What Shall We Do? - [Luke 3:7-14]

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Years ago I was speaking on the radio with a decorated war hero and he had gotten saved after he had got out of the military and he was asked to pray at the
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National Day of Prayer and I had known about an evangelical who had been asked to speak in the National Day of Prayer and was told ahead of time you can't say
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Jesus's name and so I thought certainly this decorated war vet would say
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Jesus's name and so I said when you got up to pray how did you end the prayer and he said
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I ended it in God's name we pray amen. I thought oh reminded me of the story of Methodist preacher
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Peter Cartwright and he was to preach in front of President Andrew Jackson and he was told
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Andrew Jackson is in the congregation be careful what you say certain things you can say certain things you can't say and so Peter Cartwright got up to preach
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I understand Andrew Jackson is here I've been requested to be guarded in my remarks
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Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he doesn't repent. Congregation was shocked but afterwards
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President Jackson approached the preacher sir if I had a regiment of men like you
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I could whip the world and today today we talk about another preacher of repentance and his name is
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John the Baptist please take your Bibles and open to Luke chapter 3 the herald of the
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Lord Jesus the forerunner the preacher of righteousness and repentance proclaiming repentance heralding repentance and with boldness and without compromise heralding the truth about the
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Lord. Super simple outline today since so many people have a false view or a wrong view of repentance what is repentance does it apply the outline is simple
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I'm going to give you several errors people make when it comes to repentance maybe we could call it avoiding errors about repentance avoiding errors about repentance what
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I love about the gospel of Luke and by the way if you're new here at church we just pick a book and we just start preaching through the book and this is the gospel or the good news about Jesus according to Luke and Luke writes like a physician like a historian very detailed so that you might know exactly who the
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Lord Jesus is and have certainty about what you see in the text the gospel according to Luke and he wants you to know that Jesus especially in chapter 2 is a man who's born of a woman the
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Virgin Mary conceived by the Spirit of God and he's born under a law because Jesus needs to keep the law because we're lawbreakers and Jesus need to pay for lawbreakers because that's our only hope of heaven and later in the epistles we'll learn about this
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Jesus the law keeper and how he saves us by grace and how he redeems us from slavery of sin and how because of Jesus we have peace with God Romans 5 would say through the
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Lord Jesus Christ and have access to God the Father thankfully because of the Lord Jesus that we'll learn about in the gospel of Luke Romans 5 is very applicable while we were still weak at the right time
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Christ died for the ungodly for one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would even dare to die but God shows or demonstrates his love for us that and while we were sinners
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Christ died for us it is by the one man's obedience to Lord Jesus where we are constituted righteous and therefore there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and this is the
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Jesus that Luke proclaims instead of some kind of Jesus that reacts a
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Jesus who is just watered down far from being worshipped kind of an enabler
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Luke will not let you think that about the Lord Jesus he wants you to think that he's truly God and truly man and critical in the first two chapters if I had to focus in on something that I don't want you to forget in chapters 1 & 2 it's found in verse 49 of chapter 2 as we look through the birth of Jesus and the birth of John the
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Baptist and the shepherds and the angels and everything else please don't forget dear congregation that at the verse 49 of chapter 2 is very important and he said to his parents his mother and stepfather why are you looking for me did you not know that I must be in my father's house of course you could say back in those days our father you could say the father but what is
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Jesus saying when he says my father when Jesus was talking to false teachers remember in John chapter 5 and when he called
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God my father what did that signal to those teachers Jesus answered them saying my father is working until now and I am working this was why the
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Jews were seeking all the more to kill him not only that he was breaking the Sabbath but he was even calling
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God his own father making himself equal with God and so the writer
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Luke wants you to realize here's the God man the Lord Jesus Christ and he has an origin he has a background he's truly man but he is truly
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God he is the God man and in chapter 3 we have
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John the Baptist preparing the way for Jesus in the old days they would have front men they would have people that would go out ahead of time to make sure that everything was set for the
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King's arrival and that's exactly what happens here in John 3 let me just read these verses again as we approach our passage today which is in chapter 3 verse 7 but let's just catch up for last week chapter 3 verse 1 in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea and Herod being
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Tetrarch of Galilee and his brother Philip Tetrarch of the region of Iteria and Trachonitis and Lysanias Tetrarch of Abilene during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas here's the grammatical center of those verses here's the key point you think these other guys are really big shots and leaders and everything else but here's the main issue the
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Word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness
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God is speaking for the first time in 400 years through a prophet God is speaking what will he say the
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Messiah is certainly going to come soon what is God going to do and it's in the midst of all these crazy people sinful people vile people wicked people those that would actually chop
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John's head off and crucify Jesus John the Baptist shows up and nothing's going to stop
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God and his word because God is sovereign and he has dominion and he rules and in the midst of chaos that can't stop the
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Lord Jesus from coming and what did John preach and he went into all the region around Jordan and said you need to have your best life now
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I'm gonna start calling John seeker sensitive John by the way he's so nice and he went into all the region of Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins the
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Lord Jesus is going to come recognize that you're sinful and in a unique baptism this is not
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Christian baptism this was not a Jewish baptism of cleansing if you want to be a Jew and you were
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Gentile this is unique to John Jesus is going to show up get baptized prep a preparation baptism looking to the
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Lord Jesus get ready acknowledge your sins the
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King is coming and what John the Baptist does if you see in verses 4 and following is he prepares the way of the
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Lord those verses in chapter 3 verses 4 5 & 6 literally would be let's make sure the roads are nice let's make sure the roads are smooth let's make sure when the king travels he gets there easily it's almost like let the red carpet out the red carpet treatment by the way on a side note it was 1902
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New York Central Railroad put out plush crimson carpets to direct people to board the 20th century limited passenger train and this was the origin of red carpet treatment put out the red carpet for Jesus he's coming matter of fact
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Luke chapter 1 said that that was exactly going to happen you John the Baptist will go before the
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Lord to prepare his ways and with great figurative language you can see in verses 4 and following this voice that cries out in the wilderness from Isaiah prepare the way of the
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Lord make us pass rates etc so now we come to our outline in our passage
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Luke 3 7 to 14 avoiding common errors about repentance by the way
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I put it this way so that you say to yourself I don't want to fall into that error I want you to avoid these errors error number one to ignore repentance ignore repentance that's the first error never preach it never do it
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I read of a French preacher in 1650 southern
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France preached 50 sermons in a row on two words repent ye and one of those sermons lasted four and a half hours
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I don't think he ignored it by the way I always love fall ahead for daylight savings time because that means
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I get to preach for an extra hour works out perfect some of you were thinking what do you do when you spring back you don't preach no no
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I just ignore that one back in verse 3 again proclaiming a baptism for repentance and at the end of the gospel of Luke remember what
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Jesus said in the Great Commission in Luke chapter 24 thus it is written that the
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Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and Jesus said and that repentance for the forgiveness of sin should be proclaimed in his name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem you need to think rightly about sin you need to change your mind you need to think properly when it comes to sin ie we sin and God is holy and there's going to be nuclear winter when sin and holiness come together unless that sin has been forgiven
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Charles Hodge said there's no duty which is either more obvious in itself or more frequently asserted in the
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Word of God than that of repentance everywhere you look the word is repent repent repent and sometimes there are words in the
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Bible that mean repent but aren't technically repent in other words you don't see the word but you get the idea circumcise your hearts a breakup follow ground turn from your wicked way wash your heart from wickedness and if you start looking at the
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Old Testament Ezekiel preaches repentance Jesus sends the twelve out in Mark 6 and they preaching repentance
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Peter after the ascension of Jesus said repent and let each of you be baptized the prodigal son
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I think typifies what a repentant heart is like when Jesus was teaching in Luke 15 about that son it says when he came to his senses when he repented and have felt that shame of repentance father
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I've sinned against heaven and in your sight I'm no longer worthy to be called your son and so wherever you look in the
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Bible repentance is there so we want to make sure we don't ignore it Paul on top of Mars Hill by the way is anybody here have been on top part
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Mars Hill Areopagus Jim McStay well good for you wasn't it amazing what else could you say right now you have to say what
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I say pastor Paul is on the top of this place where they would discuss political things and philosophical things and what does he tell them well it should be obvious times of ignorance
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God overlooked Paul said but now he commands all people everywhere to repent to think rightly about sin and some people responded with laughter some people responded with snickering and some people believed it was 1517 and Martin Luther was in Wittenberg Germany and he put up 95 statements to try to have the reform come in the
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Roman Catholic Church and out of the 95 statements his first statement was when the
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Lord and Master Jesus said repent he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance and so even as Christians we understand what
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John is doing is talking about unbelievers should repent and think rightly about sin but even as Christians we're repenting people and we're trying to be corrected and think rightly about our sin so that we repent and ask
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God forgive us number two second error first one is ignore repentance and I don't think anybody here really does number two turn repentance into a work the second error that happens a lot is turning repentance into some kind of work in other words you have to clean up your life in order to come to Christ that's where I'm going with this now
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I want you to keep your thinking caps on because we're going to get a little theological here for a moment and then we'll get back down to the hay on the lower levels but I want to make sure you understand this if I were to say to you what comes first regeneration our faith being born again or believing being alive used to be dead and now you're alive and believing you probably say well it just depends chronologically it happens at the same time
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I can't be a regenerate unbeliever and I can't believe a believing unregenerate and so it seems to me in time they happen at the same time they're like Siamese twins you would be right but theologically and logically you can't exercise faith until you're born again until you're alive because dead people don't believe they're dead and so chronologically repentance and faith are simultaneous theologically being born again is first similarly here with the
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Bible teaching on repentance if I ask you repent and believe which one comes first well you mean to tell me that I can be a repentant unbeliever or I can be a believing unpenitent chronologically faith and repentance is simultaneous no problem there right it's like a coin the tails is
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I'm thinking rightly about sin repentance and the head side is I'm trusting in the
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Lord Jesus so again they're simultaneous in time but like with regeneration and faith theologically there's there's an order there's a priority and that is faith comes first that's why we believe in sola fide not solo repentance but sola fide by the way when you think about the order theologically
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John Calvin for instance says it ought to be a fact beyond controversy that repentance not only constantly follows faith but is also born of faith for since pardon and forgiveness are offered through the preaching of the gospel in order that the sinner freed from the tearing of Satan the yoke of sin and the miserable bondage of vices may cross over into the kingdom of God surely no one can embrace the grace of the gospel without betaking himself then from the errors of his past life the motivating power for repentance comes from faiths looking to the
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Lord for forgiveness and mercy I could maybe put it something like this if you're going to grab the
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Lord Jesus with the hands of faith to cling to him you're not going to grab him with hands of sin and self and everything else when you grab him all those other things that you need to repent of fall from your hands and so without belaboring this too much
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I just want to make sure here's the point when you're preaching the gospel to people and you tell them in light of who
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Jesus is and what he's done let me tell you your response if you want to say believe that's fine because in the
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Bible believe is implied repentance if you want to say repent that's fine because with repentance there's faith
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I say one I mean both and I tell them you must repent I'm not saying clean up your life so that you can believe
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I'm not saying there's something before faith I'm not saying you know what I can't offer you the good news of Jesus until you stop sinning as you know probably the book that changed my life was the
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God was the gospel of Luke well true and all these other books of the Bible but written by a man was the whole
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Christ by Sinclair Ferguson by the way I just curious how many people read the whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson I love being your pastor good job that book changed my life and when
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I met Sinclair Ferguson a while ago I saw him again I said Sinclair that book changed my life the way
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I preach the flavor that I preach in the tincture that the attitude that book changed my life thank you for writing that and normally know these stage
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Scottish guys are like okay thank you you know thank you something like that and he grabbed my hands with two of his hands and said thank you and I said
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I think the congregation sees it as well too instead of scolding people trying to encourage people in this whole idea of of who
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Jesus is and how do you preach it but in that book it has a little history to it and the history is there was an argument in Scotland in 1700s and that argument was do you tell people that are unbelievers they have to stop sinning in order to come to Christ or do you offer them
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Christ even as sinners and it was called the Merrill controversy and it had men involved like Thomas Boston and Robert a
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Ralph Erskine and an Ebenezer Erskine think if I had another child I'd probably name him Ebenezer what's the nickname for Ebenezer by the way what
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Ben oh that'd be perfect I was thinking neither but that wouldn't work out you have to be united to Jesus in order to forsake sin that's why it's so Lafitte believe on the
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Lord Jesus and you'll be saved when I say repent I'm not saying stop your sinning I am saying think rightly about your sin but I'm not telling people to stop sinning so that they might believe because Jesus justifies the ungodly now in the 1600s a man wrote a book called the marrow of modern divinity and he has an evangelist speaking to a legalist and they're talking back and forth legalist
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I conceive repentance consists in a man humbling himself before God and turning from them all to the
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Lord the evangelist would you have a man do all this before he comes to Christ by believing legalist yes
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I think it is very fitting the evangelist well I tell you you would have him do what's impossible it's impossible as an unbeliever to turn from your sins and so we preach exactly what 11 chapter 11 verse 21 says in Acts the hand of the
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Lord is with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord sinners don't have to stop sinning in order to come to Christ they come by faith and when they come by faith inevitably and always they will come by faith repenting error number three exchange religious activity or religious heritage for repentance this is amazing chapter 3 verse 7
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John the Baptist said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him they're coming to him out in the wilderness you brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come bear fruits in keeping with repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves we have
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Abraham as our father for I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham you think that you're going to escape the hell of God the wrath of God the burning lake of fire by simply getting dunked in the
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Jordan I didn't tell you that don't get that from me back in verse 7 who warned you to flee from the wrath to come by simply getting baptized
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I haven't John the Baptist said that's not the way to go it's like there's all kinds of snakes slithering around and then they're by the fire and they want to escape the fire to be okay but they don't want to change from their snake nature you want to get baptized but you don't want to have any change in your life you want to get baptized to be forgiven you crowds and you
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Pharisees and Sadducees and everything else but you don't want to have any internal change because you don't want to stop sinning
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I'm not going to tell you that John the Baptist said keep living the way you've always lived but say you're forgiven
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I mean that kind of sounds like today when people say well I've been baptized I've been a church member
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I serve I I go to church and I just do that because I'm kind of just giving
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God a couple you know little gifts here and there but I'm not going to change in any of my sins I'm gonna live the way
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I'm going to live snakes in the fire they're running from the fire but they don't want to be any less snake ish doesn't that remind you by the way where's the other story about a viper in a fire in the in the
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Bible remember that story I mean it's just so funny the fight the viper in the fire running
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Paul said after the shipwreck in Malta the native people in Acts 28 showed us unusual kindness for the kindled the fire and welcomed us all because it began to rain and was cold when
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Paul began to gather a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire a viper came out because of the heat and fastened onto his hand you imagine just lifting the hand up and there's that thing just stuck on his hand uh -oh is right the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand they said to another no doubt this man is a murderer though we escaped the sea capital
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J justice the God of justice has not allowed him to live see what goes around comes around with karma he did bad things the universe is going to judge him and there's
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Paul with that viper however Paul shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm they were waiting for him to swell up or suddenly fall down dead but when they had waited for a long time and saw him no misfortune come to him they changed their minds and said that he was a god
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I mean can you imagine
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John the Baptist here you brood of vipers in Matthew he's saying that to the Pharisees and the
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Sadducees and here he's saying it to everybody they probably the crowds have probably imbibed the the teaching of the
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Sadducees and the Pharisees I just want to have my sins dealt with but I don't care about living for the
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Lord I don't care about being godly I don't care about repenting I don't care about striving after holiness
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I just want to have my sins forgiven and John says that's a delusion you need a wake -up call for that that is hypocrisy that is a false profession and John the
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Baptist will call it out matter of fact he'll call it out so much that he'll have his head chopped off later essentially
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John the Baptist is saying this you come out here to me and you want to get baptized for the remission of sins and say you know what
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I never want to change I never want to have any fruit I never have any evidence I don't want to think rightly about sin and how it's a trespass against God and I don't want to think about how it defames
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God and attacks his holiness I just want to live the way I'm living but I want to have the security blanket at home at night thinking if I die in my sleep
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I'm going to heaven and basically he says you know what your father is Satan if you think that way you're
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Satanic remember in John 844 Jesus said you were of your father the devil because the devil's a liar the devil's a slander you think of the serpent back in Genesis chapter 3 he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him whenever he speaks a lie he speaks from his own nature for he's a liar and the father of lies that's your father you think father
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Abraham had many sons and many sons had father Abraham I'm one of them and so are you so let's just praise the
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Lord no you have father Abraham when you're a repenter and when you're a believer and you're trusting in the
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Lord Jesus everybody's just not a father of a bar a son of Abraham because they're Jewish Satan lies it's a lie to think
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I'll just do a religious activity and that takes care of it it's a lie to think that God does not want us to think about our sin and trust in the
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Lord only it's a lie it's a seat of the serpent verse 8 again we have
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Abraham as our father that's not a religious duty that's religious heritage he says do not begin to save yourself don't even think about it don't pass go don't go there don't lay down there you're in your bed at night thinking you know what my dad's a
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Christian my dad's a pastor my mom's godly I'm just in by getting in I'm in by membership
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I've been by a long line of Protestants if you haven't thought rightly about your sin trusted in the
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Lord Jesus bearing fruits of repentance then you ought not to be saying that to yourself the real offspring of Abraham are repenters are believers and I trust that if you're here today and if I were to ask you if you were to die tonight stand before God if God were to ask you why should
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I let you into heaven I hope your congregation it wouldn't be because you would say
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I've been baptized because I'm in a Christian family and I've done these things because if you could get into heaven by those things why kill
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Jesus why murder Jesus it takes the death of Jesus our sin is so bad a little moral reform won't work so we need the
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Lord Jesus the loving Savior to come be a shepherd and guide us and before he guides us he saves us and so the only answer when we stand before God it's not even our faithfulness
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I was good and I served and I I said what I was supposed to do and I and I loved other Christians and I loved you it's not even that our sanctification your sanctification is not a
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Savior right your holy living is not a Savior your only Savior as you stand before God and you say
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I deserve to go to hell and I shouldn't be here because I'm a sinner but I have a Savior I have an advocate that stands between you father and and me and I have a mediator who stands there right there
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I meant to say mediator between you and me advocate with me number four misunderstand true repentance ignore repentance turn repentance into a work exchange religious activity for repentance and now the fourth error that's pretty common misunderstand true repentance and it's kind of connected to the last one but we'll make it separate for our message today misunderstand true repentance true or false you're saved by faith alone true true or false you're saved by faith alone but that faith won't be alone in other words you're saved by faith alone in the courtroom of God you're justified by faith alone because you're looking to the
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Savior but after God saves you and gives you the Spirit of God who dwells in you you will do things that show out of gratitude fruits and evidence of your
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Christian life you're saved by faith alone but that faith won't be alone true or false are you sure yes good all right that's that old thing you do when you're a pastor true or false you're saved by works truthful true
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Christ works of course it's similar faith repentance is to faith in this regard saved by faith alone and that faith won't be alone and what happens is when you see real repentance it's going to have fruits real repentance has fruits and that's what
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John says in verse 8 bear fruits in keeping with repentance have fruit that matches your profession that illustrate it and if you go down to verse 10 we're going to back up a little bit in a second but in chapter 3 verse 10 you see three groups of people verses 10 and following that need to bear fruits of repentance essentially fruits of repentance our loving
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God and loving neighbor but there's the crowd the tax collectors and the soldiers they know their sin full but it's a shallow kind of thing and so he says to group one after they ask him what every group asked him what should we do the crowds ask him verse 10 what should we do he answered them whoever has two tunics that's the thing you put underneath your cloak kind of almost like underwear kind of thing is to share with him who has none and whoever has food is to do likewise not that hard somebody doesn't have what they need for clothing and you have an extra set of clothing and you can't wear two clothings at the same time how do
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I say that you can't wear two under things at the same time I guess you could you don't need to well then you should share you should love your neighbor well tax collectors verse 12 they came out to be baptized by him what's what's fruit that bears what's the fruit from real repentance teacher what shall we do and he said to them collect no more than you were authorized to do tax collectors sinners prostitutes they're all in the same group is it wrong to work for the
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IRS come on but it's wrong to work for the
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IRS and clamp down on people that shouldn't be clamped down on it's not wrong to be a tax collector but it's wrong to extort people it's wrong to take advantage of your position so what
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John the Baptist does not say is quit being a tax collector but what are some fruits from the tax collector well the obvious one is you know what verse 13 collect no more than you're authorized to do don't don't be unloving to other people there's that old phrase by Luther God doesn't need your good works
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I mean he doesn't need anything right he's self -sufficient he's of himself but your neighbor does and so what does a tax collector need to do well you want to see the fruits so you can check to see what the root is if I have no fruit do
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I have any root well what's the fruit be kind to people love them don't defraud them don't extort them by the way that's why you paid to have the franchise of tax collector so you could get extra money but you ought not to do that because it's wrong and it's sinful be fair do your job rightly well there's another group that asked him basically what do we do to bear fruits of repentance what shall we do verse 14 soldiers said and he said to them do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation and be content with your wages maybe
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Roman soldiers probably Jewish soldiers and they had the power they had the strength they had the swords and they could get money from you if they wanted to and they could probably justified by saying we don't get paid that much to do this kind of job and we're gonna take it from other people that we're guarding don't do that the root of repentance shows the fruit of repentance it says something here about threats do you see where where it says threats don't threaten anyone you know what the
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Greek word for a threat is shake ever heard this phrase before in the mafia shook him down right it's almost like they're a money tree you just shake it till the money comes out of their pockets don't shake anybody down you've got the power to do it don't shake them down faith without works is dead repentance without fruit isn't real repentance you could probably say to yourself all right am
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I really a Christian this is a good exercise for everyone am I a Christian am
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I right with God it's the most important question you could ever ask yourself am I right with God if I were to say to you why are you a
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Christian I hope you would say because I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ before you said
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I read the Bible I have a desire to serve I want to love God and love his command love his people
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I'm doing all these things I hope you say first and primarily I believe what
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Jesus said is true I believe he confirmed it by the resurrection I believe that he's the eternal
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Son of God who took on flesh he lived for me he died for me he was raised for me he ascended for me he's interceding for me and my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness that's why
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I should go to heaven that's what you sure first should say and secondarily to emphasize the point secondarily you should say to yourself
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I wonder if the Spirit of God has any fruit in my life is the
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Spirit of God working in my life and Romans chapter 8 here's part of the fruit of the the ministry of the
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Holy Spirit in your life when you're in a bad situation you cry out what Abba Father this is the shriek of a pregnant lady who's so much in pain when you are down and out and health and money and issues and jobs and marriages and everything else and you're thinking
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I need some help God help me did you know that's a sign of a Christian because you know he can help you and there's also another thing that helps is if you look at your life and say
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I wonder if there's any spirits fruit in my life the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and so you say but I don't do that like I want to but I have the desire to do it you know that's also the fruit of the
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Spirit who gave you the desire to obey who gave you the desire to evangelize who gave you the desire to read the
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Bible who gave you the desire to serve one another Satan as I like to say
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CNN Newsmax that's a spirit of God and so if you stay if you think today here's a good gut check for everyone standing here sitting here today am
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I really a Christian I'm trusting in the Lord Jesus he's my all -in -all and I want to trust him more than I do but I trust him
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I believe it and I see in my life not as much as I want
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I want more but even that is a fruit I see in my life a desire to cry out to God when
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I'm hurting and I see in my life a desire to have more love joy and peace air number four five excuse me what five we have to five okay when
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I said for Brian Bartlett look down in his notes I knew I said the wrong number number five delay repentance the fifth air delay repentance he's talking to the unbeliever here but of course as Christians we don't want to delay our repentance either but for the unbeliever got a life to live so your oats gonna travel the world gonna do other things don't get tied down now by somehow
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God's law and his restrictive nature that's all wrong thinking by the way but look at what John the
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Baptist says verse 9 of Luke chapter 3 even now better not wait this is risky the axe is laid to the root of the trees judgments coming soon you're not guaranteed tomorrow every tree therefore that is not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire you can't repent too soon as Andrew Fuller said because you do not know how soon it may be too late and by the way in context fast -forward 40 years approximately and Jerusalem Falls and so if you're here today and you're not a
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Christian what are you waiting for why are you delaying repentance and faith in the
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Lord Jesus second Corinthians behold now is the favorable time behold now is the day of salvation
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Hebrews 3 today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion come now you who say today or tomorrow we'll go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring what is your life you're amidst that appears for a little time and then vanishes it's appointed for man once to die and after that what judgment
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Isaiah 55 seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts let him return to the
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Lord he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundant and number six our last one our last common error deny that false repentance deserves
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God's wrath ignore repentance turn repentance into a work exchange religiosity for repentance misunderstand true repentance delay repentance and now number six deny that false repentance deserves
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God's wrath the very beginning of the Bible the first lie that was ever told
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God won't judge and we stand here as people understanding even as Christians that God does judge and we look back to the cross we look back to the
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Lord Jesus and what he's done for us and we say yes in fact on that cross when he said my God my God why have you sit forsaken me from noon to 3 it turned dark as God the
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Father is judging the sins of all those who'd ever believe on the cross God judges sin if you don't believe that you look to the cross wasn't
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Jesus sin either it was our sin and so we don't want to say somehow that there's no ultimate wrath if you go back to verse 7 not just the fire language in verse 9 throwing down these trees into the fire but also remember what
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John the Baptist said at Baptist said after the brood of vipers who warned you to flee from the wrath to come where are the men and women who speak plainly and bluntly and biblically about the coming wrath now it's almost like a caricature if you go to a basketball game and there's somebody standing outside of TD garden and they're saying repent for the kingdom of God is it near you think he's a kook out of all the reasons to repent and believe this should be right up there hell is real eternity is real psalm to his wrath may soon be kindled how blessed are all those who take refuge in him it's not just I'm afraid of hell as an unbeliever it's
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I'm afraid of hell and there is one who suffered essentially the torments of hell condensed into three hours on the cross he did that for people like me the
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Bible says whoever believes in the son has eternal life whoever does not obey the son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him
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I don't want you to be deceived for most of the ministry here I'm trying to encourage
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Christians to trust in the Lord even though they fall short in their holy living for the week they're still safe and that's true the focus of the passage here today is a little bit different it's talking about people that say somehow they can be religious they can have a repentance they can have an experience they can be slain in the spirit something that can happen to them are there related to somebody who's godly and that's good enough it's whoever believes on the
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Lord shall be saved wasn't it John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress that was trying to make it so vivid so that people would be urgent to repent and not delay repentance when he said at the gates of heaven you think you're going in there's a porthole or a trapdoor to hell because you think you're going to go in but you don't have a faith in the
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Lord Jesus you just have a baptism or circumcision or something else that is a diabolical strategy that Satan loves to have
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Proverbs 16 there's a way that seems right to a man but it's end is the way of what death you don't want to have demon faith you don't want to have temporary faith do you know in 2015 55 million people died every day that's a hundred and fifty thousand every hour that's six thousand every minute that's a hundred and every second that's two two four six eight ten and all those who aren't trusting in the
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Lord Jesus I think sometimes we're afraid to talk about hell in church but if they won't hear it from the pulpit where will they hear it from a bunch of people died tragically and they went to Jesus in Luke 13 do you think these
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Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way Jesus now I tell you the truth but unless you repent you'll all likewise perish are those 18 on whom the
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Tower of Siloam fell and killed them do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem Jesus Luke 13 no
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I tell you but unless you repent you all likewise perish I know you've heard this from me before but it's so impactful
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I reread it regularly World War two Navy group of soldiers they're going to have to advance soon and get off the ship chaplain do you believe in hell no well then we want you to resign for there's no hell we don't need you and if there is we don't want to be led astray and it sounds like John the
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Baptist I'm not saying our evangelism only needs to be like John the
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Baptist and we're the latest incarnation of Elijah and we're flamethrowers and this is the only part of our ministry
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I am saying that there needs to be some law work some preparation work preaching what
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God requires and that the nature of God as a holy God before we go offering to people
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Jesus loves you and Jesus died for people like you people need to need they need to know that they need to be saved first before we offer them the
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Savior that's Romans chapter 3 verse 19 lastly just a
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PS sometimes the Bible says repent and the responses they believe sometimes the
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Bible says believe and it says they repent because they go together and there's theological shorthand in the
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Bible and if I tell you today to repent I'm telling you to think rightly about your sins and to believe on the
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Lord Jesus and if you ever hear me say believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved I'm also saying to you you need to think rightly about your sins and repent and so when
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I say one I mean the both and so today if you're trusting in the Lord Jesus you're safe you're secure and we are going to celebrate that at the
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Lord's table in a moment and if you're not trusting in the Lord Jesus you need to be forgiven why do you resist why don't you just ask the
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Lord I don't know if I can believe on my own but would you give me faith and would you give mercy
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I heard you're a merciful God would you mercy on to saving faith let's pray father in heaven
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I thank you for this time hard words from John the Baptist but your words and father on behalf of this dear congregation we thank you for bringing people into our lives who told us the truth they didn't sugarcoat it they were kind they spoke the truth in love but they told us the truth that we needed a
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Savior we thank you for those people must have been hard for many of them to tell us even though we are family members and friends but they opened their mouth and talked about you and talked about your holiness and talked about repentance and faith and our wonderful Savior the
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Lord Jesus a friend like no other the captain of our salvation would you help us as Christians in a kind way but in a real way and an honest way in a direct way to tell people about sin so that they might look to the