Jehovah-Jireh

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If you have a copy of God's Word, open it to Genesis chapter 22, find your place in verse 1.
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Within the pages of Scripture, God is called by many names.
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Often those names are simply variations of the word God in Hebrew, that is the word El, or the prefix El, E-L, and when it's placed before word it often describes one of God's attributes, El Shaddai, God Almighty, El Elyon, God Most High, El Olam, Everlasting God.
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But there are also variations on the sacred name of God.
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The sacred name of God given to us in the book of Exodus when God declared, I am, is the four-letter Hebrew word called the Tetragrammaton.
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The Tetragrammaton is the word that is typically translated Yahweh, if we are translating it directly from the Hebrew, Yahweh, Vahdheh are the four Hebrew letters, that's what Tetragrammaton means, it simply means four letters, and those four letters make up Yahweh, or Yahweh, depending on how it's pronounced, and the Germanic pronunciation of that, which our language has some roots in Germanic, the Germanic pronunciation of Yahweh is Jehovah, and so many of us grew up hearing God's name is Jehovah, and that's fine, that's not necessarily wrong, it's just a different, it's sort of like Jesus wasn't really Jesus, he was Yeshu, or Yeshua, you know, there was no J sound in those old languages, it was a Yah, Yah sound, not a Juh, Juh, Juh, any sound you hear that has a Juh, Juh sound typically is Germanic in nature.
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So we come to the Bible and we see Jehovah, or Yahweh, described in many ways, again describing his attributes, he's called Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is our peace, Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts, Jehovah Nisi, the Lord our banner, Jehovah Ra'ah, the Lord my shepherd, Jehovah Ratha, the Lord that heals.
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But likely the most well known derivation of the sacred name, one that we are probably most familiar with, is the name Jehovah Jireh.
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Jehovah Jireh is the word or phrase that is used by Abraham in Genesis 22, when his son Isaac said, Father, we have the wood and we have the fire, but where is the lamb? And Abraham said, God will provide.
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And then later, when God did provide the lamb for the sacrifice, Abraham named that place Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide.
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Well today we're going to look back at that story, I know that last week I gave an exposition of Genesis 22, well this week we're going to go back and we're going to examine the theological significance of this moment in redemptive history.
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Not only does this story have a powerful emotional emphasis and a powerful faith emphasis, but this story also has a very powerful theological significance.
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And so today we are going to look at the theology of Jehovah Jireh, the theology of Genesis 22.
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So let us stand and give honor and reverence to God's word.
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We're going to read not the whole chapter, but only to verse 14, beginning in verse 1.
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After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here am I.
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He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, of which I shall tell you.
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So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac, and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.
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On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
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Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey.
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I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.
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And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife.
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So they went, both of them together.
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And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father.
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And he said, here am I, my son.
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He said, behold the fire and the wood.
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But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.
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So they went, both of them together.
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When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.
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Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
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But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.
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And he said, here am I.
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He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now.
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I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.
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And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his thorn, by his horns.
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And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
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So Abraham called the name of that place.
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The Lord will provide, as it is said to this day on the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.
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Father, as we open your word today and examine the theology of this narrative, I pray that you would keep me from error.
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For Lord God, I am a fallible man and I am capable of preaching error.
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And I pray for the sake of my conscience, for the sake of your name and for the sake of your people.
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That you would protect me from that.
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I pray also, Lord, that you would protect me from cowardice.
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That I would not fear men, but that I would fear God.
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And that when I preach, I would preach with the boldness that is due this text.
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And I pray, Lord, that your name would be glorified and Lord, if you see fit, that you would save souls through the preaching of your word, edify your saints, draw in your elect.
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Lord God, use this time to glorify yourself, to build up your church in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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As I noted last week, I gave an exposition of Genesis 22.
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So today is not going to be a strict exposition, but rather today is going to come more in the vein of a theological lesson.
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In fact, if you're part of our academy, this may seem kind of like an academy class, I will readily admit.
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But the theology of this passage must not be missed.
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One of the things that has been conspicuously absent in the church in the last century is theological preaching.
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Pastors preach the Bible stories as moral lessons and often avoid the theology that undergirds those narratives.
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As a result, we find ourselves today with people who have been in church for years who know the stories of the Bible, but not the theology that undergirds those stories.
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It's one thing to know about Noah and the flood, but it's another thing entirely to know what that means theologically and what is taught in that.
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And the same goes for all of the old narratives of Scripture.
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Here at SGFC, we have a slogan.
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The slogan is Theology Matters.
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I once talked to a young man who wanted to become a pastor, and I recommended that he devote himself to the study of Scripture and to the study of theology.
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And he said to me, I hate theology.
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I said, well, then you have no place behind the pulpits.
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You hate theology? This is exactly what you're saying you feel God has called you to do.
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As Christians, we are theologians.
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Now we may not be good ones, but as R.C.
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Sproul said, everyone's a theologian.
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The question is not whether you're a theologian, it's whether you're a good one or not.
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The question is whether you know your Bible.
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The question is whether you really know the theology of the Bible.
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And when we examine a narrative like Genesis 22, it is impossible not to get drawn into the emotions of the story, because the story is emotional.
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And that's what we talked about last week.
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There's so much pathos in the story.
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There's so much that just draws you in.
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A man is told to sacrifice his son.
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He walks for three days.
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He goes up to a mountain.
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He lays his son down, tied up, and he holds the knife to his throat.
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There's so much emotion in that.
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And we can get caught up in the emotion and miss the true meaning.
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The meaning is not how hard it was for Abraham.
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As important as that may be, it was certainly hard for Abraham.
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But that's not what really matters, because if that's all we see, we have missed the gospel.
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And as Brian Borgman said, and I agree with this statement, he said the only other passage in the Old Testament which is so clearly picturing the gospel is Isaiah 53.
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He said the two passages in the Old Testament that are so clear presentations of the gospel of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross are Isaiah 53 and Genesis 22.
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If we miss the gospel in this, it doesn't matter how much we can imagine the pain of Abraham, because that's not the point.
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So today, I want to examine three theological insights.
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If you're taking notes, you can write these down.
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There's a place in your worship folder.
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If you want to write this down, you can.
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I don't have them on the board.
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Wouldn't matter anyway.
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Half the board's gone.
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And by the way, I think we have a short in our electrical.
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The power's completely out on this side, and we do apologize for that.
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But here's the three things we're going to look at today, three theological headings.
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Number one, we're going to look at the theology of type and fulfillment.
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The theology of type and fulfillment.
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Number two, we're going to look at the theology of substitution.
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And number three, we're going to look at the theology of providence.
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All three of those theological principles are found in Genesis 22 in this text that we read today.
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The theology of type and fulfillment, the theology of substitution, and the theology of providence.
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And if you are making notes, the second one will get the lion's share of the time.
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The first and third one are important, but the second one really is where we're going to spend most of our time today.
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So let's look at number one.
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Let's look at the theology of type and fulfillment.
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The Lord Jesus Christ is seen throughout the Bible.
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We agree.
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But how is the Lord Jesus Christ seen? Certainly, we know that in the New Testament, he comes on the scene born of a virgin, born into the world as a man.
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And yet the Bible says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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So we know Christ was in the beginning.
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Colossians tells us all things were created through him and without him was nothing made that was made.
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That's in John one as well.
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We are told Jesus Christ is the creator of all things.
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So Jesus has been there from the beginning as God, the son, as the second person of the Trinity.
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When Jesus was on the road to Emmaus with the two disciples, you remember after the resurrection, he veiled himself to where they couldn't tell who he was.
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And as they walked, they didn't know who they were talking to.
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And Jesus began to tell them how the Old Testament spoke of him.
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In fact, this is what it says in Luke 24.
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It says, beginning with Moses and the prophets, he interpreted to them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself, which tells us what Jesus is in Moses and Jesus is in the prophets.
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Jesus is throughout the whole Old Testament.
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He said it.
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I didn't say it.
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I don't have to feel like I'm reading something into the text.
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That's what Jesus said.
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Christ is in the Old Testament, including the books of Moses, because it said, starting with Moses, he interpreted to them all of the scriptures that pertain to himself.
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We see Christ in the Old Testament in three different ways.
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We see him first in actual personal appearances.
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We see him appear in different times and at different places.
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But it is Christ.
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Give you a few examples.
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We see Christ lifted up in Isaiah six.
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The Bible says Isaiah saw the Lord seated upon his throne high and lifted up.
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If we go to John chapter 12, John tells us that was Jesus.
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It says Isaiah saw his glory, referring to Christ.
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So we know that was Jesus.
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We also believe that when the Bible references the angel of the Lord, it's often a reference to Jesus because the angel of the Lord speaks as God.
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Remember, we talked about that.
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Genesis 16, Genesis 20.
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Both of them have the angel of the Lord speaking as God.
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And we believe that is a pre-incarnate personal appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So we see Jesus appearing as the angel of the Lord.
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We see him appearing as the Lord sitting on his throne.
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Even the burning bush reference, we could say Christ was present there.
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We also see Christ in what is called types.
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Now, a type is something that in the Old Testament is a picture.
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And in the New Testament, its fulfillment is in Jesus.
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So it's what we call type and antitype.
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And those are both words that the Bible does use.
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The Bible uses the word type or in Greek, it's tupos.
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And the word antitype, which is antitupos, which in Greek, it's still the same thing.
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The idea is you have something that's prefiguring Jesus.
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And we see this in the New Testament.
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We see this, just as this, so is this.
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As Jonah was three days in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days in the heart of the earth, as and so.
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And when you're studying typology, the phrase as and so is very important.
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As was this, so is this.
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As Jonah was in the whale, so will the Son of Man be in the belly of the earth or the heart of the earth, right? So we see those phrases as and so.
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And that's what we call type and fulfillment.
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There's a picture and there's a fulfillment.
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Last year, I think it was, maybe it was earlier this year, Brother Mike did a lesson on the temple.
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He was talking about the temple and he was talking about how all the things that were done by the priest were pictures of Christ, right? They were all types and they were fulfilled in Jesus, right? Who is the great high priest and did the sacrifice of himself, which was pictured in those Old Testament sacrifices, right? So this is an idea of type and antitype.
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And the third way we say we see Jesus' personal appearances, we see types and antitypes, but we also see what we would call shadows and substance.
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He said, what's the difference between a type and an antitype and a shadow and a substance? Well, it gets a little technical, but there are some people who would say it can't be a type unless it's absolutely described in the New Testament as a type.
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And so type has a very limited range for some people.
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If you read the theology books, they'll say type and antitype has a limited range.
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So for instance, the New Testament never says that the ark is a type of Christ.
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But let me ask you a question.
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Is the ark at least a shadow of Christ? Absolutely.
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The ark is what Noah and his family entered into to be protected from the wrath of God, which was falling all around them.
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And what does the Bible say in the New Testament? It says, come into Christ and you will be protected from the wrath of God, right? For all who are in Christ, they are protected from God's wrath on the final day.
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So isn't the ark at least a shadow of Jesus? Yes.
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So if you want to get technical, and I was afraid maybe if I say Genesis 22 is a type, somebody might come up to me later and say, you know, the New Testament never calls it a type.
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That's right.
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But we can at least say it's a shadow and substance situation.
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In fact, I want to show you one passage.
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If you have your Bibles open, turn with me to Colossians chapter two.
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Colossians chapter two.
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I get excited, I get winded.
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I don't know you guys.
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Y'all should try this one day.
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It's really so it's a good workout.
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Get up here and really preach.
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All right, Colossians chapter two, verse 16.
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The apostle Paul is talking about folks who would demand that the law be kept in the new covenant, the old covenant law be kept in the new covenant.
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And this is what he says.
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He's talking about festivals and Sabbaths, which were instituted in the Mosaic covenant.
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And this is what he says.
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Colossians chapter two, verse 16 and 17.
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Paul says, therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
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All of those were things that were taught in the old covenant as festivals, things that they did.
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These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to who? Christ.
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So what does Paul tell us in this passage? That there are some things in the Old Testament that are shadows and they have their fulfillment in the person of Christ.
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And so with that in mind, I would say if you if you look at Genesis 22, what we see is we see a shadow of the substitutionary work of Christ, which is fulfilled on the cross.
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So we have the shadow and we have the substance.
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If you want to say it's a type, we have the type and the anti type.
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It's that which is pictured and that which is the reality.
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In fact, if you go back to Genesis 22, I would argue that in Genesis 22, Jesus is seen three ways in this passage.
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First, he's seen as the angel of the Lord.
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Who is it that stops Abraham from killing his son? The angel of the Lord.
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He's the one who says, Abraham, Abraham.
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He says his name twice to to emphasize, to get his attention, Abraham, Abraham.
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And what does Abraham do? He stops and says, here am I.
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And he says, lay not your hand on the boy.
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That if we are correct to say that the angel, the Lord is a pre-incarnate representation of Christ.
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And we say Christ is pictured there in one way.
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But Abraham has a son who also pictures Jesus.
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Remember last week we talked about that Abraham put the wood on his back and he carried his his tool of destruction up the mountain in the same way Jesus carried the cross up the mountain.
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And he laid down before his father to be slain, just like Jesus laid himself down on the cross to be nailed and to be slain for sin.
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So Isaac is a shadow or a picture of Christ.
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So we got the angel, the Lord, we got Isaac.
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But now there's another object that comes into view.
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And that is the lamb caught with his head of thorns.
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Interestingly enough, just think for a picture there.
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His head is caught in thorns forming as it were like a crown.
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And who is this one with the crown of thorns? It is the ram who will substitute for the boy.
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So we see Christ in three ways.
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We see him as the angel, we see him as the boy and we see him as the substitute.
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Christ is pictured, shadowed in three different ways here.
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And this moves us to the second theological perspective because the first theological perspective is the idea of type and fulfillment, the idea of shadow and substance.
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Now we're going to look at substitution because that's what we see when Abraham is...
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Abraham, Abraham, here am I.
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Lay not your hand on the boy.
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And he turned and he looked and he sees the ram caught with his head in the thorns.
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And look at verse 13.
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If you're back in Genesis 22, look at verse 13 with me.
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It says, and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his thorns.
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And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.
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If you underline your Bible, if you make notes or whatever, the word instead of.
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If you have the King James, it says in the stead or in the New American Standard Bible, it says in the place of his son.
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You see, the ram was a substitute.
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Instead of God requiring that Abraham sacrifice Isaac, Abraham had that knife ready to draw it across the throat of his son and therefore sacrifice his son.
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He was prepared to do it.
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And the angel of the Lord, Abraham, Abraham, lay your hand not on the boy.
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He turns and he sees and he says here, use this instead of the boy.
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And therefore we have the doctrine or the concept, rather, of substitution.
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Understand this substitution is an integral part of Christian sacrificial theology.
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When Christ died, hear this, when Christ died, he did not die merely as a moral example.
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There are some people who believe that.
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In fact, Brother Mike, watch that.
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We recently remember the debate with Brian Zahn.
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There's a debate online between Brian Zahn and Michael Brown.
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And this debate is over what Christ accomplished on the cross.
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And the idea was Christ wasn't the substitute for sinners.
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He was the, he was, he was taking the hatred of men and not fighting back.
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He was the ultimate example of a martyr and someone who was willing to take hate and not hate back.
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And he was a great example of that.
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But it wasn't about substituting for sin.
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It wasn't about receiving the wrath of God on our behalf.
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It wasn't about that.
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And let me tell you something, if you deny substitutionary atonement, you deny the gospel.
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If you deny the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross, I'm not saying he wasn't a great moral example.
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I'm not saying he didn't take hatred and didn't give it back.
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I'm not saying any of that is necessarily untrue.
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But it ain't the point.
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The point is that the, the sin that we have committed, the sin that we possess deserves the wrath of God.
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When we break God's holy law, we find ourselves guilty in the courtroom of the eternal.
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And we stand before the eternal God deserving his punishment and God takes the punishment we deserve.
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And just like Isaac was late, sorry, just like Isaac was laid on that altar, Abraham got to pull him off.
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Can you imagine? Can you imagine the joy of Abraham pulling his son off? When he was ready to cut his throat, he didn't have to do it.
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God said, no, touch not the boy.
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And he reaches up and he holds his son close and he sets him down and he runs over to the ram and he grabs him and he pulls those thorns off his head and he drags him over and he ties him up and he lays him down.
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And he says, now I have a substitute.
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I don't have to take the life of my son.
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And he gladly takes the life of the ram in the place of the boy.
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This is the picture of substitution.
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And beloved, if you walk through the Bible, you will find substitution pictured over and over and over again.
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We see substitution in the Old Testament sacrifices.
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We see substitution throughout.
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But when you get to the Old Testament, I'm sorry, when you get to the New Testament, it is clearly and explicitly spelled out that this is how we are to understand the sacrifice of Christ.
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In fact, for those who would say, I don't agree that substitution is how we are to understand the sacrifice of Christ.
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I would say you need to go back and read more, read closer, read your Bible because it is absolutely there.
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In fact, I want to point you to a few passages.
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You don't have to try to do Bible bingo and keep up with me, but I'm going to read these to you and you can write them down if you'd like.
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Galatians chapter one, verse three, Galatians one, three and four.
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Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins.
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What does it say? He gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.
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He gave himself for our sins.
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You say, well, that that sounds pretty common.
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Of course, it's common because that's the point.
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You say that doesn't sound really special.
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It is absolutely special.
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It should boggle your mind.
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You deserve the punishment of God.
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You deserve to be Isaac.
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You deserve.
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I deserve to be on that cross.
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But on that cross where Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied on our behalf.
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In our stead, he hung.
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Ephesians chapter five, walk in love as Christ, who loved us, gave himself up for us.
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Galatians two twenty.
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I've been crucified with Christ.
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It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in the flesh.
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I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and did what? Gave himself for me.
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Titus chapter two, verse 13, waiting for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the God of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for us to redeem us.
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Romans five, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly for us.
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Notice in all of these, all of these passages I'm using, there's one word that's consistently used throughout all of these passages.
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It's the word for F.O.R.
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We don't think about the importance of little words sometimes, but little words have big meanings.
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And the word for there is the Greek word Hooper.
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And the word Hooper means in the place of it means instead of it means on behalf of.
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So, again, Christ loved me and gave himself instead of me.
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Christ died and gave himself in the place of me.
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Christ on the cross was there for me in my place.
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That's substitution.
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The ram died on behalf of Isaac.
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Christ died on behalf of us.
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That's substitution.
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And beloved, that's the heart of the gospel.
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I cannot stress to you enough how much we must understand this, because if we don't understand this, we do not understand the gospel.
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When you're out this next week and you go to the fishing hole, and I pray that every one of you who has the physical ability to go will go and have conversations with people, because you will be amazed how many people do not understand this simple truth of the gospel.
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They do not understand the simple truth that when we say Christ died for us, what that means is all the wrath that we deserve, he received and all the goodness that he had is given to us.
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The substitution of Christ is two ways.
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He died for us.
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He also lived for us.
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He is our savior.
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He is our substitute.
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He is our righteousness, the Bible says.
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I want to read to you just a few important statements.
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The 1646 confession, the confession that we as a church have adopted, the confession that we believe is in line with what the word of God says.
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This is what it says in regard to this doctrine.
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Listen closely.
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Those who have union with Christ are justified from all their sins by the blood of Christ, which justification is a gracious and full acquaintance of a guilty sinner from all sin by God through the satisfaction that Christ has made by his death for all their sins.
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And this is applied through faith.
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Notice what it says.
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The satisfaction Christ made by his death.
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So what do you mean satisfaction? God's wrath was due us.
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Christ satisfied the wrath for us.
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Again, in our place, he died.
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If you look at Article 7 of our statement of faith, it says this.
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This is not the 1646 confession, but this is our edition, things that we have written in to clarify what we believe.
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Article 7 of the SGFC statement of faith says this.
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We believe Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and died a substitutionary death that we might be counted righteous and forgiven of our sins.
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Substitution.
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Again, I told you I was going to spend most of our time on this.
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Go home today.
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If you go home with any other word in your mind, it is substitution.
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That's today because that is what this whole narrative is pointing to.
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Abraham had a son and he was going to sacrifice him.
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And God said, no, I will provide.
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We're going to talk about providence in a minute, but God provides a substitute.
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In our statement of faith, we also affirm.
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The Cambridge Declaration, and it refers to Christ in this way, it says, I want you to hear this.
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This is the Cambridge Declaration on the on the on Christ.
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And here's what it says.
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We affirm that our salvation is accomplished by the mediatorial work of the historical Christ alone.
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His sinless life and his substitutionary atonement alone are sufficient for our justification and reconciliation to the father.
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We deny that the gospel is preached if Christ's substitutionary work is not declared.
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We deny the gospel is preached if substitution is not declared.
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You see why I say this one passage in the Old Testament, this and Isaiah 53.
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Why do I point to Isaiah 53? Because what is Isaiah 53 about? It's about substitution.
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By his stripes, we're healed.
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All our sin is laid upon him and he has bore our sins.
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He has carried our burdens.
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It's all about him being there for us.
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I'm going to faint.
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If you don't have substitutionary atonement, you don't have the gospel.
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Thirdly, the theology of Providence, the theology of Providence.
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When we read this narrative, Genesis 22, we note that Abraham did not bring a ram to be sacrificed.
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He brought his son.
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Because that's what God said.
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God said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.
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And as far as Abraham knew, that's how this story was going to be written.
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As far as Abraham knew, this story was going to end with him having to take the life of his son.
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Now, he believed, according to Hebrews 11, he believed his son would be raised from the dead.
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But what you got to do for him to be raised from the dead? You got to kill him.
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So the way he saw this story going was much different than the way it went.
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He saw this story going that he was going to take the life of his son, and God, by a miracle, would bring his son back to him.
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But God had a different plan for Isaac and Abraham.
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God provided a substitute.
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You see, an important element in substitutionary atonement is recognizing who provides the substitute.
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God demands a sacrifice.
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God provides a sacrifice.
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I don't think you heard me.
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God demanded and God provided.
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See, a lot of people don't realize this, but everything in your salvation that you may feel like you have contributed is from God.
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The only thing that you have contributed to your salvation is the sin that made it necessary.
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You contributed the sin that made it necessary.
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God contributed the sacrifice.
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He provided Christ.
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He even provided you with the faith to believe.
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Did you know faith is a gift from God? Faith is not something that we conjure up on our own.
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Faith is not something that comes from within.
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Faith is something that God, by his Holy Spirit, works in our hearts through the process of regeneration where he gives birth to our dead spirit and makes us alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.
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We often think of providence, and there is a technical definition for providence.
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We often think of providence as that which God does to keep the world going.
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God makes the rain fall.
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God makes the water boil at 212 degrees and makes it freeze at 32 degrees.
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That's acts of providence that God does to keep the world going.
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But when we think of providence, we can think of providence in the general like that.
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Yes, absolutely.
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But we should also think of providence in the salvific because God provided a way of salvation.
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And then he provided to his elect the ability to get on that path and go that way.
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Because here's the thing.
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God didn't have to do that.
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You understand that when Adam and Eve sinned against God, when Adam and Eve sinned against God, God could have remained holy and just to simply smite them from the earth and start over.
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God could have had...
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In fact, there's an old...
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I've taught this before in theology class.
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I said there's three ways to look at salvation.
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God could have saved no one and he would have been righteous to do that.
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There is nothing demanding that God save except for his goodness.
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But there's no one outside of God that says, hey, you have to save.
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No, God is the standard.
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And had he saved no one, he would have remained holy and just to do so.
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God could have saved everyone.
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And some people think he did.
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Some people are universalists.
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They don't believe anybody goes to hell.
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Let me tell you something.
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If there's a dangerous belief in the world right now, it's not atheism, it's universalism.
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Amen.
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Atheism makes up about three to four percent of the world's population.
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It's a very small amount of people who don't believe in God.
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But the vast majority of people believe God's just going to save everybody no matter what.
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They believe in universal salvation.
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You know this is true because every time you go to a funeral, what do people say? Oh, he's in a better place.
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How do you know? If you didn't believe in Jesus, he's not in a better place.
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This is as close to heaven as he's ever going to get.
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By the way, if you don't believe in Jesus, this is as close to heaven as you're ever going to get.
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And if you do believe in Jesus, this is as close to hell as you're ever going to get.
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Seriously.
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Because if you believe in Jesus, this is the worst that's going to be for you.
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Because one day you're going to be with him.
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And all this will be over.
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Amen.
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Absolutely.
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So when we look at God's providence, he provides salvation when he didn't have to.
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Because that's the third thing.
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He provides salvation to whom he chooses.
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And he gets to choose.
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You say, well, that scares me.
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Because what if he didn't choose me? Let me tell you something.
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The Bible doesn't say that we need to sit around wondering whether or not God chose us.
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The Bible says we need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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That's the command.
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The command doesn't say sit around and wring your hands and wonder if I'm elect.
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It says believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved.
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And I will tell you this.
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If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because God gives you the heart to believe.
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So you can thank him the rest of your life that he gave you that heart to believe.
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It's all of him.
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Providence is not just the water falling from the heaven and all this.
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Providence is God provided a lamb.
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And therefore, in Genesis 22, Abraham said, we will call this place Jehovah-Jireh.
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The Lord will provide.
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What's interesting, too, is he didn't call it the Lord did provide.
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If you look at what Jehovah-Jireh means, means the Lord will provide.
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You might say, wait a minute now.
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He already provided for Abraham.
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Yes, but Abraham looked forward to a greater day and a greater lamb and a greater substitute.
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In fact, Jesus said that in John 8, 58.
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He said Abraham longed to see my day.
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He rejoiced to see my day.
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He saw it and was glad.
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Abraham knew a greater lamb was going to come in our last moments in this sermon today.
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And I want to draw to a close.
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I want you to imagine something.
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I want you to as best as you can.
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And in the imagination that God's given you, I want you to try to imagine the relief that Abraham felt when he saw that ran.
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Fathers, we've never been asked to do anything like this.
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To sacrifice our son to our God.
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God has never asked us to do anything like that, but we can imagine at least a little bit the pain and the suffering and the sheer pathos of the moment.
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And Abraham hears those words, Abraham, Abraham, touch not thy son.
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And he turns and he sees that ram.
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There was no greater moment of relief in the life of the patriarch than when he saw that God provided him a substitute.
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Now, that is how beautiful Christ should be to us.
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There should be no greater relief in your heart than the fact that God has provided for you a substitute.
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If you are in Christ, he has bore the wrath of God for you.
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Jehovah has provided and his providential provision was the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Father, I thank you.
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I thank you for Christ, our sin bearing substitute.
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I thank you that those who believe in him do not have to worry about suffering an eternity apart from you in hell under the wrath that you have reserved for that day.
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Lord, father, we thank you.
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That instead of wrath, we have.
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Heaven and joy and peace to look forward to.
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But Lord, I know that there are those here, as there are always those here, whether they be young or old, man or woman.
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There are those here who have yet to receive the substitute.
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There are those who have yet to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So I would pray that even now, that like Abraham was overjoyed to see that ram, that they would see Jesus as beautiful and that they would enjoy, receive him by faith and know that their sins have been cast upon him and have been separated from them as far as the east is from the west.
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Father, again.
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Do what only you can do today.
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Give the gift of faith where it is needed.
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And Lord, where those who have come today who have faith, but Lord, maybe they're struggling.
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I pray that you would strengthen their faith by the preaching of the word.
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And Lord, for those who are here, who are believers, Lord, that through this word, that they would be encouraged to understand even greater what Christ has done for us.
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Lord, help us.
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Help us to see the glorious lamb.
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The one who was and is and is to come.
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In his name we pray.