Does Jesus Believe In You? - [John 2:23-25]

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Across the country this morning and normally in churches all over the
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United States a Scene like this will take place at the close of the service. I'm just gonna do it at the beginning and again no response, please every head bowed every eye closed as The organist plays just as I am on an infinite loop.
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I Want to ask you this morning if you are right with the Lord If you feel the call of God on your life if you feel something tugging
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I Want you to just raise your hand right where you are. I see that hand you and the polka dot tie
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You and the pink sundress Nobody knows who you are.
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Although I've just identified you All of you who just raised your hand.
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Welcome to the family of God. Let's welcome them and everybody claps, right? Isn't that what happens? I saw myself on Easter Sunday It wasn't here
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But that's an absurd way to preach the gospel, isn't it? I mean it if you don't think it's absurd think about this consider this if we were to tour through the entire
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New Testament Would we see Jesus preached that way What do we see
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John the Baptist preached that way? What do we see any of the Apostles preached that way?
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Did even Stephen Preach that way Does anyone give that kind of broad?
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Easy call to the gospel and the answer is no Why is that? Why does the church do that?
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When I say the church, I mean the church generally Why does it what does she set the bar so low?
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It's as if we just you know If somebody can't get over that bar We want to lower it and lower it and lower it to where if they even look over the bar.
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They're gonna get saved Got to make it as easy as possible remove every obstacle. Well, I think it's because we're too man -centered
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And I think we'll see this morning. It's because We don't understand Mankind the way that our
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Lord does let's open our Bibles to John chapter 2 John chapter 2 but in today's
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Evangelical churches, it often takes a lot of effort to go to church and not get assured of your salvation
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Doesn't matter if you are saved or not. I remember Used to do this in fof, you know, somebody would say
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Are you a sinner and then the response was yes. Do you want to be saved? Yes. Do you believe in Jesus?
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Yes, then welcome to the family of God. You're saved and then the response was I am Because people wouldn't even know what they were sending to they just didn't want to go to hell.
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So we've been going through John and I want to just kind of catch this up to where we are people who may have been away
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But John the beloved Apostle wrote this book and he wrote it so that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ That is the Messiah the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name
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And you say well that's all well and good we know that already well, isn't that the goal of a gospel? Right, isn't that the goal of an evangelist
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John was an evangelist and as we're gonna see this morning
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I'm gonna propose to you that we're all evangelists every single person is an evangelist and So as you sit there this morning, do you suppose that maybe you can learn something from a book written by a man?
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Who preached the gospel? Inspired by the Holy Spirit who convicts people of sin.
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Do you suppose that you learn something about how to be an evangelist? So far in chapter 2, we've seen
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Jesus perform his first sign That was at the wedding at Cana where he turned the water into wine
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And we're told in verse 11 of chapter 2 that his disciples his inner circle nobody else his disciples knew about it and believed in him
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They didn't understand everything about him, but they believed in him they saw the sign and they believed in him
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Then we're told in chapter 2 that Jesus went to the temple He saw what was happening there and with zeal and with a motivation to see the glory of God Restored really in the temple.
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What did he do? he went in and drove out those who were taking advantage of the faithful who traveled from afar and Who were making money on those who believed in God?
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Now, of course the leaders of the temple were not pleased with that They were not amused at all and knowing that this would be something
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Cleansing of the temple would be something that only the Messiah himself would dare to do they Demanded a sign and evidence of proof a miracle
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To show that Jesus was in fact the Messiah. They said hey If you're the Messiah as your actions would claim
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Then show us Give us some miraculous sign do something akin to parting the
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Red Sea show us that you are actually from God and If you recall last week, we talked about the sign that he gave them.
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They wanted a sign He said I'll give you a sign. But here's the sign that Basically, you're going to destroy
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This body this temple is the word he used temple and I'm going to raise it up in three days
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And they were puzzled the leaders were puzzled his disciples were puzzled the crowd who heard him were puzzled
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There were false testimonies given later, even his disciples didn't understand it until when
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Till he was raised from the dead and we find that out in verse 22 Just concluding this review by reading verse 22 his disciples
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Remembered that he had said this and believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. It was only understood
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Looking back and thinking that's what he meant That's what he was telling us way back then
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And so we come to verse 23 in our text for this morning Now when he was in Jerusalem at the
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Passover feast many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them
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Because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew
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What was in man? This morning, I want to ask you three questions And these questions really are answered by our text
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You say well, then why even ask him because I want you to examine yourselves your salvation
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Where you are with Christ and your motivation or lack thereof to evangelize?
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This text ought to motivate you to evangelize people if this book is a gospel and it is if it's good news
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Right. The good news of Jesus Christ is that he did it all That he lived a perfect life in the place of sinners that he died in the place of sinners that he was raised on the
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Third day, that's what we tell people and if it is a version of that good news
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Ought we not to be motivated by this good news. Shouldn't we want to tell people this good news, of course
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So our first question do miracles cause saving faith
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Do miracles cause saving faith? I'm not talking about oral Roberts type miracles.
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I mean real Miracles genuine miracles look at verse 23 again, and we're gonna see just the setting here first before we get
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Into things but now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast we talked about how he had come from Capernaum Into or up into Jerusalem and this is where he is
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It's Passover feast. It's not just the single day of Passover where the
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Jewish nation would celebrate their deliverance from Egypt and God's miraculous delivery of them but they were there for a week -long feast and There was an air of Messianic fervor people were excited
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They thought the Messiah was surely gonna come because they saw all these things happening
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We had the the incident with John the Baptist where even the Jewish leadership was thinking this guy might be the
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Messiah He certainly is acting peculiarly strangely and and doing things that seem to you know
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We speak of an authority that we don't quite get where does he get the authority to baptize him? We should go see if this guy is the
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Messiah So they went out and they talked to John the Baptist who told them that he wasn't But people were
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Looking for the one who would fulfill Old Testament prophecy that were a lot of false messiahs a lot of people claiming to be the
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Christ and So this is kind of the setting that Jesus is in and he's here in Jerusalem But what else happened after he cleansed the temple look again at verse 23
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Many believed in his name Many believed in his name. Well, look at that Jesus cleanses the temple and a revival breaks out
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Millions of people well, okay, maybe not millions but thousands of people believe right after all the text tells us many believed
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Well, let's just ponder that a minute. We'll get to it more more in our text here, but I'm gonna
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I'm going to read Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 23.
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You don't have to go there, but I'm going to read it and these are familiar verses to you but not everyone
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Who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven
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Listen verse 22 on that day many Will say to me Lord Lord Did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?
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Same word many there's gonna be a throng a huge line of people. They're gonna be queued up for However long there it's gonna be a lot of people
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More than we would even imagine are gonna be lined up and they're gonna stand before Christ on Judgment Day and they're gonna say
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Lord Didn't we do this in your name? And didn't we do that in your name? And weren't we faithful in this way in that way?
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In fact in verse 22 there the word many the Greek word for many is pushed up to the front is to emphasize
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How many people there are there gonna be a multitude? What's his response to them and I will declare to them the many
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I Never knew you Depart for me you workers of lawlessness
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It gives us an idea that many First of all is a lot
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Secondly, it's not always bad But you just can't presume that the word believed like those people made professions of faith
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They did things in the name of the Lord That doesn't necessarily mean in John chapter 2 when it says many believed that they were saved
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We'll explain this more It's worse though look it says they believed in his name
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What are we gonna make of this? What are we to do with it? After all, we know the name of Jesus is the equivalent of his character.
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How can they believe in his name and not be saved? What does this mean in this case?
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They understood his actions that is his signs to be consistent With someone who was sent from God a prophet perhaps even the
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Messiah maybe They knew he was no fraud. They believed in him, but they did not worship him or believe that he was the
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Son of God They did not doubt him, but he had not yet closed the deal.
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They weren't really certain Who he was? It reminds me of when
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Jesus is talking to the disciples and he says who do men say that I am it's this exact kind of issue
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Now in my own life, I remember Being super excited. I mean, I just couldn't get this out of my mind when
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I first recognized Who Jesus was I was reading through the Bible and I got to Isaiah chapter 9 and I recognized who
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Jesus was But you know what my excitement was tempered a little bit, you know why
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Because I also knew I had these nagging Doubts in the back of my mind. I knew that I didn't believe in the
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Trinity yet And I knew that I needed to believe in the Trinity, but I wasn't there. I knew enough to know what
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I didn't know and These folks are in a similar state not of knowing what they don't know, but they know there's something unique about Jesus They just can't quantify it.
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They've never seen anything like him, but they don't Believe in him savingly. They don't just they just don't distrust him.
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They don't They don't think he's a fraud. They don't think he's a charlatan And there was a reason that they believed in Jesus It was what he was doing look at verse 23
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They believed in him why because or when they saw the signs that he was doing
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What were these signs you say? Well, maybe they're the signs that are referred to in this text after all we've seen a couple signs, right?
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We had the Sign at Cana where he turned the water into wine, but we know that that's not one of them Why because only did the disciples saw it?
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It's not the multitude. It's not many. It's just a few the second recorded sign was that puzzling
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Statement that he gave that certainly wasn't helpful because everybody mangled it and mashed it up and didn't understand it anyway
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But it says that they believed in him Well, first of all, let me give you an example of somebody that you don't want to believe in somebody that you don't want to Trust just because it's in the news and I thought it was pretty interesting
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How many of you have heard of Tony Robbins motivational speaker big guy? Okay, two days ago at an event entitled now this this ought to just scare every
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Christian out of the crowd You know, I mean they should should have run for the exits at this two days ago at an event called
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Unleash the power within I Know what my power within is and I I don't want to unleash it
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Unleash the power within After an inspirational talk by mr.
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Robbins They the crowd chanted mantras and shouts of victory and then many of the attendees attempted to walk across super hot coals
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At least 21 people were treated for burn injuries after taking part in the crowning event of the first day of this event
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Including three who went to the hospital with second and three to third degree burns Don't believe in that guy
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He wasn't doing miracles. He got people hurt but we know that Neither one of those signs that I mentioned before caused the people to believe so Again our text tells us that that Jesus was doing signs
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What are we to do with this word signs here? Well, let's just do a little Bible study here an odd thing to do, but let's just study and try to figure out what this word means
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In John chapter 20 30 and 31. This is this will be familiar because I've talked about it a few times, but listen
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Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book meaning not in the
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Gospel of John But these the ones that are are written so that you may believe Jesus is the
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Christ the Son of God and that by believing You may have life in his name
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So there are other signs that he did that are not in this book Listen to John 21 25 now
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There are also many other things that Jesus did where every one of them to be written I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written
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In other words, he's saying listen I'm just a guy I only have so much paper and the Holy Spirit inspired me to write this and I could have written a lot
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More but this is what I was supposed to write you have what you're supposed to have But Jesus did a lot more than I wrote down Jesus did a lot of miraculous things that John never wrote down because he didn't
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Either he they didn't suit his purpose or he just didn't have the time to do it. But look this
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In our text it says he was doing and it's an imperfect tense. He was doing these signs
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It's an imperfect tense and it indicates that he was continuously doing signs continuously performing them
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Consistent with the idea that we just don't have a record of everything But it was these signs that he was doing that we don't have recorded during that week
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That caused these people to believe to think there's something to this Jesus guy
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Don't really know what it is But we would hear from him again kind of like they responded to Paul at the end of his
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Mars Hill sermon They said, you know what we we would hear from you again Whatever these signs were
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The word means a miracle of divine origin it is God intervening in the space -time continuum and doing something counter to the laws of physics and of nature in other words when
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Jesus turned water into wine, that's something that's not supposed to happen when Jesus raised someone from the dead.
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That's something that's not supposed to happen now to directly answer the question
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That I asked in the beginning do miracles cause saving faith. The answer is no. I Mean, how many answers do you want?
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God God delivers Israel from Egypt and not only does he deliver them He parts the
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Red Sea they cross on die dry ground on diagram on dry ground and they get to the other side and it's
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Sometime a short time later Moses goes up to the mountain and what's the first thing they do? Build a golden calf and worship it
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Jesus multiplies food. He raises the dead. He heals the blind. He does all these things things that sometimes people see
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Do they believe? Does he You know gather a massive throng of followers so that when he's put on trial for his life
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The crowd is there and they're listening to a pilot and they're cheering release Jesus Is that what happened?
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No, no, they see the miracles they see the signs they understand that he's of God, but they never
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Come to saving faith Now our second question do professions of faith obligate
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God in other words when somebody says I believe in Christ. I'm a Christian Does that obligate
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God to save them look at verse 24, but Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them
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And you say I'm maybe you say I don't get it what does this have to do with your question
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What has everything to do with our question John wrote that many believed They had seen what he had done and the text says that they believed
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But it wasn't saving faith But since they believed in some way wasn't
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God more inclined toward them didn't he have some kind of desire to see them You know get saved
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Didn't he want them to fall across the bar there and get saved?
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They were so close But in contrast to the people who believed in Jesus The text says he did not believe in them
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It's the same verb the one that in English it says in trust that he did not entrust himself to them
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It's a very same verb translated in verb or verse 23 believed
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So I think to be consistent you could look at it this way either they They They entrust or they trusted
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Jesus But he didn't trust them or you could say they believed in Jesus, but he didn't believe in them.
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The many did not repent of Ceasing to trust in themselves their beliefs their belief system.
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They did not turn to faith in Christ alone so I think it's best to understand that Verse 23 that they believed and then
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Jesus or that better to believe that it's trusted. They didn't trust in him alone
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Simply that they didn't disbelieve him and then That he did not trust them.
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He didn't trust them in what sense? Well that he didn't reveal himself as Messiah as the
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Christ He wasn't going to reveal himself in that specific way to these fake false faux
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Pseudo -believers Think about it this way if God from all eternity if the
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Father had chosen them and the Holy Spirit had Convicted them of their sin of their need for a
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Savior Then would Christ reveal himself to them? I think so, but they hadn't been regenerated.
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We're gonna see more about that with Nicodemus Because he really is the first person that we see in this kind of the many who believed
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But they don't believe savingly But again, our text tells us why
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Jesus did not trust them It doesn't leave us to sort of go that's weird that they trusted him, but he wouldn't trust them look at verse 24
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Because he knew all people He knew all people
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There was no mystery to him many believed and trusted in him, but he was not trusting that same group of many why?
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Because he knew all men Those who seem to believe in those who really believed
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What do we do when we meet somebody and they say that they're a Christian? Do we put them under the Klieg lights and just kind of you know?
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Break out the investigative tools and start interrogating them. You know get the Get the bamboo shoots ready.
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I want to when I believe when I meet somebody who's a Christian I want to believe they're a Christian in my heart of hearts I don't
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I just I don't know about you, but I don't want to get into a confrontation over it. I hope that they're a
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Christian But I feel obligated to ask a few basic questions
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Why because I I want to be a fruit inspector No because I'm a pastor
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I'm an evangelist we're all evangelists we ought to be concerned about The souls of other people but think about it this way
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If someone tells me they're a Christian, what do I have like carte blanche to do? I think you have carte blanche to give them the gospel
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If somebody starts if I tell somebody I'm a Christian and they start giving me the gospel. I don't say dude So beyond that I'm thankful they can do it right,
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I Rejoice in that I'm thankful that they fit that they're concerned enough about me that they're willing to offend me
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Theoretically and give me the gospel When you're in a situation like that it really is like it's like t -ball
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I was watching my nephew played t -ball a couple weeks ago, and I was amazed at the number of kids who could miss the ball
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But think about it this way a situation like that where someone comes to you and they and they say that they're a
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Christian It's like you're the evangelist. You're you're at bat and somebody has put the ball on the tee for you and you're like Ted Williams at the peak of his hitting and The balls on the team.
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What are you gonna do with it? Whatever you want. You've got carte blanche It's all yours. You could do whatever you want
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It's a ready -made situation. It's almost like somebody come up to you and say sir. What must I do to be saved?
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This is perfect Didn't get any better than that But Jesus didn't have to wonder about who was going to be or who was saved and who was not saved
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Because he knew all people he didn't have to wonder about who really believed and who just seemed to believe
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He knew them and that verb by the way knew This will bless your soul.
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Well, it will in a minute It's a causal infinitive and you say oh, that's great I'm gonna write that down and I'm gonna run around the neighborhood telling people.
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Hey, did you know this is a causal infinitive? What that means is
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That it shows the reason for the controlling verb and you say well, that's great. That's gonna bless my soul I'm gonna run around the neighborhood and tell everybody about the controlling verb.
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What was the controlling verb? That he didn't entrust himself to them
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So this explains why? He didn't entrust himself to them because he knew them he knew them inside out the answer to the question
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Why didn't Jesus trust them? Why didn't he believe them is that he knew them. He knew them perfectly
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He knew what was in their hearts. He knew all their thoughts and most importantly he knew their spiritual state
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He knew they hadn't been regenerated Jesus demonstrates this knowledge of mankind this omniscience and Several occasions, but I wanted to just look at one.
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Please turn to John chapter 6 John chapter 6 just a couple pages over starting in verse 11
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Jesus then took the loaves and when he had given thanks he distributed them to those who were seated so also the fish as much as they wanted and When they had eaten their fill
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He told his disciples gather up the leftover fragments that nothing may be lost
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So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten
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When the people saw the sign that word sign miracle that he had done they said
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This is indeed the prophet who is coming into the world not this is the Christ This is our
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Savior. This is the prophet Different office entirely but look at verse 15
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Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him King Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself
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Perceiving it is that same verb knowing To know there are a couple different kinds of Greek verbs for knowing and this one
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Here indicates this tense everything about it indicates that he knew what they were thinking
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He was aware of what they what they wanted to do. And so what did he do he left? Jesus is omniscient.
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He knew it wasn't time He knew he wasn't he was supposed to be the earthly King But they wanted him to be King why so that he could establish the perfect welfare state
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Jesus you just keep doing these signs and we'll live large and Life will be good.
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He wasn't ready. He didn't want that He knew their intentions. He knew the father's plan and he knew it wasn't time and so he withdrew himself only
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God himself has such knowledge of mankind only God himself can know the heart like that and Anyone who studies this passage either
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John 6 or John 2 where we are this morning and Concludes that Jesus is the Archangel Michael or a man en route to full
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Godhead Does not understand what? John meant does not understand who
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Jesus is and is not saved. So our first question then was do miracles cause saving faith
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Second question was do professions of faith obligate God know because he knows your heart He knows if you're saved or not
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Listen your profession of faith is not The moment that you get saved it reflects what's already happened.
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That's what we say when we do the testimonies of baptism Doesn't it's not a matter of getting saved then it's a matter of telling people what's already happened our third question
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What does Jesus know that the church today does not know what does Jesus know that the church today does not know?
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quite a bit Look at verse 25 and And I supply the
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Jesus and Jesus needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man
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This idea of bearing witness we see this Frequently in the Gospel of John we know that in John chapter 1 verse 7 that John the
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Baptist was sent by the Father. Why? to be a witness for Jesus to Serve as as giving testimony
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Jesus In John chapter 5 verse 31. Jesus said this if I alone bear witness about myself
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My testimony is not true. And if you read the context later, you'll see that he provides three other witnesses for his
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For his deity for his ministry and those three other witnesses were John the
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Baptist One which we already read about in John chapter 1 his own works
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Right what he's doing these signs Those are things that only
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God could empower and then the third witness he gives is the father So he gives those three witnesses.
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So the concept of bearing witness of having corroborating Testimony as it were was keen to the
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Hebrew mind But John tells us that Jesus didn't need additional sources of information
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About mankind he didn't need any witness. He didn't need any corroborating evidence
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Because he knows everything about everyone Here's what the church doesn't know today that not everyone who says he or she is a
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Christian is in fact a Christian Jesus who knew and knows all things about people knew this there were people who believed maybe they even said they believed
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But he didn't entrust himself to them why because he knew they didn't believe So why does it confuse the church today so much?
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Why is the church so at? Odds over this. Why is it that someone who is lured into church?
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By the promise of healing by the promise of wealth by the promise of friends by the hope of romance
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This is the new place to meet people by the way, if you didn't know that church Go to the websites and find out where the best churches are to meet somebody to get married
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People also come to church why for a sense of community they want to belong to something local Whatever it is that motivates people to come to church
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Why are we so afraid to approach someone not even necessarily somebody new but just say friend.
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I am thankful you've come on Sunday But do you really love the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he really first in your life?
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Why did Jesus not believe in those who apparently believed in him because he knew their hearts But beloved it doesn't take omniscience.
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We don't have to be God incarnate to discern the difference between a believer and a Christian Sometimes we do but sometimes we don't try to engage with someone who says that they're a
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Christian For example, even though that they don't go to church. I'm a Christian. Oh, really?
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Where do you go to church? Well, I don't really go to a church.
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I can worship God in a forest. I Can worship God in my car? I can worship
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God in the church of the wrinkled sheets. I Can worship
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God and the golden arches, what do you say to him?
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I Just look at him and say no you can't several verses
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Just one real quickly first John 3 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life.
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That is what we have been saved because we love the brothers Whoever does not love abides in death.
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Who are the brothers? brothers by blood No, not our relatives the brotherhood of man, no, that's not the context here
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The brotherhood of believers, it's the gathering of believers. That's what we do on Sunday We're here to worship
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God, but we gather together with believers. There are other things that you could Bring into this
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Conversation about forsaking the assembly of the Saints all kinds of things Exercising their spiritual gifts, but the point is somebody who says that doesn't get it.
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They don't understand what the Bible says What about those who believe in errant doctrine
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They deny the Trinity They believe that Jesus maybe it wasn't raised physically from the dead
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They believe that Jesus was the Mark Archangel Michael like the Jehovah Witnesses They believe that he's on his way to godhood like the
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Mormons do those who deny the clear teaching of Scripture I'm not talking about the fuzzy
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Difficult to understand parts, but the clear teaching of Scripture Have not had their minds illumined by the
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Spirit of God. How do we know that? Because if we read 1st Corinthians 2 we understand that we understand the might of God by virtue of being illumined in the by or by the
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Holy Spirit that when we read Scripture now instead of it being boring and Impenetrable and all these things that unbelievers say we get it.
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We're encouraged. We're excited and we believe it more than anything else What does today's church not know that Jesus did?
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that often our greatest mission field is Those who profess the name of Christ I've had many conversations like this
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Great or you know, I'm a Christian Somebody will tell me that and then I say great. Where do you go to church? And I don't like organized religion and Then it you know, it's well, what about this that and the other thing and they say well, who are you to judge?
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Because we live in a post -modern era where you know, the commands of Scripture don't necessarily apply to me
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But I can still be a Christian I can be a Christian and believe whatever I want Who am
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I? I'm nobody. I am nobody But can
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I tell you what Jesus said John 13 35 by this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another first of all brother,
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I love you enough to tell you that you're wrong about not needing to go to church and Secondly if you love other believers
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You won't stay away from them. Then.
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How does it go after that? Usually it's something like I'm a Christian what I do or don't do is none of your business, which is true but it would be right to give that person the gospel and Similar conversations will ensue if the topic is unmarried
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Christians I had to put in quotation marks. I tried to make a lower C and the computer wouldn't even let me But unmarried
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Christians living together, it's normal now for normal. It's unbiblical.
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It's wrong. It's sinful Bible calls of fornication says you will not inherit the kingdom of heaven, but Christians do it anyway
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It's not unusual for Christians to go to churches where the Gospels not preached Christian would never do that because they love the truth
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It's not unusual to be talking to a Christian who can't tell you and I use Christian Christian Christian A Christian who cannot tell you what the gospel is.
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May I say with all love if you can't tell me how God saved you then
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Well, let's just put it this way. You should have no You should not be sure of your salvation at the very least you can tell anybody how
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God saved you You can give them your testimony. This is who I was This is how I came to believe in Christ and this is how he changed my life
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But we live in an age where stating anything is an absolute truth as if you have some kind of authority
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You know as if the Bible gives you authority if you do that you are what your intolerance your judgmental
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You're unloving unkind or worse and that's just you know, them getting started.
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Just what do they really get going? We can't know what's in someone's heart, but we can't examine what someone says
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And what they do in light of Scripture, it's true that our authority ends with Scripture, but we have
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Scripture Now for what purpose would you go and talk to someone who says that they're a
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Christian So that you can kind of listen to them and then just kind of go You know give them a church lady kind of sigh of disgust to go.
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Oh really? No, it's not to judge anybody Your goal should be even as you're listening and thinking.
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Well, wait a minute. That's not right but how do I Gently and firmly point out that this is wrong.
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And how do I skid steer them to the gospel? How do I get them to understand that the Bible is the soul guide for their life?
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May I encourage you in this door in this way That the person you're talking to has an eternal soul one day
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He or she will before be before Christ the judgment throne if they're gonna be in that line of the many
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And what's he gonna say? Depart from me and you want to warn them you want to do everything in your power
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And you might be saying to yourself. Well, if I if I raise that question if I if I ask them anything
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I'm gonna seem arrogance Maybe you will so try really hard not to be
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Ask them a question do the whole jeopardy thing You know Or give them the you know
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Allow them to kind of pursue the topic on their own as you talk to them and just kind of let them ponder it a little bit
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But tell them you're confused because you believe what they're saying that they're a Christian you want to believe that But you're struggling to reconcile it with this verse or that verse
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But above all else do something if we've learned nothing these past few months as we've seen so many of our extended family parents brothers
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Pass away We should learn one simple lesson that life is a vapor
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We have no guarantee that there will be a next discussion with a person That's one of The lessons from this shooting just a couple days ago in Aurora, Colorado Those people went to the movie that night and no one thought no one went there thinking this would be the last thing they ever did
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We have no guarantee of tomorrow we never know now just think about the methods that are used to fill churches to pack churches today
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You'll have useful messages not preaching Mm -hmm messages talks chats ways
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Improvement you know lessons, but not preaching Saturday night services so that you don't have to fight with your husband's over football games
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Pastors and jeans and Hawaiian shirts, so you never feel pressured to dress up Movie clips so that you can rest assured that at least every once in a while.
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There's gonna be something interesting lots of upbeat music Got to keep it peppy
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And certainly no guilt trips about heaven hell or sin. I mean who wants to hear that And it really is a
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Christian limbo dance only it's kind of reversed Instead of lowering the bar and making it harder and harder and harder to get under Lowering the bar lower and lower and lower to get over The idea is to get every seeker and by the way there are no seekers review
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Romans 3 10 to 12 If a seeker makes the slightest move and you can give them assurance then you want to do that Lift that pinky welcome to the family of God That's not what we do.
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That's what the Holy Spirit does the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit We don't testify to somebody else's spirit that they belong to God The question isn't whether someone can get you to believe in Jesus The question is does
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Jesus believe in you has he entrusted himself to you has he revealed himself to you as Messiah as Christ as the
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Son of God And the only way he will entrust himself to you reveal himself to you is if you have come to genuine saving faith
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Saving faith is a Holy Spirit generated love for Christ which manifests itself
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Throughout your life not on Sundays only In fact to be a
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Sunday only Christian is to be much like the Jews who? saw the signs and believed
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They were believers like we have Christians today But really they were more like moths drawn to the flame and then what happens when the flame goes out
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They scatter and it's the same way with a lot of people they come to church. They want to see the activity They want to hear the sermon.
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They want to hear all the music and then what happens during the rest of the week? No light no attraction and they're just lost
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Believers are not perfect. I'm not perfect our obedience ebbs and flows
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But a believers love for the Lord is something they cannot and will not Relinquish for he has believed in those whom the
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Father has given him and the Spirit is regenerated He has revealed himself to those people. It is not the believers goodness.
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He believes in But is the efficacy and surety of the work of God what if God has begun a good work in you
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He is faithful to complete it. It's not about our faithfulness It's about God if you love
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Christ You are his and he is yours. Let's pray father in heaven
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Father for those who are here this morning, maybe for the first time
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Maybe they don't know you father. We would pray that you would Reveal Christ to them would your spirit so work in their lives.
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They would be Drawn irresistibly to understand that a reliance upon self a
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Reliance upon their own goodness a reliance upon their own understanding will lead to eternal destruction
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Father, would you open eyes to the glory of Christ this morning and for us who love you here today?
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Would you cause us to rejoice? just in knowing That although we did not deserve it you gave us life
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You revealed yourself to us that we might enjoy you forever father.
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Would you make us an excited people? Acting as if we are forgiven as if we are loved as If we have been born again and anxious to tell the story of Jesus Christ and his saving love we pray in Christ's name