Sermon: Absolute Proof of Christianity

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So, thank you again for having me back. It's a real gift to be able to bring

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God's Word to you. I am very, very humbled that you asked me to come back and very, very grateful to be part of this week with you guys, just in terms of this really raw moment that we're all in, and I just am grateful and humbled for the opportunity to be able to grieve with you and to be able to share

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God's Word with you. Before we get started into the next part of the message,

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I want to point you guys somewhere. It's tough, I have to confess. It's kind of nerve -wracking, honestly, to come and speak to a youth group, teenagers, young adults, and to try to develop in you guys a passion for the defense of your faith and the love of Jesus Christ and to try to put underneath you everything that you need to get started in this whole entire pursuit of defending your faith.

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This is one of the most important things, as Christians, that we could be involved in. I think it's important, not just for the world, to be able to know what

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I believe, why I believe it, but it's important for you. It's important for you to know what you believe and why you believe it, because let me just say this.

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The Christian faith is intellectually rigorous. It is not a blind leap of faith, and let me just say that apologetics, learning to defend your faith and learning why we believe what we believe as Christians, is the stuff of life.

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It's the stuff that meets you in these moments that we're all in right now, the difficult moment we're in where there's loss, where there is a collapse in our lives.

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I mean, apologetics is more than just arguing with your token atheist family member or your buddy at school or something like that.

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Apologetics is really the stuff of life. This is the stuff that's going to meet you in the hard moments in life.

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These are glorious moments, this worship of God together as God's people.

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These are glorious, happy, joyful moments, but there are times where we walk through deserts, and you and I learning about apologetics, how to defend our faith, is again, more than just for the other person.

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It's for me. It's for you. And I do want us to go to the text of God's Word to get underneath us some footing, some ground as to why we would care about this at all.

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And so to do that, let's start with prayer, and then let's go to 1 Peter 3 15. So let's pray.

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Father, I want to ask God that you'd please bless now as we open your Word, as we talk about Jesus.

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I pray that you again, God, would speak through me to your people, that you would illuminate your

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Word. Bring it, God, to our hearts and break apart the stone that's there and give us hearts of flesh where there were hearts of stone.

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And I just pray, God, that you would allow me in this time to decrease and for Christ to increase,

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God, that you would get me out of the way, that people would leave this conference we're having together, the time we're having together, it would leave in Christ, that they would leave,

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Lord, loving you, remembering your name, and forgetting mine. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So 1 Peter 3 15 is the charter verse of Christian apologetics.

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And so here's, again, don't let the word throw you, don't check out because it seems like a word you're unfamiliar with, if you are unfamiliar with it.

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Apologetics is simply the the art and the science of defending the

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Christian faith. Apologetics has within it the Greek word, the root Greek word, apologia, and that is the word that means reasoned defense.

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And so the Apostle Peter uses that word, and so that's where we get the word apologia, the name of our church is

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Apologia Church, our TV show is Apologia TV, our radio show is Apologia Radio.

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We like the word. It means a lot to us. And so if you go to 1 Peter 3 15, and you can see in the text

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Peter's usage of it. Now, as we spring into this, let me just get us again to the text.

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Let's put some flesh on these bones, let's make sure that we understand that we're breathing the same air that these people breathed on the same earth, with the same types of lives.

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And so let's point to who wrote it. So quick Bible trivia, who wrote 1

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Peter 3 15? Peter! These are easy questions, you just had lunch, okay?

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So we're not gonna make it hard today. Peter wrote 1 Peter 3 15. Now, here's the thing. What event in Peter's life is he notorious for?

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What event in Peter's life is the event that everybody remembers? What's that?

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Denial of Christ. Didn't have to work for it. It's as easy as Peter wrote Peter, okay? Easy. We all remember that Peter is famous for the moment in his life where Christ needed him the most, and he denies even knowing

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Jesus. Now, by the way, Jesus had prophesied, had told Peter that this was gonna happen. He was gonna deny him, and Peter did.

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Peter didn't follow Jesus in that moment. He actually denied that he even knew Jesus. And he did it, really, if you research the text, he did it with an earshot of Jesus.

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So Jesus is really nearby, and Peter's denying he knows Jesus with an earshot of Jesus, essentially.

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Now, grapple with that for a second. You're reading a text in 1 Peter 3 15 that is written by the guy who denied that he even knew

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Jesus. Something happened. Something huge happened in Peter's life that transformed him for good.

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He went from a man who had a chronic case of stick -your -foot -in -your -mouth -itis to a guy that denies that he even knows

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Jesus and does it in front of a servant girl, so he's afraid of a girl, and he denies that he knows

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Jesus. He goes from that to being restored to Jesus. Jesus loves him, has mercy on him, and restores him, to being a giant of the faith, and to actually writing a book of the

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Bible. And it's really interesting, because the guy that actually says all Christians are to be ready with a reasoned defense, an apologia to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's within you, the guy that said that is the same guy that denies that he even knows

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Jesus. So here's what I'm saying. It is possible to go from a place in your life of total betrayal of Jesus, of sin against the

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Master, to go from a place of completely blowing it, to be a professing believer in church, part of the people of God, and to utterly and undeniably blow it with Jesus.

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To go from there, after experiencing Christ and his resurrection, to a place of being a giant in the faith, and knowing

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God so intimately that he was even used by God to write a book of the

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Bible. Two books. 1st and 2nd Peter. That's big.

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So 1st Peter 3 .15, first foundations. Let's break this verse into three sections.

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I want you to remember these three sections, okay? Because this is the charter verse of Christian apologetics. It's one of the reasons we do what we do.

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It's a specific command in Scripture. You are to be ready with a reasoned defense for your faith.

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So the first part of the verse, I don't want you to forget because it's this, I'd say it's the thing that starts the whole thing.

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It sets the whole thing off. If you forget this first part of the verse, then you blow up Christian apologetics.

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It becomes ultimately incomplete, it becomes inconsistent, and it becomes ultimately a moral issue.

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It becomes an issue, I believe, ultimately of sin. You can defend the faith in a wrong way.

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You can defend the faith in a poor way. You can defend the faith in an immoral way.

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What's the verse say as it starts off? It says, first, to set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts.

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So what's the first part of Christian apologetics, defending your faith? Is to start the question of defending your faith with a commitment to Jesus first as Lord.

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Now, I'm bringing this up for a reason. I want you to grapple with this for just a second, okay? I told you in the last session about the myth of what?

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Say it loud, guys. The myth of neutrality. Nobody is neutral. Everybody has a worldview.

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Everybody has a context, a lens through which they see the world and live and move in the world. But one thing you need to also grapple with is that the

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Bible says that everybody knows the true God. The problem is not evidence.

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The problem is not light or lack of light. The problem is a suppression of the truth.

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We know the true God. The Bible says that we are in one of two representatives, either in Adam and therefore fallen, condemned, or in Jesus and given the gift of eternal life and brought to life.

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One of two representatives. We are not neutral. We're not supposed to be. Jesus says you're either with me or you are what?

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Against me. Now, the unbeliever is not neutral and you shouldn't be. Remember that.

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So when we approach apologetics, defending our faith, believe me, if you listen to Apologia Radio, if you watch our stuff online, you're going to begin to develop this more fully and understand why

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I'm so stressing this point. In the defense of our faith, it is vitally important that we start with a commitment first to Messiah as Lord, as God, as Supreme, as Master, and then we get to the next part.

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So first part, set Christ apart as Lord. Second part is to always be ready with an apologia, a reasoned defense, to everyone who asks of us a reason for the hope that's within us.

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Now the word there, I want to just unpack a little bit more, apologia, apologia, however you want to say it, okay?

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The word there is the word for reasoned defense in its courtroom kind of language. I want you to picture for a moment, you and I are in court standing before a judge.

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Now when you go into court and you stand before a judge, you do so with reasoned arguments.

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Nobody goes into a courtroom, hopefully, you shouldn't go into a courtroom willy -nilly, right?

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Sort of cavalier before the judge like, hey, you should believe me, cuz, cuz, right?

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Like you go into the courtroom with what? Eyewitness testimony, reasons, you have actual arguments that are coherent and make sense.

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You go in with a reasoned defense for your case. That's the word that Peter uses. Every Christian, God says, is to have a reasoned defense.

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Now listen, this will not cut it and it's not Christianity. You've got to grab hold of this and don't let go.

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Because it is, it is part of the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age with Christians. People say it all the time,

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I can't tell you how many times I've heard this when I've watched people, Christians, defend their faith.

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People will often say things like, well, it's just faith. You got to accept it by faith. You got it, you got it, it's just faith.

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I was, again, as a hospital chaplain, I would oftentimes instigate fights.

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In the hospital, I would put up posters around the hospital. We always had new people flowing in every day, every single day, new people coming in, lots of atheists, unchurched people.

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So I used to try to create a little bit of righteous controversy. I'd put up flyers all over the hospital that said something like, come and refute the pastor tonight at 6 p .m.

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Right? And I would just sort of goad them into it, like, come and squash this pastor, right?

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Just to get them, most of them were like in detox medication and they didn't really want to do anything, but they, if they had an opportunity to take down the pastor, they were showing up.

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So I'd put them all over and say, meet here, and I would invite these atheists and unbelievers to challenge the

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Christian faith. Challenge me, refute me in front of everybody. And they bit all the time.

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They would love to come in and try to refute the pastor. Now, what I would often see is, as we got these rooms together and you would see all these

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Christians in the room, professing Christians in the room, and all these unbelievers, and the unbelievers would be throwing out charges, I would often hear the

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Christians say something like, you just have to accept it by faith. You just have to accept it by faith.

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It's just about faith. And I want to say this, the Christian faith is not that. Yes, the

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Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. I want to say this, though.

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The Christian faith is not, is not a blind leap of faith into darkness.

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The Christian faith is rooted in objective truth. It is a rigorous intellectual faith.

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It is the only thing that provides the preconditions of intelligibility for all of life.

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Our faith is not a meaningless blind faith. It is a solid rock that you stand on.

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And Christians are not to be the kind of people that engage in what's called fideism.

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And that's just ultimately, it's just faith. You just have to believe it. That's not Christianity. It's not.

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And the Apostle Peter tells Christians, you be ready with an apologia, a reasoned defense for the hope that's within you, to everyone who asks of you a reason for the hope that's within you.

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Now, the third part of the verse I want us to capture, I mentioned here in the Q &A, which went by really fast, so I apologize for blitzing you guys like that, but the third part is the last part of that verse we often get, and it says this, we are to defend our faith with, anyone know?

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What's that? Gentleness and reverence. Gentleness and respect.

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So first part, set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts. That's before anything else.

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He's the Lord. He's the master. He's the one I submit to. Next one is to be ready to give an apologia, a reasoned defense, which means that you and I need to spend enough time in this understanding how we defend our faith.

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And the third part is to always do it with gentleness and with reverence, understanding that the point is to win people and not arguments.

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Amen? Now, here's the one thing I really love about Christianity. How many of you guys were raised in the church?

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How many of you guys were raised in the church? Praise God. Raise your hands higher. I want to see that again. Praise God.

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Okay. Now, I was not raised in the church. I was raised in a home with a dad that was hostile to the

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Christian faith in many respects. My mom was kind of mildly woo -woo spiritual. When things would go bad, it was sort of spiritual.

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I knew there was a person named Jesus. I knew that people said he rose from the dead. And I knew that that book that collected dust over there on the stereo, no matter where it went in the world,

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I knew that that book was his book. That's essentially the content of my understanding of Jesus. Now, I came to Christ later on in life.

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God changed my life and my heart. And one of the things that I absolutely fell in love with regarding the

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Christian faith is just how intellectually rigorous it is. Stunning.

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Really. And I've always had a passion for understanding why we believe what we believe.

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Now, capture this for a moment. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, the life.

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No man comes to the Father but by me. There's a little part there in the middle there I want to hang on to right now. Jesus says he's the truth.

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God is truth. Jesus is the truth, which means, watch this, Christians have a reason for being absolutely committed to truth.

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Now, when you guys go into a hostile context these days in a nation that was started by Christians, that's an undeniable fact.

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This nation, San Diego, exists because of Christians. You're welcome.

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Okay? When this nation was started by Christians, now we have a nation that's broken covenant with God and we live in a context that is very hostile to the

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Christian faith. If you go to public school today, you know what I'm talking about.

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They don't submit to Christ as a foundation of knowledge. They don't believe Paul when he says that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

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They try to have so -called knowledge apart from God as the foundation and they run off into all kinds of interesting views of how we should live, what are our origins, and they tell you as a

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Christian that you are the one who is not walking in the truth. When in reality, if you think about the two perspectives,

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Christians who stand on the Word of God and the biblical worldview and the unbeliever who rejects

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God, it is the Christian who has a basis to cling to the truth and to love truth and to demand the truth.

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It is the unbeliever who doesn't have a workable worldview to even begin to speak about why we should pursue truth in the first place.

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I want you to consider something. In history, Christians were the movers and shakers of culture. This is really important.

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Don't forget this. In history, the Christians were the ones that were developing civilizations and developing cultures, moving art and science and reason and education to where it is.

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If you think about history, Oxford, Cambridge, some of the most renowned and respected institutions of our day, listen, were not started on the basis of an atheistic worldview.

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Those institutions were Christian through and through and they were dedicated to the truth and the knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord.

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Did you know that? Did you know that some of these atheist professors that work at Oxford and Cambridge and borrow from the

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Christian worldview in order to do what they're doing, they work in institutions where when they go to work, they have to walk under pathways that say things like, in his light, we see light.

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It's the biblical worldview that gave the world these institutions. Harvard, Yale, Brown University, all these universities,

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Christian universities, made by Christians for Christians for the advancement of the

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Christian gospel. Did you know that when the Pilgrims came over, it wasn't merely to escape religious persecution?

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When the Christians came over and they came here to start a civilization, did you know that they did so because they believed that Jesus Christ was

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King and Lord over the world and that the good news of his kingdom and salvation was going to go to the ends of the earth and that Jesus was going to win the world before he returned?

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Did you know they believed that? And did you know that that's why they came over to America? One of the fundamental reasons is that they understood that they were spreading the kingdom of the

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Messiah to this part of the world. Christians have always been dedicated to the advancement of the kingdom of God and the heralding of truth.

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And so I want to say this to you today. If we're going to be Christians, if we're going to be committed to Jesus Christ as Lord, we have to embrace truth, love truth, herald truth, cling to the truth, and stand on the truth.

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God's revelation. I want to leave you guys with this today. I want to, I hope and pray that in a very limited time we've had together that you guys will grapple with a simple truth.

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One, nobody's neutral. Jesus says, don't be, and the

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Bible says they're not neutral. Stand on God's Word without any shame.

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Stay committed to it. The Bible teaches very clearly what is true about the world, what is true about God, what is true about us.

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As a Christian you stand on that revelation and you reason from it.

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The unbeliever stands on their worldview, you stand on the biblical worldview, and you let the two come into collision with each other.

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That's how we communicate the gospel faithfully in our culture. Not by saying things like, well, maybe it's possible

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God doesn't exist. The Bible does not reason in that way and actually does quite the opposite.

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It says this, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Now, don't get it confused.

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When the Bible says you're a fool for saying there's no God, it's not engaging in capricious name -calling.

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The Bible doesn't do that. God doesn't have to do that. He doesn't have the trash talk in that way. Being a fool in the

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Bible is more than an intellectual challenge. It's a challenge of the heart. It's moral indictment to be a fool to say that there is no

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God. As a believer, I want to say stand on God's revelation. When you stand on God's revelation, you have a basis for science, the uniformity in nature, that the future will be like the past, that science is even possible.

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You have a basis for universal laws of logic that are necessary, unchanging.

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You have a basis for ethics, that there are absolute oughts in the world.

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Let me give you one last thing to stand on and we're going right into it today. And we're gonna ask the question, is Jesus truly the

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Messiah? But let me ask you a question. Hopefully, this would be a way we can actually grab hold of this.

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Okay, there we go. This works just fine. Okay, so here's a platform I'm standing on. This is the biblical worldview.

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This is God's revelation. I'm standing on this platform as a Christian, okay? I'm saying things about the world.

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Now, what I say about the world is supposed to be consistent with what I'm standing on. If you stand on God's revelation, what you say coming out of your mouth ought to be consistent with what you're supposed to be standing on.

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That's the biblical worldview. If you're an unbeliever, you're also standing on a platform. It's a worldview. You're not neutral.

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You have a worldview. You have a view of origins. You have a view of ethics, how we're supposed to live our lives. You have a view of how we're supposed to know what we know.

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You have a worldview. Everybody does, okay? Now, there's the biblical worldview.

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Here's the unbeliever's worldview. I want you to ask yourself a question. Just to show you how this works.

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This is perfect. This is, okay. There's so many ways we can do this, and this is perfect.

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This last week, our nation experienced a pretty difficult tragedy.

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You know what I'm talking about? What am I talking about? See, you knew it.

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In a word, you knew it. Orlando. It's a symbol now, right?

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Orlando. People just know Orlando. It was a place people go for vacation, maybe they have family that lives there, and now the word becomes a symbol of a tragedy.

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Orlando. 9 -11 worked the same way. September the 11th.

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It's just a day. Now, it's a symbol. A symbol of what? Tragedy. Murder. So in the last week, our nation has had to face the awful news about a man walking into a club and injuring dozens of people, killing, murdering, at least 50, right?

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Here's the two platforms. Now, here's the thing. In our nation, everybody's grieving over it.

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Believer and unbeliever alike grieving over it, saying awful, murder, terrible things.

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Unbeliever. Believer. Unbiblical worldview. Biblical worldview.

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Now, if I stand on the biblical worldview, and I look into Orlando, do

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I have a right to condemn Orlando? What happened there?

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You can answer. God's Word says we're made in the image of God. God's Word says you shall not murder.

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Right? God's Word says love your neighbor as you love yourself. I have an objective basis, standing on God's revelation, to call that evil, to demand justice.

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I want you to answer the question, if I say Orlando is to be condemned, what happened there is to be condemned, am

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I being consistent with what I'm standing on? If I say this, what happened in Orlando is absolutely immoral, am

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I being consistent with what I'm standing on? Okay. Now, stand over here on the unbelievers platform.

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He says that our ancestors used to be bacteria. We're in a purposeless, meaningless universe.

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He looks into Orlando, standing on his worldview. I want you to ask yourself the question, is what

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I'm saying consistent with what I'm standing on? Orlando was absolutely evil.

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It is absolutely wrong to do what happened in Orlando. Am I being consistent with what

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I'm standing on? Okay, let's try it this way. Ready? I'm standing on the unbelievers worldview.

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Our ancestors were fish. We're in a purposeless universe. All that raises time and matter acting, sorry, time and chance acting on matter.

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Okay, ready? It is an absolute moral requirement that you are to love your neighbor and not eat them.

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Standing on atheism, is that consistent? Given atheism, why is it immoral for me to eat my neighbor?

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Why is it demanded of me that I love my neighbor rather than eat them? Given atheism.

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Now, stand over here in the biblical worldview. Standing on Christ, standing on God's revelation. Ready? It is absolutely true that you are to love your neighbor and not eat them.

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Am I being consistent? Come on now, am I? Okay, because I'm standing on God's revelation.

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Because I've set Christ apart as Lord. I'm standing on his word. I'm not buying into the unbeliever system.

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I'm not pretending neutrality. I'm gonna bring God's word and his worldview smack up against their world and I'm gonna expose the futility of rejecting

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Jesus Christ so that I can call someone to repentance and faith and to show them that they really do know

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God. Every time an unbeliever cries over Orlando, they are displaying something and are showing it.

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It's coming up. Their hands have been removed off the suppression because the image of God is pouring out of them because when they weep over Orlando, what they're doing is showing that they do not really believe what they say they believe.

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You can't live in God's world consistently as an unbeliever. You can pretend the unbeliever says

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Orlando was awful. It was murder. It should never be done. It's heartbreaking. They're tears and you go, hey, excuse me

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You look like you're standing on the Christian world right now. They go. No, I'm not. There's no God. There's no meaning. There's no purpose. Do you see?

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The unbeliever all day long is suppressing the truth, suppressing the truth, suppressing the truth. It's our job to expose it to show them the reason for the suppression is sin against their

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Creator and that there's hope in Jesus Christ and forgiveness in life only in Jesus. Do you see?

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Do I really only have nine minutes left? Oh Wow, I haven't even started yet.

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I'm just gonna go. Okay Let me do something fast. I'll do something. I'll do something fast. I want you guys just to have a

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Some place to plant yourself and this is a huge study anyways So I would encourage you to listen a little advertisement to Apologia Radio Apologia radio .com

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and go to Apologia Studios on YouTube You can also start being all access with Apologia Radio You partner with our ministry and you get all the apologetics academies that we've done and all the other teaching that we do

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So if you want more Let this just whet your appetite. Okay. I've also done messages on this particular topic so you can topics you can get more

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Okay. So now we stand in God's revelation. And what do we discover? We discovered that in God's Word long before Jesus touched the earth the

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Bible told us every detail necessary to know Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord long before he came now stop and Do not let that be something that you go.

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That's cool That's not just cool. That is awesome.

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That is earth -shattering But listen man -made religious texts try this.

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I'll give you one example quickly Joseph Smith Prophet of Mormonism started the

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Mormon Church officially the Church of Christ 1830s Gave us the Book of Mormon, which he said he translated from the golden plates

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That were written in Reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics Joseph Smith tried many times to give prophecy about the future and He failed over and over and over again

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He said that Jesus Christ was going to return in their lifetime to judge the entire earth before they all died

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It didn't happen. He said that nobody would be able to kill him until he finished all of his work

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He never completed the Pearl of Great Price, which is supposed to be divine revelation. So that's a failed prophecy

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He said that they were going to build a temple in Jackson County, Missouri Before that general that generation had all died never happened failed prophecy after failed prophecy after failed prophecy the

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Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter 18 verses 20 through 22 If you want to know if somebody's a prophet of God if they truly represent the

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Living God the Sovereign God Then they have to have one hundred percent prophetic fulfillment perfect prophecy

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Fulfillment Deuteronomy 18 20 through 22. They say he says and if you should say in your heart How shall we know the word which the

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Lord hath not spoken? He said when the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the thing follows not nor comes to pass

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He says that is the word which the Lord hath not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously

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You shall not be afraid of him all that to say God is sovereign.

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Amen. Come on now. God is supposed to be a Pentecostal Church Assemblies of God For real, okay

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Y 'all are acting like Presbyterians today, okay Okay God says in his word

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That he's sovereign. He rules over all and he actually in Isaiah chapters 40 through 46 Contrasts himself with false gods by saying to the false gods.

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Okay, if you're a god tell me the future What is it he goes and tell me the past and ready why

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Why it happened the way that it did only God can do that because only God is the sovereign and God Displays that he's the true and living

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God and this is his word by the fact that he tells us history before it happens and he Says this get it right every single time or you're a false prophet.

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You want to know how you take the Bible down? First of all, you have to borrow from the Bible in a biblical worldview and even in order to even argue for truth

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But the Bible states that If there's a single false prophecy false prophet

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That's it. So you could demonstrate this book to be mythology if you could show false prophecy.

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That's the Bible's own standard and The Bible tells us every detail necessary to know

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Jesus long before he comes to this earth Did you know that the Bible tells you in the Old Testament?

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Who is coming where he's coming from why he's coming what he's gonna accomplish and how and when

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So every detail necessary to know Jesus as Moshiach as the Messiah is in your

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Old Testament Let's just do a few here real fast Messianic prophecies is Jesus the one that he claimed to be

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Let me just if you want something to work with I'm gonna answer the question with an across with an acrostic most

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Definitely. So here's the question is Jesus the Messiah. My answer is most

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I couldn't work with Yes, why yes was hard. So most definitely M Messianic prophecies fulfilled

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Oh the original life of Jesus s the symbols fulfilled in Jesus Christ and T is the transformation of the world

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M OST Messianic prophecies original life symbols fulfilled

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Transformation of the life of the apostles of the world number one Messianic prophecies Who is coming

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Isaiah 9 6 through 7 quick question. How many gods are there? Is this seriously like an assemblies of God Church?

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Are you all pretending? Okay, how many gods are there? the Fundamental part of our faith is monotheism

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There is only one God and don't let anybody tell you that that's normal in the history of religion

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That is unusual one God is unique Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4 is the prayer that Jesus would have prayed and every faithful Jew would have prayed in the morning and evening prayers the

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Shema and it's not just a Word about the unity of God.

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It's actually a statement of allegiance to God Here's the Shema here.

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Oh Israel the Lord our God the Lord is One and you shall love the

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Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength Jesus says the

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Shema would have been quoted by every faithful Jew It was there. It was their statement of allegiance to God the one true and living

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God. There is only one God Shema Israel Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh Echad here.

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Oh Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one and the Bible says in Isaiah 9 6 through 7

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Long before Jesus comes here as a monotheistic Jew writing this

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Least 600 years before Christ listen That a child is coming a son is coming and you shall call his name wonderful counselor

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El Gabor the mighty God The father of eternity of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end

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Do you know what that means? Here's a monotheistic Jews a hundred a Jew a hundreds of years before Jesus Listen saying that the mighty

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God the eternal one is coming as a son and as a child How you like them apples?

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the one true and living God Coming as a son and as a child to bring his cut his government and his peace into the world

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That's who's coming. Would you say that's kind of specific? That's a little specific, isn't it?

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There's a lot of us There's only one of him one God and who's coming

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That God the only one as a son as a child. That's pretty specific

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Another example is the where where's the Messiah coming to? Well, it's interesting when

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Jesus was in his earthly ministry people knew that he came from Nazareth that he was raised in Nazareth And they're like, hey, we found the

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Messiah. We found the Messiah and they knew who was like Well, he comes from Nazareth and they said but no,

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I can't work because the Messiah has to come from Bethlehem You're not the Messiah because you were from Nazareth Messiah has come

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Bethlehem. I got you. Okay, if they would have just asked If they would have just asked it would realize that God had arranged

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Circumstances in such a way as to have Jesus when he was born being brought into Bethlehem because of a census that was that was actually commanded into the entire

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Roman world and what to say in Micah 5 to Hundreds of years before Jesus comes it says that Bethlehem is going to be the place

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Where ready the Messiah comes whose goings forth are from old

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Yay, even from eternity quick question Bible trivia. Let's see how many you guys were paying attention in Sunday school

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Who's the only eternal being? God and What is

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Micah 5 to say it says the Messiah is coming to Bethlehem and you're like well

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That might be easy to fix the circumstances Oh except it says that it's the eternal one that comes to Bethlehem God is coming as a man.

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So the who is there the where is there the why is in the text now

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Because of time I have three minutes. I have sins in the area of time.

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So forgive me, okay I'll try to point you to the text. You can go to it later to research it for yourself

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Why Why is Messiah coming? The whole story is there. It's not just Nitpicking and finding little proof texts.

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It's what the Bible's about God creates the world.

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It's good. By the way, listen, it's still good Sin in the world doesn't make

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God have creation be a throwaway That's pagan thought God's world is good.

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There's sin in the world There's evil in the world, but his creation is still good

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The Bible says the sin enters the world and that God promises Genesis chapter 3 that he is going to send the woman's

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Seed who will crush the head of the serpent Giving him the death blow crushing his head while being wounded in the process

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The woman's seed you didn't talk about that in that way in those days

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You talked about people's offspring as the man's seed his offspring and in a really unusual way

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Moses records That the Messiah is the woman's seed

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That's giving you already a foreshadowing a taste of the virgin birth, which is explicitly stated in Isaiah 7 14

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That the Virgin will conceive and be with child and you shall call his name God with us Well, there it is again.

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God's coming as a child, right? But the story is is that God is coming into the world to bring about redemption

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The Messiah is coming into the world to bring about redemption in Isaiah 53 Hundreds of years before Jesus it tells you the entire life of Jesus If you haven't done it yet,

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I want to challenge you to do something if you haven't done it yet I want you to read Isaiah 53 just read it

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Go home and spend some time in Isaiah 53 and understand something that that text is written hundreds of years before Jesus came and it is inescapable, that's

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Jesus Can't get away from it. And if anybody wants to do what they did a while back and say well, yeah, that is

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Jesus There's no question that Isaiah 53 is Jesus. I mean, that's Jesus, but here's what they did these sneaky

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Christians Slipped that little section in about Jesus After the events of Jesus and here's why there's no way in the world that anybody could ever possibly get that many things in somebody's life

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Exactly, right before it actually happens. Come on and then in the late 1940s a little shepherd boy named

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Muhammad was walking around along the areas of the Qumran caves and he threw a rocket and he heard

41:01

A pot crash and he goes down there and what's he find? He finds the Dead Sea Scrolls and what's inside the

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Dead Sea Scrolls a scroll of Isaiah Buried about 200 years before Christ and what was in Isaiah?

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Isaiah 53 Again, how you like them apples? Okay, but Isaiah 53 tells us explicitly about the life of Jesus and it tells us why

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It tells us why it Says in Isaiah 53 that they were gonna think that the

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Messiah was being punished for his own sins And by the way, what do you think the

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Jews were thinking at the foot of the cross when they saw Jesus dying between two criminals? What do you think those

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Jews were thinking when they saw Jesus being crucified that he was being punished by God, right?

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Because he was a sinner, but it says in Isaiah 53 something more it says

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But he was being crushed for our iniquities For the transgressions of God's people.

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He was being killed It says that all of his stripes and all of his wounds were for us for God's people

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So here's what's amazing is the why because we're sinners Because we need reconciliation with God.

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That's why the Messiah is coming He doesn't come to make your life better. He doesn't come to make every day of Friday.

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He doesn't do that He comes because you and I are Rebels against a holy

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God. We are condemned without Jesus Christ the Bible says Accept it

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Whoever has the Son has the life Whoever does not have the Son does not have the life, but the wrath of God abides in him

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Isaiah 53 says why he's coming because we have transgressed we have sinned and it says that God has laid on him the iniquity of us all

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How about this? We did the who we did the why we did the where how about this when ah

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This big It's huge Did you know the

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Bible tells us when the Messiah is coming? when specifically So Daniel is in your

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Old Testament Daniel is during the time of the Babylonian captivity If you don't know what that is, you need to get to know it

43:30

It's a big part of your Bible story the story of redemption read your Bibles get to know your Bibles The Babylonian captivity is a time where the

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Jews were put into exile because of their sin God told them they were gonna be in Babylon for how many years?

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70 years So during the end of the 70 year time period Daniel knows times running up We're gonna get out of Babylon soon and all of a sudden the angel

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Gabriel shows up and the angel Gabriel very reliable source of Information by the way, he tells them then

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Oh, no, actually there's gonna be a total of 490 years for God to do his purposes the 70 weeks prophecy

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Okay, here's what he says is gonna happen. They're gonna finish the transgression

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Make an end of sin Bring an everlasting righteousness Make atonement for iniquity and to anoint the most holy everlasting righteousness and Atonement is going to be made

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God's gonna make an end of sin in this time period between when the Jews are allowed to go back and the

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Messiah's work Is finished Did you know that in the first century listen listen? Did you know that in the first century that all the

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Messianic groups in that time period were looking around? Going where's the Messiah? Where's the Messiah?

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You know why they were doing that? Because of Daniel 9 they could count They can count they knew this is the time of Daniel's prophecy.

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The Messiah is here They knew that the Messiah had to be cut off and they were waiting.

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Where's he at? Where's it? Who's inside you the Messiah? That's why there were so many false messiahs in that time period because that was a time of Daniel's prophecy

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But there's more God said the Messiah was gonna be cut off in Daniel 9 he was gonna make an end of sin bring an everlasting righteousness and Then listen

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The second temple was gonna be destroyed so ready

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The Messiah is gonna be cut off. That means to die a violent death He's gonna make an end of sin bring an everlasting righteousness make atonement for iniquity and ready

45:38

He's gonna do it before the second temple is destroyed Brothers and sisters, it's a matter of history the second

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Jewish temple was finally and utterly destroyed after a three and a half year war with between the

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Romans and the Jews in 70 AD watch

46:01

I Saw this advertisement for an event in Phoenix I was at a grocery store and it was the

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Scottsdale Jewish News and I picked it up because the Bible says that I'm Jewish it says

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Those who are true Jews are those who are descendants of Abraham and have the circumcision of the heart and not the flesh

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So I was like, it's my newspaper So shalom

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I grabbed it and inside the newspaper It said that there was going to be an event where a Jewish rabbi was coming and it was

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Jews I think against Jesus or Jews for Judaism and it was supposed to be a seminar on how we can prove that Yeshua Jesus is not

46:43

Mashiach not the Messiah. So I go with my friends to the synagogue. I bring my backpack with my

46:48

Bible I got to wear a little yarmulke. It was awesome Okay I go into the synagogue and I got to listen to this guy talk for like two hours and he goes on for two hours not addressing any of the arguments that Christians really really get to for 2 ,000 years to prove that Yeshua is

47:05

Mashiach that Jesus is the Messiah and So when the whole thing was over I was a bit frustrated

47:11

I thought we were gonna get we're gonna get down get to business right get let's get to work Let's get into the text and let's do this, right?

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I'm thinking like the Apostle Paul in Acts 9 Refuting the Jews in the synagogues and they're mad and they want to kill them, right?

47:24

The church is growing and then Acts chapter is 18 Apollos is rigorously refuting the Jews publicly proving that Jesus is

47:30

Mashiach. I'm like, this is great, right? We're gonna get down to it. And so everybody there Knew that we were

47:37

Christians and here's why because nobody there had a Bible not one

47:43

Bible In all these what do they call it for Jews? It's a pews still

47:49

I don't know. Okay Seats right every time I'm flipping through my

47:54

Bible while the guy's talking. Do you know this he even brought up verses that weren't even in the Bible He was like, well this says this in this text and I was look it wasn't even in there, right?

48:03

But nobody else couldn't could check because they have your Bibles. They're like, oh, okay. Yeah, okay That's why it's important to always have your

48:09

Bibles. Bring your swords. Okay So everyone's watching us. So he'd make a point

48:14

I'd go searching for it and everyone's in there like Right.

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So when the whole thing was over and he was finished I stood up and I Walked down the middle of the aisle to come up right to him

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And as soon as I did that every person in there whom converged right and now

48:33

It's the Gentile Christian Face to face with this Jewish rabbi who looked a lot like modest

48:39

Yahoo And he's standing right in front of me and I said sir

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I just want to tell you how grateful I am that you are here and you let us come in and listen to you I appreciate the opportunity to listen and he's like, oh, of course, of course.

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I said, I just have a question rabbi I said, you know you talked for a while here But you didn't really address any verses that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians have been using for 2 ,000 years to prove

49:04

That Jesus is the Messiah without a doubt. He goes. Oh, I addressed all of them young man. I addressed all of my civil

49:10

Sir, you didn't address even one that I would use and he goes, okay like what and I said

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Well, what do I I don't even know like I have some Daniel 9 He was what about Daniel 9?

49:23

so well Daniel 9 says the Messiah is gonna come be cut off make an end of sin bring atonement for iniquity and Everlasting righteousness and then the second temple is destroyed and he goes

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Okay, I said well rabbi When was the second temple destroyed? He goes. Well, everyone knows the temple was destroyed in 70

49:41

AD. I go, okay rabbi if Jesus isn't the Messiah Who is and so this rabbi?

49:53

Gets the Bible And he opens it to Daniel 9 And he's flipped to the page looking here and he's looking up and every every

50:02

Jew There is looking at him. Look at me. Look at him. Look at me. Look at him. Look at me They're like just nudging really like you just get ready get ready.

50:09

You're ready. He goes, okay Okay, he goes I'll tell you what. Give me your email address.

50:16

I'll get back to you That was it

50:23

He never got back. By the way, I tried Here's the point It is undeniable

50:32

That Jesus is the Messiah Can't get away from it and The Bible tells us through Messianic prophecy all the details necessary to know

50:42

Jesus who where why when one what how every Single detail necessary to know

50:48

Jesus a Savior and his Lord is in your Bible Jesus was being tested by the revelation of God himself remember on the road to Emmaus will end here

50:58

Ultimately on the road to Emmaus when these disciples thought that Jesus had failed they thought he was dead

51:05

Jesus is walking alongside them on this road and they're all upset like oh, he thought he was

51:11

Messiah with times to rescue Israel We thought we thought we always say he's not the Messiah and Jesus does what he confronts them

51:18

He says what slow of heart to believe what all that the scriptures have said and then he did the most glorious Bible study in history

51:28

Can you imagine Jesus the Messiah himself? Taking you through the Old Testament from Genesis to the end showing you where the

51:36

Bible talked about him. That is Better than any pastor in history walking you through the best

51:43

Bible. That's amazing. I wish that we had YouTube and Facebook live then

51:52

I Am upset about that. Can you imagine like Facebook alive in that situation, right? Amazing.

51:58

Okay, the Messianic prophecy of Jesus the original life of Jesus Jesus is God Jesus forgives sin

52:04

Jesus receives worship Jesus was said to be sinless by all of his followers They followed him as the righteous one the symbols fulfilled in Jesus Christ The Passover lamb the

52:15

Jews God's people were in slavery in the Egypt God Says he's going to come with the destroyer to take the firstborn and so he tells them you take a spotless lamb

52:27

No sin, no blemish take the blood of that lamb. You place the blood of the lamb over your doorposts and God says that when his

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Judgment comes it'll pass over that house on account of the blood of the lamb and they would be free from their slavery to enter into the promised land with God a

52:53

Foreshadowing of Jesus. What does John the Baptist say when he sees Jesus? He says behold the what? Behold the what the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world

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Jesus is the spotless sinless lamb who died guess when on Passover and Jesus says we are slaves to our sin and when the blood of Jesus covers your house

53:15

The judgment of God passes over you you are released from your slavery to sin and you enter into the promised land of relationship with God All those symbols are throughout the

53:26

Old Testament the scapegoats the Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement All of God's judgment being put on this on on the goat that died and then the scapegoats the people of God watching the scapegoat take their sins and then their sins being removed from them as far as the east is from the west never to be seen again the high priest

53:48

Representing the the people of God before the people of God Offering atonement the temple sacrifices all pointing towards Jesus Everything last point on symbols.

53:59

You got to hear this because it's trippy and it gives me goosebumps This is where you can participate and we're all done guys

54:05

Where did sin enter? Thank you a garden when

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Adam and Eve sinned What did they do with their nakedness what they do

54:19

What's that? They cut they tried to fashion together things to cover themselves Not so much because they all of a sudden were like, whoa,

54:26

I'm hanging out. I didn't realize okay Like they didn't like they didn't know right? It wasn't like that It was that they were exposed and ashamed and they wanted to hide themselves from God Sin enters death enters in a garden with God's image

54:45

Adam the first thing Adam does is try to hide himself from God to cover himself up and what's

54:52

God do? God says curse. It is the ground It's gonna bring forth thorns as what as a display of the fall itself that sin and entered the world

55:04

And here's a symbol of it thorns and then what's God do? God himself kills the first animals the innocent for the guilty and he does what he takes away

55:16

Adam our representative he takes away his nakedness by covering it with the righteousness and the skins of the animal

55:25

Right. That's all God's saying Jesus is coming Jesus is coming then Jesus enters the second

55:32

Adam to do what Adam failed to do question Where did the resurrection happen?

55:40

In a garden death entered in a garden the

55:46

Son of Man the second Adam Resurrected in a garden

55:52

Bringing it back question when Adam sinned What did

55:59

God do with his nakedness Come on he covered him.

56:04

What did the ground bring forth? thorns as a symbol of what Sin the curse the fall when

56:12

Jesus our representative went to take our death what did they put on his head a crown of thorns and so Jesus our representative

56:28

Who was the righteous one? Died a death for his people naked and shamed the way that we should have stayed and God put on his head before the watching world the very symbol of the fall itself thorns and Then when

56:51

Jesus conquered death, he did it in a garden In a garden and watch watch watch.

56:58

It's a little piece and you might be saying I think I don't know I don't if you're stretching I doubt it

57:03

Listen when Jesus conquered death in a garden You need to remember they understood the story.

57:11

They knew where it took place. They understood what was happening What was Adam told to do in that garden?

57:17

To protect it to keep it and to tend that garden right to make

57:23

God's garden Beautiful make it fill the earth Adam our representative is supposed to protect and tend and keep

57:29

God's garden and make it fill the earth right What's the second Adam do as soon as he conquers death in a garden the women come and what did they mistake?

57:40

Jesus as Come on now what? You might think well, that's just no big deal.

57:46

It's like it's like a side thing Oh, they were still come as a gardener. Can I ask you a question? Why would you mistake someone as a gardener?

57:53

What would they be doing Maybe gardening Right, what was

58:00

Adam supposed to do with God's garden tend it keep it protect it right send it out into the world What's the second

58:05

Adam do conquers death in a garden? And the first thing he does is he gets to work on the ground?

58:13

Do you see it? Last point that symbols and that was just a little touch off the surface.

58:19

Okay last point transformation of the world piece of cake Big prophecy Daniel chapter 7.

58:25

He says you're looking at looking in the night visions He seems one like a son of man coming on the clouds He came up to the ancient of days

58:31

Was presented before him and to him was given dominion glory in a kingdom that all the people's nations and men of every language might

58:37

Serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away in his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed

58:43

The Messiah was to come up to the ancient of days and was to be given a rule Where all the nation's people of every tribe tongue and language would come to serve him to worship him

58:54

The story was all the families of the earth we're going to return to God Redemption forgiveness to worship

59:00

God the knowledge of God was going to cover the earth like the waters cover the sea He would have dominion from sea to sea from the river to the ends of the earth

59:08

The Bible says the story is the Messiah rules the nations and they come in salvation

59:13

Now watch the transformation of the world is Jesus Mashiach I want you to take a look to your left and to your right right now

59:21

I want you to tell me how many different colors you see I want you to tell me how many different backgrounds

59:27

You see how many different people you see who most of us are born of pagan parents and Now you have all these people here under the rule of Jesus from every tribe tongue and language

59:40

Worshiping Yahweh the one God of Israel Tell me that Jesus isn't the

59:46

Messiah What you see right next to you is the fulfillment of God's covenants promises is

59:57

Jesus Messiah most Definitely he is and here's the final thing.

01:00:03

I have to say to you Everything I just said to you is utterly meaningless to you and Me if we do not turn from our sin

01:00:14

To trust in Jesus Christ and in him alone for salvation and for forgiveness

01:00:21

Especially for the younger kids in here teenagers. Listen, you have got to stop writing off your parents coattails

01:00:27

You got to stop borrowing from the faith of your parents and once and for all you need to turn to Christ yourself if you have not yet and I want to say this to everyone in this room

01:00:38

Because death has the ability to focus the mind If you're in this room right now, and you heard this message today

01:00:44

There is a point you need to aim at right now That is Jesus Christ and you to ask yourself the question have

01:00:49

I turned from my sin? to come to die and Rise again in Christ.

01:00:56

Are you joined to Christ by faith? Are you still depending upon your on your your righteousness?

01:01:02

Are you still depending upon? Yourself in some way Are you coming to fall before the king to receive the life and forgiveness that only he offers as a gift by faith?

01:01:12

Turn to Christ and live. Let's pray. Thank you God for today

01:01:19

Please bless it for your glory God grant repentance and faith even now