Ascension Presbyterian Lord's Day Worship

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Good morning, my brothers and sisters in Christ grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and from the
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Lord Jesus Christ Welcome to the corporate worship of our God. Please stand and Hear God call you to worship through his word
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Praise the Lord Praise God in his sanctuary Praise him and his mighty firmament praise him for his mighty acts praise him according to his excellent greatness
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Praise him with the sound of the trumpet praise him with lute and harp praise him with timbrel and dance
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Praise him with stringed instruments and flutes praise him with loud cymbals
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Praise him with clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the
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Lord praise the Lord Let us pray. Oh Lord our
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Lord How majestic is your name in all the earth you have made the heavens in the earth by your great power and outstretched arm
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Your invisible attributes your eternal power and divine nature are clearly seen
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Through what you have made the heaven the heavens declare your glory We praise you for your providence
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You are the governor and sustainer of all things and you all things hold together in you
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We live and move and have our being you give to all life and breath and all things
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You work all things after the counsel of your own will You have numbered even the hairs upon our heads and not even a sparrow falls from a tree apart from your will
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We praise you our God for these your great works of creation in providence
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But above all we praise you for redemption There is no other God besides you no other
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Savior No other rock to whom the ends of the earth may turn and be saved
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We rejoice that you so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son the
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Lord Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world and Gave your spirit to abide within with us and within us and teaches all things
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May we have fellowship with you father son and Holy Spirit We ask all these things in Jesus's name
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Amen Please kneel as you are able for the corporate confession of sin.
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Let us join together in confessing our sins Almighty and most merciful father
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We are thankful that your mercy is higher than the heavens wider than our wanderings deeper than our sin
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Forgive our careless attitudes towards what our purposes our refusals from the suffering of others
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Our envy of those who are more than we have our obsession with creating the life of constant pleasure our indifference
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Treasure Please stand and receive these words of comfort in our assurance of pardon
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Seek the Lord while he may be found Call upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way
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And the unrighteous man his thoughts let him return to the Lord and He will have mercy on him and to our
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God for he will abundantly pardon For my thoughts are not your thoughts nor are your ways my ways says the
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Lord For as the heavens and are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts my brothers and sisters in Christ sing shout rejoice
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Your sins are forgiven in Christ. Amen Please take up the
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Trinity hymnal and turn to him 94 how firm a foundation him 94
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Please take up the insert and look for our psalm of the week psalm 73
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Yes, God is good to Israel psalm 73 the tune is the tune to faith of our fathers
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Psalm 73, please remain standing for our reading from God's Word from Genesis 5 the book of Genesis chapter 5
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This is the book of the generations of Adam in the day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name
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Adam in the day when they were created and Adam lived and hundred and thirty years and begat a son in his own likeness and after his image and called his name
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Seth and the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were 800 years and he begat sons and daughters and All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years and he died
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Seth lived and hundred and five years and begat Enos and Seth lived after he begat
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Enos eight hundred and seven years. And he and begat sons and daughters and All the days of Seth were 912 years and he died and Enos live 900 years and begat
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Canaan and Enos lived after he begat Canaan 815 years and begott sons and daughters and all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years and he died
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And Canaan lived 70 years and begat Mahalaliyah. And Canaan lived after he begat
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Mahalaliyah 840 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Canaan were 910 years and he died.
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And Mahalaliyah lived 60 and 5 years and begat Jared. And Mahalaliyah lived after he begat
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Jared 830 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Mahalaliyah were 890 and 5 years and he died.
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And Jared lived 160 and 2 years and begat Enoch. And Jared lived after he begat
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Enoch 800 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were 960 and 2 years and he died.
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And Enoch lived 60 and 5 years and begat Methuselah. And Enoch walked with God after he begat
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Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 360 and 5 years.
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And Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. And Methuselah lived 180 and 7 years and begat
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Lamech. And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 780 and 2 years and begat sons and daughters.
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And all the days of Methuselah were 960 and 9 years and he died. And Lamech lived after and Lamech lived and 180 and 2 years and begat a son.
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And he called his name Noah saying this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the
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Lord hath cursed. And Lamech lived after he begat Noah 590 and 5 years and begat sons and daughters.
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And all the days of Lamech were 770 and 7 years and he died. And Noah was 500 years old.
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And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. This is the word of the Lord. Let us continue our worship by confessing our common
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Christian faith and the singing of the Apostles Creed. Please be seated.
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I'd like to ask Pastor Breno and the Lemke family to come up front. And as they're making their way up front,
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I'd like to ask you all to look for the insert that is labeled Covenant Baptism Vows.
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This is a glorious occasion to baptize a covenant child into communion with the people of God, Christ and his church.
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And one of the things I was thinking about last evening and early this morning was how are godly seed produced?
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God desires godly seed. And it seems that the way he does this is he unites a
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Christian man and a Christian woman together in a covenant of marriage, a serious commitment to Christ and to one another.
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And they have children and they cling to the precious promises that God would be
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God to them and their children. And they bring them to the church and they get them baptized and they instruct them in the nurture and admonition of the
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Lord. This is how the ordinary way God accomplishes his goal of having godly seed.
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The sacrament of baptism is administered by the church in obedience to the command of Christ that the nation should be converted, baptized and taught all that Christ has commanded.
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Baptism represents and seals our union with Christ, the outpouring of the
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Holy Spirit and resulting regeneration, adoption and cleansing from sin.
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By baptism we are admitted into the covenant community and made members of the body of Christ.
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There's a lot of biblical revelation that happens in scripture, but there is a unifying and singular covenant of grace.
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Abraham had the gospel preached to him. He believed God. His faith was reckoned to him as righteousness.
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He entered into a covenant with God signified by the sign of circumcision.
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Yet he was commanded to apply the sign of his adult faith to his infant child and all infant children thereafter.
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Why? Because of God's promise, Genesis 17, I will be a
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God to you and to your children. The saving purposes of God include the children of believers because he is their
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God as well as their parents. The children also receive the sign of the covenant and are admitted into the covenant community.
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When we come to the New Testament, no new principle is introduced. Children are not now excluded from the covenant community.
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Rather, in an era which we rightly speak of a greater covenant with better promises, children have not a reduced but a more privileged status.
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At Pentecost, in the delivery of the first Christian sermon, Peter said, for the promise is for you and your children.
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And for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our
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God shall call to himself. Now brethren, this occasion isn't just a special day for the
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Lemke family. Let all who are here present be reminded of their own baptisms, of God's grace confirmed, of the privileges of the covenant into which they entered, to which you have entered, and of your responsibility to live holy lives and to serve
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God with thanksgiving. But the parents here especially be charged not to neglect the means of grace.
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Be sure that you provide a godly example that you pray with and for your child, that you instruct
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Mary Elizabeth in the word of God, and that you make use of the catechisms of the church and you bring her weekly to the public worship of the church.
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I'm gonna ask you now to pray with me. Oh Lord, we rejoice, we give thanks to you for the gift of this child and for your covenant promises.
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We pray that you would grant the inward reality that corresponds to the outward washing, that this child will be received into the protection and care of Jesus Christ and his church, that even as he has been the
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God of the child's parents, that the Lord would be the child's God as well, that the child would be granted the gift of the
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Holy Spirit, that her heart would be renewed and regenerated, that she would grow up never knowing a day apart from Christ, like John filled with the
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Holy Spirit from the womb, like David, trusting
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God while still a nursing infant. Oh Lord, we pray that you would bring this to pass, not only for Mary Elizabeth, but for all of our children who are here and all that will be born.
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We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm now gonna ask the Lempkes to come.
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Father Mark, the congregation, if you will look inside your bulletins, you're going to see we have supplied the baptism vows.
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It's on the other side of the membership house turning up.
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Mitchell and Gina, I'm going to ask you a few questions. Do you acknowledge your child's need of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and renewing grace of the
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Holy Spirit? We do. Do you trust in God's covenant promises on their behalf and do you look in faith to the
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Lord Jesus Christ for their salvation as you do your own? We do.
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Do you unreservedly dedicate your child to God and promise in humble reliance upon his divine grace that you will endeavor to set before them
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Christ and his gospel, provide a godly example that you will pray with and for them, that you will teach them the doctrines of our holy faith, and that you will strive by all the means of God's appointment to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of your
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Lord? Congregation, you as a church body undertake the responsibility of assisting these parents in the
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Christian nurture of this child. We do. Mitchell, I'm going to ask you, what is the
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Christian name of this precious child? Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth.
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I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
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Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us pray.
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Praising almighty God for his sovereign grace in Christ Jesus, praying that the
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Lord will guide and protect this child, that she will grow daily in the love and knowledge of Christ, that she will serve
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God all her days and live for his whole his glory, that she or rather her that her parents shall with will show wisdom, discernment, diligence as they seek to rear her in the nurture and admonition of the
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Lord, that she will live so as to be a credit to her family and church.
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We ask all these things in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Please take up the trinity hymnal once more and open to hymn 441,
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Jesus shall reign. Please stand. Hymn 444, Jesus shall reign.
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Please now make preparations for the prayers of the people.
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And Jesus said, after this manner therefore pray ye, our
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Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
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Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
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And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
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Pray that we may glorify God in all that we do as we live and work in the creation that displays his power and be pleased to dispose all things to his own glory.
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Pray that Satan's kingdom may be destroyed and the kingdom of grace may be advanced. Ourselves and others brought into it and kept in it and the kingdom of glory hastened.
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Pray that God for Christ's sake would freely pardon all our sins and we are encouraged to ask this because by his grace we are able from the heart to forgive others.
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Pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin or support and deliver us when we are tempted.
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Our Father taking encouragement and prayer from you alone in our prayers we praise you ascribing kingdom power and glory to you and to testify of our desire and assurance to be heard we say together amen.
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Please stand and take up the insert once again and look for our psalm of the month.
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It is from psalm 122. Oh t 'was a joyful sound to hear.
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Psalm 122. Amen. Please turn in your bibles to the first epistle of John in chapter one.
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I'm going to read all 10 verses of the chapter. This is
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God's holy and infallible word. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon in our hands have handled of the word of life.
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For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the father and was manifested unto us.
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That which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you may also have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son
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Jesus Christ and these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.
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This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
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If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin.
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If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
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May the Lord be pleased with our consideration of his most excellent word.
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Please pray with me. O Lord we know that you dwell in unapproachable light and we ask
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O Lord that you would grant us the faculty to walk in your light to live as Christians in a thorough and comprehensive way that the entirety of our lives would bear the reflection of the light and glory of your grace.
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We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. Today we will be considering verses five through seven of this first chapter in 1st
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John and for those of you who are in need of an outline I have three divisions for you.
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The first is the perfections of God. God is light.
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The perfections of God. Second the necessity of gospel transformation.
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The necessity of gospel transformation. And finally
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Jesus is the light of the world and his gospel light cleanses us from all sin.
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Really quickly again the perfections of God. God is light.
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Two the necessity of a gospel transformation and third
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Jesus is the light of the world. His gospel light cleanses us from all sin.
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It's been a couple weeks since we've been in 1st John so I want to remind you of the very grand way that John introduces his epistle as an eyewitness as an apostle as a band of apostles he says that which was from the beginning referring to Christ declaring
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Jesus Christ to be the second person of the trinity the agent of creation it is a grand entrance into the epistle he said we have heard from him we've seen with our eyes we've looked upon him we've handled him concerning the word of life this life
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Jesus was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show you that eternal life which was with the father and was manifested unto us that which we have seen he says and heard we proclaim declare preach to you that you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son
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Jesus Christ and children I want you to look very closely at verse four John's purpose is that you would experience as the
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Christian the fullness of joy we write these things that your joy may be full let's consider verse 5 this is the message this is the grand announcement this is the precept that you must lay hold of this is the message that we preach this is the message we declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all there's a message it's an announcement it's a proclamation it's the revelation of Jesus Christ the apostle says that we have heard and all of his people have heard his voice his sheep hear his voice we have comprehended by hearing we have heard
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God's voice to the point in which it prompts him to grant us birth in faith within in Christ that we would believe upon Jesus Christ that we would believe in him as our only savior this is the grand message and then he gives us this incredible declaration about the perfection of who
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God is that God is light the light of God is the manifestation of God's self -existent life that follows nicely with our
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Sunday school lesson this morning self -existence the
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God of aseity we can't go back any further he exists in himself and this light is the divine illumination that reveals and imparts life through Jesus Christ so the argumentation is incredible from John here he says the man who we know as Jesus is the second person of the trinity and in fact he's the agent of creation he is the embodiment corporeally of the divine wisdom of God and this one has come to bring light and truth and holiness and purity and salvation to his people
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God is light and what is amazing to think about is that in this the consummate majesty of this principle is inaccessible to human comprehension what an amazing thing to consider he dwells in unapproachable light but now with the revelation of Jesus Christ that which is inaccessible that majesty which is beyond human comprehension has now been accessible made so by Christ and comprehensible in Christ the glory that would burn our retinas out the people of God can stand in that presence because of the mediation of Christ this is a spectacular thing that has happened men can now approach the bright shining holy light of God in Christ this idea of light is also used of that heavenly state free from every imperfection to which the true disciples of Christ will be exalted
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Colossians 1 12 says we give thanks unto the father which has made us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light we have to ask the question what is this biblical doctrine of light he's he's saying something that there seems to be a knowledge of background and understanding for among the people who are the recipients of this letter
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Genesis begins in verse chapter 1 verse 3 let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness now
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I want to point out something here to you that will have some significance later and we have a couple of messages referring to the light in chapter 2 that will be coming but we're going to introduce this idea now the light that is here described is not the light from the sun this is the light that proceeds from God on the last day in the consummation of the kingdom there's going to be no need of sun or stars because his light's going to shine so he before there's a sun and before the calendar of time a six -day creation starts there's light proceeding from God there's a period of history and it's going to reach its end and it's its important middle is the
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Lord Jesus Christ the light of the world but the end of the period of history there's going to be no need of sun or stars because the glory of God is going to shine about his people
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God is light we get to verse 16 he creates the natural order of things he creates two great lights the greater light to rule the day the sun the lesser light to rule the night the stars so there's three ways i want us to think about this biblical doctrine of light first light proceeds from God first and foremost and from natural sources that he created second and here's where the physical and the spiritual begin to begin to be integrated light illumines that which would otherwise be in darkness light illumines that which would be otherwise in darkness and then third light is critical to life not only physical life on the planet but to spiritual life in Christ light comes from God it proceeds from God there are three theophanies that i want to point out to you and this is going to have some importance to us at the end of the message the first is of course of course the burning bush in exodus chapter three there is a bush that burns and shines but it is not consumed and the mouth the voice i should say of God proceeds from it and talks with Moses the burning bush a theophany and these theophanies these appearances of God pre -incarnate
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Christ are accompanied by light next and this is going to be very important at the end of our message day the pillar of fire in the wilderness in exodus 13 light comes from God the people of God followed the pillar of fire it was the presence of God typified and shown and revealed in this theophany of a pillar of fire at night supplying both light and heat and third the glory at that meeting place where God hid
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Moses in the cleft of the rock in exodus 33 he could only see the back side of God's glory he has to cover his face to his glory his brightness his shining is another picture of this radiant light that proceeds from God there are over 300 uses in the old testament of light and 100 in direct relation to this idea in first john that God is light the next principle of light again we're trying to understand this biblical doctrine of light is that light illumines that which would otherwise be dark the light shines in the darkness you go to your house tonight and you flip the light switch your room was dark when you flip the switch on light permeates and fills the room the darkness is obliterated it's pushed out it enables people to see and not only physically but spiritually the light reveals hidden things it shows us the way to go psalm 43 psalm 119 conversely when light is withheld people are unable to see deuteronomy 28 they're cursed hidden things are not revealed job 24 people stumble around in the darkness they do not know which way to go psalm 82 and maybe most profound in this illustration from exodus 10 sometimes
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God shines light in one place and not another sometimes he withholds it i want you to think about this for a minute we generally think of light as being the absence of darkness but sometimes can you imagine positively
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God imposing darkness how great that darkness must be it's not just the absence of light it's the imposition of God darkness upon the wicked and the reprobate you'll remember in exodus 10 that he sent a plague of darkness onto the egyptians and in the same time he supplied light to the hebrews in the egyptian dwellings they couldn't trim any lamps they couldn't light any fires they couldn't light any torches but the children of God children of israel had light in their dwellings
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God concealed his light to one and shows it reveals it to another children some of you have studied the idea of photosynthesis how plants take sunlight and co2 and water soil and nutrients and nitrogen and they they grow light is obviously critical to life plant animal human life cannot be sustainable without it can you imagine if the sun went out today one of you homeschool children could maybe calculate how long would it take if the sun just turned off we'd freeze to death in a very short period of time this broad
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God is light designation seems to be revealed in these three categories the presence of God is light because light proceeds from him spiritual illumination is light from God if there be spiritual illumination it means
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God has shown his light upon a sinner and third righteous living is light from God God is both the source and sender of light it's even embedded in the
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Aaronic blessing isn't it the Lord bless thee and keep thee the
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Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you the
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Lord lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace
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God is light he's the source of light he possesses it within himself and conversely in him look at our text again is no darkness at all he is thrice holy holy holy holy is the
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Lord of hosts the whole earth is filled with his glory there is no unrighteousness in him he is light there can be no darkness in him in the scripture in the new testament it refers primarily it seems to spiritual darkness and spiritual darkness is ignorance of divine things and if you're ignorant of divine things and the light of the glory and gospel of Jesus Christ does not shine upon you then there is a wickedness that accompanies it john chapter three probably the most famous chapter in the bible well known
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Jesus says and this is the condemnation that light has come into the world but men have loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil
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Paul in the the great description of the church of Jesus Christ and of the book of Ephesians says for you were once darkness
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Ephesians 5 but now you are light in the
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Lord we have been conveyed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light in Christ walk as children of light the fruit of this spirit is in all goodness righteousness and truth finding out what is acceptable to the
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Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them for it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light for whatever makes manifest is light therefore he says awake you who sleep arise from the dead and Christ will give you light
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Hebrews chapter four it says there is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him of whom we must give account
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I want to pause here for just a moment we're in that section now where we're talking about the the transformative power of the gospel to change lives but there's something that I have to ask us why are we so dull about this particular thing we hide and conceal our sin from one another but it's all laid bare before Christ it's it's a ridiculous thing many years ago my daughter
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Susanna was a little baby and I don't remember the offense but she was under two years old and I remember
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I was looking for her to charge her with the crime and she was standing behind a post like the one that's here by Mr.
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Lemke and she was hiding from me but her little rear end was poking out from the bottom
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I can see the bloomers I can see she's right there the folly of a little girl who's hiding from her parents in her sin it's not a big sin a little sin but the folly of it but that's what we do we pretend that the
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God of light doesn't see and he sees it all so we have to live as the children of light who are willing to have our lives exposed because they already are and God in his mercy and love with all of those secrets he loves us and bids us to come and draw near to him this light is so filled with truth and love and purity and holiness it conquers the darkness in human souls we have to let the light of Christ shine in in our lives be honest about our sin and confess it knowing that we are accepted in the beloved knowing that we have a savior who is
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Christ the Lord who will forgive us we need to take responsibility for our sin and shine the bright light of God and his truth and his holiness in our lives and and reveal it and repent of it knowing we have salvation and the one who's come to be the light of men we need not fear coming to our
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God as sinners he has made provision for that in Christ with that in mind we have to acknowledge in the most basic sense light and darkness are antithetical to one another