Episode Transcript
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Well as I with our this morning
and other times this week. I've several
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passages to read with you this morning
or this evening. First, Isaiah Forty
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two, which I did read this
morning but I'd like to read again.
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Isaiah Forty two, a couple verses
there the word says of the coming Messiah.
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He will not cry aloud or lift
up his voice or make it heard
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in the street. Verse Three,
a bruised read. He will not break
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in a faintly burning wick, he
will not quench, he will faithfully bring
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forth justice. And now, seeing
this, I'm fulfilled in the New Testament.
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Let's first turn to Matthew Chapter Eleven, and then two more passages after
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that. So Matthew Eleven, Verses
Twenty eight through thirty, Jesus says,
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come to me, all who labor
and are heavy laden, and I will
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give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you and learn from me, for
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I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your
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souls, for my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. And then
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Philippians chapter two. Philippians two versus
five through ten. Have this mind among
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yourselves, which is yours in Christ
Jesus who, though he was in the
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form of God, did not count
equality with God a thing to be grasped,
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but emptied himself by taking the form
of a servant, being born in
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the likeness of men and being found
in human form, he humbled himself by
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becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore,
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God has highly Exalted Him and bestowed
on him the name that is above
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every name, so that at the
name of Jesus, every niche should bow
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in heaven and on earth and under
the earth, and every tongue confess that
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Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory
of God, the Father, and and
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finally Luke Chapter two. So we
read the prophecy in Isaiah that the Lord
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would come and would, and he
is described by these very gentle actions of
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not quenching, not snuffing out that
which is barely burning, not breaking a
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read that is bruised and ready to
break. We read of Jesus describing himself
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this way as one who is gentle
and lowly. We did read in Philippians
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of how the Lord is one who
comes in a low form, a servant
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and obedient even to death. And
now we see that this is expressed in
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his birth as well. Luke,
Chapter Two versus one through twenty one.
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And those days a decree went out
from Caesar Augustus that all the world should
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be registered. This was the first
registration when queeriness was governor of Syria,
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and all went to be registered,
each to his own town, and Joseph
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also went up from Galilee, from
the town of Nazareth, to j Gea,
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to the city of David, which
is called Bethlehem, because he was
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of the house, of the lineage
of David, to be registered with Mary,
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his betrothed, who was with child, and while they were there,
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the time came for her to give
birth, and she gave birth to her
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firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes, cloths and laid him in a
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manger because there was no place for
them in the INN. And in the
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same region, there were shepherds out
in the field keeping watch over their flock
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by night and an angel of the
Lord appeared to them and the glory of
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the Lord shone around them and they
were filled with great fear, and the
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Angel said to them fear not,
for behold, I bring you good news
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of great joy. That will be
for all the people, for unto you
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is born this day in the city
of David, a savior who is Christ,
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the Lord, and this will be
a sign for you. You will
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find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths
and lying in a manger. And suddenly
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there was with the angel a multitude
of the heavenly host, praising God and
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saying glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace among those with whom
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he is pleased. When the angels
went away from them into heaven, the
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shepherd said to one another, let
us go to Bethlehem and see this thing
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that has happened, which the Lord
has made known to us. And they
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went with haste and found Mary and
Joseph and the baby lying in a manger,
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and when they saw it, they
made known the saying that had been
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told them concerning this child. In
all who heard it wondered at the Shit
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what the shepherds had told them,
but Mary treasured up these things, pondering
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them in her heart. And the
shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all
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that they had heard and seen,
as it had been told them, at
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the end of the eighth day,
at the end of eight days. When
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he was circumcised, he was called
Jesus, the name given by the Angel
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before he was conceived in the womb. Praise God. So over the last
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few weeks, as we have considered
this theme of the Promised Messiah, this
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one that was promised in the Old
Testament and then came to find fulfillment in
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Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, we've
come to see that he is very powerful,
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that he is just, that is
rule is mighty. We've had images
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of the host of Heaven, sixtwinged
Sarah. We've Sung of earlier, a
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mighty host, of his command.
We've heard of images of his him shattering
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the nations, of him killing beasts
with the breath of his mouth, of
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the Great Power and righteousness and rule
of this promise Messiah. And we've seen
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that this is not only because he
is divine, but also because he was
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anointed by the spirit, even as
a human, a human man, to
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rule a kingdom of men, to
rule under God, a kingdom which would
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extend to animals and angels, a
whole world filled with peace and glory under
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the Lord, the King of Kings. But we've also come to see is
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that this great and glorious, Awesome
King, the Promised Messiah, the anointed
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one, comes in a very unexpected
way. He comes with power and might,
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even the sea and the winds obey
him, but he also comes in
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gentleness and, even more surprisingly,
lowliness servanthood. The word gentle that Jesus
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describes himself with in Matthew Eleven has
been translated also is mild or meek or
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humble. One Lexicon notes that this
word, the corresponding word in various languages,
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is off been given in the negative
as the opposite of harshness, and
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I think that's a good way to
understand what gentleness is. It's the opposite
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of harshness. Instead of being strong
and powerful and perhaps even cruel, it
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goes it, gentleness speaks of tenderness, of carefulness. Right, a bruised
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read he will not break. If
you've ever had something delicate right that you
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were that you wanted to be careful
with, right, you treat it gently.
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We say to our kids gentle,
gentle with the cat, gentle with
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Mommy's tea set or whatever. Right, we are careful and gentle with these
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things. We don't start to move
them around and in harsh ways. The
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Lord describes himself as gentle, but
he also describes himself as lowly. We
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might imagine a king being gentle,
a good gentle king, though, still
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strong, but lowly. At least
for me, that's extra surprising, especially
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when we think of not just a
king but the king of Kings, the
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Lord of Lords, because low means
low, it means of low status.
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Luke one hundred and fifty two uses
the same word here. He says he
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has brought down the mighty from their
throne and exalted those of Humble Estate.
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and Jesus is described as being one
of humble estate. Right, this glorious
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mighty king, of whom the angels, you know, peer to the shepherds
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and declare this glorious praise, he
comes as a lowly one. The word
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that Jesus uses for lowly also can
have another meaning, not just low estate,
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but have an emotional side to it
as well. The word can describe,
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in other words, not merely someone
who's down in society, but also
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someone who's down in heart. That
word is used in Second Corinthians seven six,
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which says, but God comforts the
lowly, or it's translated in the
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ESV the downcast. God comforts the
downcast, and then he says comforted us
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are, says the verses. But
God who comforts the downcast, comforted us
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by the coming of Titus. I'm
so God is used, this servant to
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bring their broken hearts, their downcast
hearts, they're lowly hearts, to cheer.
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So here is this king, King
Jesus, who has everything right.
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Thou, the one who is beyond
all praising and Splendor and glory, and
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he comes as one who is gentle
with us and, even more than that,
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who is lowly among us. Well, to continue our pattern of seeing
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things in the old testament than in
the new. Let's do that now.
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As you said, in Isaiah a
forty two we've seen that Jesus comes,
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this one, this spirit anointed one, and he comes in care the bruised
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weed and the wick. We've see
it in other places in Isaiah as well.
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This servant WHO's coming is often called
in a by theologians because of Isaiah's
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words, as their suffering servant.
He comes not just to be gentle with
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those he comes to serve, but
he comes to even die, to suffer,
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and we see that in Jesus we
see Jesus, as Philippians tells us,
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the one who comes so low as
even to die, and at his
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birth, coming in as born in
a manger. Luke captures these two dynamics
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really well and impresses them on our
heart when we see the glory of the
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angels of paired with his being born
in a manger, no place for them
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in the INN. She wraps him
in swaddling cloths and there they are,
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a normal little family on a census
and a busy town. The first,
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some of the first people that come
to greet them are shepherds, but we
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also know from other places also kings. We have these corresponding images, over
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and over and over again, of
the greatness of Jesus, the splendor of
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Jesus, the glory of Jesus and
also his lowliness. The significance of these
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things is made very clear in many
places. Tonight we consider them from Jesus's
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words in Matthew Eleven. Here again
what he says. He says in Verse
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Twenty Eight. That's mark. I'm
going to want to quote it like I
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read before. He says in Verse
Twenty Eight, come to me all who
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labor and are heavy Laden and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke
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upon you and learn from me,
for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
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and you will find rest for your
souls from my yoke, is easy
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and my bird and is light,
as I've said many times, from God,
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God's word, from here in my
preaching. If Jesus only came in
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power and glory and righteousness, we'd
all be dead. We couldn't stand under
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that. The Sea and the winds
obey him, the mighty host of Heaven
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obeys him. He's a King of
all righteousness, and we who are unrighteous,
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we who are sinners, we who
don't have the flicker of faith but
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are dead in our trestpasses and sins, we would be totally crushed. Jesus
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comes to help those who are needy, to save those who are sinners,
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to give peace to those who are
at rest. Come to me, all
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who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. It's
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worth asking yourselves, I think,
in what ways am I heavy Laden and
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what ways do I need rest?
Are there situations in your life in which
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you feel burdened or even crushed?
Are there people that your heart breaks over
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their sins, that you struggle with? Are there situations that you can't seem
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to find your way out of that
you feel like you have nothing left to
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give? Do you hear what Jesus
is saying? It's really simple. Come
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to me, come to me,
all who labor and are heavy laden,
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and I will give you rest.
And this is true for believers who know
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the Lord and love to him.
This call continually comes to us. It's
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one day we have, this day
of rest, this day that is belongs
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to the Lord, so that he
can call us over and over and over
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again and say, come to me, come to me, come to me,
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I'll take care of you, I'll
give you rest. And of course,
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this is true for those who don't
yet know him. Not just rest
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from the struggles of life and the
verious burdens, but Jesus rest offers rest
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even to those who are at war
with God. Jesus offers rests to Satan's
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soldier slaves, who have no peace, but do nothing, but always and
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all times constantly war and rage against
God and His Holiness. When you belong
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to the devil, when you are
enslaved by him and held passion by various
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fleshly desires, it's nothing but lies
and temptations, twists and turns of trying
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to evade God and get out from
under his presence. And, much like
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Joe, are not job Jonah did
when the Lord called him to a task
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and Jonah Ran. He tried to
do everything he could to give away and
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eventually he was so desperate he just
kill me. This is how bad it
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can get for people who don't who
are not submitting to the Lord, who
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don't know him, who are at
war with him. God offers to those
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who are at war with him a
peace treaty. He offers, he extends
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to them peace. They know the
deadly final battle is coming closer and closer
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every day. Judgment Day is coming. They know that they'll be on the
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losing side, and God is saying, come to me and I will not
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destroy you, I will not strike
you down in my wrath, but I
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will lift your bird is from you. I will give you peace, I
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will give you rest. And how
does God do this? He does this
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he offers this peace treaty by the
sacrifice of his own son, this one,
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this glorious one, who came and
took on human flesh. He did
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so he became a lowly human under
the law so that he could fulfill the
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law, so that he could obey
in all the ways which we have failed
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to obey, so that he could
earn the right, as a human being,
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to stand before before God as the
righteous one, the right to ascend
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up the Holy Hill and be present
with God forever. This was God's plan
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to be with us. He became
one of us, he took on flesh
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and blood to save us, and
in this then, Jesus offers salvation to
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the people he came to save.
This is the love of God that is
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extended for us. This is the
love of God that was born into the
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world and it was lying there in
the manger when the shepherds came to worship,
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to wonder, to praise God.
We know that this offer, this
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invitation, is true because Jesus himself
died to secure it. He came under
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the law and he came an obedience
to forgive us and to take care of
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our debts. With his own blood, human blood, he gave his life
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for ours. He came not only
under the law, as I've said,
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but under the wrath of God,
under the scorn of the world, and
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so will love it you can know
that. If you feel low, if
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you feel downcast, if you feel
broken, know that your savior went even
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lower, even deeper, than any
of us have ever gone. And he
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did it for us because he loved
us. He did it so that he
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might lift us up and give us
what the angels proclaim peace. This is
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indeed news, not of fear but
of great joy. Amen. Let's pray
