Episode Transcript
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M Lord, as we come to
your word now and consider the way in
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which you rescue your people after the
exile, we asked that you would deepen
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our understanding in you and the promises
of your salvation to us in Christ.
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We thank you that we belong to
the promises that are testified here, and
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we asked that you would make that
clearer to us, that we might hold
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fast to you, our God,
who never lies. We pray this in
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Jesus name. Amen. Remain standing, if you're able, and turn your
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attention with me to the Book of
Ezekiel, Chapter seven Ezekiel, Chapter I'll
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read Versus fifteen through twenty eight.
The word of the Lord came to me,
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son of Man. Take a stick
and ride on it for Judah and
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the people of Israel associated with him. Then take another stick and ride on
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it for Joseph, the stick of
Ephrium and all the house of Israel associated
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with him, And join them one
to another into one stick, that they
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may become one in your hand.
And when your people say to you,
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will you not tell us what you
mean by these? Say to them,
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thus says the Lord God. Behold, I am about to take the stick
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of Joseph that is in the hand
that is in the hand of Ephrium,
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and the tribes of Israel associated with
him him, and I will join with
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it the stick of Judah and make
them one stick, that they may be
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one in my hand. When the
sticks on which you write are in your
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hand before their eyes, then say
to them thus, as the Lord God
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behold, I will take the people
of Israel from the nations among which they
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have gone, and I will gather
them from all around and bring them into
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their own land. And I will
make them one nation in the land on
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the mountains of Israel, and one
king shall be king over them all.
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And they shall no longer be two
nations, and no longer divided into two
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kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves
anymore with their idols and their detestable things,
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or with any of their transgressions.
But I will save them from all
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the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they
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shall be my people, and I
will be their God. My servant.
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David shall be king over them,
and they shall all have one shepherd.
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They shall walk in my rules and
be careful to obey my statutes. They
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shall dwell in the land that I
gave to my servant Jacob, where your
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fathers lived. They and their children
and their children's children shall dwell there forever.
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And my servant David, and David
my servants, shall be their prince
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forever. I will make a covenant
of peace with them. It shall be
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an everlasting covenant with them. And
I will set them in the land and
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multiply them, and I will set
my sanctuary in their midst forever. My
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dwelling place shall be with them,
and I will be their God, and
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they shall be my people. Then
the nations will know that I am the
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Lord who sanctifies Israel, when my
sanctuaries in their midst forevermore, Amen,
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please be seated well. You may
remember at the beginning More towards the beginning
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of the book Um, Ezekiel was
given various signs to perform, like physical
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acts on which God had given to
him, which then would he would use
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to make some truth known. And
Ezekiel has commanded to do something similar to
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that. Here. I wonder if
you were able to picture it in your
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mind, Um, and not,
if not, I'll help you here right
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so once to imagine he he takes
a stick some commentators think maybe it was
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a tablet of some kind, but
some sort of piece of wood, and
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he takes it and he writes on
it Judah. Right, so you've got
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one stick with Jude on it.
And then take another stick and he writes
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on it Joseph, and then needs
to hold them both in his hands,
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so it looks like one stick,
right, like they're trying together. It
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reminds me kind of that sort of
the opposite of that thumb trick, you
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know, where you looks like there
goes together. Um. Anyway, two
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sticks as one as one um looking
as one stick. And so when the
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people of Israel say, what's this
about? You've got a couple of sticks
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in your hand Judah and Joseph,
he is to tell them and this is
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no silly trick, um idiots.
A sign, a sign that God and
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and a promise that God is going
to take these two peoples in a way
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and bring them into one. You
remember that maybe for for about three hundred
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years, God's people had been divided. God's people had been divided. They
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came into the land of Israel.
They were that various tribes were um assigned
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to various regions. There was a
united Kingdom under David for a little but
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Um then Ishbael chefs sort of separated, and then David regained control, and
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then it was united under Solomon,
and then it was lost after Solomon.
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This great Kingdom of God, this
one nation, these twelve sons of Jacob,
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the twelve tribes of Israel, were
divided into these two kingdoms, with
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competing kings and competing uh systems of
worship, and competing priesthood priesthoods brother against
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brother. It was an awful thing, and they often fought against each other.
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This was not how the people of
God were to be established. Well,
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the profits when they come and they
speak to Israel, we find there's
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the There are these hopes of reunion
that would come in the future, hopes
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of a united kingdom, not united
in some sort of halfway compromise where we
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say, okay, half of us
will worship Bail and the other half of
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us will worship yeah. Wait,
and then maybe together we'll kind of work
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it out. No two people,
two separate people joining together into the one
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family that they were supposed to be
under God. Consider these verses, Isaiah,
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the jealousy of Freum shall shall depart
and those who harass Judah shall be
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cut off. A Freum shall not
be jealous of Judah and jew this shall
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not harass ephre Um Jeremiah three eighteen. In those days, the house of
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Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the
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land of the north to the land
that I gave your fathers for a heritage
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jose Ah one eleven. And the
children of Judah and the children of Israel
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shall be gathered together, and they
shall appoint for themselves one head, and
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they shall go up from the land. For great shall be the day of
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Jezreel. And so there are these
hopes that the two will come together again.
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And one of the things that's interesting
in this passage Um it's not just
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interesting, but I think it helps
to helps us to feel the weight of
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what's going on. Here are the
ways in which Um, the ways in
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which God speaks and names these people. And it's a little bit confusing if
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you don't know the history, because
isn't Israel all of Israel and that sort
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of thing, And so we have
to think just a little bit about how
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he's used names here. So the
first thing to know is that Israel is
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another name for Jacob. Right,
Israel is another name for Jacob, and
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so the twelve tribes of Israel or
the twelve sons of Jacob represent the same
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thing. The second thing to know
is that Israel as a people, as
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this family with this singular father Uh, who was the son of Abraham,
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this was a land as well,
right, the land or the people of
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Israel. But when the kingdom was
divided in sin and rebellion, then the
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southern kingdom was frequently called Judah and
the northern kingdom was frequently called Israel.
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Right. So as these two are
coming back together, um, the God
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is careful to make clear what is
happening. So, for example, he
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says in sixteen right, on one
stick for Judah and the people of Israel
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associated with him, all right,
So he doesn't mean the northern kingdom that
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is associated with him. He means
the people of the whole family that are
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associated with that Uh, that kingdom, the southern kingdom Judah. Does that
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make sense, okay? So the
the the the the right, the people
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of Israel associated with Judah. And
then on the other stick, right,
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Joseph, And then he adds this
other name, the stick of e fre
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Um and all the House of Israel
associated with him. So if you imagine
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the House of Israel as a whole, right, I'm kind of doing this
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distroem show the geography north to south. If you imagine the kingdom as a
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whole, Israel, and some of
that kingdom is associated with Judah on the
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bottom, and some of that kingdom
is associated with Joseph on the top,
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or also named ere Um. Here, that's the of these two groups north
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and south, all of Israel that
are being brought together, these people belonging
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to Israel, these people belonging to
Israel and and being brought together. Why
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he say efre Um, right?
Why throw that in? Well? Ere
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Um was one of the sons of
of Joseph, E fre Um and Manassa.
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And there's this interesting way in which
they received this double blessing. And
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I won't get into all of it
now, but in an interesting way.
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Um. When the twelve tribes are
often named in the Old Testament, you
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don't see Joseph's name, but you
see I fre Um and Manassa, it's
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partly because of this double blessing that
was promised to them, and sometimes especially
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I fre Um sort of stands in
for Joseph as as a tribe. So
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that's probably why e fre Um is
being listed here. That's somewhat common.
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What's a little bit more uncommon is
the name of Joseph. Why is Joseph
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being listed here? I think one
reason for that, aside from just making
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sure we're um Ezekiel and everyone is
clear who he's talking about, is he's
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calling to mind the story of Joseph
and Judah back in Genesis. He wants
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to call to our mind a time
when the brothers of Israel were separated.
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Do you remember what I'm talking about
this? And perhaps you don't know this
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story, that there was a time
when the twelve tribes, he's twelve brothers.
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We're having some problems, um boys, young men, something like that
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was going on and Joseph. The
brothers were mad at Joseph, and they
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stuck a mental hole and they intended
even to kill him and one of the
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brothers, Judah. Interestingly enough,
Judah came and he said, let's not
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do this, and he comes up
with this kind of alternate plan to sell
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him to some traders that were passing
by get rid of their brother that way.
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But he says let's let not blood
be in our hands this way.
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So as uh, There's a number
of things that happened. Joseph is sold
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into slavery. Joseph, all kinds
of crazy things happened to him. And
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then eventually, amazingly, he becomes
second in command of Egypt. All right.
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God brings then a famine on the
land, a famine that is affecting
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his family back at home, a
family that he's been separated from for some
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time. And through God's providence and
all these amazing events. If you haven't
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read it in a while, should
go back and read this story. It's
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really amazing. Judah and his brothers
leave his father and they go, leaving
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Benjamin at home. One of the
other brothers leaves, leaves and goes to
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egypt Um to find food and the
sort of thing. They end up meeting
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with Joseph, and and Joseph tells
them to go back and get Benjamin and
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go back, and and they speak
to their father, and Dad's like,
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no way, I've already lost my
son. Joseph, he doesn't know what's
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happened. I'm not gonna lose Benjamin. Two. Do you know who pledges
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life and speaks on the brothers on
behalf and and and sort of brings a
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resolution about it's Judah. Judah speaks
up and he says no. He says,
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I will be a pledge to my
father. We have to go this
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man, who he doesn't realize is
his brother Joseph. He says, this,
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this man, he has commanded us
to do this thing. We have
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to do this thing. We're dying
here. And so he pledges his own
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life if anything would happen to his
brother Benjamin. So they go, and
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then there's a bunch more drama,
and eventually Um is revealed who who Um
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who Joseph is and Judah, as
sort of the representative of his brothers,
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is reunited with Joseph and Benjamin as
well, and the brothers are all back
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together and UM and the Lord word
um, and we see the Lord's goodness
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in all of this. The family
ultimately is preserved through these events. They
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get the food they need, they
move into the land of Egypt, they
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become a very prosperous at least for
a time, and then there's more story
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after that. The point here is
that I think what's happening in his equel
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here is God is calling our minds
back to this time, back to a
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time when Jodah and Joseph were separate, and they're being brought back together now
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by the Lord, by the work
of the Lord. And he says,
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after all, I will do this. God's not just yelling at his people
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telling them to stop fighting. He
says, I Am going to make you
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stop fighting. Later he talks about
I will establish a covenant of peace with
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themselves and with him. So that's
the first part of what he describes here,
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this joining of the people of Israel. But then he adds several other
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things. And what he happens here
is God uses all these Old Testament images
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to create a picture for us of
what Jesus will fulfill in the New Covenant.
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What are some of the things he
mentions, Well, he says first
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of all that he will bring his
people together. He will gather them from
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all around the world and bring them
into their own land on the now mountains
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of Israel. He will establish them. He also talks about them being um
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established under one king. This was
always part of the problem. A king
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whose power was contested, a king
who couldn't maintain control, a king who
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wasn't righteous, who wouldn't lead his
people under the Lord and then eventually competing
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kings. Well, eventually God promises
here one king, one king over them
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all, and they shall no longer
be two nations, no longer divided into
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two kingdoms. I'm skipping down a
little bit. He describes in verses twenty
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four through who that king is going
to be. He says it will be
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David, which is really remarkable because
David's been dead a long time, so
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that should put a question in our
minds. But what does he mean by
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David that He says, David shall
be king over them, and they shall
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have one shepherd. More than that, Not only will he be king,
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but it's going to work. This
kingdom is going to be a great kingdom.
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They shall walk in my rules and
be careful to obey my statutes.
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They will dwell in the land that
I gave to my servant, Jacob,
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where your father's lived, their children, their children's children children, and it
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will be forever. He will set
them in the land, he says,
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they will multiply them, There will
be obedience, They will have peace with
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one another, and they will have
peace with God. He says, I
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will establish my sanctuary in their midst. I will dwell with them. They
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will be my people, and I
will be their God forever. I will
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dwell with them forever. Finally,
the last thing I'll mention is in verse
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twenty three, a corresponding truth to
the things that we've considered already. He
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says, they shall not defile themselves
anymore with their idols and their detestable things,
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or with any of their transgressions.
I will save them from all their
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backslidings in which they have sinned.
I will cleanse them, and they shall
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be My people, and I will
be their God. So God not only
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promises to bring all of these things
about, but he's going to fix the
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problem that caused the breaking and the
sin and the disruptions and the lack of
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peace from the beginning. He's going
to cleanse them from their sin, and
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he's going to save them from all
their backslidings. So this is what he
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promises. This is another one of
those passages and Ezekiel where he says,
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I will I will, I will, I will, promises of good news,
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promises of the Gospel. So the
question for us now is were these
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fulfilled, and if so, how
and what difference. Does that make for
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us? Did God fulfill his promise? And is there any way that we
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can be a part of that?
Because if this kingdom exists, I want
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to be a part of it.
If a kingdom of God that is established
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where his citizens obey his rules and
seek after him. If a kingdom of
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God is established where there is a
righteous king, ruling and holiness, where
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brothers are united together, and it's
an everlasting place of safety and security and
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dwelling with God. Does that sound
like a place you might want to be
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a part of. It's very different
from a lot of the places and and
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and governments that we experience in this
world. If that's something God is offering,
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we should be all ears about how
it is we can receive that.
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Well. Of course, there's a
lot more to the Bible right than right
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here um in Ezekiel thirty seven,
and God tells us in the scriptures exactly
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how it is we have that kingdom
and what has happened. It didn't happen
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right away, And as we see, there are some mysterious things about here,
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the everlasting nature of the kingdom,
the king being his servant David.
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Ultimately, what we discover and I'm
getting to the punchline here. This kingdom
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is given to us and fulfilled in
David's son, Jesus Christ. Not just
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David's son, but the very son
of God. So that when God says
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I will fulfill these things, he
does he does. And not just through
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various means, although that's part of
it, but even directly, even direct,
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the sending of the sun, the
sending of the spirit, all these
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things are fulfilled in Christ. How
do we know that this is going to
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be the remainder of my sermon?
And it's gonna be a little bit thick.
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So I know you're sleepy and it's
late, um, but try to
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bear with me, right, this
is an important question. How do we
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know that these things are fulfilled in
Jesus? What gives us certainty about that?
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One reason is that the New Testament, in various places, says that
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the Old Testament is fulfilled for us
in Christ. He fulfills all the law
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and the prophets the scriptures tell us
as one example. Another reason is that
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the scriptures tell us that the Old
Covenant could have never remained. In other
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words, if all God is so, let me start again, it is
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impossible for God to just kind of
continue on this evenant and not establish a
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new one, because embedded in the
Old Covenant itself was obsolescence, right.
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We talked about planned obsolescence, right
with digital devices and you know, TVs
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and phones and things like that.
That was true the Old Covenant as well.
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It was never intended to be the
Covenant which would last forever. It's
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what it wasn't its purpose. Hebrews
eight seven puts it this way, for
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if the first Covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to
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look for a second. If the
first Covenant had been faultless, there would
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have been no occasion to look for
a second. In other words, even
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if you never heard about the New
Covenant, you would expect it just from
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the faults of the old Covenant.
Faults not in any way that impugnes God
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of some sort of um northeasance or
um making mistakes or not doing a good
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job, but faults um faults in
the sense that it was never intended to
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do what the New Covenant would do
had a different purpose, which the author
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of Hebrews spends a lot of time
talking about, as does Paul and many
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other New Testament writers, we also
have promises in the Old, in the
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Old Covenant, and uh in the
Profits, that a new covenant would come.
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We've seen some of them in Ezekiel. We see it even here God
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says I will establish a covenant of
peace. He points forward to something new.
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Jeremiah thirty one. Thirty one is
another example. Behold, the days
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are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with
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the House of Israel and the House
of Judah. Another reason that they were
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right to believe that the Old covenant
um could not remain and wouldn't establish these
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things on itself is what the author
of Hebrew says in Hebrews eight five.
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The things of the Old Covenant,
particularly there the priesthood and the tabernacle,
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were always Here's what he says,
a copy and shadow of heavenly things.
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He says that also of the Law
as a whole, when he says in
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Hebrews ten of one, the Law
has but a shadow of the good things
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to come in instead of the true
form of these realities. The Old Covenant,
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Hebrews says, was shadows and types
copies of something You can almost matter
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us. This is just me sometimes
I imagine like lego models. Right,
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this is a lego model of the
Eiffel Tower, a lego model of the
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taj Mahal or whatever. Right,
it's a copy and a shadow of something
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else. Right, that's what the
Old Covenant was like. The author of
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Hebrews says they were copies and shadows
of what of heavenly things. Keep that
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in your mind. Underlying that heavenly
things, of the true form of realities.
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Hebrew says they were established and based
on heavenly patterns, the tabernacle in
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particular, in the priesthood. They're
based on heavenly patterns that Moses saw on
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the mountain. Right, So it's
not just a kind of philosophical thing.
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Moses was given, you know,
blueprints based on heavenly, heavenly things.
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Now here's the kicker. Christ enters
into those heavenly places as a priest and
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as a king, he enters into
the true realities that the copies pointed forward
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to. In fact, he even
said, the earthly one is going to
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be destroyed, and in three days
arise, you know, cause a temple,
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you know, build a temple?
How can you old it? In
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three days? We were told he
was speaking about his body, you're speaking
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about on what he would do through
his death and resurrection. Thinking about him
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as a priest, Hebrew says,
for he has entered not into holy places
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made with hands. Think of the
temple and all. It's, you know,
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a cruchman's think of the curtain,
right, and the pre high priest
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going back behind that curtain. That's
he didn't do that. What did he
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do? Christ has entered not into
holy places made with hands, which are
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copies of the true things, but
into Heaven itself, he says, now
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to appear in the presence of God
on our behalf. So going back to
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his equel and I hope you're tracking
with me here we based on these things
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that we know then, or that
they knew then and that were revealed later
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in Christ, we can have a
lot of confidence that these things would not
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be fulfilled in their final form exactly
and literally in the way that he says.
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Here David, for example, maybe
coming back to life and ruling as
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a king, he means something else. He must mean something else, because
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this forever consummated form of the kingdom
wouldn't happen according to the old types and
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shadows, right, they were pointing
forward to true realities. They were pointing
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forward to great, greater things.
And what we see then in the New
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Testament is that the work that Christ
did brought about those effects that are promised.
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Listen more from Hebrews chapter nine.
Picture in your mind what Jesus did.
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He entered once for all into the
holy places, not by means of
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blood of goats and calves, but
by means of his own blood, thus
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securing eternal redemption. Does that sound
familiar? Eternal redemption? That's what he's
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talking about here right, Uh,
a life forever more, a forgiveness and
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which we will live with and in
God forever. He continues, for if
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the blood of bulls and goats,
and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the
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ashes of a heifer sanctified for the
purification of the flesh, how much more
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will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without
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blemish to God, purify our conscience
from dead works to serve the living God.
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That's language just like Ezekiel uses here
right, the purification saving us from
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our backslidings, cleansing us right,
that language of purification, so that they
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will be my people and I will
be their God, so that they will
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walk in my statues. They will
have a heart of flesh, not a
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heart of stone. That's what Hebrew
says here. Jesus offered himself to do
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this thing, to accomplish this thing. It's because of passages like this that
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we know Jesus fulfilled this. It's
not just a guess. It's what happened
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in history. It happened. And
he's not only a better priest after a
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new order, he's also that son
of David who would rule forever. If
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you were here with us this morning, you heard about the angel Gabriel right
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coming to Mary and speaking to her
and talking to her and saying that a
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son of David, a son of
his house, this one would rule on
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the throne of David forever. If
you would turn with me to Psalm one
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hundred and ten. This is an
import important passage for considering these things,
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and it is applied to Jesus in
a number of ways throughout the New Testament.
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Psalm one and ten. Let's turn. They're together. Don't worry,
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I'm getting close to the end.
Some um the Lord says to my lord,
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sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies your footstool. The
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Lord sends forth from Zion, your
mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of
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your enemies. Your people will offer
themselves freely on the day of your power
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in holy garments from the womb of
the morning, and the do of your
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youth will be yours. The Lord
has sworn and will not change his mind.
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You are a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. The Lord is
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at your right hand. He will
shatter kings on the day of his bath.
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He will execute judgment on the nation's, filling them with corpses. He
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will shatter chiefs over why, over
the wide earth. He will drink the
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brook by the way. Therefore he
will lift up his head. So here
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in someone ten we have one who
has prophesied about who is a priest forever
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after the order of Melchizedek, which
if you want to go and read Hebrews,
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he explains all what this means,
and how he's a priest but of
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a different order, right, which
is what we're saying about everything. A
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tabernacle of a different order, of
a priesthood of a different order, and
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00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:29.799
a king of a different order.
Not only is he as a priest,
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as we are told in Someone ten, but he is a king as well.
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He will make the enemies. He
will make God's enemies his footstool.
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So is Jesus the one who fulfills
this. Is he not only that priest
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who goes into the heavenly places and
offers himself as a sacrifice. Is he
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also the king? The answer is
yes, he is David. He is
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the one who was, could come
and would establish the dividic throne forever.
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Stephen in his um sermon right before
his persecution, it's Um the nail on
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the head when he says, for
David did not ascend into the heavens.
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David did not ascend into the heavens. But he himself says, the Lord
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said, to my Lord, sit
at my right hand. Right did David
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go to heaven? Did David sit
down at the right hand of God,
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the Father Almighty, from where he
would judge the living and the dead.
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Would David establish all the enemies of
God as his footstool? No? Who
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did the prophesied son of David,
that David would go, and that David
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was Jesus Christ Hebrews one three of
Jesus It says, he is the radiance
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of the glory of God and the
exact imprint of his nature. He upholds
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the universe by the word of his
pour After making purification for sins, he
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sat down at the right hand of
the Majesty on high. You hear this
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language of priest and king coming together
in these verses Hebrews eight one. Now
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the point in what we are saying
is this always helpful? Right when a
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preacher says that, Now the point
and what we are saying is this,
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we have such a high priest,
one who is seated at the right hand
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of the throne of the Majesty in
heaven. That's the point, which is
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to say, that's how we know
Jesus. Is this David. That Jesus
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is the one who unites Judah and
Israel. And even more than that breaks
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down the dividing wall between the Jews
and the Gentiles and brings all the families
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of the earth together to worship the
Lord through the son of Abra Him,
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the son of Jacob, the True
Israel, the son of David, the
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Son of God, which means those
who are looking for the establishment of Israel
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in an earthly form need to look
up. It's up. It's not going
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to happen here in this time and
in this place, because it was a
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00:33:25.880 --> 00:33:31.200
copy and a shadow of the heavenly
realities to come. We're not looking for
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another kingdom here in this world.
We are looking forward to the new heavens
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and the new Earth, and which
God will rule over forever. That's what
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the land was pointing to. The
temple was pointing to the Temple of the
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Lord in the heavenly places. The
priesthood was pointing to the Priesthood of Christ.
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After the Order of Melchizedek, a
new covenant was being anticipated. This
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can't be taken literally in a wooden
sense. Instead, we read it as
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it was intended. We read it
as God has given to us. We
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read it as it is fulfilled in
Jesus. Jesus fulfilled these things, not
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00:34:14.199 --> 00:34:22.280
by re enacting the old, but
by fulfilling what the Old always pointed forward
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to. And in that sense it's
very literal. These things were literally types
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and shadows of the things to come, and Jesus has literally fulfilled them and
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entered into the realities to which they
pointed. And we know it's Jesus and
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not anyone else because He's the one
that fulfilled all the prophecies. He's the
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00:34:43.519 --> 00:34:47.079
one that Agel Angel Gabriel spoke of. He's the one that was born of
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a virgin. He's the one that
lived the life that he did. He's
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the one that died on the cross. He's the one that rose from the
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dead, and as we read an
ax A set ended into heaven and seated
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at the right hand the Majesty on
high. He's the one that poured out
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his spirit on all of Israel,
not just on the twelve tribes, but
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all all the nations of the earth, and then brought even the gentiles in,
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so that when Heaven comes and the
consummation of it is all revealed at
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the peering of our Lord and glory, we will hear every tribe and tongue
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and nation declaring the glory of God. These this is the kingdom that he
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was will bring and reveal. It's
the kingdom that He has already established,
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and he is even now drawing people
into that kingdom. Our responsibility, then
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is to hear the call to wake
up and see the reality of what God
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00:35:52.920 --> 00:35:58.239
is doing, which has been begun
and will be completed on his return,
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and instead of hearing that, and
hearing of that kingdom and then just walking
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away from it is that we haven't
heard anything important. We should seek after
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it first, above all things.
Whatever it takes, we should make sure
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that we belong there, and praise
God. It really doesn't take much.
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We simply trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We trust the one that God
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has given to us, and we
rest in him alone. It may mean
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giving up the things of this world, but really, what's to give up
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when this is what we're talking about. Let's pray, our Lord and King.
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We pray to you, oh God
most High, through your son and
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by your spirit, that we might
enter into your presence, through the one
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who lived and died for us,
who now rules for us and and shatters
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00:36:54.920 --> 00:37:00.800
all of our enemies, who dresses
us and robes of righteousness, and who
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00:37:00.840 --> 00:37:08.280
proclaims us as just through his work
and his righteousness given to us. Lord,
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this kingdom that you have promised so
long ago, we now see with
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00:37:13.519 --> 00:37:19.519
clear eyes, um that it has
been established, and that we can participate
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00:37:19.559 --> 00:37:22.400
it, enjoy in it. And
it is, as Jesus says, a
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kingdom that is not of this world. Lord, it is hard to remember
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this sometimes when the kingdoms that are
of this world put so much pressure on
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us, and not just very this
country or that country, but all of
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the things of this world. The
very, it's various power and wisdom,
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it's various glories and strengths. That
pressure comes to bear on our lives in
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various ways. And we fear it
more than we ought to. We love
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it more than we ought to.
Lord, teach us to look up.
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00:37:55.800 --> 00:38:01.880
Teach us to set our hopes and
our our sights on on Jesus Christ by
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faith, and as we do so, to throw aside every sin which clings
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so closely, and to run with
endurance the race that is set before us.
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Did we pray this in Jesus name, Amen, mm hm
