sometimes is a temptation toward that.
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Now let's consider thirdly the resolution. And this is in the bridegroom and the friend of the bridegroom.
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This is John's response to his disciples. As great a man as John was, we see his true greatness in the humble manner in which he responded to his concerned followers, even as he sought to exalt
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Christ. And so we read, John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it's been given to him from heaven.
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You yourselves bear me witness that I said I'm not the Christ, but I've been sent before him.
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He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
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And therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.
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John was the greatest man born of woman, according to the Lord Jesus. And perhaps here we see the greatness of John the
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Baptist, greatest demonstrated, in that he was a humble man who desired foremost to exalt
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Christ. F. F. Bruce wrote, John betrays no sense of envy or rivalry. It's not easy to see another's influence growing at the expense of one's own.
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It is even less easy to rejoice in the sight, but John found his joy completed by the news which his disciples brought.
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And then as Bruce wrote, it takes more grace than I can tell to play the second fiddle well.
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But John manifested a generous share of this rare grace. He came to bear witness, and when he saw so many attracted to Jesus because of his witness, he rested content.
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He must grow greater, I must grow less, are John's last recorded words in this gospel.
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Which is wonderful, isn't it? Let's consider how John responded to his disciples.
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First, John states that his ministry, and the extent or degree of blessing that his ministry may bring, was due to the sovereign grace of God.
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Verse 21, or 27. John answered and said, a man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.
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Now when we get into John 6, Jesus says the same thing with regard to salvation. But John the
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Baptist isn't talking about salvation here, he's talking about blessing of ministry. It's all due to the grace of God.
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God is the one who conducts and furthers his work in the world. He is sovereign in calling certain ones to further his work.
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We saw that in 1 Corinthians 12 that Jason read for us earlier. Different gifts, different degrees of manifestations.
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He determines whom he will use to accomplish his work in the world.
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There were those later in the church at Corinth that exhibited the same kind of petty concern as these disciples of John expressed.
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And it resulted in a party spirit within the church. And so Paul wrote to rebuke those who said
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I'm of Paul, I'm of Cephas, I'm of Apollos, I'm of Christ, said some. Who then is
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Paul? Who is Apollos? But ministers, servants, through whom you believed as the
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Lord gave to each one. That's the same thing that John says here. Man can have nothing in his ministry unless he receives it from God.
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God is sovereign in this. I planted Apollo's water, God gave the increase.
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So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters. They're nothing. It's God who brings the increase.
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So there's no place of envy or jealousy in the work of God in God's kingdom.
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We're all in the same team. It is we who are attempting to proclaim Christ as he set forth in the scriptures. And we ought to rejoice in the advancement of our cause by anyone.
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Paul made the same argument that John the Baptist did. A man can receive nothing unless it's been given to him from heaven.
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John next told his disciples that they themselves could bear witness that he never desired or attempted to exalt himself, to make a name for himself.
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He declared in verse 28, you yourselves bear me witness. I said I'm not the Christ, but I've been sent before him.
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I never claimed to be anybody, but a witness sent before. And so he was a forerunner, a preparer.
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All along he declared that he was not the Christ. John never claimed more for himself than what he was, a witness.
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And the cause of their distress and complaint was the cause of his rejoicing and the evidence that he was completing the test which
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God called him. He was rejoicing in the news that was grieving them.
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But he saw things clearly. Sometimes men of God do just the opposite as John the
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Baptist. They convey to others that they're bigger and better than normal mortals. They set themselves up on a pedestal.
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They make themselves little popes. And they're setting themselves up for the big fall. As people find out before long, you're just a frail human like I am.
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God has declared I am the Lord. That's my name. My glory I will not give to another. But there are many that are claiming glory for themselves in a very sinful manner.
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And that should never be the case. It is the one who ultimately takes the lower seat that is exalted by God.
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And that should be our intention and desire. John then used a metaphor to describe the joy he was experiencing even as his own ministry seemed to be winding down.
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Verse 29, He who has the bride is the bridegroom for the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice and therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.
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His reaction was just the opposite of his disciples. It's amazing. Must have surprised them.
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Must have alerted them. Man, we had that one wrong, didn't we? As John instructs them.
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And so John compares his relationship to Jesus as a close friend. Be the equivalent of a best man in today.
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A close friend of the bridegroom. The metaphor does include the bride in order to show the great position and privilege that the bridegroom had over his friend.
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But the point of the metaphor was not to identify the bride. The point of the metaphor is to identify the friend of the bridegroom.
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That being John the Baptist. I'm just going to say a quick word about this. I'm not going to go through all of our notes because of it.
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But this passage and its parallels are abused by many in evangelicalism due to the era of dispensationalism.
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One of the tenets of dispensationalism is that when you read the Bible you have to understand that God has two peoples, two programs, two destinies, two kingdoms, two kings,
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David and Jesus. There's Israel and the church and the two should never be mixed. And good people believe this but they're wrong.
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They say that the church began on the day of Pentecost and includes only those who believe on Jesus in this church age.
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And the church will be complete at the rapture of the church, so called, at the beginning of a future seven year tribulation.
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And then God will go back to plan A dealing with Israel and the Jews once again and on into a thousand year millennium.
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Israel and the church and when you read the Bible you must keep these two people distinct from one another.
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They're two different people with two different destinies. And they argue this passage to substantiate it.
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They talk about the bride being the church indeed. But they say that Israel, whom
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John the Baptist represented, is not part of the bride but the friend of the bridegroom.
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And so they argue for two different peoples in God's program. We who are reformed argue, no, there's one people of God who are all redeemed by Jesus Christ on his cross.
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And the church ultimately, certainly realized in a way on Pentecost never seen before.
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And it expanded, you know, worldwide with Jews and Gentiles believing. But we would argue that all believers throughout all history, including
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Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David and all the saints of the Old Testament are part of the church.
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And that one day there will be one new Jerusalem, the foundation has twelve foundation layers built on the tribes of Israel and the twelve gates are the twelve apostles.
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There's one people of God, both Old Testament and New Testament saints alike. And basically what they're doing, they're taking a metaphor here and they're making a doctrine or implying a doctrine that nowhere is it taught here.
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It was never intended here. This metaphor was simply to show that John was preparing the way for Jesus.
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And he was rejoicing in that Jesus' ministry was expanding greatly.
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That's what John was moving toward. That's what he wanted to do. And he was like a friend of the bridegroom who was rejoicing because the bridegroom was getting married.
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And to take this passage and argue therefore there are two separate kingdoms, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of the church is not biblical.
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Although it's very, very popular. Well, lastly, let's consider the conclusion which is verses 31 through 36.
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And we're just simply going to read it. We may address it more fully next week. Here the matter is set to rest in contrast to John the
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Baptist who was a great man. Jesus is set forth in his divine nature as having come to earth to reveal
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God and his will to his people. Verse 31. He who comes from above is above all.
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Obviously speaking of Jesus Christ. He who is of the earth as earthly speaks of the earth. That's John the
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Baptist. And here earthly doesn't carry the idea of sensefulness. Simply he's more limited.
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He doesn't have the same ability. He's not as great as the one who comes from heaven.
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He who comes from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard he testifies and no one receives his testimony that those in darkness don't come to the light.
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He who has received his testimony is certified that God is true. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God.
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For God does not give the spirit by measure. Jesus had the Holy Spirit upon him in an infinite manner.
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Unlimited way. The father loves the son, has given all things into his hand. He who believes in the son has everlasting life.
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He who does not believe the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him. Maybe we'll take a message and address the wrath of God.
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Don't hear that a lot but hearts facing the wrath of God. Totally void of any mercy, any kindness, any relief.
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The wrath of God. The last verses, on these last verses
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Ryle wrote, the truth before us is one of the most glorious privileges in the gospel. There are no works to be done, no conditions to be fulfilled, no prize to be paid, no wearing years of probation to be passed, probably a reference to purgatory, before a sinner can be accepted with God.
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Let him only believe on Christ and he's at once forgiven. Salvation is close to the chief of sinners.
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Let him only repent and believe. He's talking to you if you regard yourself as the chief of sinners. Let him only repent and believe and this day it is his own.
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By Christ all that believe are at once justified from all things. And so, may the
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Lord help each of us affirm in our souls before God, God I believe this gospel,
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I believe on your son, he is Lord, I trust him and him alone as my savior. You can come in here, a glaring infidel and go out of here a saint, forgiven of your sin, believing on Jesus.
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Commit yourself to do it. I will as God enables me, believe on Jesus and not on myself because I'm darkness and he only is light.
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Amen. Let's pray. Thank you Father for your word. We thank you our
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God for instructing us and guiding us and help us Lord to be as those who not only believe the truth but do the truth.
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To go forth from this place living for Jesus Christ, representing him and seeking to further his name and his kingdom in our world.