Jeff Durbin || Jesus Is The Promised Messiah, Pt. 3

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If you would open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 22, a text hopefully you're more familiar with now and in awe of now as we study the messianic prophecies of the

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Lord Jesus and his fulfillment of all that God had promised. Genesis chapter 22, it's a kind of lengthy section

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I'm going to re -read again today under our hearing and actually read a bit more that we didn't touch last week that moves into the promise of the transformation of the world through the messianic king.

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Genesis chapter 22, if you're new to your

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Bibles, it's the first book. Alright here we go, Genesis chapter 22 verse 1, hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said here

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I am. He said take your son, your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which

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I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son

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Isaac and he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

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On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey,

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I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

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And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son and he took in his hand the fire and the knife so they went both of them together.

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And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father, and he said here

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I am my son. He said behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

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Abraham said God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering my son.

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So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and he laid the wood in order and bound

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Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

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But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said Abraham, Abraham.

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And he said here I am. He said do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now

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I know that you fear God seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

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And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and beholded behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

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And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place the

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Lord will provide as it is said to this day on the mount of the

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Lord it shall be provided. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven.

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And said by myself I have sworn declares

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Yahweh. Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,

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I will surely bless you. And I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

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And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together as God's people. Jesus, you are amazing.

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This is astonishing, incredible, incomprehensible, awesome, amazing, glorious, beautiful.

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You Lord Jesus were there, the angel of Yahweh, there that day on that mount.

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Lord you were there that day and you withheld Abraham's son from being slaughtered, the son of the promise.

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The one you promised that all of the earth would be blessed through. You were there and you withheld his hands.

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And yet, very long after, Lord Jesus, you carried the wood to the place of the sacrifice.

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You, God's son, the son of his love, you carried the wood to the place of the sacrifice and you were the lamb offered on that spot.

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And Lord Jesus, the father did not withhold his hand from you. And so we thank you for the beauty of this text, the glory, the power, the obvious divine nature of this.

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And we pray God you would put these truths into our hearts and minds. Use this message for your glory and for your kingdom.

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Inspire your people. Renew our minds. Empower us. Get the teacher out of the way. I do pray that people would forget me and remember everything they've learned from you here.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Is this not every time the most powerful thing?

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Genesis chapter 22. How many of you all read Genesis 22 and never saw, never saw

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Christ in Genesis 22 when you first read it? Never understood what was happening with Abraham and Isaac and had questions swirling around.

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And even as you read the text, you wonder how do I respond to the atheist when the atheist challenges me and says,

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I'll show you a contradiction in the Bible. God says in the Decalogue, in the Ten Commandments, he says, you shall not kill.

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And then he tells Abraham to kill his own son. How do you explain that logical contradiction?

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And oftentimes, we've read the text over and over and over and we haven't understood the deep glory and power, the symbolism

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God implanted in that moment, pointing to Jesus. You see, Genesis chapter 22, remember, depending on how you date the

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Old Testament and where Abraham was and of course the timing of the Exodus, you're looking at something right now.

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We read something just now that predates Christ by about 2 ,000 years, by about two millennia.

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So about 2 ,000 years before the life and ministry and death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus, this experience happens with Father Abraham.

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And one of the things that I try to impress upon us as a church is that there is so much clear evidence of the divine nature of the ministry of Jesus, the prophecies, because what you have in your

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Old Testament is a revelation that spans this 2 ,000 years of composition and all of these authors are separated from one another in time and geographical location.

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I mean, Abraham is long before Moses. Did you know that? He's long, hundreds of years before Moses, so his experience here is happening before the giving of the

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Ten Commandments, the Passover, the Promised Land. This is all very rudimentary stuff, but I want you to hear something.

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When we talk about, is Jesus the promised Messiah, and I say most definitely the messianic prophecies of Jesus, M, the original life of Jesus, the

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O, the symbols fulfilled and the transformation of the world, when we talk about all these things, we're talking about something only

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God can do and it's something that they did not actually fully comprehend. They're just getting pieces at a time.

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Now I, for me, this is one of the most amazing things. I try to illustrate that proof that the disciples did not understand all of this is that when

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Jesus is coming saying he's going to die and rise again, his own disciple, Peter, says, never!

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It's never going to happen, Jesus! And Jesus says to him, get behind me, Satan. They don't understand fully.

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Listen, the revelation is there. It's been there long before them. They know there's prophecies of when

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Messiah is coming, what he's going to accomplish, his kingdom's going to fill the earth. They know that it's all there.

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However, as Pastor James has said in talking about the Trinity in the Old Testament, the

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Old Testament is like this dimly lit room, right?

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The lights are not fully on. You can see sort of shadows of things and you can make out shapes.

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You're in that room. You can say, okay, there's a sofa over there. I can see the shape of it and maybe there's a

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TV on the wall or a vase or a coffee table and so you're navigating in a dark room and the stuff is there.

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It's kind of within view, but when Jesus arrives in history and after his life and death and resurrection and ascension, it was like the lights got flipped on in that room.

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Now everything is seen in full color. You can see the corners. You can see the detail.

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You can see everything that was already there. It's not new. It's just now in full color.

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The lights are on. And after Jesus died, remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus, they thought, we swore this

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Jesus was the Messiah. How could he not be? We saw his righteous life. We saw him raising people from the dead.

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We saw him walking on water. We saw his wisdom. It had to be him.

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He was on time just like the Bible says. How is he not the Messiah? And so even they don't fully comprehend what has just happened and how does

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Jesus address them in Luke 24? He says that they're foolish and what?

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We've done this a lot. Foolish and what? Slow of heart to believe what?

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All that the prophets had spoken. Here's my point. When Jesus takes them through that epic

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Bible study where he shows them everywhere that Moses and the prophets spoke of him, it wasn't just the

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Messianic prophecies that point directly to Jesus in terms of his identity, where he's coming from,

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Bethlehem. It's God himself. He's going to die and rise again. He's coming and he's going to be cut off before the destruction of the temple.

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It's not just those prophecies. It's not just Isaiah 53 that says he's going to be counted among the transgressors, that he's going to justify the many as he'll bear their iniquities.

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The Lord would lay on him the iniquity of us all, Isaiah 53, like 700 years before Jesus.

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It was also in the story and life of the Israelites and Father Abraham.

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Now listen, we did the Messianic prophecies, the original life of Jesus. Some of the symbols fulfilled, and I wanted to land here because we just did this last week.

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That epic story of Abraham and Isaac. Can I ask you guys to come into this with me for just a moment?

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Because if you are not in awe of this yet, I want to try my best to make sure that you are.

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I want you to remember something. Genesis 22 comes after Genesis 15. And in Genesis, you're like, obviously, thanks

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Jeff, we came for that kind of lesson today. Genesis 15 is that powerful passage that is quoted from in the

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New Testament in reference to how a person has peace with God. And here's the promise.

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If it's not like Abraham was justified, if it's not like Abraham had peace with God, then it's not the gospel.

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God has saved from the beginning through faith and through faith alone, apart from works, apart from righteousness in yourself, apart from law.

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And Paul makes the point that this foundational point, as he explains the gospel in Romans chapter 4, if you are truly an heir of the promises of salvation through Abraham and Isaac onto the

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Messiah, if you truly are a part of this redemptive story with Father Abraham, then you have to be saved in the same way

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Abraham was. And what was that? What's he saying in Romans 4? He says, from Genesis 15, 6,

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Abraham believed God and what? It was credited to him for righteousness.

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That's Paul's whole point, is that this story of redemption is a Father Abraham story.

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That God condescended. He literally condescended. Jesus was there with Abraham.

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And the story of Abraham is where this is all launched in terms of how God is going to do this through the messianic king.

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And Abraham believes God, simply has faith. He offers nothing to God.

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Remember this. It's hundreds of years before Sinai. It's hundreds of years before the Ten Commandments.

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It's hundreds of years before temple and priesthood and all that stuff. And Abraham simply has faith.

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He believes God and God credited to him as righteousness. And Paul says this, this is a

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Father Abraham story. If you truly are Abraham's seed and an heir according to the promise, you need to have the same salvation and faith as Abraham.

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And what was it? Was it faith in works? Faith in a certain level of righteousness and good deeds?

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What did Abraham offer God? Nothing. Empty hands.

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He has an open mouth. He just receives water, living water. He's got nothing to give to God.

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Nothing. And the story gets even better too because when God is making this covenant with Abraham, there was a tradition on how you did this and it was kind of violence.

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In this day, you can read all the different ways they had covenant treaties and one -way treaties and dual treaties, how they would work with each other.

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And if one person fails, there's sanctions, all those things. Basically, like today, if you guys get into an agreement with a company or a person, you both have roles, right?

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I will do this, you will do that. And there's sanctions, punishments based upon if one of you breaks the contract.

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Same thing we do today, they were doing back then. There's that kind of covenant, right?

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There's two of us involved. We both have promises to keep here. But God makes a different kind of covenant with Abraham.

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Violent it was. They would split animals in half, right?

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These bloody carcasses showing the consequences. If you break this promise, if you break your covenant, like let it be done to you what's done to these animals, and they walk through together as a reminder how serious this is.

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But when God makes a covenant with Abraham, what does he do to Abraham? He knocks him out.

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I mean, not like that, but he knocks him out. He makes him go to sleep. So what's

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Abraham's role in this covenant? What's he done? He believes God. He's credited righteousness. What's Abraham doing in this covenant with God?

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Oh, he's sleeping. He's offering nothing. He's doing nothing. And God himself, swearing by himself, putting his own character on the line, he goes through by himself, obligating himself to keep this promise and covenant.

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He's doing it. Abraham's just receiving blessings. And so what God says he's going to do in Abraham's seed, and brothers and sisters, if you're a believer, this is your story.

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When Father Abraham is told by God, you are going to have offspring as numerous as the stars, like the sand on the seashore.

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This is kind of a confusing ordeal. You know the moment where Sarah actually has the audacity to laugh at what

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God says is going to happen in her life, like she's old, she's like, how am I going to have a baby? And so she tries to laugh it off, and then

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God ultimately does what was impossible. And they have this son, the son of the promise,

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Isaac. And God said that through Isaac, through Isaac, all the nations are going to be blessed.

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Now I want you to imagine for a second now, this pregnancy is impossible. It can't happen.

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And then God does it. And he says, it's going to be Isaac, I'm going to bless the whole entire world, all the nations, all the nations, offspring like the stars and like the sand.

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That's a massive promise. That's global. That's everywhere. And he says, I'm going to do it through Isaac, your son, your only son, the son that you love.

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And so all Abraham knows is like, God is pretty awesome and powerful, amazing. He's promising me all these blessings.

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He's going to use me and my seed to bless all the nations so they all know God. It's going to be incredible.

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That's what Abraham knows. And then Genesis 22. What? This doesn't make any sense.

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How? In God's name, quite literally, according to his power, how are you telling me that you're going to bless all the nations, offspring like the stars and the sand on the seashore?

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You're going to do it through Isaac. And now you want me to kill him? You already made your promise,

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God. You said it was Isaac. It's this son, not a different one. You said through Isaac.

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So all Abraham knows is what? He knows God's made a promise. He said, this is the son. This is the son of my love.

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He's going to bless the whole world through this Isaac. That's where the seed is going to come from. It's Isaac, Isaac, Isaac.

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And now God says, great. Take him to this very specific spot. Three -day journey.

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Get to this spot and offer your son Isaac on the altar as a sacrifice. So what do we know from scripture?

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We get more detail. In the book of Hebrews, we find out what Abraham was thinking.

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And what was he thinking? He was like, this is the son of the promise. This is my only son, the son of my love.

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God's going to bless the whole world through him and through this seed. God already said he's going to do that. He can't lie.

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God can't lie. He won't lie. So Abraham thought what was going to happen on that mountain.

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He thought that there was going to be a death of his only son, the son of his love, and a resurrection.

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Proof that Abraham thought that this unique son, the son of his love, was going to die as a sacrifice and rise from the dead is that right there in the text.

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It says that he tells his companions, me and the boy are going to go worship, and who's coming back?

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We, we will come back. So, do you see the story now?

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Do you see the little glimmers of light coming through Genesis 22? God is saying, I'm going to bless the entire world, all the nations, through Isaac, your seed.

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Your son, the son of your love, has to be given as a sacrifice on this specific spot.

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And so, that son of his love carries the wood on his back to the place of that sacrifice. Abraham's going,

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I must be getting ready to witness a resurrection because God made a promise, he can't lie, he won't break it.

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So, this son that's going to bless the whole world, he's going to rise from the dead. And so, who shows up on the mountain that day?

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Who shows up? It says, the angel of Yahweh. Now, don't get that twisted.

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Sometimes, we see the word angel, we immediately interpret it in the way we do every instance of angelic hosts or something.

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We think of an angel as this, you know, winged creature, kind of human -like characteristics and wings.

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And so, we go, oh, it was like an angel like that. No, it's the messenger of Yahweh that appears numerous times in the

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Old Testament, and it is the pre -incarnate Christ. It's Jesus. Proof that it is

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Yahweh himself, God himself, is that when the angel of Yahweh comes and appears on that mountain and says,

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Abraham, don't do it. He says, you have not withheld your only son from who?

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Me. The angel of the Lord is Jesus himself.

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And isn't it awesome that that is the place where Jesus was crucified about 2 ,000 years later?

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Isn't it amazing that when God told Abraham to take the son of his love, the son of his promise, carry the wood, place of the sacrifice, sacrifice in there, that God stopped him?

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You will not give up your only son. But when Jesus went to that mount, when the

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Lord did provide the lamb that day, Jesus was the sacrifice. Jesus did die, and Jesus did rise from the dead.

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Now, the story gets even better, though, because the text says, in verse 15, and the angel of the

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Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself

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I have sworn. Here's God putting himself on the line, his reputation, his character.

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He's giving his word. He's saying, I can't swear by anybody else.

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Like you and I, if you want to give punch to how serious you are, right, in those moments where you need someone to believe you, you might raise your hand and swear to God.

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Like, God, you witnessed this. I swear to God, is what people will say at times, right?

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Above myself, I can swear by only God. I swear by God, the ultimate. How does

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God do that? When he wants you to know how serious he is, how true his promise is, he can't swear by anything else but himself.

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And so the angel of Yahweh says, and notice again, this is Yahweh, not an angelic being, this is

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Yahweh himself, Jesus. By myself, I have sworn, declares

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Yahweh, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you.

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And I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

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And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the

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Earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. What came after this epic moment in biblical history?

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What came? The promise of the messianic kingdom. That promise is illustrated over and over and over again in the

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Old Testament in different ways, with different language. You have instances where it'll say something like, the knowledge of God will cover the

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Earth like the waters cover the sea. Which, if you're wondering what that means, just ask the question, how wet is the

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Pacific Ocean? It's all wet, and that's what it means in the text where it says, the knowledge of God will cover the

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Earth like the waters cover the sea. Or Psalm 72, he shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the

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Earth. Or Psalm 1101, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until what?

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Until what? Make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The promise in Genesis 49, 10, same book.

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It says that someone is coming, Shiloh is coming, and to him shall be the obedience of the nations.

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The promise of the messianic king was simply this. There's so many facets to it.

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God was gonna bring through messianic king salvation, redemption, judgment upon the covenant breaking

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Jews, and he was gonna draw the nations to God. He was gonna draw the nations to God.

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So watch this. When we talk about the promise of the transformation of the world through Messiah, what would you expect to see in the world after the

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Jewish Messiah had come and accomplished his mission? What would you expect to see? You would anticipate that you would have people from every tribe, tongue, language, believing and trusting in Jesus, trusting and loving the

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Lord God of Israel because of Jesus. If you look at this room right now, I love to always point it out because it's worth doing every time we talk about it.

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This room is filled with people from all kinds of different backgrounds. Most of us are mutts, amen, yeah?

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We're a mixed bag, but we have, most of us, in our ancestry, we have pagan ancestry.

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We've got people that are from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. Many of us in this room are not physically descended from Israel, and yet this room right now is filled with people from all these different tribes.

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We have all these different colors in this room right now. And we all worship and love the

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Lord God of Israel because of Jesus. The promise of the Messiah is that the world would be transformed through him.

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In so many ways, we couldn't even begin to touch it in one sermon. But I wanna point us to something.

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This is important. This question about Jesus as Messiah and the transformation of the world is actually rather important.

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Now, while Christians have disagreements on particular areas related to the area of eschatology, that is the study of last things, end times stuff.

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We're unified on the core, right? I mentioned to you guys Dr. John MacArthur.

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I love Dr. MacArthur. He has blessed my life in tremendous ways. I have so much respect for him.

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He is probably responsible for leading me truly to Christ.

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After my drug and alcohol addiction, it was reading his book, The Gospel According to Jesus, where God used that to convict me that maybe

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I don't even understand the gospel, so I love Dr. MacArthur. This is in no way to impugn him or his ministry. We would agree with Dr.

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MacArthur that there's gonna be a final judgment, a resurrection of the just and the unjust, a physical resurrection.

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Christ is coming back. We're in full agreement on all the essentials. But Dr. MacArthur holds to a particular view of the future, eschatology, rapture, seven years of tribulation, a particular view that didn't really exist until about 200 years ago.

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So we have some disagreements. Some disagreements even amongst Christians who would say, yes,

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Jesus is the Messiah, and he's accomplished those prophecies of salvation, forgiveness, redemption, but he hasn't yet really brought his kingdom.

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That's how I was raised. I mean, not as a kid. When I first heard the gospel and then went to Bible college, that was my view of eschatology.

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That Jesus didn't really bring that promised kingdom and the Messiah during his first coming.

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That's coming later. Jesus is gonna return very soon, shortly, any moment.

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And when he does, he will reign as the messianic king, fulfilling the

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Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah and all that has to happen in the world. He will do that later.

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Now this is of particular importance, brothers and sisters, when you're doing evangelism with Jews.

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Have you ever done that? Have you ever had a conversation with someone that is actually Jewish, Orthodox Jew, they believe the

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Torah, the Tanakh, they believe it, they actually believe these are the words of God. It's harder and harder to find a

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Jew that is like that today. Most of them are very liberal and it's just a cultural thing.

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But if you ever get the chance to talk to somebody who really believes in their Judaism and in the

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Old Testament scriptures that we both share, you'll see how much this particular doctrine will impact your evangelism and apologetic with them.

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Because a sharp Jew who knows their Old Testament will say,

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Jesus is Mashiach? You say, yes he is, I can demonstrate it to you, great. Let's pass on going to the typical passages,

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Isaiah 53, Daniel 7, Daniel 9. They'll say things like, I just have a question for you.

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If Jesus is the messianic king, where's his kingdom? Where's his kingdom?

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And then the Christian who has an eschatological perspective that says the kingdom comes later will have a hard time in that conversation, because the

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Jew who knows their Bible knows that the Old Testament is filled, filled with references to what the world is going to look like through the messianic king.

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The references are that all the families of the earth are going to return to worship Yahweh. That there's going to be justice and righteousness established in the earth.

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That the law of God, the Torah, will go forth from the people of God. And so a

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Jew looks at their Bible, and they say, if Jesus is the Messiah, and he didn't bring his kingdom, as you say, then he's not the

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Messiah. Because the Messiah is messianic king over the world, and these promises are clear and in vivid detail in the

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Old Testament. So this is an important discussion. Did Jesus bring the messianic kingdom?

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Did he bring it? Did he actually establish it? Is it actually happening now?

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And can you, brothers and sisters, defend that truth? Because the Bible says so clearly that the

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Messiah is gonna transform the world through salvation and redemption.

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He is gonna rule the nations. That is clear from the Old Testament passages. So part of this question of is

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Jesus the Messiah, and my answer is most definitely, is the promise of the transformation of the world.

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Now, just for fun, in this discussion of the transformation of the world, you could break it down even a little bit more.

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We'll start here first. When you think about what Jesus has done to transform, I think it's important to talk about first the transformation of the apostles.

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Just consider this ragtag bunch of disciples, constantly sticking their foot in their mouth, right?

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Constantly worried, like Jesus, how many times is Jesus chastising the disciples for their lack of faith?

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I want you to consider for a moment, you're on a sea that Jesus made, all right?

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He's the maker of the sea, right? You're under a sky that's beaming down stars, and the person who's asleep on the pillow right now on the boat is the one who made the stars, and you're gazing up at the waves, freaking out over the waves, with eyeballs made by the guy asleep behind you, right?

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And the Earth is spinning in its rotation, sorry flat earthers, it's spinning in its rotation, and the world is doing what it's doing because of the man asleep on the pillow behind you.

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And now the waves are going crazy. You've already seen Jesus doing miracles. You know this is

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God behind you, God in the flesh. And what are the disciples doing? The same thing you and I would do on that boat.

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Don't look down on the disciples. Everyone's like, I wouldn't be like the disciples. I'd be like the halo behind me going, everyone trust

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Jesus. It's all good. Liars. We lie to ourselves. You'd be freaking out too, but that's just all right.

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We're just fallible creatures. We're dumb. And so they're freaking out, because Jesus is asleep, sees doing what he's doing, and they're like freaking out.

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We're gonna perish. Jesus, do something. And all Jesus has to do is say a word, and the calm comes over the sea.

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And Jesus has a little nickname for his followers, doesn't he? What's he call him? What's his nickname?

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It's literally Little Face. Little Face. It's like a pet name Jesus has for his followers.

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You can't find that anywhere else. It's something Jesus made up for you and me. Hey, Little Face.

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So what's he saying there? Big faith. You need to have big faith, big trust. But the point is, is that you have these people that, when they're with Jesus, they still don't understand.

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And they're scattering, and they're running. And when Jesus tells them, this is what is going to happen. I'm gonna go to Jerusalem.

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They're gonna kill me. I'm gonna rise again from the dead. And then when this is all happening, they've already seen everything

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Jesus can do. And they scatter. And Peter's afraid to even be recognized as a follower of Jesus.

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He denies that he even knows him. They're scattered. And then when

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Jesus is alive from the dead, they're still confused. It can't be that way. When they get word that Jesus is alive, the tomb is empty, they have to like, they're freaking out, run to the tomb.

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Are you serious? Run to the tomb to figure this whole thing out. And after Jesus has appeared,

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Thomas still doubts. We've seen him alive. What's Thomas say?

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Unless I put my hand into the nail print and into his side,

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I'm not gonna believe. And then Jesus appears, and Thomas says, my Lord and my

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God. Then they see, but something happened with the apostles, the disciples of Jesus, that transformed them from men of little faith, doubt, and fear, into men who were willing to lose everything for the cause of the gospel.

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Peter goes, think about his experience. Peter goes from denying he even knows

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Jesus, he wants no association with Jesus. So after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, you can read the book of Acts.

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After the ascension and resurrection of Jesus, they're told stop preaching in Jesus' name, stop it.

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You are gonna be punished. And then what's Peter say? What's he say? We must obey

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God rather than men. And then they take a beating for Jesus. They take a hot, hard, stingy beating for Jesus.

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And after taking that beating, they leave the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Jesus' name.

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What happened? They were transformed. They were personally transformed.

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And I've said this before, you've heard this before. What would it take for you to die a violent, painful death for something you're saying?

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I would imagine it would have to be true, amen? People aren't willing to die often for what they know is a lie.

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And the apostles could verify whether they actually saw Jesus alive from the dead.

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And isn't it a compelling part of history? That all the apostles save one, and it was not for lack of trying.

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Nero tried to kill John. He boiled him in a pot of oil. John miraculously didn't die.

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He sent him into exile to a place called Patmos. That is where I believe he wrote the book of Revelation. But John is the only apostle that survived to see the destruction of Jerusalem and died of old age.

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All the rest of the apostles, how did they die? As martyrs, as martyrs.

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And not like a bullet hole to the head kind of thing. Not for many of them a quick death.

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I mean, what would it take for you to be flayed and not give up your testimony?

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I mean, you know what that is, right, being flayed? It's where they tie you down and they peel the skin off your body while you're alive.

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Or what would it take for you to be thrust with spears to keep your testimony?

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Or what would it take for you to be burned alive and keep your testimony?

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Or what would it take for you to be crucified or beheaded and to keep your testimony? They all died to seal their testimony with their own blood.

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He is God in the flesh. He died. He rose again. He's the messianic king. Repent and believe the gospel.

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That's how they all went out. And finally, James, the brother of Jesus.

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You can read about this in Josephus, a record of James, the brother of Jesus.

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James, the half -brother of Jesus, died as a martyr, saying that his brother was the only way to salvation and he was

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God in the flesh. Now, who do you think knows Jesus best? Probably his family.

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Probably the people who lived with him day by day. Because you could fake being God for maybe 20 seconds, right?

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Maybe 20 seconds. But you can't fake being God for the duration of your life with your family.

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Your family knows you, right? Your family knows you. Like, you know, anyone can come and say, oh, your dad is the best.

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Like, does he even sin? Every kid in here would go, psh, love him. Let me tell you. Like, they know you best, right?

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They know you best, your family does. And James followed his brother as God in the flesh and died as a martyr, praying for his persecutors.

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They threw him off the temple, he broke his legs. And the testimony of the witnesses is that when they got down to him, he pushed himself back up onto his knees and began to pray for those who were killing him.

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All for his faith and his brother as God. What would it take for you to do that and keep your testimony?

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It would have to be true. It would have to be true. I mean, how many of these different religions and cults have risen up in the last 200 years where you have followers of the prophet or the apostles where they say we saw certain things, we saw miracles, or we saw the

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Book of Mormon, and they come back later and say, no, I didn't really see it. See it, I saw it with spiritual eyes, or whatever the case may be.

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Or they're following the prophet, saying this is the man of God. And a couple years later, they're turning against that guy, saying, not really a prophet, charlatan, not true, that happens all the time.

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And these people who knew Jesus best gave their lives to seal their testimonies.

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The transformation of the apostles. Second point, again, this is just, I think, as an aside, a very important one.

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One of the promises from the Old Testament, well, two promises directly linked together.

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Jeremiah 31, 31, and read Ezekiel 36.

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The promise of the messianic kingdom and the new covenant that was gonna be brought in and established through this messianic king was that God was gonna do something different than he had done before with the

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Israelites. And what did they have? They had the Torah written on stone tablets outside of them, exerting pressure down on them, it's out there speaking toward them.

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And God says in Jeremiah 31, 31, that they're all gonna know me. I'm gonna write my law within them.

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I'm gonna write my law inside of them. And related to that is Ezekiel 36, where God says that he's gonna do something new.

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He says this to Israel, listen, you can read it later. He says, not for your sake, O house of Israel, not for your sake.

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He says, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations.

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God says he's gonna act in the new covenant. And what's he gonna do? He says, I'm gonna sprinkle clean water on you so you'll be clean.

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I'm gonna cleanse you from all your idols. He says, I'm gonna put my spirit within you and cause you to observe my statutes.

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So, what would you expect to see? If Jesus is the messianic king, if he accomplished the redemption that God promised, and if he is truly the one who brings that new covenant into force, what would you expect to see in the people of God?

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You would expect to see new hearts, a new way to see the world. You'd expect to see them loving

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God, hating their sin. You'd expect the people of God to be oddly loving this

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Jewish scripture with this Jewish God and his Jewish law. What are

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Christians always pointing to in culture round about us? What should we be pointing to, anyways?

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What are we pointing to if you see a failure in culture around you? What do we point to, ourselves? No, we point to the law of God.

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How do Christians address failures in sin and depravity and decay and darkness in society around us?

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How do we address it? Just with our own subjective opinions, our own likes and dislikes?

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Or how do we address it? We address it with the law word of God. Or I want you to think about your own experience now, just for a moment.

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Think about your own experience. How many of you came to know Christ later on in life?

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So many of you are blessed, blessed. Don't ever, ever, ever think this is a bad thing.

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Like I really wish I had a terrible testimony like that guy did. No, no, if you're raised in a

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Christian home and God spared you from all the garbage that many of us have experienced, you need to praise

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God, that is additional grace many of us never got. Many of us never got.

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And praise God if you're raised in a Christian home under the hearing of the gospel and God saves you early and protects and preserves you from all of the sin and decay and depravity that many of us have fallen into in our lives.

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But how many of you guys have had the experience where you did not know Jesus, you were outside of the church, you were outside of Christ.

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You thought a certain way about the world and what you could do. Live the life you want to live, do your own thing.

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Sexual perversion, lust, lying, hatred, selfishness, bitterness, wrath.

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Whatever the case may be, you lived a certain way and then all of a sudden, and if you know your own heart and mind, you know this, it does not make sense that a person that has a passion to pursue hedonism, self -seeking pleasure.

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They're just in pursuit of what makes them feel good and what they want. All of a sudden, someone came into your life and gave you the story of Jesus and presented the gospel.

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Or someone handed you a tract or you saw a video and you got it explained to you. And all of a sudden, you hear the story of this first century

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Jew who lived perfectly, died, and rose again from the dead. And you heard that your only hope in life and in death was in him and his sacrifice on the cross.

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You're separated from this by over 2 ,000 years. And then all of a sudden, the scales fall off.

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And your heart opens to grieve over your sin. And all of a sudden, you're looking at yourself thinking, what a wretch.

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What a wretched man I am. What a wretched woman I am. God, I've offended you.

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And now you see yourself in a completely different way. You now hate the sin. You hate the old life.

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It grieves you. It keeps you up at night to think about who you were. And yet you've clung to Christ as savior.

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And now the direction of your life, you're saying Christ is the only way. He's the foundation. He's all there is.

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He's the ultimate aim of all of life and all eternity. He's the only thing that ultimately matters.

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Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by him. And you go from being a person who loves perversity, or evil, or darkness, or hatred.

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Nobody can change your mind. You're stubborn, you're prideful. And all of a sudden, your heart changes, your eyes are open.

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And you love the God of Israel because of Jesus.

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And now all of a sudden, and I hope you have this experience. If you don't, you're not a

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Christian. If you don't, you're not a Christian. Don't deceive yourself, don't delude yourself, stop pretending.

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If you don't have this experience, you are not a Christian. All of a sudden now, when you sin, you hate it.

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Not that you don't sin, but when you sin, it grieves you. When you sin, you plead with God.

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God, how did you let this happen? Like, God, why am I doing this? Why am I still thinking these thoughts?

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How could I possibly stumble like this? And you grieve, and you're saying, God, please forgive me.

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I don't want to live this way anymore. And now your life is this life of peace and joy and the salvation you have in Jesus, coinciding with this deep hatred for sin.

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And this longing to be ultimately and finally be set free from your own sin, simple desires and lusts.

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And the evil way that you talk to your wife or your kids, your pride, your selfishness, all of a sudden now, you go from a person who longs for your own pleasure and selfish desires to now you long to please

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God and to love God and to obey his law. Now when you sin, you're on your knees in tears, saying thank you

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Jesus for saving a sinner like me. You see, that's what it looks like when the spirit of God indwells someone, like Ezekiel 36 says, and it says,

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I will cause you to observe my statutes. How does God sanctify his people in a transformation of the world?

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He puts his spirit within them, and all of a sudden, what they used to be able to say, they can't say anymore, right?

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Do you experience, anybody have this experience? I had the most foul, foul, foul mouth before I came to Christ.

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I mean foul. I would embarrass friends in public because I had such a foul mouth. And then after the hearing of the gospel, after my heart changed, it was like I would start to say the word of grief.

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Like God was like grabbing my heart and going, I'll take that, and just a wrench.

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All of a sudden, it didn't feel right having that filth come out of my mouth any longer.

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I couldn't just easily just say horrible, nasty things. All of a sudden, it felt like my tongue was being stopped and tamed, and I didn't even want to speak like that anymore.

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And it wasn't like something like I want to try really, really hard to get a better mouth.

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All of a sudden, I hated my filthy mouth. All of a sudden, the lustful thoughts were not easy anymore, and there were things that you wanted to put down, you wanted to repent of.

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All of a sudden, the heart and the mind changes. That's what it looks like. In Ezekiel 36, when

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God indwells his people, he causes them to observe his statutes. Amen?

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So if some of you are in the room right now thinking, I don't have that experience. I say I believe in Jesus, but I can pretty much do what

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I want, and it doesn't bother me, I want to encourage you to repent and believe the gospel. Turn to Christ and live.

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Trust in Christ as Savior and Lord. We as Christians, by the way, quick note on this. If you grieve over your sin, do you?

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About six of you do, all right. If you grieve over your sin, if you do, you and I need to rejoice in that.

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Because you know who's not grieving over their sin? Unbelievers, atheists.

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Atheists aren't sitting going, man, Jesus, I feel terrible about that. I'm grieved over that.

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If you are in Christ and God is grieving you over your sin, convicting you and guiding you, he's purging you and making you more like Jesus.

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So what we should say when we grieve over our sin is thank you Jesus for the cross and that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, I have peace with God, I have eternal life, it is finished, thank you

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Jesus for saving me from that sin. I rejoice in God creating me a deeper hatred for that sin now.

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Rejoice over the grieving power of the Holy Spirit in your life, amen? Oftentimes, I just want to say this pastorally.

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Christians will misinterpret and sort of transform what the

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Spirit of God is doing within us. When God is now showing us our sin, causing us to hate our sin, all of a sudden we become a bunch of sad saps, sulky in the presence of God who is calling us a child, who's singing over us, who has paid the price.

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He calls us his own, and now we're sulky because now we see our sin and we hate it. We should rejoice that God is causing us to observe his statutes.

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Rejoice over that finished sacrifice on the cross. Get back on your feet, wash your face, and walk with the

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Spirit of God, amen? So the transformation of the world, I'll just do this as quickly as I can because there is really no way, that wasn't by the way, hey, don't laugh,

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Kimmy. I'm not saying we're just now starting the sermon. She's down here laughing, you thought I meant like we're starting the sermon.

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Because you're laughing, now we are. I meant

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I'm gonna give you a couple verses. That's all I meant, Kimmy, I love you. So some scriptures for you to record to pour over later.

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Genesis 49, 10, Isaiah chapter 2, Isaiah chapter 9,

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Isaiah chapter 42, Daniel 7, 13 through 14,

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Psalm 22, 27 through 28, Psalm 72, the number 72, the whole thing.

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Now, there's a couple references for you to pour over and meditate on. And here's what

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I want us to pay attention to as a church. When we talk about the prophecies of the

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Messiah and the Old Testament, they are not just symbols, not just direct prophecy and timing indicators and when he has to appear, they are specific prophecies of what must occur in the kingdom of the

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Messiah, and what you're gonna see throughout the Old Testament. And it is everywhere, it is everywhere, is that the messianic king has a right to the entire world.

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The offspring are gonna like the stars of heaven, like the sand on the seashore. You've already heard that one. The knowledge of God is gonna cover the earth like the waters cover the sea.

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Psalm 72, he shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. Psalm 22, all the families of the earth are gonna return to worship

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Yahweh. Isaiah chapter 2, that God is gonna cause the nations to stream up to God's mountain.

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The Torah would go forth from Zion, that's the place of the people of God. Isaiah chapter 9, of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

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It's a kingdom that increases, it grows. On the throne of David, to establish it with justice and righteousness forevermore, the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will do this. Daniel 7, 13 through 14, this messianic figure, the son of man, would come up to the ancient of days, would be given a kingdom.

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And his kingdom would never pass away. His dominion would be forever. He would receive all the tribes, tongues, peoples, nations, languages.

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They would all come to worship, to serve him, the messianic king.

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So you hearing that? It's the whole world, it's all the nations. The families of the earth are gonna return to worship

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God. This is an all -encompassing rule of the Messiah. And so listen, please, if Jesus is

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Mashiach, then he must fulfill those messianic prophecies, or he's not the

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Messiah. Or he's not the Messiah. And so, quickly just ask the question, quickly ask the question.

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Did Jesus believe that he had brought the messianic kingdom?

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Was he preaching it? Was he teaching it? Quickly go to Matthew chapter four,

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Matthew chapter four. Now I'm gonna just highlight verse eight and on.

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This is the temptation in the wilderness. You know the scene, it's a famous scene.

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40 days, 40 nights, he's recapitulating the life of Israel, where they wandered in the wilderness, disobeyed

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God. Now Jesus, the true and perfect Israel, is now doing what

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Israel failed to do. But, here it is, did you notice the interesting nature of the final temptation from the devil?

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What does he say to Jesus? Matthew four, verse eight, again the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

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And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Now, stop there for a moment.

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Why is Satan offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world for just one action?

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Just worship me. Why is he doing that? Because Satan knows his Bible. The Messiah was going to receive all the kingdoms of the world.

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The nations were coming to God through him. That's why Jesus came. That's why it's such a potent temptation.

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Because Satan is saying, all right, Jesus, here they are. It's what you came for. You came for the whole world, all the kingdoms of the world.

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Well, I've got something for you, Jesus. I'll give you everything you came for. No cross, no death, no pain, no blood, no sacrifice, nothing.

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Jesus, I will give you the messianic kingdom that you came for, all the kingdoms.

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All you have to do is just one thing, just one.

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Fall down and worship me. And then Jesus, as the perfect Adam and the true and perfect Israel, he does what

01:00:02

Adam should have done and Israel should have done in their testing. And Jesus said, be gone,

01:00:10

Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

01:00:18

It's a potent temptation to tell Jesus, the world you came for, all the kingdoms of the world, you're going to rule over the nations.

01:00:27

You can do it very easily by just worshiping me. I'll give them all to you right now. No problems. And Jesus says, be gone,

01:00:33

Satan, you should worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Now notice that Satan leaves him. Jesus is ministered to.

01:00:41

And then in Isaiah, sorry, Matthew 4, 14, Isaiah chapter 9 is quoted.

01:00:51

Did you notice that? Anybody ever noticed that before? If you were here like 20 years ago when we started

01:00:58

Matthew, you probably remember the message I gave. That isn't it interesting that Matthew knows the significance?

01:01:07

And so when Jesus comes out of the wilderness, he comes out of the wilderness, then we have

01:01:12

Isaiah 9 quoted. Now let's see if you've been following along the last couple of weeks.

01:01:19

This is from the first part of Isaiah 9. What specific prophecy is in Isaiah 9, 6 through 7?

01:01:28

Some of you guys are cheating. You're looking at your Bibles. No, no, eyes, eyes, eyes. What prophecy is in Isaiah 9, 6 through 7?

01:01:35

What is it? Son is coming, the child is coming. And who is the son and child? El Gabor, the mighty

01:01:42

God. It is Yahweh himself coming as a son and as a child. So the prophecy now fulfilled in Jesus is highlighted by Matthew.

01:01:51

It's come. The kingdom has arrived. That kingdom promise is here in Jesus. But notice in verse 17 this.

01:01:59

What is Jesus preaching after the temptation in the wilderness? From that time,

01:02:06

Jesus began to preach saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hands.

01:02:11

What is kingdom of heaven? Kingdom of God. What does that mean? The rule of God is at hand.

01:02:18

And I want us to note something very important because it's going to come up next week. What is

01:02:24

Jesus preaching? What is he preaching? The kingdom of heaven is at hand and verse 23.

01:02:35

And he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the what?

01:02:46

The gospel of the what? Now stop. Stop. As Christians, we're going to do this next week.

01:02:55

As Christians, we typically can explain when someone says, what's the gospel? We go, okay, best way

01:03:02

I can do this. We explain God, our sin. And we say Jesus, who he is. We say he lived, he died, he rose again.

01:03:07

And through faith in him, you'll have eternal life. Repent and believe and trust in Jesus.

01:03:14

You'll have peace with God. And someone says, well, how does that happen? Well, it's the gospel. It's through faith. It's apart from works.

01:03:20

It's all what Christ has accomplished. He gives you his righteousness as a gift. He takes away all of your sin.

01:03:26

And we typically explain the gospel that way. And it's good. That's true. All that's right and true and has to be done.

01:03:34

But we oftentimes have no ability as Christians today in the evangelical west to explain what the gospel of the kingdom is.

01:03:46

Because when Jesus comes out of the temptation, what's he preaching? The gospel of the what?

01:03:53

Kingdom. Can you explain, brothers and sisters, can you explain why the kingdom of God, the rule of God, the rule of the

01:04:05

Messiah, why that is euangelion? Why that is gospel?

01:04:14

If someone were to say to you, hey, how's the kingdom good news? What's good about the news of the kingdom?

01:04:21

What's good about it? Would you be able to explain? I hope that through this study and learning these scriptures from the

01:04:29

Old Testament, you will understand why it is such good news for the world that Jesus is on the messianic throne today.

01:04:39

It is good news for the world because it means salvation for the world. It's salvation for the nations. Redemption now being poured out across the earth.

01:04:47

And it means that because Jesus is on his throne, he's king of kings and Lord of lords. He'll dish out historic blessings and judgment upon nations.

01:04:58

The nations are called to obey him. He can raise up a king or bring down a king. He's the ruler of the world.

01:05:05

And it says that he will establish justice in the earth. He will do it.

01:05:10

And that he is going to reign until all of his enemies are under his feet as a footstool for his feet.

01:05:16

It's good news for the world that Jesus is on his throne. Amen? It's the gospel of a kingdom.

01:05:23

But quick references here. Did Jesus believe that he had brought the rule of God into history?

01:05:29

That his kingdom was a present reality? I want to point you to something you already know. It's an easy one. In the same gospel,

01:05:35

Matthew chapter 10. Sorry, 12, 28. They're accusing Jesus of casting out demons by the prince of demons himself.

01:05:48

They're saying, of course he's doing it. Of course Jesus is casting out demons. He's buddies with the devil.

01:05:55

That's how he's doing it. I mean, that must be how he's doing it. And so Jesus says to them, if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

01:06:14

So brothers and sisters, can we answer the question really fast? Did Jesus believe that the rule of God had broken into history?

01:06:21

And that it was a present reality? Let's answer the question. If then, if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God, the rule of God has come upon you.

01:06:33

Question, did he do it through the spirit of God? Yes. Then the rule of God had come upon them.

01:06:40

Did Jesus believe that his rule now was going to spread over the nations? Well, his marching orders to us,

01:06:48

Matthew 28, 18 through 20 is what? All authority in heaven and on earth has been, past tense, given to me.

01:07:00

And he says this, therefore go. Go, because of that, and make disciples of what, everybody?

01:07:09

All the nations. So did Jesus believe that he had the messianic authority then?

01:07:16

Did he believe that the nations belonged to him then? And did he believe now that those messianic prophecies were going to be fulfilled in his ministry and mission?

01:07:27

Obviously, because he sent the church out to now go win the nations to God. And he said that he had all authority, not some of it, all of it in heaven and on earth.

01:07:36

That's a right to the messianic king. Now, some references for you all.

01:07:43

Note something. What did Paul preach and teach in his ministry?

01:07:49

I'll give you two things quickly in terms of transformation of the world, the goal of the gospel, and what

01:07:56

Jesus and the apostles thought. Quickly go to Acts 16. Acts 16, just one quick reference here.

01:08:08

This is the end of Acts. It ends abruptly with the apostle

01:08:16

Paul still alive, not dead yet. Paul's still alive. Acts 16, sorry, did

01:08:25

I say 16? Acts 28. I'm sorry, everybody. Acts 28, verse 30.

01:08:36

Luke writes the gospel of Luke in Acts, two volumes.

01:08:43

And interestingly, he finishes Acts with Paul still alive. We know that Paul was killed during Nero's reign in the 60s of the first century, which means that if Luke wrote

01:08:56

Luke and Acts and Acts finishes with Paul still alive, then Luke and Acts were written long before the destruction of the

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Jewish temple. One more note. If Luke borrows material or gets eyewitness information from either the

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Markan tradition or the Methaian tradition, that means that those gospels go back even further.

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So this idea of the guy, I saw Bill Maher this week. I really would love to talk to that guy.

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If someone can make it happen, make it happen. Arguing that the gospels are written long after the time of Jesus and some other century.

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Clearly, the man is ignorant about the Bible and its historicity. But anyways, in Acts 28, 30, it says about Paul, he lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the

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Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance. Pause. It must be meaningful to the early church, to Luke, to make sure that it's noted that what

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Paul was preaching and proclaiming and teaching before he dies is the kingdom of God, the rule of God.

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See, that's what he believed about Jesus as Messiah, is that he was the king of the world and he brought the kingdom of God.

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What is he preaching there? The rule of the Messiah, the rule of God. Two more references for you.

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Just read Romans chapter 1 and Romans 16. And please note something, that Paul, when he explains the gospel, he begins

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Romans 1, that they've received verse 5, grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.

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That's how he starts his explanation of the gospel. This is what we're doing. We're going to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.

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And then he ends his explanation of the gospel. Go to Romans 16, verse 25.

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Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ago, but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal

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God to bring about the obedience of faith. That's what

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Paul says. This is the goal of the gospel. It's what the Old Testament promised.

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All the nations are coming to God. They're coming to the obedience of Jesus Christ. We're bringing the nations to Yahweh.

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That's what Jesus is doing. His kingdom has arrived and we're gathering the nations.

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It is a, ready, command of the eternal God. That's what

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God is doing. And so question, okay, let's put it this way.

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One of the things that you can note in a conversation with an Orthodox Jew is they will be struggling with their plight as Jews.

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They'll struggle with the destruction, the pain, the misery that they've suffered. They'll struggle with what they think is the necessity of a third temple.

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Pray to God they never build that. It would have been an offense to God to build that because Jesus is the true temple. If they sacrifice any other animals for atonement, they're saying they deny

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Christ. But you will grieve, of course, hearing them talk about the plight of the Jewish people.

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And oftentimes, Jews will say, when you point out all these passages of Jesus as Messiah, Jews will often say, oh,

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Jesus is that Gentile Messiah, right? Like we're

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Jews. We don't believe in Jesus. He's for you Gentiles. He's like a

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Gentile prophet. And I always think that's so compelling. When they say things like that, he's like, that's the

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Jewish, that's the Gentile thing. That's for the, that's for the non -Jews. Like all these non -Jews globally are following Yeshua.

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They're following Jesus as Mashiach. But you know, we're Jews. And I want to say to them, do you read your

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Old Testament? The Old Testament said that the

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Jewish Messiah would bring the Gentiles to Yahweh. So if you see

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Gentiles globally worshiping Yahweh through Jesus, it should scream at you that Jesus is the promised

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Messiah. We should be excited. We should be so excited to see that globally people of pagan ancestors and heritage are worshiping and loving the

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Lord God of Israel because the scriptures say all the families of the earth are going to return to worship

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Yahweh. And by the way, by the way, you want the antidote, the missile, the nuclear missile to racism, so -called, that kind of hatred, you need

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Jesus. You need Jesus because the story of Jesus obliterates the hateful distinctions that people like to make against one another in this world.

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You're not going to get racial equality and unity through Marx or Engels or any of the other social justice warriors nonsense.

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They don't have a foundation for peace. This room right now is filled with people who come from tribes that were probably at war with each other at some point.

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This room is filled with people who have ancestors who oppressed the ancestors of brothers and sisters in this room.

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And yet here we are, unified, loving one another as brothers and sisters in Jesus because we have been brought together from the tribes, tongues, peoples, languages into one body because of Jesus, the

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Jewish Messiah. We worship the one true and living God and we love God's law and we have a unity of faith that is unbreakable in Jesus Christ.

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There is neither male nor female, slave nor Greek, Jew, none of those things, those distinctions matter, nothing, not at all in the body of Christ.

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We're all one in Christ Jesus, amen? Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. This room is screaming to us the transformation of the world, amen?

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Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you, God, for the promise of the

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Messiah. Thank you, Jesus, you fulfilled all the promises and you are fulfilling them even now.