The Humble Incarnation – Luke 2:41-52 (Pastor Josiah Shipley)

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Now, I want you to pay attention. It wasn't anything in Israel, it wasn't their military size, it wasn't the type of people.
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The guy who praised God. Hey guys, would you turn with me to Luke chapter 2?
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Luke chapter 2. And I have a question for you this morning, as you turn to Luke chapter 2.
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Do you take God's mercy for granted? Do you assume
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God's mercy? That is a fearful and dangerous thing.
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When you have an attitude such as, well, God didn't seem to punish them for doing
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X, so I will do the same thing and assume that He will give me the same level of mercy.
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You are playing games with God. The scripture warns against assuming His mercy.
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We're going to talk about that today, and we're going to talk about it through the incarnation. So we're going to try something different today.
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I'm going to go over a passage about the incarnation. I'll discuss that in a minute. And then
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I'm going to show you how a just God should have come back.
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How He should have come to this planet for giving His mercy for a moment. I'm going to show you how
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He should have come, and how He came instead. So let's look at Luke chapter 2. And we're going to start in verse 41.
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Now, let me give you a little bit of background here. The incarnation, that means becoming flesh.
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That is when God became man. Now, we talk about this around this time of year a lot, but I want to choose this passage because I think this one gets ignored a little more than, say, the shepherds and the wise men and the birth of Jesus.
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When Jesus is born, we have a lot of detail about His birth, and maybe until He's about two years old.
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And then there's not really much about Him until He starts His public ministry when He's in His thirties.
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In fact, we only have one scriptural account of Jesus between His birth and when
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He starts publicly doing miracles and things of that sort in His thirties. And it is this passage here when
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He's twelve years old. And this is the only look we have into it. Because remember, He became human, meaning
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He was a regular kid. And He did not do any miraculous things.
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He did not start doing His public ministry. He didn't even tell people He was the Messiah until He was in His thirties.
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Okay? So that whole time, from two to... it was probably about 32, 33 years old,
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He's just living as a regular kid, as a regular dude. Now, if you remember,
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Joseph and Mary were told who He really was. You remember? The angel told them who
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He really was. But, you know, twelve years go by, He's a twelve -year -old little boy.
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It would be easy to forget that. Because we cannot deny that He literally became human in every sense of the word.
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And here we have one little insight Luke gives us into Jesus knowing exactly who
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He was, even at this age. Isn't that wild to think about? Read this with me, Luke chapter 2, verse 41.
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Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when
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He was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom. And when the feast was ended, they were returning.
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The boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, and His parents did not know it. But supposing Him to be in the group, they went a day's journey.
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But then they began to search for Him among their relatives and their acquaintances. And when they did not find
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Him, they returned to Jerusalem searching for Him. After three days, they found
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Him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
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And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. And when His parents saw
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Him, they were astonished. And His mother said to Him, Son, why have You treated us like this? Your father and I have been searching for You in great distress.
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And He said to them, Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?
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They didn't understand the saying He spoke to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.
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And His mother treasured up these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with man.
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Looking a little bit at this aspect of the Incarnation, this aspect of Jesus becoming human,
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I want to show you this and the humility of Jesus here. And then, as I mentioned,
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I want to show you how He had the right to come back. So, just backing up just for a moment, we are mostly familiar with His birth story.
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We've been reading it here for a couple weeks now. I just want to remind you of one little point in verse 7.
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So if you could just look over there in verse 7, it says this, And Mary gave birth to her firstborn son.
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Now, guys, I'm sorry, this is not that complicated. I know there are many out there, including some in this room, who believe
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Mary remained a virgin her whole life. Can you read that one more time?
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Her firstborn son. Now, is this really that difficult? If you have a firstborn son, what does that imply?
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In fact, in Mark chapter 6, verse 3, we learn Jesus had four other brothers, Joseph and Mary, and sisters too.
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So let's not mystify the Word of God. Let's just let it be what it is. Can we do that? And she gave birth to her firstborn son.
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She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no place for him in the inn. Now, I want to tell you a story real quick.
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And maybe some of you will remember this last year. The Scripture speaks about how our leaders are supposed to have order to punish evildoers and to reward those who do good.
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Well, there's a couple places in this nation that don't exactly do that. One of them is, of course,
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California. Do you remember last year San Francisco was a dump?
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There's homelessness everywhere, drug use. Do you remember when the Chinese president came to town, what the governor did?
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For those of you who don't remember, remember he cleaned everything up. He moved the homeless camps. He made it look real pretty for the president to come from China, the communist dictator that murders people.
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He made it look good for him, and then when he left, he took it back the way it was. And the people are like, well, hold on, if you could have done this the whole time, where has this been?
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The communist dictator of China came to our country, and we treated him better than we do our own citizens.
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The sovereign king of the universe came to this planet and couldn't even get a room at a
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Motel 6. You see this? Verse 7, There was no place for him at the end. They laid him in a manger.
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You know what that is? That's a feeding trough for animals. Now, this is the king of the universe.
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This is the one who spoke everything into existence. This is the one who gives life and takes life.
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He came to this planet, and he chose to come in that type of humility.
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Looking back at verse 41, his parents are in Jerusalem for the
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Passover. Now, remember, we're going to walk through this passage for a moment, so try to bear with me. Remember, Jesus and his parents moved up north to Nazareth.
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Now, remember this. They did not stay in Jerusalem. That's the big city down south. They were up north in Nazareth.
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That's about 75 miles north. Okay? And three times a year for different feasts, for different festivals, they walked 75 miles south to go to Jerusalem because that's where the temple was.
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Now, remember, remember, where Jews worship is called a synagogue, there's only one temple.
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There's a bunch of synagogues. There's one on Poplar. There's synagogues everywhere. Only one temple, and that was in Jerusalem, in that one city.
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And three times a year, you had to travel to that temple for one of the feasts. One of them was Passover.
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Now, if you are in this room and you don't know much about Passover, you don't know much about that feast, I have good news for you.
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On the back of your paper, I made a homework sheet. Now, as a reminder, as a reminder, this is the 13th homework sheet that one of the pastors here has made this year.
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I have all of them on my computer. There's several of you who've emailed me, and I just emailed all of them to you. So let me make a suggestion to you.
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Instead of doing what still the large majority of you do, ignore this and not do it, and then claim that you don't know where to start studying, here's an idea.
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Take this and use that as a starting point. It guides you through it, and it may help.
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And if it doesn't, you can text or email me and say, hey, if you had done it this way, it would have been way more helpful, and I'll change it.
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I'm not that prideful. However, there is a bit of information about the Passover on the back of your sheet and some information on that, so that can help you with that.
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I won't go more into that now. But even today,
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Jews, a boy will become a bar mitzvah. He will become a son of the covenant, a son of the commandment.
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And maybe you've heard of this before when he's 12, 13, somewhere in there. And the idea is that he is now personally and morally responsible for obeying the commandments of his own accord, not just through his parents.
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That's the idea behind it. So Jesus goes with his parents, and we're unclear if he tagged along with them every year up to this point, or this is the first time they brought him.
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We don't know, but we know that Luke feels that this story is important to add in. And it says in verse 43 that the feast had ended.
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Now remember, Passover was one day, and it kicked off a week -long feast called the
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Feast of Unleavened Bread. So they had been in Jerusalem for seven, eight days, okay?
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And they were worshiping at the temple, huge complex, really big, right? Well, they all traveled in a caravan.
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So when it was time to leave, they all left, and they just assumed Jesus was in the group. And they traveled a day's journey.
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Now, how far is a day's journey? Well, on average, it's about 20 miles. Now, I know our workout group that works out in the morning,
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Mike and Axel, and especially Kaylee and Rachel, at the rate that they're running, they could probably do 40 or 50 miles in a day.
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But for the regular of us, regular people, 20 miles a day is probably about what?
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So from the Lakeland exit to downtown. Now, think about that, from the Lakeland exit to downtown.
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That's how far Mary and Joseph had walked, not noticing Jesus was gone. And that took them all day.
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Now, I want you to imagine, I keep thinking of home alone. I want you to imagine this. They're now 20 miles, which is a day's walk.
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They're walking with their grandma, auntie, cousin, all that stuff. And they realize their son is back in the biggest city they know.
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You follow me on this? Can you imagine the level of panic
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Mary and Joseph had? I mean, imagine Mary for a minute. The angel's like, I gave you one job.
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Take care of this kid. The other ones are expendable. Now, his other ones were already born. The other ones are expendable.
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James and Jude, they can, this one is the one we need, Mary, and I've chosen you.
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And he left them in the biggest city in the country by himself. Now, we're unclear if the whole caravan turned around or Joseph and Mary.
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Can you imagine the chaos? Y 'all just go. You take care of Grandma. You sleep at the cousin's house. We're going to go back and find them.
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It took them a whole other day to get back. I imagine they walked through the night. I imagine they didn't stop and sleep.
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Wouldn't you? I imagine they walked through. Then they get back to Jerusalem. So now it's been two days.
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A day there, a day back. And the Bible says in verse 45, they began searching for him in a very large city.
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Can you imagine the fear and panic they had? Because they're not mad yet because they don't know he's okay. And then they find him, wait for it, exactly where they left him in the temple.
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Verse 46. Three days after three days, they found him. Now remember, they have now walked 40 miles with no break, no rest, plus however far they walked in the city looking for him.
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And she finally sees him and I can just see it. The panic shifts to anger immediately.
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Right? Just immediately. Now, from Jesus' perspective, he's actually exactly where she left him.
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He's still in the temple. You follow me on this? She comes up to him and she's, now notice what it says he's doing.
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Verse 46. Sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking questions.
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I must pause and just go on a slight tangent for a moment. Listening and asking questions.
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Which one did he do first, church? Do you obey that? Look again.
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Listening and asking questions. Now this is the sovereign king of the universe in the body of a 12 -year -old boy and he has the humility to listen first and then ask.
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In your relationships with other people, in your friendships, in your marriages, listen then ask.
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What's the scripture say? Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath.
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For the wrath of man will never produce the righteousness of God. And it says in verse 47, all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.
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Can you imagine being his brother growing up? Can you imagine being in Louisa's Sunday school with him?
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Who knows the answer to this one? Me, I wrote it. I know the answer. But remember, he hasn't revealed who he is to anybody yet.
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But if you caught it, if you're paying attention, it's evident that he knows. If you've ever wondered, when did
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Jesus know? Well, we knew that he knew who he was at this point. Did you catch it? Look again in verse 49.
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Well, let's start in verse 48. When his parents saw him, they were astonished and his mother said to him, now you knew the mom would be the first one to speak, right?
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His mother said to him, I mean, obviously, his mother said to him, why have you treated us like this?
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Your father and I have been searching in great distress. And Jesus answers, why are you looking for me?
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Didn't you know I'd be in my father's house? Did you catch it? Or going about my father's business.
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Now, they didn't understand because Joseph's his father. Do you understand now?
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Now, I want to point out one thing. This is the third time in this passage that the
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Scripture has called Joseph his father. Just a quick side note. Though he was technically adopted by Joseph, the
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Scripture still calls him his father. Did everyone hear that? Though he was not his biological father, because he raised him and had adopted him, the
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Scripture still calls him his father. Men, you do not get a pass on that. You are his father.
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But he's not talking about Joseph here. He's sitting in the temple, which is the house of God, and he says, did you not know
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I would be in my father's house? Now, what does that tell us about the mindset of 12 -year -old
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Jesus? That he knows he's not from earth. You understand that?
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That he is calling God his father. That was not a common thing Jews did. He knew where he was from.
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He knew he was the son of God. Now, at what age he found that out, we don't know. But by this point, he knows where he's at.
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And look at how his parents react. The Bible says they did not, verse 50, understand what he spoke to them.
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Twelve years. God gave Mary and Joseph direction. That's a long time with no further revelation, isn't it?
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That's a long time. And if you think, yeah, but it was so miraculous. How could they forget?
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Have you ever prayed for something so earnestly, tears, night and day, and God in his mercy actually answered it?
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And in two days, you have forgotten about it. You ever done that?
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And the next time some distress happens, it doesn't even cross your mind that you have been in that despair before and have been brought through it.
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All you can think about is the little moment you're in. Your little world and wherever you live, with who you talk to and your actions, the whole world is just yours.
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That's the whole reality of the whole world. And you forgot what he brought you through before and the distress you were in before and how he brought you through from that.
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I tell my fighters all the time, several of them are here today. By the way, remember, we got three fights
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February 15th. We got three guys making their debut over there on Shelby Oaks. They would very much appreciate you being there.
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But at any rate, I tell them all the time, if we make the practice at the gym more difficult than the fight, if we do that, then you can always have in your brain,
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I've done worse than this before and I got through it. And that's a confidence that can't be broken.
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If you can remember the faithfulness of God before and what he has brought you through, man, that's a powerful tool when you go through it the next time.
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Mary and Joseph have forgotten. And I cannot say that after 12 years,
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I would have done much better, despite shepherds and angels and wise men and all that. Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?
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They didn't understand what I'm saying. Verse 51. Now, after this, we'll leave
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Luke. I just want to focus on verse 51 for a minute. Everyone get your eyes on the Bible. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them.
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Now, just a side note. Some of you may be thinking, Pastor, you said Nazareth was north.
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Why does the scripture say, and they went down to Nazareth? Because Jerusalem's on a hill. Okay. So they went down.
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And he descended the hill and then walked north. Do you see what just happened?
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The sovereign creator of the universe was submissive to his parents even when they were in the wrong.
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Everyone hear that? Children to parents, wives to husbands, employees to employers.
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Did everyone just hear what I just read? He was submissive to them even when he was right and they were wrong.
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You know why? Because he remembered a commandment that he wrote 1 ,500 years before that said,
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Honor your father and your mother. And that's something. Guys, remember what the incarnation is.
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It's Jesus Christ not coming just to die for us. He came to live for us and to obey every single command that he made so that when someone comes to the
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Lord, his death pays for their sin and his life of obedience is attributed to their account.
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It is imputed to their account so they get credit for obeying. Do you know when
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I get to heaven, my, if you want to think of it this way, my record will say perfect obedience to mom and dad.
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You know why? Because Jesus did and gave me credit for that. And here's an example of it right here. Gratefulness, love.
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He gets credit for all the evil we have done and we get credit for every act of obedience he did towards his father.
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That's imputation. That's the incarnation. That level of humility is breathtaking and we'll get more into that in a moment.
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And Jesus was submissive to him even when his parents, in this case, were in the wrong. I mean, think about it. He was exactly where they left him three days ago.
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They left him. He stays in that spot. They get back and they're mad at him. Right?
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And think about it for a moment. It says that Luke says right here that he was submissive to him.
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Now remember, Luke is not an eyewitness. Luke was not there. Remember, Matthew and John were of the original 12.
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Mark and Luke were not. Mark was Peter's disciple. So though Peter didn't write a gospel, and no, if you're into Gnosticism, the
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Gospel of Peter is not Scripture. Mark was discipled by Peter. Luke was discipled by Paul.
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The Bible tells us that Luke interviewed the original eyewitnesses. It is totally within the realm of possibility.
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Now remember, this is the last time we see Joseph alive. Joseph dies before Jesus starts his public ministry, okay?
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It is quite possible that Luke interviewed Mary in her old age. Because you keep seeing this phrase in verse 51, she treasured up these things in her heart.
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Can you imagine her, years later, talking to Luke, trying to describe this event? She added the words, he was submissive.
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Guys, remember what submission is. It is not compliance.
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If you only ever submit when the person is correct, that's not submission.
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That's just going along with what you would have done anyway. If it's only when you agree with it, that cannot be considered submission, because that's just you doing what you would have done anyway.
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Submission is putting yourself under the authority of another, despite your feelings of if it's the right action or not.
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That's submission. You hear the lack of amens on that? That's because it hits every one of us between the eyes.
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Every one of us. But the sovereign king of the universe, who brought everything into being, was able to do that with two parents that he created.
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So we can do that with each other, yes? Now, it says that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and with man.
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That is how the Lord came. I'd like to take a few minutes now and transition to how a just God should have come.
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Now, I say should, and I put it in quotations, not to say that the way he came was wrong, to say how he had the right to come to this planet.
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Now, please stay with me here. I put some definitions on the top of your paper. What does the word just mean?
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Well, the word just means fair, using equal scales. If we have a judge that is just, now,
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I know there's not a lot of them around, but if we have a judge that is just, that means this. He punishes the evildoers, but not more than they deserve, the punishment that fits the crime.
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The punishment that fits the crime. And he lets go the innocent. That is what a just judge does.
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How many of you wish we had just judges in this land? Now, watch this.
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God is just. God is also merciful. And on its face, those both cannot be true.
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Let me say it again. God is just, and God is merciful. And logically, on the surface, that's a contradiction.
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On the surface. If the punishment always fits the crime, which is what justice means, and mercy means not punishing someone for what they deserve, that is contradictory.
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Do you see that? Do you understand that Jesus coming answers the question that angels and prophets have had for thousands of years?
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How is God not a cosmic pushover? Why are these people breathing?
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Do you understand? And it's because he was just, and that the sin did get paid for.
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It just got paid for by another. So he could be merciful to some. He could be merciful and punish the other, being
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Jesus. Do you see that? That's how God did it. That's how he was able to do it.
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That's how God can be just and merciful. Because remember what mercy is. Unlike most of the other attributes of God, mercy is a reaction to sin.
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You see, God can show omnipotence, his power, without sin being introduced.
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God can even show grace, giving someone something they don't deserve, without sin being introduced.
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Mercy requires punishment that goes unpunished, wrongdoing that goes unpunished.
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And the only way God can be just and merciful at the same time is if someone else takes the punishment that we deserve.
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I want to show you in this next section how God had the right to come, borrowing his mercy, how a just God should have come.
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Think back to Genesis for a moment, and if you're following along on your paper, we're on number three, letter A. He said to Adam and Eve, on the day you eat from that tree, you will surely die.
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Imagine being an angel in heaven, and God gave that command. And like, alright, we've seen this story before.
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I know what happened to the last guy who disobeyed God. He's now on earth, and his name is Satan. Imagine being in heaven, and seeing slash hearing
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Eve and Adam eat the fruit. Well, we had a good run, guys.
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It was a great run. I'm glad it happened. Let's see what he does next. You read the next chapter of the
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Bible, and it says Adam and Eve have children. The next chapter, chapter five, says Adam lived 930 years.
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And though sin had entered the world, and he dealt the consequences, he saw his children grow up, and his grandchildren, and his great -grandchildren, and his great -grandchildren, and saw the blessings of marriage and fruit.
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Now, we need to note that of course Adam and Eve did spiritually die on that day.
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Their nature was forever fallen on that day. That spiritually they did die on that day.
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But do not be deceived into thinking that God did not show an extreme amount of long -suffering and mercy toward Adam and Eve on that day.
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That not only did He spare their life, He allowed them to see joy. Here's what
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I want you to know. Do you remember what God told Adam and Eve? The ground is cursed because of you.
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The Scripture speaks, as if the earth could speak, of a groaning, longing for the redemption, longing for Jesus to come back.
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Please remember, this entire planet is cursed because of human sin. The dirt, the trees, the grass, and the animals all obeyed
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God. Only humans disobeyed. And yet all of them are cursed because of us. And if you want proof of that, after sin enters the world, the
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Bible says in Genesis 3, verse 21, that God made, not created,
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God made skins of garments, excuse me, garments from skins for Adam and Eve.
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Where did He get the skin? From animals He killed. Adam and Eve sinned, and the animals are punished.
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When you read of this Bible saying the Scripture groans, excuse me, the creation groans for the redemption, to be put back how it was before man cursed it.
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That's what it's speaking of. Now, I want you to see how great the love of God is.
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If you want, if you ever wonder, why don't I ever feel the adoration, the worship, and the praise of God when we sing or when
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I read? It's black words on white paper. Let me suggest to you that you come to grips with the reality of how a just God should punish sin, and then you will see how great the love and mercy of God is.
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We're going to turn to Psalms for a moment. Can you go to Psalms chapter 5 with me? I shouldn't even say chapter. Can you go to Psalm 5 with me for a moment?
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Psalm 5. So we know how
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Jesus came. He came in humility as an infant born in a feeding trough.
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He lived a regular life, and he was killed at the hands of his own creation, of his own creation.
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Let me show you from the Psalms how he could have come back, how he had the right to.
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Have you ever heard someone say or have you ever said yourself we should hate the sin and love the sinner?
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Raise your hand if you've ever heard that. Hate the sin, love the sinner. That God hates the sin and loves the sinner.
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How many of you have ever said that? God, oh, half hands, very good. Jesus loves half hands.
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Okay. God hates the sin and loves the sinner. I'm going to challenge that, and in doing so, if you bear with me,
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I think you will finally see, some of us, how great the mercy of God really is.
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Psalm 5, verse 5. Well, I'll start in verse 4. You are not a
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God who delights in wickedness. Evil may not dwell with you. The boastful will not stand before your eyes.
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You hate all evildoers. Did everyone hear that?
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You hate. Now, that's not Josiah talking. That's the Bible talking, so figure it out between you and God.
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You hate all evildoers. Verse 6. You destroy those who speak lies. Yahweh abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
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Hmm. Hmm. Turn it over one page to Psalm 7.
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Psalm 7. I'm just going to read verse 11, because I heard a song this week, a
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Christian song. It said that God is not angry or mad at you.
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Psalm 7, verse 11. I don't want you to hear me say this. And remember what I said.
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If you bear with me, you're about to see how amazing the love of God really is. Verse 11 of Psalm 7.
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God is a righteous God. A God who feels indignation every day.
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Did you see that? Every day. Do you understand that for 6 ,000 years,
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God has not gotten the credit he deserves? That the scales of justice have been unbalanced the whole time.
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The reason why so many of us take for granted the mercy of God is because you don't understand what justice demands.
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You don't understand the penalty of sin. Maybe you have the verse memorized, the wages of sin is death, but you haven't thought about what that means.
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The wages, the earnings, the 1040, the W2, the tax statement, what you deserve for your sin is death.
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That's what I deserve. That's what everyone in this room deserves. Even those of you
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I don't know. You know how I know that? Because you are a human being. And you and I have sinned against an almighty
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God. And he said the punishment for that sin is death. That's what he said.
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And he feels that indignation every single day. Every single day.
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One more. Psalm 96. I wrote a bit of this on your paper, but not a lot of it.
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I'm going to read in Psalm 96, 11 through 13. Remember what
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I said about if the earth could speak, it would long for the return of Jesus? Verse 11.
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Let the heavens be glad. Let the earth rejoice and let the sea roar and all that fills it.
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Let the field exult and everything in it. Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy.
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We'll read verse 13 in just a moment. I've mentioned this before. I just saw already right there.
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I love you, buddy. You'll be home soon. I've said this before.
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You know my favorite part about hunting? Has nothing to do with the animal, the food, the gun, or anything like that.
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It's watching the forest wake up. The moment the sun hits the forest floor, because it's dark, right?
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And the moment the sun hits the forest floor, everything comes to life. Birds and woodpeckers and squirrels and raccoons and bobcats.
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It's like that scene out of Lion King, the opening scene. It's like that.
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It's just the most beautiful thing. And they don't know they're doing it, but they're all praising
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God because they're all a demonstration of who God is and what he has done. Let's read again, verse 12.
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Let the field exult and everything in it and all the trees of the forest sing for joy before Yahweh, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth.
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He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.
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In his faithfulness. He will judge them with equity.
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Psalm 98 says in verse 9, equity, fairness, equal scales.
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Every time I read these passages, I get a fresh reminder of how merciful and loving
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God is. Guys, do you understand? It's not that God's not mad.
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He is mad and loves anyway. Do you see that? He feels indignation every single day and withholds and restrains himself from executing judgment.
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Every day. And his love overcomes his need to execute judgment.
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And he has the most restraint. Have you ever had somebody,
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I have, push you as in to fight you and they are far inferior to you, far weaker and they have no idea who they're messing with and what they're doing.
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Have you ever experienced this? They do not know what they're doing. They don't know for a moment what they're doing.
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And if it were not for your restraint, they have no idea what would be unleashed upon them in a nonviolent way.
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My daughter, Ava, loves to play fight. She loves to play fight.
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And she says things all the time like, Daddy, you could have beat me up. You can't hit that hard. Now, it's simple in this regard because it's my daughter.
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But the restraint I have to use when we play rough does not compare.
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I want you to imagine what you and I are doing every time we sin against the
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Holy God. What the unbeliever, and for those of you in this room that are not of Christ, listen, you are playing with fire.
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God does not have to wait until He returns to begin judgment on you. The Bible says
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His bow is bent, ready to execute judgment. And what you do when you live every day borrowing
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His created air to do whatever you want to do, you're testing and saying, do it.
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I dare you. Just let go of the bow. I dare you.
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Every one of us in this room that live your life outside of Christ, you are daring Him.
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You won't do it. Ladies and gentlemen, He fills the Indian nation every day.
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When I read passages like that, that is why I'm so overcome with joy when we sing songs like Death Was Arrested.
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Because I should be the object of that wrath. That should be me.
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And His love is so great. It gives Him divine restraint and love to where He sings over me with joy.
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Isn't that something? You may say, yeah,
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Josiah, I hear what you're saying, but mercy is part of His nature.
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It's who He is. Therefore, He has to dispense mercy in order to be God. You may say, yeah,
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I hear what you're saying about the whole restraint, but since He's God and He is love, He must show mercy.
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True. But He does not have to show it to you. That is the same thing the
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Pharisees said. They were testing Him. Go read about it in Matthew chapter 3, verse 8 and 9.
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One of the most amazing passages in the Bible. John the Baptist is warning them about their sin.
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And this was their response. Have any of you ever had this thought through your brain? Well, He's God and He's grace, so He'll forgive me.
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You assume that God must show mercy to everyone in the same way.
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That is ludicrous. That is crazy. If He had to do it, it would no longer be mercy, it would be obligation.
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In Matthew chapter 3, verse 9, when John the Baptist is pointing out the sins of the
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Pharisees, they say, Abraham's our father, so we're good. In other words, this is the level of testing they were doing with God.
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God made a promise that the children of Abraham would survive forever and never be wiped out on this planet, so we are safe from the wrath of God.
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And this was John's answer. Oh, God will keep His promise. But to keep
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His promise, He could raise up these stones to become children of Abraham and keep the generation going and wipe you off the face of this planet.
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In other words, do not test His promises. He'll be faithful. He'll be faithful. He's going to keep
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His word. He'll keep His word. Don't worry about that. But to think that God owes you a grace and a mercy in the same way that He gave it to everyone is crazy.
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No, God is so loving, so gracious, and so merciful.
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If you are a child in here today, I beg you, never forget what
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He has done for you and is doing for you now and what He has forgiven you of and what you deserve.
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And if you can ever keep that in your mind, your praise will sound a little different. Your worship will be a little sweeter.
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Your thankfulness will be a little deeper. As we turn to our last passage,
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Revelation 19, if you would all turn there. I know I've asked you to turn a bunch of places, but it is the Bible, so, you know.
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Revelation 19. I remind you of this before we read this passage.
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To use a sports analogy, if a head coach has a quarterback, now,
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I'm going to use a sports analogy, but I'll try to keep it for you non -sports people. If he has a quarterback that has an amazing game, he throws for 500 yards, six touchdowns, no interceptions, no incompletions, a perfect game, and he does really good, and after the game, the media says, hey, are you going to keep him as your starting quarterback?
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Are you going to keep him, or are you going to put him on the bench and bring in someone else? And he says, no, I'm going to keep him.
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Was that really a hard decision to make? Could we say that that coach was loyal to the quarterback, or did the guy just do really good, so it's the obvious choice?
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But what if he played terrible, and he cost them the game, and then the coach says, yeah,
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I don't care, I'm sticking with him. Doesn't that show a bit more loyalty? Guys, and I said this a couple
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Wednesdays ago, and I don't mean to mock, I really don't. I'm just trying to show you a deeper understanding of the love of God.
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I saw a post on Facebook the other day. Imagine how valuable your soul is that Satan spends his whole life trying to destroy it, and the
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Son of God died for it. I would like to up the ante on the love of God there.
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What if your soul was in and of itself worthless, and he died for it anyway? Wouldn't that be a deeper demonstration of the love of God?
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Not because you were so valuable, you were worthless, he died for you anyway and made you one of his children.
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Isn't that a better story of love? Well, that is the reality. That's the reality of what happened.
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Revelation 19 tells us how the sovereign king could have come. Instead of in the feeding trough, instead of under the humility of opposing forces, instead of being beaten and killed by his own creation, by creatures made from dirt that he formed, this is how he could have come.
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Revelation 19, starting in verse 11. If you want to see how the
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Christmas story could have been had it not been for the love of God. Verse 11. Then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, and the one sitting on it is called
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Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
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He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is known is the Word of God.
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And the armies of heaven arrayed in linen, and fine, white, and pure were following him on white horses.
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And from his mouth came a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule over them with a rod of iron.
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He will tread on the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written,
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King of kings and Lord of lords. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, come gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains and mighty men, to eat the flesh of horses and the riders, the flesh of all men, both free and slave, great and small.
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And I saw the beasts and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
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Verse 20, And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet, who in its presence had done the signs, who had deceived those who received the mark of the beast, we'll talk about that next time, and those who worshipped his image.
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These two were thrown alive in the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. The rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse.
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And all the birds were gorged with their flesh. That's how the
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Son of God could have came. That's how he could have entered this planet. Wait for it.
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And that wouldn't have been a temper tantrum. That would have been the just, righteous thing to do.
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That would have been correct. And instead, he chose not just mercy, not just grace.
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He chose the humility of all humilities, being born in a feeding trough for animals.
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And at his death, creatures made from dirt that he knitted together in the womb.
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Do you remember what they did? He called himself the king. So they made him a crown. You remember?
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They made him a crown of thorns and shoved it on his head mockingly. And then do you remember what they did?
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They bowed down and worshipped him mockingly. He had called himself a prophet.
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This is all in Mark chapter 15. So they covered his head with a blanket and took turns punching him and said, prophesied to his prophet, which one of us hit you?
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He died the death of a criminal and then said these words,
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Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.
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And one of the scariest things I see is when I see Christians taking
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God's mercy for granted. Christian in the room, do you not know, do you not know what the wrath of God looks like and what should have been poured out on you?
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You know, when we do the Lord's Supper, when it says this do in remembrance of me, that reminder isn't for God.
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He doesn't need a reminder of what he did. That's for me and you to remind each other to never forget of what he did for us.
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If you are an unbeliever in this room, and the music people can come up here. If you are an unbeliever in this room,
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I hope you see the long -suffering mercy of God and how he owes nobody anything.
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Didn't we read it earlier? He doesn't need anything from human hands. And it is in the passages about his judgment that it comes to my heart how great his love and mercy is.
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The Bible says God demonstrates his own love toward us and that while we were still sinners,
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Christ died for us. And that passage in Romans continues in chapter 8 verse 32 where he says
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What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He didn't even spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
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How will he also with him not freely give us all things? And do you see the arguments from lesser to greater?
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If he gave it all, his own son, while you were living in your rebellion, how much more now is it nothing for him to give you that which you need when you are his follower?
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Do you see that? I have a little bit of fear of the next four years.
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I am a little nervous for the church. We will swear in our new president in 22 days, right?
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I'm a little afraid for the next four years. Probably not for the reason that you're thinking, but I'm a little afraid.
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Let me tell you why I'm afraid. I'm a little afraid for the church globally.
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I'm a little afraid for the church nationally. And I'm a little bit nervous about the church here.
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About my people. I don't know how to say this lightly.
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We haven't exactly had the most interactive president the past four years.
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Is that a fair way to put it? Foreign relations will probably improve over the next four years.
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Now listen, I'm not a politician. I'm not an economist. But the rate of our government spending and I've just got to imagine that inflation will probably go down the next four years.
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Groceries will probably be cheaper over the next four years. You will probably have more money in your bank account over the next four years.
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Your 401Ks will look better. There will probably be more law and order. There will probably be more respect.
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There will probably be from a worldly sense much more prosperity over the next four years.
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And it is for that reason that I'm a little bit afraid. Satan is excellent at his job.
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If he wants someone to not call out to God, what would he do? Well, he would make them comfortable.
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In your own life, do you not seek the God? Excuse me, seek the God. Do you not seek God more in your distress?
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Don't you? That's why I'm afraid for the next four years. Because, probably, at least financially, you will have less of it in the next four years.
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Ladies and gentlemen, do not fall into the trap of thinking that if God blesses in this way, that He owes me that blessing.
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And do not, for a moment, think, for a moment, that what
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Jesus has done is to primarily make you comfortable. What Jesus has done is to make you free.
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Free. We just sang it, didn't we? That's what He's done. Now, to do that, the sovereign king humbled himself with a humble birth, a humble life, and a humble death.
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But, ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake, what I just read to you out of Revelation 19 is not a story of what could have happened.
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That is what is coming. And when that happens on that day, every single human body will hit the ground.
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Either in joyful praise or at the end of his sword. But every body will be hitting the ground.
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Now, if that shocks you, I end with this. Does that not show you how great
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His love is? That though He feels that indignation every single day, though He feels that indignation, though it is the just thing to do,
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He can utter the words, come unto me, what we read earlier, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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You see, the just God is also the most merciful, gracious being to ever exist. He says, come and learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls.
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For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. See, Acts 17, what we read earlier, says,
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He passed over sins previously committed. By now He commands all men everywhere to repent.
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He is not merely begging. He commands all men everywhere to repent. And I beg you now for the unbeliever to flee from the wrath to come.
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And I beg you, believer, to ever keep in your brain what was done for you, and let it fill your heart with thankfulness and gratitude to share that with others and to live out that gratitude of your living on time that was given to you by another.
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Would you stand with me? And if you have business to do with God, I pray you come forward, and you do that now.