Episode Transcript
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I believe this is my last sermon
on this passage that we've been looking at
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for the last several weeks. I'm
going to begin preaching and John, or
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reading from John Seven, Verse Twenty
Five, John Hundred and twenty five,
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and I'll read through thirty. We're
beg we're I'm focusing today on a theme
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that we began with when we started
looking at this passage, the theme of
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of belief. We began preaching and
hearing this passage, one of the things
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that became evidence was that there are
many, many people who do not believe.
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Today we will focus on those who
do, and Jesus is description of
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what it means to believe in him. So I pray that, I'm God
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would soften our hearts that we might
believe his word. Let's give our attention
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to it now. John Seven,
verse Twenty Five. Let's hear what the
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Lord has to say about believing in
him. Some of the people of Jerusalem
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therefore said, is not this the
man whom they seek to kill? And
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here he is speaking openly and they
say nothing to him. Can it be
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that the authorities really know that this
is the Christ? But we know where
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this man comes from and when the
Christ appears, no one will know where
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he comes from. So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the temple,
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you know me and you know where
I come from, but I've not come
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of my own accord. He who
sent me, is true, and him
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you do not know. I know
him, for I come from him and
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he sent me. So they were
seeking to arrest him, but no one
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laid a hand on him because his
hour had not yet come. Yet many
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of the people believed in him.
They said, when the Christ appears,
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will he do more signs than this
man has done? The Pharisees heard the
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crowd muttering these things and the chief
priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest
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him. Jesus then said, I
will be with you a little longer and
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then I am going to him who
sent me. You will seek me and
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you will not find me where I
where I am, you cannot come.
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The Jews said to one another.
Where does this man intend to go that
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we will not find him? Does
he intend to go to the dispersion among
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the Greeks and teach the Greeks?
What does he mean by saying you will
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seek me and you will not find
me? And where I am, you
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cannot come. On the last day
of the feast, the Great Day,
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Jesus stood up and cried out if
anyone thirsts, let him come to me
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and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out
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of his heart will flow rivers of
living water. Now, this he said
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about the spirit whom those who believed
in him were to receive, for as
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the spirit had not yet been given, for as yet the spirit had not
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been given because Jesus was not yet
glorified. When they heard these words,
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some of the people said this really
is the prophet, others said this is
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the Christ, but some said is
the crop Christ to come from Galilee?
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Has Not? The scripture said that
Christ comes from the offspring of David and
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comes from Bethlehem, the village where
David was. So there was a division
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among the people over him. Some
of them wanted to arrest him, but
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no one laid hands on him.
The officers then came to the chief priests
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and Pharisees, who said to them, why did you not bring him?
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The officers answered, no one ever
spoke like this man. The Pharisees answered,
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answered them, have you also been
deceived? have any of the authorities
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or the Pharisees believed in him,
but this crowd that does not know the
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law is a cursed Nicodemus, who
had gone to him before and who was
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one of them, said to them. Does our law judge a man without
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first hearing him and hearing and learning
what he does? They replied, are
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you from Galilee to search and see
that no prophet arises from Galilee? Now,
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Chapter Eight, verse twelve. Again
Jesus spoke to them, saying I
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am the light of the world.
Whoever follows me does not walk in darkness
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but will have the light of life. So the PHARISEE said to him.
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You are bearing witness about yourself.
Your testimony is not true, Jesus answered.
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Even if I do bear witness about
myself, my testimony is true,
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for I know where I came from
and where I am going, but you
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do not know where I came come
from or where I am going. You
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judge according to the flesh. I
judge no one. Yet even if I
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do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who
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judge, but I and the father
who sent me. In your law it
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is written that the testimony of two
people is true. I am the one
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who bears witness about myself, and
the father who sent me bears witness about
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me. They said to him,
therefore, where is your father? Jesus
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answered, you know neither me nor
my father. If you knew me,
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you would know my father also these
words. He spoke in the Treasury,
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as he taught in the temple,
but no one arrested him because his hour
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had not yet come. So he
said to them again, I am going
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away and you will seek me and
you will die in your sin. where
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I am going, you cannot come. So the Jews said, will he
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kill himself, since he said where
I am going, you cannot come.
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He said to them, you are
from below, I am from above.
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You are of this world. I
am not of this world. I told
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you that you would die in your
sins, for unless you believe that I
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am he, you will die in
your sins. And they said to him,
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who are you? Jesus said to
them, just what I have been
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telling you from the beginning. I
have much to say about you and much
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to judge, but he who sent
me is true, and I declare to
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the world what I have heard from
him. They did not understand that he
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had been speaking to them about the
father. So Jesus said to them,
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when you have lifted up the son
of man, then you will know that
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I am he and I do nothing
on my own authority, but speak just
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as the father taught me, and
he who sent me is with me.
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He has not left me alone,
for I always do the things that are
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pleasing to him. As he was
saying these things, many believed in him.
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Praise God. Well, every time
I read this passage, and really
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all of John I continue to see
why I keep reading this passage. There's
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so much there, there's so much
that's going on. John's funny in this
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way. I'm he uses very,
very simple words, very simple words,
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and he constructs things together in a
very sort of simple way. But it
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goes really, really deep, and
there's there's multiple movements going on. You
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almost sort of sense of the crowds
sort of swirling around him as you read
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this story. There's this voice and
that voice and his voice and this people
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and that people, multiple things going
on at the same time and it's it's
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worth spending the time to think about
these things, especially now as we contrast
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and we think about the nature of
unbelief, as Jesus is talking about it
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here, as Jesus comes into Jerusalem. You remember the setting for that was,
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of course, him conflict with his
brothers. But moving on from that,
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he comes into Jerusalem and immediately there's
commotion about the nature of Jesus.
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Who is he? Who is this
Jesus, and do we believe him?
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Are Do we not? In Verse
Twenty Five, people say, is this
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not the man they are seeking to
kill? And that reminds us of one
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group of people. One Group of
people are the Pharisees and the priests.
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We read in Verse Thirty Two that
they send officers to go and arrest Jesus.
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So while this, all this commotion
is going on, There's you could
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imagine, the crowds, right that
general crowd saying who is he and isn't
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this the one they're trying to kill? Isn't the one they're trying trying to
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arrest? Meanwhile there is a group
of people who want to arrest him,
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the priests and the Pharisees. They
send out officers to go get this done.
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It's a funny thing, right they
they send him out, then the
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officers come back with empty handed.
The officers come back empty hand to they
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say did not? We tell you
to arrest him? Why are you here?
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And they say how can we arrest
him? No one teaches like this
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man, who has ever done this
before? And the reaction of the they
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were, reaction of the Pharisees and
the priests and these other people that sent
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these officers, is what they don't
say. Oh, you know what,
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good point, or I yeah,
maybe we're rushing a little bit too much
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into this. No, they say. What they say is which one of
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us has believed in him. In
other words, they say the officers say,
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the ones who are sent to go
arrest him say, how can we
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arrest him? No one is like
this person, no one teaches like him.
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He's on a whole different level.
This feels wrong and the Pharisees establish
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themselves, or try to establish themselves, over and against Jesus. They say,
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forget what you've seen, forget what
you've heard. Look at us,
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we are the authorities here. It
doesn't matter who he is, it doesn't
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matter what he said, which one
of us has believed? Now that might
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be convincing if these were actually godly
people, if these were people that actually
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cared about the things of God and
his law. But, as we know
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throughout the gospels, that was not
the case. These were people who cared
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about power. These were people who
cared about their own will and their own
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way, who used God's law as
a pretense to get the things that they
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wanted. Who would pray, not
because prayer was good and important? Who
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would not lead prayers a way to
serve the people, but would pray?
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Who would? Who would go around
making salt, making everybody known how great
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prayers they were? When they fasted? They they wouldn't fast because out of
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out of humility and and worship and
prayer. They would fast and they would
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make themselves look gone so that they
would go to people and say, it's
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been a hard week. I really
why has been a hard week. I've
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just been fast and so much.
Oh have you right? They would.
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They it was about themselves, it
was about showing off, it was about
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being viewed in a particular way.
They would even twist the law as a
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way to not obey the law.
They would hi these tiny little things and
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have all kinds of arguments about this
little point or that little point and then
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not even take care of their parents. They're all kinds of examples of this
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and for this reason Jesus speaks very
strongly about them. He calls them,
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in some places, whitewashed tombs.
He calls them here. He says,
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you will not enter into my rest, you will not you, you will
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not come into the kingdom, you
will not know the father, you will
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not go where I go because you're
in your sin. They were hanging onto
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that. They wanted that more than
anything else, and that's ultimately what it
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is to deny Jesus, to turn
away from him and say no, I
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want what I want in the way
that I want it, in the time
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that I want it, and I
want it here and I want it now.
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That's what unbelief is and that's what, in part, we are seeing.
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So the Pharisees send out the officers. The officers come back and say
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we're not comfortable with this. Essentially, I'm they don't actually say that.
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They say they say who is spoken
like this man? They seem to be
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uncomfortable with this in some way and
then, interestingly, they the so the
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Pharisees respond in Verse Forty Seven.
Have you also been deceived? have any
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of the authorities or the Pharisees believed
in him. This crowd that does not
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know the law is a cursed and
we might ask, if the crowd doesn't
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know the law, whose fault is
that, by the way? Moving on,
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Nicodemus, interestingly then comes who is
one of them? Right, so
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this would this would be a point
which would possibly totally undermine their argument.
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Right here is one of them.
He doesn't exactly say he believes, but
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he says, let's slow this train
down, right, does our law?
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Just notice how he appeals to it, the law, he finds common ground,
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he establishes it on their own terms. And he says, does our
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law judge a man without first giving
him a hearing and learning what he does?
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They reply. Good Point, Nicodemus. Thank you for keeping US focused
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on the law of God. We
want to do things right and according to
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his word. So yes, let's
set up a tribunal and make sure we
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hear this man and get other witnesses. Of course not. That's not what
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they say. What do they say? Are you from Galilee to search and
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see that no prophet arises from Galilee? Okay, so it is somewhat of
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a religious argument, but it's it's
just an attack. They're just attacking him,
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they are taking one of their own
and attacking him as a way to
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undermine him and again just establish themselves
and their view without any reference to what
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Jesus is actually saying, what things
are actually being said and done. This
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is what unbelief is. Now,
Nicodemus is a nice way to sort of
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transition and begin to start thinking about
belief, because you remember it was Nicodemus
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who, you know, came in
the night back in chapter three to Jesus,
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and John reminds us of that here, that he had previously come to
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Jesus, and Nicodemus, who had
gone to him before, who was one
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of them. He came to Jesus
back in John Chapter three and he had
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kind of a theological discussion with him, a discussion about being born again,
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and it's in the cought, the
context of that discussion, that we have
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John Sixteen, that whoever believes will
have everlasting life, that the one who
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believes in whom the father has sent, the one who believes in this,
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one who will go to the father, that one will have everlasting life.
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So Jan, so Nicodemus has begun
to hear these words. Maybe he's begun
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to listen. We also have the
crowds. When we think about belief and
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what it means to believe, we
have the crowds who believe in some ways
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but also seem confused. And this
is sometimes the nature of belief. It's
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not always black and white, is
it? In our human nature as Christians,
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we are have both the flesh and
the spirit. Romans tells us this,
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and and Paul says that we those, those two things, those two
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sides of us, on the fleshly
side of us and the spirit of God
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dwelling in us. They're at war
with one another, and that means that
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gifts like faith are at war with
sins like doubt. So it's not surprising,
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then, from our own experience and
from the the theology that we have
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in scripture, to find this expressed
in this way. So verse thirty,
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or if our verse thirty one,
rather, it says. Yet many of
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the people believed in him, though
there were some who were seeking to arrest
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him. Many believed in him,
but notice the question that follows it.
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It says they said, when the
Christ appears, will he do more signs
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than this man has done? So
that's really interesting. They believe in him,
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and yet they also don't seem to
believe that he's the Christ. They
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believe in him, and yet they're
waiting for someone else who will do as
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much as, or more than,
Jesus. So That's interesting. Then we
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read that there is there is a
discussion, sorry, in verse thirty seven,
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where Jesus talks about belief. There's
this invitation we looked at last time
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verse Thirty Eight. Whoever believes in
me, as the scripture is said,
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out of his heart will flow living
waters. Now this he said about the
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spirit whom those who believed in were
to receive, for as yet the spirit
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had not yet been given. And
then we looked at this last time to
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think about the way in which the
spirit was at work in their lives in
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some way now, or else they
wouldn't be believing, and yet would be
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poured out in a greater way after
Jesus's Resurrection, after his and his ascension.
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So this anticipation of the spirit is
mentioned here and this promise to those
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who would would believe and those who
were believing. Now, if you go
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down to the end of the passage
that we read, we have another reference
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to this where he says to them
that they who do not understand will come
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to understand. He says in Verse
Twenty Eight. He said to them,
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when you have lifted up the son
of man, then you will know that
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I am he and that I do
nothing on my authority but speak, just
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as the father taught me, and
he who send me is with me.
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He has not left me alone,
for I always do the things that are
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pleasing to him. As he was
saying these things, many believed in him.
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So there are those who believe and
have some understanding of him, there
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is belief that is growing and there
are additional people that are being added to
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this group. This is somewhat of
the nature of Christ's ministry and this is
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something of his continuing nature in the
world today. No doubt each of you
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are in your own particular spot,
if we could put it that way,
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have your own particular ways in which
you believe, some which are very good
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and some which are lacking. Each
of us can raise our hand and say
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I'm struggling to believe the Lord about
this, I'm struggling to believe the Lord
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about that, or in this situation
or in that situation. Honestly, I'm
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anxious honestly, I'm afraid. Honestly, I have other idols. I love
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certain things more than I love him. Sometimes, I fear certain things more
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than I fear him. Sometimes.
What do we do with that? How
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do we grow? How do we
come to believe so that we can participate
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and share in this spirit that he's
talking about, so that our hearts will
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flow with rivers of living water,
so that we will be able to go
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where Jesus is and not remain in
our sins? Jesus puts this in very
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strong terms. To believe in him
is everything. To not believe in him
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is to lose everything. One of
the things that we have to say,
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that I've been mentioning, an underlining, proclaiming to you and will continue to
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do so as we go through John, is that believing in him, truly
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believing in him, so that we
might have eternal life, so that we
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might have the spirit, so that
we might have the things of God and
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be with him and dwell with him. It happens not because we believe in
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belief, it's because we believe in
him as he truly is. I don't
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know if you have seems. I
feel like I see this all the time
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you go in the grocery store somewhere
and people with sweatshirts and things that say
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believe. I mean, I just
never know what to do with that.
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In a way, I don't understand
what it is that people are wanting when
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they say that, and it seems
to be a kind of the only way
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I can sort of make sense of
it is it's a sort of, if
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I could put it in this way, a sort of a disneyfied version of
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faith. or it's like if you
look up on a star and sort of
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put your hopes to sort of send
them out there right somehow, just like
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an energy or a thought, or
sometimes we'll even talk about a prayer,
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you know, just sort of send
those things out or hope right, just
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hope and what? I don't know, just hope. As long as you
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hope right, as long as you
believe. Then you drill down a little
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bit and it's usually in yourself right. It's usually like you can do it
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and you have things within you that
are but what does Jesus say to John?
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What is Jesus? You know?
What is John the Baptist says is,
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you know, we are born again, not of the will of man
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but of the will of God.
We are born not a flesh and blood
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and are striving and our energy,
but of of God. Like we can't
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just dig down deep in ourselves and
find salvation. What we find our hard
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hearts. What we find it stubbornness. So anyway, so there's this idea
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that if you just kind of get
a twinkle in your eye and try,
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I really hard and have a little
hope and sing a little song, that
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everything's going to be okay. And
that's, of course, a very positive
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message. And you know, I
suppose I was going to say maybe there
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are worse things, but I don't
know, maybe there are not worse things
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than this, because one of the
things it does, if we really hold
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on to that and that becomes a
part of our hearts and a part of
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our thinking, is it's a rejection
of Christ. It's a rejection of the
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only one that can save us.
Now, sometimes religious people will do a
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little better than this and be a
little more specific and talk about a higher
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power or a spiritual being or some
sort of life energy or force or the
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great mystery or something like that,
a little better, but it's still nothing
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close to what Jesus is talking about. I do nothing on my own authority.
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I come from Him who sent me. I go to my father,
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I judge as I have been I
have been given to judge. You will
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die in your sins. This is
very specific teaching, very specific. Jesus
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is not kind of a, you
know, generalist about who he is.
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He's not. He doesn't come and
say, well, I don't want to
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say too much and why don't you
just make me who you need me to
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be. That's not what he says. He says I am from the father
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and I go to the father and
I am not the father, but we
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are one. That's what he says
about himself. I and the father are
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sending the spirit in this way and
at this time. It's very specific.
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And so what I love is in
verse thirty. But it says, as
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he was saying, these things.
Many believed in him, and that's my
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prayer for you too. The as
he says, these things, not amorphous
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nothings, not the things you want
him to say, not the twinklings of
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your eye or the the whispers of
your heart, but these things, these
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revelations of God, as he says, these things that you would believe in
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him because that's where he says our
salvation is. That's where we find our
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hope. Believing just to believe is
fine. If you're going to enter into
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a theme park, you're going to
suspend belief and just let your imagination play
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a little it. Or you're going
to go to a movie and you suspend
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believe to enter into a story and
enjoy yourself for a little bit. Okay,
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that's not what we're talking about here. Entering the Kingdom of God is
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not entering a movie, it's not
entering a theme park, it's not entering
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into a world of speculation and imagination. Is Entering into a god created reality
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that he is storing and for you, in a real inheritance that he will
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give to all who believe in him, and to those who don't, to
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those who remain in their hardness of
hearts and then their sins, the door
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will be shut and they will be
cast out and there will be weeping and
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gnashing of teeth. It's all very
specific, it's all very real, and
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that's why people get offended at Jesus. That's why people want to make him
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and whatever they want to make him
to be and make him their own personal
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God because the real God, because
Jesus has he truly is, is offensive
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to our sin. It's offensive and
you can choose to be offended and huff
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out of here and Undo Your Life
and remain in your sin and look at
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all the sin and soft bring in
this world and recognize over and over and
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over again that there is absolutely nothing
you can do to truly solve it and
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that your life is nothing but vanity
of vanities, learning and forgetting, growing
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and falling back, striving and then
having it all torn apart. That's what
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life under the sun is. That's
what our experiences and that's all it will
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be until judgment, and that's what
you will experience. You can pretend,
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you can eat and drink and be
merry and try to get along as best
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as you can, but ultimately it'll
just gnaw weigh at you and then you
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will die. I don't mean to
be morose or difficult, just telling you
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the truth. I'm telling you the
truth because God promises us something so much
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more. He promises that our life
doesn't have to be a vanity of vanities
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leading to vanity, but that there
is real hope. As seriously as the
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Bible takes our sin and as seriously
as the Bible presents to us life under
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the sun and recognizes the suffering and
misery we are under as a result of
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our sin, it also takes equally
seriously and speaks equally true about the glories
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that God gives to us as a
gift. Jesus doesn't say, go out
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and do these tenzero things and then
come back to me. Will have a
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one to one, see how it
went and then I'll decide. What does
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he say? Believe in me,
just trust me, just receive the gift
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I'm giving to you. It's insane
that we don't say thank you, but
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of course we do. All of
you who are in Christ have and do
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do that on a daily basis.
That's what a Christian is. We live
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in him, we abide in him
in these things, and that's why he
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says what he says in third verse
Thirty One and Thirty Two, which I
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didn't read yet. So Jesus said
to the Jews who had believed in him,
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if you abide in my word,
you are truly my disciples and you
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will know the truth and the truth
will set you free. Isn't that good
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news? That is the Gospel that
when we believe these things and not just
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we think about them from time to
time or we recognize that we heard them,
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but we abide in them, we
live in them, we dwell in
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them, we see the fruit of
them being produced in our lives, because
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one of the things that happens when
we abide in the word of God as
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simultaneously the word is abiding in us. It's like when you put a tea
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bag into a cup, it infuses
all the water. When God's, through
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his spirit and in his word,
abides in us, it produces effects in
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our lives. That's why let me
read to you from James. That's why
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James Speaks about religious life, Christian
life, in this way, James One
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verse twenty two. But be doers
of the word and not hearers only deceiving
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yourselves. For if anyone is a
hero of the word of God and not
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a doer, he's like a man
who looks intently at his natural face in
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a mirror, for he looks at
himself and he goes away and it forgets
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once forgets what he looks like.
I think I am this is true.
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I think I'm honestly a little bit
surprised every time I look at myself in
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the mirror. I don't know if
that maybe I'm just weird that way,
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but I I'm always a little bit
surprised. I think. Well though,
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yeah, that's me right. We
forget, but the one who looks into
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the perfect law, the law of
liberty, and perseveres. Being no here
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who forgets, but a doer who
acts, he will be blessed in his
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doing. If anyone thinks he's religious
and does not bridle his tongue but deceives
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his heart, this person's religion is
worthless, garbage. Throw it away.
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It's of no use to you or
anybody else. Religion is that is pure
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and undefiled before God, the father
is this to visit orphans and widows in
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their affliction and to keep oneself unstained
from the world. When we abide in
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the word and the word abides and
us, it has an effect in our
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lives. To do. If I
use my metaphor and do what James is
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warning us against, that's like taking
the your tea packet and setting it outside,
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right or right next to or right
above, just suspending it above your
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hot water. Going there. That'll
be good. It has no effect,
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it's worthless. It doesn't know good. So what is Jesus telling US then?
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He's he's calling to us to recognize
our see, to recognize our sinfulness,
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to recognize this world that we are
in and to see that he is
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not of this world, but he
is from his father in heaven, who
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is come in love to save us, to be a light shining in the
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darkness, to tell us the things
of God, to reveal to us his
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will for our salvation, so that
when we abide in those things, we
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will have truth and the truth will
set us free. That's what it means
390
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to be a disciple, that's what
it means to truly believe. So my
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exhortation, my application to you as
Christians, to myself, is let us
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be people who abide in the word, who know it, who love it,
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who learn it, who grow in
it, who don't assume things about
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it, but come back to it
again and again, who don't simply make
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up things in our mind and speculate, but come again and again to the
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specific things of God's word that we
might know and trust in Him who speaks
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them, in Him who is revealed
there and as God reveals himself in this
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way, and as God calls himself
to or calls us to himself. In
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this way, as we believe,
we will know the truth and we will
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be free, we will have eternal
life. Amen. Let's pray
