John, pt. 77 | John 12:44-50

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September 8, 2024 Covenant Reformed Baptist Church Tullahoma, TN Pastor Jeff Rice

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John, pt. 78 | John 13:1-15

John, pt. 78 | John 13:1-15

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If you will, at this time, take your copy of the
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Scriptures and turn with me to the Gospel of John, chapter 12.
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We will finish chapter 12 this week. The Gospel of John, chapter 12, we will consider verses 44 through 50, 44 through 50.
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This message is number 77. I figure that's a little easier to say than the 70th and 7th.
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Gospel of John, chapter 12, verses 44 through 50.
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Let me pray. Glorious God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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God, we've come to that portion of our service where we look to you to feed us.
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Sadly, they're having to hear this message from this broken vessel.
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So, God, I pray, Lord, that you will, in this moment, supernaturally work a work in me,
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Lord, to where I am able, by your Spirit, to present to your people your word, that they may, at this time, feast at the foothills of Zion.
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Lord, we have not come to a mountain that cannot be touched. So, Lord, we are running to touch this mountain.
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Please feed us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. All right, so let's begin with the text,
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John, chapter 12, verses 44 through 50. And Jesus cried out and said,
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Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.
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And whoever sees me, sees him who sent me. I have come into this world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
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If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him.
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For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
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The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge.
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The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
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For I have not spoken of my own authority, but the Father who has sent me has himself given me a command what to say and what to speak.
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And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore,
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I say as the Father has told me. Our theme for this
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Lord's Day is the authority of the Father. The authority of the
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Father. My proposition is this. This is what I aim to prove to you today. Jesus came into the world under the authority of the
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Father. Sounds simple, right? It also sounds confusing. Jesus is God. Jesus came into this world under the authority of the
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Father. He was sent by the Father. He speaks with the Father. He does what he sees the
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Father doing. He taught his disciples to pray to the Father. He says, when you pray, say,
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Our Father which is in heaven, hallowed be your name. And through his life, death, burial, and resurrection, he will accomplish the purpose of the
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Father. And what was the purpose of the Father? To save a people. The Father purposed to save a people, so he sends his
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Son, Jesus Christ, to accomplish that in his life, death, burial, and resurrection.
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And what we're going to see here today is that you cannot separate the Father from the
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Son, nor the Son from the Father. So in our outline, we're going to see the authority of the
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Father in the ministry of Jesus. We're going to see that it has to do with believing in Jesus is believing in the
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Father. That seeing Jesus is seeing the Father. That believing in Jesus is walking in the light.
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Believing the words of Jesus saves you from the judgment. And that the word of Jesus is the word of the
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Father. So in our text, we are days away from the death, burial, and resurrection of our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the
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God that these Jewish people have been sacrificing to for thousands of years is about to lay on the altar of the cross.
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And on that cross, he is going to be sacrificed as a sin offering.
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As a sin offering. An atonement for those that look to him,
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Jesus the Messiah, in faith. This is speaking about trust, right?
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The Greek word here is pastuo. To trust Christ, right?
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To look to him in faith is to trust him. To trust him with what? Your eternal salvation.
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To trust him with your eternal salvation. That's what it means to put your faith in Christ.
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At this time, he has spoken about his hour. He says, my hour has come. And it's speaking about him being glorified.
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But in order for him to be glorified, he first must die because the glorification here is speaking about his resurrection.
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And we saw that how it gave us a word picture concerning Lazarus, right? Lazarus died and he was in the grave for four days and Jesus came and he raised him from the dead.
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And then how that was a shadow, that was a type of the anti -type of the substance of our future resurrection.
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And Christ is the first fruit of that resurrection according to 1
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Corinthians 15. And so his hour had come for him to be glorified.
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But before that could happen, he must be lifted up. Speaking about him being lifted up on that cross.
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And all this commotion of what he is saying to us today is because he told them that he is the light.
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One of the main things that the gospel of John is teaching is teaching that Jesus Christ is the light that is coming to this world.
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And Jesus refers to himself as this light in chapter 8, verse 12. After the
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Jews are gathered together, they got these big old torches lit and they're celebrating how their fathers were led through the wilderness by this bright cloud by day or this fire by night.
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And how if they would have stayed in the spot as this cloud or this fire was moving that they would be left in darkness.
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And as they're celebrating this time, this festival called the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles, Jesus stands up and he says,
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I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness.
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And he is in turn saying that he is the God that led their fathers through the wilderness.
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That is one of the most clearest spots in scripture where Jesus claims to be deity. And it is overlooked today in the church.
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Also last week we saw that unbelief, the unbelief of the Jews was a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
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Speaking about their rejection, what would have happened if the Jews did not reject Jesus? Jesus would have not been crucified, meaning he would not have fulfilled the purpose of the father.
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The father purpose to save a people and in doing so he sends his son and his son lives the life that we could not live.
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And his son takes upon himself the punishment that we deserve on that cross was buried and on the third day he rose again according to the scriptures being glorified and that hour has come and we are days away from it in our text.
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Our theme for last week was the same sun that hardens clay melts ice.
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That's true, right? The same sun, S -U -N, the same sun that will harden clay, that will harden dirt, melts ice.
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And we saw that same message that God has told us to preach, that God told
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Isaiah to preach, that God told Jesus to preach, that God tells us to preach, that same message will blind eyes, deafen ears, and harden hearts or will open your heart to receive him.
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And we who preach that message, we have no control over what that message does.
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The Bible says that the word of God does not return void. It will accomplish its purpose.
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It will accomplish its purpose. And I've struggled for many years because I cannot repent for people.
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It's not up to me that my children, when they die, they go to heaven.
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Oh, if I could repent for my children, right? Amen? This message, this message that I present to you today, it's either going to blind your eyes, deafen your ears, harden your hearts, or it's going to open your eyes.
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It's going to unclog your ears and your heart is going to be open to Jesus Christ.
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Again, this gospel message does one or two things.
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It will open your heart to receive Christ or it will harden it to reject him.
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And that's something that every minister must understand that we partake in these events. We partake in people coming to Christ, but we also partake in their rejection of Christ.
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And because it's not up to me, I'm able to sleep at night. Bless God. The message that's preached is either a stench of death or a fragrance of life.
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It's either foolishness or it is the power of God to salvation. It's foolishness because we're saying something that's unscientific.
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You can go outside. Logic is everyone knows that there's a God. There's no such thing as an atheist, right?
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You walk outside, you see creation. Creation, the Bible says, declares His glory. Hebrews 11, verse 3 says that the visible is evidence of the invisible, right?
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We don't know who built this building. I've never seen the guy. I never shook his hand. He could have died 50 years ago.
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However, we know that a builder built this building because there is a building. And we know that there's a
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God because of creation. If the Big Bang is true, someone had to beat the drum.
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Nothing cannot create anything. Darwinian evolution is the world's largest fairy tale.
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However, there's nothing in creation that tells you that this God who created all things, entered into time, took on flesh, lived a life that we could not live and died the death that we should die, was buried and rose again on the third day.
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And God says that He made it this way so that it would be foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God for salvation.
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He says this message is going to be a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.
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And we see this. If you're active in the community, if you're out trying to reach people, you see this.
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So let's start with our first point, which is believing in Jesus is believing in the
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Father. We see this in verse 44. Read with me. And Jesus cried out and said, whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.
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Last week's message, we saw that some of the authorities, that many of the Jews and some of the authorities believed in Jesus, but out of fear of the
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Pharisees, they did not confess it. Go back and look at verse 42 of this chapter.
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Might be on the same page or a page over. Verse 42 says, Nevertheless, many, even the authorities, believed in him.
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The nearest and deceited is speaking about Christ, but for fear of the
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Pharisees, they did not confess it. So they would not be put out of the synagogue.
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And we saw this in chapter nine. A blind man's parents would not even take up for their own child because they were afraid to be put out of the synagogue.
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Can you imagine not taking up for your children? Verse 43,
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For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
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They had an intellectual head nod belief in Jesus. They believed the words that were coming out of his mouth.
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However, their faith was not true because they were not trusting. You know, the devil believes, right?
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That's what James says. The demons believe and at his name tremble. So many
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Christians these days say they believe, oh, we're Christians and they don't tremble. At his name.
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It's an intellectual head nod. It's not true faith. They're not trusting him for their salvation.
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It says Jesus here cries out. Think about that. He cries out.
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So he's not. So when he reads these words, I mean, he's saying he says whoever believes in me, he's not speaking
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Molotov. He's not saying whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.
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That's not what he's saying. He's saying whoever believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me.
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He cries out. He's making a scene. He does so because some of them that believe in the authorities and the
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Pharisees, they would claim to believe in the father. They think they have the father.
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Also, in this it says, read the answers. Whoever believes in me believes not in me.
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The Greek doesn't have the word only, but I promise you that word should be there.
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Not on only me, but also the father. I bring to you today the word only should be there.
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Because in their rejection of Jesus, they thought they were holding on to the father.
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Well, all along they were rejecting the father. Because to deny Jesus is to deny the father.
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Turn with me to 1 John 2. We've looked at this several times, but John keeps bringing it back.
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I feel like he's trying to get something through our thick skulls, right? He just keeps cycling over a few different things, right?
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He's trying to get it into us. Like sometimes in parenting, for my children to get my attention, they sometimes have to say my name multiple times.
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Like one daddy is not enough, right? Trinity, when she was a baby, she would say my name three times and then give me the answer she wanted.
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No joke. And I kind of would wake up during the answer. I wouldn't say that.
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I wouldn't say you could do that. But sometimes it takes one or two times to get our attention.
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And over and over, this subject keeps coming up. Look at verse 22 of chapter 2.
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This is the Apostle John, the same one who wrote the gospel that we're looking at. He said, who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the
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Christ? So if you deny that Jesus is the Christ, John says you're a liar. At this time, who was denying that Jesus was the
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Christ? Yeah, the Gnostics and the religious Jews. Right?
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It says this is the Antichrist. Who? The liar, the ones that deny that Jesus is the
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Christ. They're the Antichrist. We got Christians preaching about some future
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Antichrist coming in the future that's going to take over the world. My dear friends, if you're an atheist, you're an
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Antichrist. If you're a
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Jew who is not a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, guess what you are? You're an Antichrist.
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If you're a Hindu, you're Antichrist. If you're Muslim, you're Antichrist. And I could go on with sub -Christian cults.
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One is Pentecostalisms. I can go on speaking about Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses. They're all Antichrist.
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Let's read that again. Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the
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Antichrist. He who denies the son. I mean, he who denies the father and the son.
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Verse 23 is going to tell you how you deny the father. No one who denies the son has the father.
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Whoever confesses the son has the father. That's how we know it, speaking of the Jews. They deny that Jesus was the
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Christ. They thought they had the father. But by denying
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Jesus, they have denied the father. To deny the son is to deny the father.
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How many of you know that believing in Jesus has always been the only way to the father?
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It's always been that way. Christianity isn't new. In order for Christianity to be true, it has to be owed.
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It has to be Abraham owed. Jesus said in John 14, 6, he says,
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I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.
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That's either true or it isn't. And that cannot be true just at that time.
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And then forward to the truer it isn't. In the Old Testament, it was the seed of the woman.
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That seed was a promise. It was a prophecy of the Messiah who would come and crush
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Satan's skull on that cross. And it was passed to Abraham who then it was given to Isaac who then it would be the seed of Jacob who then it would be the seed of Judah who then it would be the seed of David who was spoken of as the
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Messiah in the scriptures. If someone believed in that seed that was going to come and keep the covenant, right, by keeping the law and by doing so, he would inherit the land, all of birth and bless all the nations.
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They had the father by believing in that promise.
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Abraham had to believe in the son, that seed that was coming from him in order to have the father.
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It's always been that way. My dear friends, I don't care if you're a physical descendant of Abraham then or now.
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If you do not believe in that seed that was to come, they did and you do not have the father.
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Hebrews 2 tells us that he had to come and be like his brothers in every way, meaning that he had to be born a
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Jew. He had to come to fulfill the prophecies. He had to be a son of David.
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And it says that he came to his own and his own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive him, to them he gave the right to become children of God.
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So today, Jews today must listen, must Jews, Muslims, anyone that is alive must believe in the son,
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Jesus Christ, or else they are anti -Christ. We don't have to look for a future world leader to call him an anti -Christ who's going to corrupt the world.
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The Bible says there's many anti -Christ already here because they do not believe in Jesus Christ.
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Before you became a Christian, guess what you were? An anti -Christ. Hard to swallow, hard to say.
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Amen. One of the things that Jake and I got as a compliment,
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I'm going to take it as a compliment. The lady says, I already know that y 'all are not afraid to tell it how it is.
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I don't have to stand before anyone in here and be afraid. I mean, the only thing that you can possibly do that has not been done to me is eat me, right?
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Cannibalize me, right? I've lived a pretty rough life and I'm not worried about standing in front of men.
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I'm not to stand before God and give an account of what I've done with His word.
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So no, I don't really mind telling people how it is. That's my kids.
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The text is clear. Whoever believes in Jesus believes not in Jesus only, but also the
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Father. The two go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other.
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Point number two. Seeing Jesus is seeing the
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Father. Look at verse 45. Again, Jesus speaking.
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He says, and whoever sees me sees Him who sent me.
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Who sent Jesus? The Father. Would you believe that some
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Trinitarians are afraid to say that verse in order to see
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Jesus? If you see Jesus, you see the Father because they're afraid that it's a tap dancing on their theology.
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When it really isn't, you don't really understand Trinitarian theology if you're afraid to say what the
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Bible says. Now, in a way that can only be true in the Godhead, this is true.
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If you see Jesus, you have seen the Father. Turn back with me to John chapter one.
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John chapter one. Look at verses one and two.
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In the beginning was the word. Now, the word here is Jesus.
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And the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
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Verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelled among us.
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And we have seen His glory. Glory as to the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
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Verse 18. No one has ever seen God. Timothy tells us that God dwells in unapproachable light.
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Well, Paul and Timothy. All right, so look. Verse 18.
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No one has ever seen God. But then it says the only God. Speaking of Jesus, like they're using this
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Greek word, Theo, interchangeably between the Father and the Son. Who is at the
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Father's side. So you go back to verse one. In the beginning was the word and the word was with God at the
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Father's side. Right? And look back at verse 18. He has made
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Him known. You cannot know God outside of Jesus.
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John chapter 17, verse 3. Jesus praying in His high priestly prayer. He says, Now this is eternal life that they may know
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You, pointing to the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
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Now turn to John chapter 10, verse 30. We have a lot of reading today.
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Jesus says in verse 30, I and the Father are one.
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And then if you keep reading, the Jews pick up stones to stone Him. Why? Because to them
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He's blaspheming. You can't say you're
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God. By saying you're one with God, you're saying you're God.
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Another clear spot in Scripture. Now turn to chapter 14. We're going to read verse 8 and 9.
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10 and 11 is important, but we'll come back to that in another point. Look at verse 8.
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Philip, one of his apostles, those disciples, said to Him, Lord, show us the
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Father. And it is enough for us. Verse 9. And Jesus said to him,
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Have I been with you so long and still you do not know me?
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Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the
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Father. How can you say show us the Father? In Colossians chapter 1, verse 15, speaking of Jesus, it says
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He is the image of the invisible God.
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Speaking of Jesus, He is the image of the invisible God. John chapter 1, verse 18.
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No one has ever seen God. Why? Because He's invisible. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3.
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The visible is evidence of the invisible. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 says this.
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Speaking of Jesus, He is the radiance and the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature.
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Jesus has two natures. The divine nature and the human nature.
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Jesus is truly God and He's truly man. Everything that God is, the
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Godness of God, God is, Jesus is. And everything that a human being is,
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Jesus was. Right? He got tired. He slept.
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When He was a baby, He cried. He pooped Himself, right? He was born, right? He had to live a life.
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He was hungry. When He walked, His feet got sore. If you cut them, He'd bleed. And yet,
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He was God. And yet, you have to believe that as He was this infant being held by His mother, He was holding all things together by the word of His power, according to the
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Scriptures. The Affination Creed says this, speaking of Jesus, equal to the
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Father as touching His Godhead and inferior to the Father as touching
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His manhood, who although He be God in man yet is not two, but one
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Christ. One, not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by God taking humanity to Himself, pointing us to John 1, verse 14, the word became flesh.
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Turn with me to Philippians 2. It only gets better. Philippians 2.
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Look at verse 5. We'll read from verse 5 to 11. Paul says, Have this mind among yourselves.
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So if you're a Christian, he wants you to have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who although He was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
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That's right there to let you understand what he's saying in chapter 12, verse 44 and 45.
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You see Him, you see God. He's not boasting on Himself. He's pointing to God, but emptied
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Himself by taking the form of the servant and the likeness of man, speaking about Him taking on becoming flesh and being found in a human form.
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He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Therefore, God has exalted Him, Christ, and has bestowed upon Him the name that is above every name.
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That's the name of Jesus. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess
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Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
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Father. The emptying of Himself is Him becoming flesh.
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Jesus who is truly God becoming truly man. And because of what
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He has done in accomplishing the purpose of the Father, the Scriptures tell us that every knee will bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
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My dear friends, whether your tongue confesses as my tongue does daily that Jesus is
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Lord, or if your knee bows as mine does daily, no matter what you think, one day your tongue will confess, and you will bend the knee even if God breaks your knee.
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You will bend the knee to Christ. You will confess
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Him as Lord to the glory of God the
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Father. He will get glory from you, whether it's from the bowing of the knee and the confessing
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Him today, or if it's from the screaming smoke of your torment in hell, He will get the glory.
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And since Jesus is truly God, when someone saw Him, even in His flesh, they saw the
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Father. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in being, but three in persons.
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I'm a human being. I'm just one. One human being, one person.
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Not so with God. God is one being, and this one being is three persons, the
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Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each one of them are co -eternal, equal and co -eternal as being
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God. And my dear friends, God loved us so much that the
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Creator entered creation. The infinite became finite, and He accomplished what we could not by pleasing
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Himself. And He gives that righteousness to us by faith in Jesus Christ.
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But that's not it. Because we have sinned, our sins need to be punished.
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Someone has to die. Blood has to be shed. And so He hangs on that altar, which we call the cross, as our sacrifice.
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Point number three. Believing in Jesus is walking in the light.
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Look at verse 46 of John chapter 12. I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
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He came so that we would not remain in sin. You said, Jeff, it said darkness.
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Yes. To walk in darkness is to live in sin.
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Those that have been born again who are looking to Jesus in faith are those that follow
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Jesus. My dear friends, test your Christian life.
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Are you following Jesus? Or was your faith an intellectual head nod?
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Do you tip the hat to the name of Christ? Or do you bend the knee as a slave, as His servant, ready to die for the one who gave it all for us?
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And as followers of Jesus Christ, we're not to follow our flesh. Followers of Jesus Christ see their flesh as an enemy of God.
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As Christians, we are both saints and sinners, and our battle is with the flesh.
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We are right now positionally righteous before God. God sees you as if you lived a life that Jesus lived, if you're
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Christian. But also, you wear this garment, this garment of flesh, and it's hungry, right?
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It's hungry. If you don't believe me, get married and have kids. Like, the stress, right?
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It wants to feast. Fights, breakout.
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Like, I know if you came here with children this morning, you've probably gotten five arguments before you walked through the door, right?
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Right? The flesh, it's hungry. It wants to eat.
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And it's hard not to feed that flesh. And how do we fight the flesh?
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By following Jesus, who is the light. And listen to me, you have no hope of winning the fight if you're not following Jesus.
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You have no hope. The only way me and my wife make it is because we both follow
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Jesus, right? If it was dependent upon her to love me, she'd probably gave up a long time ago because I'm not easy to love.
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Right? Amen? Her love for Christ causes her to be faithful to her husband.
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When we are in the light following Jesus, we will not remain in darkness. Turn back to 1
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John. We'll look at chapter 1. 1 John 1. Reverses 5 -7.
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Again, this is the same author as the gospel we're in. He says, this is the message that we have heard from Him and proclaimed to you.
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The message that they heard from Jesus and they're proclaiming to us. Here's the message that God is light.
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And Jesus is claimed to be the light. God is light. Here comes that interchanging, right?
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And it says, And in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
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And real quick, we need to mention the law and the gospel. And there's a distinction. That although in the law there's good news and in the gospel there are commands, we need to understand that the two are not mutually exclusive.
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The law is not the gospel and the gospel is not the law. We do not preach a bootstrap theology.
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We do not preach a pat yourself on the back theology. Piety is living for God.
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Pietism is thinking that you're doing it with your own power. I'm going to say that again.
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It's pretty good. Wrote that down this morning. Piety is living for God.
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Piety is trying to be, you know, your life, you want to be godly. Right?
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I want to be, as a Christian man, I want to be godly. And so piety is living for God.
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But that can easily turn to pietism, which is bad. Piety good, pietism bad.
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Pietism is thinking that you're doing this with your own power. We're only able to do these good works for God if God lives in us and causes us to do them.
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Because this flesh, this flesh that we carry. Again, let's continue to read 1
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John. Let's go to verse, from 8 to verse 10. Let's finish the chapter. It says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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Christians do not ever say you don't sin. We sin because we carry this flesh.
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If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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So if we sin, we need to confess. Verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, we make
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Him a liar and the truth is not in us. So 1 John is really clear.
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It says, you're a sinner. Don't sin. When you sin, confess your sins and never say you have not sinned.
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Clear as mud or clear as crystal. Verse 46 tells us that this was one of His purposes.
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Look back at our text. Verse 46,
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I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
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Darkness runs from the light, right?
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I've said this plenty of times. You open that closet. I mean, you open my office door. The darkness does not dim this room, but this room will bring light to that office.
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Darkness must flee from the light. And dear saints, if you believe in Him, you do not have to remain in darkness.
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You do not have to remain in darkness because through the Holy Spirit, you have the ability to walk in the light.
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Here's the question. Do you believe in Jesus? Answer. If you do, walk in the light.
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Walk in the light. He says that He is the light of the world and if you follow Him, you will not remain in darkness.
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When you find yourself in sin and darkness, it's because you stopped following Him.
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It's not that He stopped leading you. You stopped following. And in our text, these religious
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Jews did not truly believe in Jesus, so they did not have the
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Father and they were walking in darkness. Point number four. Believing in Jesus, excuse me, believing the words of Jesus saves you from the judgment.
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Verses 47 and 48. Jesus says, If anyone hears my words and does not keep them,
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I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.
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The one who rejects me does not receive my words, has a judge.
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The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
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My dear friends, walking in darkness is not receiving the words of Jesus. Remember, there's a difference between committing sin and living in sin.
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I gave the analogy if it's 100 degrees outside and I fall into a swimming pool,
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I'm not going to be so quickly removed and, you know, thinking that I need to get out, right?
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Because it's 100 degrees outside. It's hot. I'm sweating. I just fell into a nice swimming pool.
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This feels great. But if it was 30 degrees outside and I fell into a swimming pool, the moment that water hits my skin,
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I'm going to be like a cat trying to get out. You know, I'm just reaching for anything and everything. And if you're in my way,
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I'm going to be walking on top of you to get out. That's the difference.
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Christians, when we fall in sin, it hurts. And the moment we see ourselves in sin, we do whatever we can to get out.
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And the Bible tells us to confess our sins and He is faithful and just to forgive us. That He grants to us repentance.
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But these intellectual head nodders like tip the hat to Jesus. When they're living in sin, they're swimming in it.
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They're loving it. They're doing the backstroke. Living in sin is walking in darkness.
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Living in sin is not receiving His Word. Living in sin is not keeping His Word.
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And the Word that they or you are not receiving or not keeping will be your judge on the last day when
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Christ Jesus returns. Turn with me to John 3. We'll begin reading in verse 16.
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This is the America's favorite verse that they stopped reading.
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This is for God so loved the world that He gave His only
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Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
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For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn.
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This also can be translated to judge the world. But in order that the world might be saved through Him.
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See, He did not come to judge the world. He came to save the world. Look at verse 18.
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Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, judged. But whoever does not believe is already condemned because he has not believed in the name of the only
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Son of God. When we go out to evangelize, we don't go out to judge people.
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They're already judged. We're trying to throw them a rope of salvation. Verse 19.
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And this is the judgment. The light has come into the world.
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And people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
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For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.
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But whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out by God.
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Again, this is not bootstrap theology. Don't be patting yourself on the back if you're living for Jesus.
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It's the Spirit of God in you. All those who do not believe in Jesus are in this life judged, meaning they are condemned.
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They are under the condemnation of death, which is Adam. The Scriptures tell us because of Adam's sin, every one of us have died in sin.
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That death is our paycheck for our sins. Jesus came as the light of the world and man will either come to the light, as we just read, or they will flee from the light because they love darkness.
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To flee from the light is to reject Jesus. And to reject Jesus is to reject the
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Father. And to reject the Father is to not receive the word that was spoken by Jesus.
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My dear friends, Jesus did not die for unbelief. We talk about Jesus dying for our sins.
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You know what sin He did not die for? Unbelief. Unbelief.
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There's no cure for that. If you die in unbelief, to die without coming to Christ in faith, trusting
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Him, is to end up in hell. Death will be your arresting officer that will take you to your prison to serve out an eternal sentence of being thrown into a lake of fire.
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It is to be judged by the word of Jesus spoken to you. Ten out of ten people die.
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Ten out of ten people die, 54 million a year, 150 ,000 a day, 100 per minute, almost two per second.
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We're dropping like flies. It's the great statistic that no one is talking about.
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It's an elephant in everybody's room that we ignore until we're standing over someone's casket.
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Those that die without Jesus will not escape the judgment. Only those that are in Christ when we die will pass out of judgment into life.
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Turn a few pages over to chapter 5 of this gospel. Chapter 5, we'll read verse 24 alone.
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I got ten minutes. Oh Lord, here we go. Give me grace. All right. 24.
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Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into the judgment but has passed from death to life.
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Christians are not judged. Our judgment fell on Jesus Christ that day on that cross.
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As the wrath of God and the mercy of God and the wrath of God that we deserve fell on Jesus and the mercy of God that we don't deserve comes to us.
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Now how do you pass out of life from death? How do you not come into judgment? And John's been saying the answer the whole time.
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It's by believing. There's only one way to the Father and to have the
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Father is to believe in Jesus Christ. To believe that he lived the life that you cannot live. That he took upon himself the punishment that you deserve on that cross.
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That he was buried and on the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. According to that word that will judge you if you do not believe.
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The same word that brings life to many will bring condemnation to others.
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Point number five. The word of Jesus is the word of the
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Father. Look back at our text. Again this portion is basically bringing to mind a lot of things that Jesus has already been talking about throughout this gospel.
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That's why we're kind of going a lot of different places in the gospel of John. Verse 49 through 50.
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Jesus says, For I have not spoken of my own authority, but the Father who sent me has given me a commandment what to say and what to speak.
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And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say therefore
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I say as the Father has told me. Question. What has
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Jesus been saying concerning eternal life? Answer. Eternal life is believing in Jesus.
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That's what this whole book is about. That's what it's about. John said that he wrote this book so that you might believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the son of the living God. In John chapter three looking to Jesus is believing in Jesus.
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In John chapter six eating the flesh of Jesus is believing in Jesus. Drinking the blood of Jesus is believing in Jesus.
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And in John chapter eight following Jesus is believing in Jesus. I'll turn back to chapter seven of this gospel.
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I told y 'all there's a lot of text. I'm praying that the
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Lord will slow the time real quick. Let me get this done. I got seven minutes. You probably like wrap it up,
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Pastor. Chapter seven, verse 15. Chapter seven, verse 15.
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The Jews marveled, therefore marveled saying, how is it that this man has learning?
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Right? He didn't go to their seminaries when he has never studied. So Jesus answered them, my teaching is not mine, but he has, but he, but his, excuse me, my dyslexia is kicking in.
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My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone's will to do, if anyone's will is to do
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God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking of my own authority.
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Now this text accompanying our text is clear concerning Jesus that the father and the son speak with one voice.
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Real quick, go to chapter 14. This will finish giving us our answer.
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Remember, we were in chapter 14. We read verses eight through nine. Jesus speaking to Philip about him that if you see him, you've seen the father.
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Look at verse 10. Do not believe. Do you not believe that I am in the father and that the father is in me?
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The words that I say to you, I do not speak of my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does his work.
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Believe me that I am in the father and that the father is in me or else believe on account of the works.
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I look over to verse 24 in this chapter. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.
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Those words that's going to judge them, right? And the word that they that you hear is not mine, but the father who sent me.
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To hear Jesus is to hear the father and oh dear Saint, believe me, believing in Jesus is believing in the father.
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To hear Jesus is to hear the father. The words of Jesus is the words of the father.
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Again, the question is, is do you believe in Jesus? Do you know the word of God speaking of Jesus?
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Because in the beginning was the word. Jesus is the word. And if you do not have that word, as that song says, you have no light at all.
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If you do not believe in Jesus Christ, you do not believe in his word, you have no light at all.
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Go back under text verse 44. Jesus cries out, whoever believes in me believes not only in me, but in him who sent me.
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If you are a Christian here today, you and I are to speak the word of Christ, which is the word of the father.
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And we are to cry out to the lost that they need to believe in Jesus in order to have
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God. We as believers are under the authority of Jesus, right?
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Matthew chapter 28, beginning in verse 16, you have the great commission.
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And in that great commission, Jesus says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.
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And he tells us Christians to go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
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Look at verse, chapter 13, verse 20. Jesus says, truly, truly,
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I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me.
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And whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Listen to this.
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To receive a believer in Christ is to receive Christ and to receive
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Christ is to receive the father. God has authority over our lives.
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And unless you believe in Jesus, you will never be able to follow
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Jesus. Some of us might be saying, man, I've tried. I'm not, I'm struggling. I can't really live out the life
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I profess. Well, stop giving the intellectual a head nod and believe, trust that he actually did live the life that you could not live and that he took your place on that cross.
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And not only to believe, to know that he died for your sins.
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And I'll leave you with two choices, life or death. We'll hit you a little hard this week.
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Either the word of God made flesh gives you life or the word of God spoken by Jesus will judge you on the last day.
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Speaking of your death being tossed into hell. Either you leave here today with eternal life or you leave here today headed for hell.
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Which will it be? Repentance and faith, eternal life or rejection and judgment being thrown in hell.
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Either Jesus has paid your fine on that cross or one day you will pay your own fine.
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There's no in between. And so my call for you today with 30 seconds left is to call on the name of Jesus.
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I can't call upon him for you. I cannot repent for you. Children, listen. Your parents cannot repent for you.
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They cannot call on the Lord for you. You must call on the name of the
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Lord. You must repent. Put your faith in Jesus and be baptized in the name of the
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Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are available to anyone who wants to talk. Boom.
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One second left. Let's pray. Glorious God, thank you for your word.
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Thank you for Christ. Lord, I pray that your hand will be upon us for the rest of our worship service.
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And Lord, we pray that your word will not return void. Lord, I trust that today that you did not use the word to harden hearts, but that you used your word to open hearts to receive
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Christ. And Lord, I pray if there's any here today as we're about to partake in your supper, they've been living a life of rebellion, living in sin, swimming in the...
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doing backstrokes in their sin and they're unwilling to repent, although they say they're a Christian that you prevent them from the table so they don't incur judgment on themselves.
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But Lord, I pray as I pray for myself who I have sinned this week, but I've been the knee to Christ.
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I've confessed my sins knowing that I am forgiven. And so Lord, I pray for those who have, like me, sinned and have confessed their sins that as we partake in this meal, that you use this meal to grow us into the image of your beloved son.