The Man Christ Jesus (part 11)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Father in heaven, Lord, what a blessing it is to be together this morning, even as we anticipate just the celebration of our

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Savior coming into this world. Lord, I pray that you would bless our time as we look to your word, what it says about him, what it says about our need for him.

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Lord, bless each one here we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I have to.

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I don't have to, but I'm going to, you know, just, I want to just say a word about what happened last night.

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For those of you who don't know, you know, two New York police officers were murdered, executed.

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And I wanted to just say this, you know, that I'm often reminded, and this is something

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I will probably address in weeks, some weeks to come later on.

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Um, we live in a really different world. I mean, if you just think about it, the things that, you know,

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I have little grandkids, as you may have noticed, and the things that they just cannot seem to, or just come like second nature to them, you know, the iPads and all these other different things that they just kind of like immediately,

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I mean, you think about it 20 years ago, not only did they not exist, we would have just thought, what in the world is that?

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And what would I use it for? I mean, we were just kind of getting, I was just getting used to email.

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I mean, I, you know, so this, this is definitely a different world that we live in.

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And what I want to address, let's just open a first Peter for a moment.

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And we'll get back to what we're normally talking about in first Peter chapter three, or I'm sorry, chapter two, verse 13, be subject for the

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Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and appraise those who do good for this is the will of God that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a coverup for evil, but living as servants of God, honor everyone, love the brotherhood, that is to say the brothers and sisters in Christ, fear

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God, honor the emperor. And I want to read that this morning, because I just,

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I, you know, what has concerned me over the last several weeks is just what has gone on and social media.

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And I bring up, you know, all the technology and everything, because what people, sometimes it seems to be failed to understand.

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I said to one brother here a couple of weeks ago, Twitter is, as one man says, a loaded weapon, right?

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People say things on Twitter as if they just go into the ether and disappear.

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As if, you know, you're in your private prayer closet, you can just say whatever you want and nobody's ever going to know about it.

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But Twitter, Facebook, these things are forever. Whatever you say there, you know,

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I mean, it really is no different if I say something to someone's face, then whatever I say to them,

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I mean, they can remember 15, 20 years, 30 years, 50 years from now and hold against me. But what you put out there in the

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Twitterverse or in Facebook verse, I just made that up, that's permanent.

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So when people are saying things, let me just put it this way.

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I think Christians ought to just consider this and then ask themselves if what they are going to put on Facebook or what they're going to put on Twitter honors everyone, shows a love for the brotherhood, shows a fear of God and honors the emperor.

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And keeping in mind, when Peter wrote this, the emperor was someone who was using

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Christians as torches. Nero was not a nice man. And if you study, if you read

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Suetonius, the 12 Caesars, if you read what they were doing to Christians during this time, whatever you've seen in movies, it was worse.

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And to say then, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, honor the emperor.

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And this is Peter's encouragement to people who are being persecuted and who are about to be persecuted by none other than Nero, honor the emperor.

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And when we consider that and then we think about some of the things that some Christians have said over the last few weeks,

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I just think we really ought to be more temperate in what we say and keep in mind that what we say electronically is permanent.

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Any thoughts or anything else anybody want to add to that? I just think, you know, I'm not blaming anybody other than the man who did the shooting last night.

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I just think we need to be temperate in what we say and how we think. All right.

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So back to our normal topic here. We've been talking about the man

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Christ Jesus. And by the way, I actually brought in the book and then left it in my office. Just really excellent.

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And, you know, I would say this about Dr. Ware's book. You know, let me just say it this way.

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I hate, listen to what I'm saying very carefully. I would put this on the Twitterverse. I hate new doctrine.

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What do I mean by that? If somebody, you know, comes up with something and says, I've just discovered something that nobody's known for 2000 years of church history.

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Guess what? I hate it. Why? Because I'm afraid to learn new things?

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No, because we are not teachers, preachers, elders are not to be innovators.

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We're not to discover new things. We are to be faithful transfers of what has been handed down.

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We are to faithfully handle the word of God and it doesn't change.

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There's nothing new in the word of God. So somebody says, you know, I have something new.

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I just say, well, that's nice. Why don't you go take it somewhere else? I don't want it. So what

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Dr. Ware has done here is not teach us anything new. It's this way. I would say this way that, you know, as we teach through the

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Bible, as we read through the Bible, as we talk about theology, as we study Christ, we come across various truths and sometimes we dip a little deeper into them and sometimes we don't dip as deep and, you know, we just kind of skim across the surface.

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Well, what Bruce Ware's book does is we are on a spelunking expedition.

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We are we're diving deep into this idea of Jesus Christ as human.

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We talk a lot, as I said in the introduction to this series, we talk a lot about the deity of Christ and that's good because if there's a doctrine that's challenged, most often it is the deity of Christ, that is that he is

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God. But if there's a doctrine that's kind of skimmed over or even forgotten sometimes is that he's genuinely fully human.

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We spent many weeks talking about this and we've gotten to the last point here, which is that Dr. Ware talks about how he's raised, that is resurrected, reigning currently, and that he will be returning in victory.

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We read 1 Corinthians 15, 1 -4 last week. Let me just read that as kind of an introduction, then we'll move on ahead.

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1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 -4. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you.

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Now see there again, I just had to stop there. Peter does this kind of thing too.

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Now I would remind you, not I'm going to introduce something new to you, I'm going to remind you of the gospel

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I preached to you. Why? We need to be reminded because we forget, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word

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I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Verse 3, for I delivered to you as of first importance what

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I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

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We talked about how Jesus is the second

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Adam, how he came to rectify, to make right what the first Adam did wrong.

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And I want to just go to really, before we start again, Genesis 1. I was just thinking about this and really about what, oh, thank you.

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This is a great read. I mean, I don't say that very often, but this is just, it's the kind of book where every couple of paragraphs you just have to pause and just kind of, it's true,

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I know it's true, it's in the Bible, but I hadn't thought about it this deeply before.

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This is a great book. And I can only tell it's my copy because there's so much stuff underlined here.

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Exclamation points on the side. I think I put one question mark in all the, which is really good, because question mark means

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I'm not really sure about that. Exclamation points are like, that is excellent. So this is a great book.

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Genesis 1, verse 24, and actually

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I'm going to go to, yeah, 24 is good. In fact, if somebody would read, well, you know what, it's just so long,

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I'm going to read this, starting in verse 24. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.

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And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind.

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And listen, and God saw it was good. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

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So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him male and female.

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He created them and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

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And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit.

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You shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life.

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I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.

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And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day. Now, just looking at that and just seeing what

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Adam's charge was, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and what else and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea.

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In other words, rule over this planet. What did man really, what did

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Adam fail to do? Well, he failed to exercise dominion over creation.

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And why would I say that? How did Adam fail to do that?

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Well, he let his wife have run of the house. Error number one. What was it that defeated him?

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Besides his wife, it wasn't the wife that God gave him. It was his own, you know, take two steps back.

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He was the very first evangelical. Honey, you run the house. I can't be bothered. Sorry.

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Sorry, man. What defeated him was a serpent, which was we could say a

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Satan. We could say a Satan. We could say Satan, a serpent, which was part of creation, a created thing.

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He failed to subdue it. Instead, he was subdued by it, we could say.

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And so when we think of the second Adam, second Adam had a lot of things to do. I mean, Adam sinned.

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So Jesus had to live a perfect life and and overcome what

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Adam had plunged us into. But he had to do, Jesus had to do a number of things. He had to overcome temptation.

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You know, Adam fell to Satan. Jesus defeated Satan. He is the second

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Adam, the second Adam to reclaim the mantle, as it were, to undo the damage done by the first Adam.

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So where says that Jesus is ruling in his humanity and that he is on the throne?

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And we're going to talk a little bit more about that. But let's just talk about Jesus authority, granted is in his humanity.

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Matthew 28, we read this last week, the Great Commission. And we sort of emphasized a few things.

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Let me just read Matthew 28, 18, just part of it. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

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And if you recall, where says, you know, that if it was given to him, what does that imply?

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That. Well, let's put it this way. It's almost Christmas, right? If you get a gift on Christmas Day, then what was true before Christmas?

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You didn't have it. So if Jesus has been given all authority, well, before that, he didn't have it.

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Well, how's that true since he was God? Well, he didn't have it in his humanity because he hadn't lived the perfect life yet.

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He hadn't died in the crossing. He hadn't been raised from the dead. And that was his point. If you recall, we talked last week about the temptation of Christ, about how

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Satan offered everything to him. And he said, where did that?

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It had a genuine tug because he was offering, Satan was offering everything to Jesus that he would gain by obedience.

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But he was offering it apart from obedience. And he wanted Jesus to worship him. It said, it says that in Luke 4, verse 7, if you then will worship me, it will all be yours.

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The shortcut. You don't have to obey. You don't have to go to the cross. I'll make it happen.

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And as we're pointed out, if these things were not Satan's to give, if they were not within his authority to give, then the offer would have been utterly foolish.

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And Jesus would have said that. Now, we closed here in terms of the

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Great Commission, where it says, since Jesus now has the authority, he commands his disciples to go into the world.

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He says, where puts it this way, he says, go get them. Go make disciples of the world. Why? Because they're mine.

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The people that are out there, the elect that are mine, go get them. Go return them to me. He has that authority now.

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We're also notice that the authority Jesus receives is delegated by the father. It is given to him by the father.

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Let's look at Ephesians, chapter one. And would somebody read verses 20 to 23,

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Ephesians one versus 20 to 23. OK, now, you know,

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I feel like I need to use the devil. Did did

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Jesus is this? Let me put it this way. Would this be true of Jesus?

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What is being said in this passage here in his deity, in his position of the second person of the

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Trinity? Is that what this passage is referring to? Is that what Paul is talking about here?

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Absolutely not. Because what does he say? He says he raised him from the dead. This is this is a picture of Jesus, the man being raised from the dead and being exalted by whom?

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By the father to what he says far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.

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And when you see power and dominion, what does that refer to? All earthly power, all demonic power, everything that's behind the scenes and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come forever and ever and ever is the idea.

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And he put all things under his feet, everything that's created and put him as head over all things.

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This is not the position of Jesus Christ, the eternal son, the second person, the Trinity.

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This authority is designated or is delegated to the messianic son, the human son.

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He now rules because of the father's will to exalt the God man. He's still fully God, but he's talking to him as if he's not talking to him just as man, but he's talking to him in his humanity or talking about him in his humanity.

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Listen, what O 'Brien says, he says these verses allude to two different Psalm passages,

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Psalm 110 and Psalm eight, both of which were used in early Christian preaching. Christ's exaltation was

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God's mighty act of raising him on high to a position of unparalleled honor and universal authority.

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His ascension. Now think about this. He was always there in terms of the second person of the Trinity, but listen to what

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O 'Brien says. He says his ascension to the right hand of God was an essential and regular element in the early apostolic preaching, finding echoes throughout the new

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Testament to grasp the meaning of these verses. We must go back to the messianic interpretation of Psalm 110 verse one.

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The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Jesus claimed these words for himself when he was brought before the

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Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, Matthew 26, Mark 12, Luke 20. After his resurrection and ascension, the apostolic announcement was that his enthronement had taken place, though intimately related to his resurrection, which is the vindication of his

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Messiah ship and sonship Christ's exaltation. His raising up is distinguished from his resurrection in several

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New Testament texts since it is related to the inauguration of his lordship here.

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Bottom line here, the resurrection proclaims he lives forever.

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The exaltation that is the raising up proclaims he reigns forever, where says that Jesus has this position owing to the father's will to exalt his

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God, man, this greater son of David to this highest of all positions overall and under only the father himself.

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Okay, so the question comes about what's the obvious question? Let me give you the obvious question or maybe you can figure it out.

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Can you figure out the obvious question is, wait a minute, if Jesus is overall, but he's still under the father's authority, then what is our first thought?

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This is like, tell me, you know, that, well, Joe Biden is the vice president and the president says, you know what, you're in charge of everything.

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We'd hear that and we'd go, okay, well, that's true, except for you're not in charge of one thing, Joe, what would that be? The president, the president gave you all that authority.

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Now, that's a very human illustration of the picture we have here. Well, wait a minute. Sorry, we saying that Jesus is less than the father.

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Is that true? No, they're one person, right?

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Well, how do we explain this then? Yeah, Charlie. Okay, I think that's true.

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I wouldn't say to join the Godhead necessarily, but Charlie said, you know, a new nature was exalted.

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I think that's true, right? This man, Jesus, still fully

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God, but also man is exalted and this is a new thing. Go ahead.

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Oh, walk dangerously close. Right. And true that part of creation that is humanity is being joined to the

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Trinity, but that happened even before, right? This happens at the incarnation. But, but I, but I know exactly where you're going because this ultimately shows what, that this part of creation is now elevated up over creation.

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And we could say that, follow this, he's exerting dominion and has subdued all of creation.

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Now going back to Genesis chapter one, what did Adam fail to do? Exercise dominion, subdue all creation.

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The second item, this is God saying, yes, this second Adam has succeeded where the first Adam failed.

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And I'm putting him in the place where the first Adam, obviously we know that it wasn't possible for the first Adam to go, but this is, this was, this is

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God's plan. I mean, ultimately to make all things as he created them to, to undo the effects of sin, to glorify himself.

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You know, people say, well, why did he even bother with these things? I think Piper's right when he said, you know what the greatest thing

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God could do is to more fully display his glory, to put himself on display, to show us, you know, to do that, he had to create the universe.

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Charlie, let me, let me get the gavel ready. I, are, are the natures, the divine nature and the human nature of Christ still unified?

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Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. That, that would be wrong, right?

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Um, Jesus did not simply use, uh, his human body as a shell, as something, you know, as a, as a facade, uh, to be dispensed with once he had accomplished the mission and, you know, was raised from the dead.

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You know, uh, if we were going to argue for a separation at all between the second person of the, uh, of the

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Trinity and his, uh, human body, I, I'd say if we wanted to argue that and I don't, it would have to be at the cross.

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But I think, you know, yes, absolutely, you know, together, I think, you know, now, sure.

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Um, let's turn to, if there are any other questions or comments here, if not, we'll go to Philippians two,

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I think. Yes. Yes.

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Yes. Uh, the question was, does that mean that he will, uh, in effect be human in heaven?

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Will we see him as a physical presence? Yes. For eternity.

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Yes. You know, does that mean he's not God? No, he's still

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God, but he will, uh, maintain his human form. He will have that body. We'll see a little bit more of that here in a minute.

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Um, let's look at Philippians two versus eight to 11.

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We've been to Philippians two, a number of times versus eight to 11,

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Philippians two, eight to 11. Yes, Charlie. I'm probably going to speed just this part up a little bit.

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Look at that word in verse nine. Therefore, we always know that if there's a, therefore we have to go back to figure out why.

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Right. But let's just focus on that for a minute. Therefore, God has exalted him highly or highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name above every name.

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So there's a reason that God has given him this position. Now, again, let's think about this in terms of if we're talking about the second person, the

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Trinity, what do you say? John 17, you know, restore me to the glory I had before I came here. He had that.

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He is. Oh, I remember where I was going earlier. Let me just clear that up. Jesus isn't sorry. I feel like Doug Bookman right now, which will mean nothing to anybody here, except for my wife.

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Second, he's not less than the father. He has a position.

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We talked about it weeks ago, the economy of the Trinity. They're all equal in stature, equal in nature.

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They're equal in every single way, except they have different functions. So ultimately, when we talk about, you know, the will of God, the will of the father that it we're talking about the first person, the

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Trinity, and, you know, he is. It is his will that's being worked out, but it's not because the spirit or the son are less than the father, it's because they've got these separate roles and they fulfill them perfectly.

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So back to this, he's not raising the second person of the

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Trinity per se, although that is true. He's raising the second person of the

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Trinity in the flesh, this man. Well, how do we know that? Look back at verse eight and being found in human form.

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He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore, it's because of his obedience in his human life.

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Where he obeyed the father, even to the point of death on a cross. That's why he gets raised.

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And then look at verse 10 again, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess.

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And I like what what where says.

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He says, listen, he says, this is reflected in even how the sun is praised by all creation, says how so?

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Because every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Look to the glory of.

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God, the father. The father gets glory, but we just think, well, wait a minute.

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We're going to be worshiping Jesus when we bowing at his knee. Well, why? Because because the father raised him to that position so that we would do those things so that the father would get the glory.

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Ultimately, all these things, the glory goes to the Lord Jesus Christ, but it ultimately the ultimate glory goes to the father.

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Again, we have this economy of the Trinity where it says this exaltation has to do fundamentally with the accomplishments of Jesus human life now rewarded as the father grants him.

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Again, as I said, listen, dominion over all he came to subdue again, that just kind of that reflection back to the

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Genesis one language. Let's turn to first Corinthians 15. And this, this gets back to the

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Trinity again. First Corinthians 15 verses 27 and 28.

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And I'll read this. We're going to brief here for God has put all things in subjection under his feet that is to say the feet of Christ.

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But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he is accepted who put all things in subjection under him.

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Well, who is that? The father verse 28, when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.

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This is the plan. This is how the Trinity worked it out. Kistemacher says this, he says, it stands to reason that the uncreated

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God, the father who commissioned his son to form the universe should not be in subjection to Christ during the time that precedes the resurrection of the saints.

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Jesus serves his people as a mediator who intercedes for them and prepares a place for them.

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When all things are eventually subject to Christ, then he delivers the kingdom to God, the father. This marks the completion of his mediatorial work.

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This is the plan. Let's turn to Psalm 110.

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For a while yesterday, there was some talk that I might be preaching this morning. I thought, boy, if I'm preaching this morning,

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I want it to be Psalm 110. This passage, Psalm 110.

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I'm just going to read the six verses. The Lord says to my

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Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

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Now, what kind of imagery do we get from that? What is it about making enemies a footstool?

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What does that say? You conquer them.

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And, you know, in the Middle East, in that, you know, when we talk about washing a feet or any of those things, what do they think about feet?

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Most dishonorable part of the body. So if I'm going to make your enemies your footstool, what am

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I saying? They are like, they are dust below your feet.

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They are nothing. They are whipped. You know, you're just going to be able to rest your feet up on them.

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That's how defeated they are. So that's the promise that the father is making to the son. He says, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

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The Lord says for sends forth from Zion, your mighty scepter rule in the midst of your enemies.

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Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power and holy garments from the womb of the morning.

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The dew of your mouth will be yours. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses.

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He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. Now you hear that. You just go, OK, well, let's sing some

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Christmas carols. There's a there's a day coming right of judgments. We'll talk more about that in a minute.

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But Derek Kidner says about verse one, he says, this single verse displays the divine person of Christ, his power and the prospect before him together with verse four and utter lies most of the

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New Testament teaching on his glory as priest and king. Boy says in verses five to seven, the

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God, the father and his Messiah are seen working together. He says these last verses recall

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Psalm two, which say about Jesus and his enemies, you will rule them with an iron scepter.

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You will dash them to pieces like pottery. He cites Alexander McLaren saying and this

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I thought I thought this was profound. McLaren says this. He says the choice for every man is being crushed beneath his foot.

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That is the foot of Christ or being exalted to sit with him on his throne. He that overcometh to him,

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I will give to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and I'm set down with my father on the on his throne.

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It is better to sit on his throne than to be his footstool. Mark that down.

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Let's turn finally. Well, yeah, I think this is our second last verse, Daniel seven.

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Verses 13 to 14, again, when we just think about how it talks about even in Psalm 110, what does it say?

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Basically, the power is the power of the father, but he's working through the sun and that's how he's going to work out his judgment, the sun returning.

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And we'll see some more of that in just a moment. Daniel seven, verses 13 and 14. And I have to say

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I'm always a little leery about going to the book of Daniel. The first Bible study I ever went to, all we did was go from Daniel revelation to the

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L .A. Times. And it was it wasn't it wasn't Mike's Bible study. So I'm always like,

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OK, careful danger. Daniel seven, verses 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him.

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His dominion is, you know, in case you're just thinking this might be a human. No, his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away in his kingdom.

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One that shall not be destroyed. Gleason Archer wrote this. He said the messianic son of man is brought before the throne of the ancient of days to be awarded the crown of universal dominion.

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This refers not to his inherent sovereignty over the universe as God, the son, but to his appointment as absolute

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Lord and judge by virtue of his atoning ministry as God incarnate. And I think this is it.

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Let's look at let's turn to Second Timothy, Chapter four, where writes this.

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He says the return of Christ is the greatest source of hope. This is this ought to be true, even in light of picking up the paper every day.

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In fact, one of the things that where writes at the end, he goes, how should this inform us? You know, as we just think about Christ and we think about the fact that he could return at any time, it ought to change how we even read the newspapers.

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He says the return of Christ is the source of greatest hope for believers, but it should likewise be the source of deepest dread for unbelievers.

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There never will be a time in history marked by such contrasts as what he what he's implying there as the return of Christ.

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You know, we talk about, you know, if we if we could measure our lives on a daily basis between one and ten.

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You know, the second coming would be off the charts. Well, if unbelievers could mark their lives between one and ten.

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You couldn't go low enough when the Lord returns, it's going to be a horrible day for those who are not believers.

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Second Corinthians or I'm sorry, Second Timothy, chapter four, verses seven and eight. Paul writes this, obviously, at the end of his life, says,

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I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I've kept the faith verse eight. Now, listen, henceforth is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the

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Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

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The rewards are for those who have loved his appearing, who are looking forward to it. Why? Because they know that's a great day.

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They know that's the day when what? All sin, suffering, sorrow, all that is gone.

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It's done. But for the unbelievers, sin, suffering, sorrow are going to be their companions forever.

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And you say, well, how sin? Because while they're in hell, what are they going to be doing?

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Are they going to have the mindset? We love God. No, no.

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And they're going to pay for their rebellion eternally in hell.

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Where writes this about unbelievers? He says, what destruction and horror will befall the whole world as this victorious son comes to wield the wrath of the father in the judgment of the nations.

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He comes as the God man, to be sure, but he comes particularly as the victorious son of David, king and Lord, who is now finishing the work from eternity past the father decreed he should do.

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Again, I just think that should impact how we view everyday life.

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And I also thought, I mean, it's just remarkable when we think about, let me just one final practical aspect.

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In Ephesians 1 verses 18 to 23, which we read, he's exalted, seated at the right hand.

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He's above all thrones and all that. And we understand by the several verses that we read that the only authority over him is the father.

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And so I just thought in light of that, and in light of the fact that we have access to him, we have access to the father through him.

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And I just thought, why would anyone, because we see it all the time during this time of year, right?

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All the little manger scenes, which we shamefully have one up in our home. But all the little manger scenes, there's

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Mary, there's a little baby Jesus. And Roman Catholics do what? They say you have to pray to Mary to get to Jesus.

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Because the one thing that Jesus can't refuse is a plea from his mother.

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Of course, now that confers omniscience and everything else to Mary, because she has to be able to listen to a billion

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Roman Catholics praying at the same time, all of which she's not doing. But what does that do?

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It really says that maybe there's another layer. You know, here's the father, here's the son, here's

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Mary, and then there's all creation. That's blasphemy.

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So, you know, when people say, you're awfully hard on Roman Catholics, interestingly enough, just as an aside before I close, had an email from a

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Roman Catholic man this week, listens to NoCo Radio, which I thought was very nice, having some difficulties in his life, asked me questions.

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He didn't identify himself as a Roman Catholic. I gave him the biblical answers, and he wrote back, and this is when he told me he was a

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Roman Catholic. And he said he'd been to the priest, and he'd been to some other people in the Roman Catholic Church, and he says, you were the first person willing to tell me the truth.

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And I decided, he goes, you know, I know what you guys think of Roman Catholic, you know, teaching, and I've still worked my way through that.

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And I'm like, okay, well, you know, you got the gospel, you know what the truth is. And, you know, all that to say,

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I just think we need to think about Jesus Christ rightly. This is the season, right? He's the reason for the season, all that kind of stuff.

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We need to think that he is a man, and he is

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God, and he perfectly obeyed. And because of that obedience, because of the perfect life that he lived, because of the death that he died,

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God raised him from the dead and exalted him over all dominion, over everything.

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He has dominion, he's subdued everything. He has undone the sin of the first Adam.

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He did it all in the power of the Holy Spirit, not just as God exercising his own power, but by the power of the

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Holy Spirit, living, being tempted, suffering all the things that we deal with as humans.

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Now, I don't know if you remember this, but many, many weeks ago, I said, you know, I gave you an introduction about how, where began his book.

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And he said that as a 10 -year -old sitting in church, he just heard the preacher, whatever rank he was, say, you know, that we need to be like Jesus, we need to be sinless, we need to not do these things and everything.

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And he just said, well, it's not fair because Jesus is God. I just want to remind us all,

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Jesus is fully God, but he's also fully man.

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He humbly submitted to the Father and came to earth to set things right, to fully obey

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God. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ, our

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Savior, second person of the Trinity, who came to earth, lived that perfect life, who as a second

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Adam, obeyed you perfectly, exercised dominion over the earth, subdued the earth.

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And Father, you have exalted him, and now he rules and reigns on high, and he is coming back to judge the nations.

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Father, what a blessing it is to be in him, to be a co -heir with him.

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Father, let us rejoice in that this holiday season, that he has defeated Satan, that he has defeated death, that you have promised us all the things that you promised us in scripture, because of the finished work of Christ Jesus, both