Episode Transcript
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Heavenly father, we come to your
word with trembling, for it is the
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very word of God that is given
to us and, Lord, by ourselves
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and our carnal natures, we could
not understand it, nor know what it
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means or says to us. But
through the Gift of grace you've given to
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us, Lord, it speaks to
our heart, it ministers to us,
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it gives life to us. The
entrance of your words give light and,
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Lord, we are so grateful that
you have given us the gift of your
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word, that we have it,
that we can learn it, that we
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can read it, that we can
study it, that we can memorize it.
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We thank you, Lord, for
that ability and we pray now this
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morning that as I deliver the word
you have given to me this week,
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that I would be faithful to the
text, that your people would receive edification,
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that your people would be drawn closer
to you and that Jesus Christ would
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be magnified in our midst and that
the Gospel of Christ would be clear.
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Open our eyes, Lord, that
we may behold wondrous things out of your
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law. We pray these things in
Christ's name. Amen, going to read
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to you from Luke, Chapter Three. I'll explain why in a little bit.
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Beginning with verse one, I'll be
reading through verse fourteen and again,
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I remind you, what I'm reading
to you now is God's most holy word.
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In the Fifteenth Year of the reign
of Tiberius Caesar, conscious pilot being
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governor of Judea, and Harrod being
Tet trark of Galilee and his brother Philip,
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Tet track of the region of Tigeria, and Raconitis and Lisanius, tetrarch
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of Abilene, during the high priesthood
of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of
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God came to John, the son
of Zaca, riot in the wilderness,
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and he went into all the region
around the Jordan, proclaiming the Baptism of
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repentance for the remission of sins.
Has It is written in the book of
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the words of Isaiah, the Prophet, the Voice of one crying in the
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Wilderness, prepare the way of the
Lord, make his paths straight, every
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valley shall be filled and every mountain
and hills shall be made low, and
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the crooked shall become straight, and
the rough places shall become level ways,
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and all flesh shall see the salvation
of God. He said therefore, to
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the crowds that came out to be
baptized him, you brewed of vipers who
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warned you to flee from the wrath, to come bear fruit in keeping with
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repentance. And do not begin to
say to yourselves we have Abraham as our
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father, for, I tell you, God is able from these stones to
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raise up children for Abraham. Even
now, the axe has laid to the
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wood of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good
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fruit is cut down and thrown into
the fire. And the crowds asked him,
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what, then, shall we do, and he answered them whoever has
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two tunics is to share with him
who has none, and whoever has food
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is to do likewise. Tax Collectors
also came to be baptized and said to
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m teacher, what shall we do, and he said to them collect no
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more that you're authorized to do.
Soldiers also asked him, and we what
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shall we do, and he said
to them do not extort money from anyone
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by threats or by false accusation,
and be content with your wages. Thus
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ends the reading of God's word.
Man, allow me to make a few
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opening comments today, since this is
my first time speaking to you and being
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with you. I think there's some
things you should know about me, know
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about this time that we're entering into
in our coming to Tucson, here into
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the church here. My wife and
I have commented to each other several times
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about what a wonderful church you have
here and how wonderful the fellowship seems to
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be among the people here, what
a wonderful pastor and family you have here
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who is labored faithfully here for several
years and God has blessed the work in
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the last ten plus years. So
you have grown and we've noticed all of
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this stuff, all of the wonderful
fellowship and the love that you have towards
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each other. It's very evident.
So, having said that, I have
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one charge that's given to me.
Don't mess it up. Okay, that's
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what I have to do now.
I say that a little bit humorously,
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but it actually is a legitimate prayer
I'm making to God, that I'm asking
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God that I do not thing to
hinder the work that God has done here.
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So if you ever feel like there's
something I'm doing that is hindering please
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feel free to come up to me
and talk to me about it, because
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I do not want to do that
now. There will be differences in ministry.
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I will mess up like when you
should stand and sit like I did
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today, but there there will be
different things and and the preaching it will
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be different than the preaching you're used
to. But I ask you to think
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as this goes on. It's only
four months, so if you can just
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keep that in your mind, I
think we can make it a little background
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now to why I'm preaching from the
text that I'm preaching from this morning.
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Um, when I left the church
I was working with the Wisconsin Um.
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I had been going through the book
of Luke and the Book of judges.
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Every other Sunday. They did not
have an evening service, so I was
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alternating between these two books, and
so I had finished the second chapter of
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Luke at the Church and the fifth
chapter of judges. So I have decided
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here I'm just going to begin where
I left off. Um, I know
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that that might leave you a little
bit hanging, but I'm going to do
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that. So I'm starting the third
chapter of Luke this morning and then I'll
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be doing the sixth chapter of judges
this evening. If you want to catch
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up, and I'm not recommending this, but there are. Most of my
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earlier messages on this are out on
a sermon. audio not a requirement,
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probably a burden, so don't worry
about it too much. Um. The
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second thing I need to tell you
that you probably already noticed, I'm not
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good at coming up with real catchy
titles. Okay, to my sermons,
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Um and UH, my best one, in my opinion, the best title
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I ever came up with was based
on two cartoons that I thought was brilliant,
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but realized afterwards that apparently nobody but
me had ever watched those cartoons,
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Um, which was bow winko and
Pinky in the brain, and I just
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thought it was a brilliant title,
but nobody else laughed at it, so
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I'm I gave up on that.
But so today you'll notice you know the
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gospel of Luke. Number Eleven.
Okay, that's catchy, Huh, and
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I'll give you one week to try
to figure out what next week's message will
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be called. But you can think
about that. Well, let's get into
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God's word and let me expositive to
you and then we'll make some map.
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I'll make some applications to you.
In verses one and two. Luke gives
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us six time markers by which we
can identify the time of John Baptist Ministry,
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and these time markers concern various leaders, governmental or religious leaders. At
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the time. Can't hues note that
these names all invoke wickedness and intrigue.
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Tiberius, Caesar, conscious pilot,
Herod Anna, Annas, Caiaphas. Most
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of them will have a part,
and the reason that they invoked that to
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us is because most of them will
have a part in the death of Christ,
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and so most of them are going
to have to make some kind of
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decision concerning Christ and who he is, and, as you know, the
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results are not going to be good. Have you ever asked yourself the question,
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outside of Jesus, what name do
you think is uttered most often and
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Sunday morning services across the world?
Now, I can't prove this to you,
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and and and I think, though, a very good case can be
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made for the name conscious pilot,
and if you think about it a little
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bit, it'll probably make sense to
you that that might be the name that
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might be said the second most often
as any name outside of the Deity.
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Even with all the information luke gives
us as to who is in power at
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that time. We still can't quite
agree, according to the dollars, as
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to when exactly John's ministry began.
Lucas being very meticulous. He's a great
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historian and he wants us to know
that he's not just wing in it,
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but he's he studied us out.
He knows he can tells us exactly what's
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going on, and so he tells
us here that what the timing is by
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the various leaders. Now most are
in agreement. Again, there's not entire
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agreement, but somewhere between the years
twenty six and twenty nine Um a d
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that John began his ministry, and
we would therefore, if we can take
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the earlier day, we would probably
put the death of Christ somewhere around thirty
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a d. Now there was one
thing that people might notice that that seems
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a little bit wrong or maybe a
false thing, but there's a very good
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reason why luke does it. He
mentions the fact that, uh, both
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Annas and Caiaphas were high priest.
Now Luke knew that Annas had been deposed
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as high priest in fifteen a d
and he was no longer the high priest.
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However, he really was the high
priest because he was the power behind
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the throne. He got all of
his sons and sons in law into the
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office of high priests because Rome required
this rotating thing. But nonetheless, uh,
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really, he was the power.
You see that when you come to
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the trial of Christ and you see
that Uh anus is involved in that.
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Now, John the Baptist is certainly
a great historical figure. In fact,
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I could say outside of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he is the greatest historical
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figure. You'd say, well,
how can you say that? Well,
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because Jesus did, and I kind
of trust him. UH, he says
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in Luke. I tell you,
among those born of women, women,
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none is greater than John. Yet
the one who was least in the Kingdom
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of God is greater than He.
Some believe that John was a nazarite because
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he did not drink alcohol or wine
or strong drink. This was said to
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the prophecy, originally uh in concerning
his coming birth, that he should not
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do that. And also Jesus will
speak of it also, that John came
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not drinking, and any he'll compare
it to himself as to what he did.
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But I don't think we can prove
that he was a NAS right one
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who had taken the Old Testament numbers
vow of being a NASA. Right,
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there's always things in the text that
are things, I should say, that
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aren't in the text that we wish
were there, that we want. We'd
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want to know. Now, you're
probably not carnal like I am, but
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sometimes I think, and I don't
know if I actually uttered this to the
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Lord, but I do think it. They say, Lord, couldn't you
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skip maybe one chapter of genealogies and
put a chapter about who should be baptized
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at what tongues are, you know, just just to add to that in
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there. We would not have saved
a lot of trouble through the years and
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a lot of problems if you would
just done that. But don't jump up
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yet. I do believe the word
of God to be perfect and I believe
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everything that's in there is what God
wants to put in there, and God
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is much wiser than I. So
I accept what is what is there.
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But we're not told exactly when did
John Go into the Wilderness? When did
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he go? Some believe he actually
went as a child. Remember, his
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parents were very old when he was
born. UH, some of the most
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aged parents since Abraham and era,
and so it's very likely that his parents
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could have died very early in his
life and if that is the case,
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he might have went into the wilderness
early. Gamble Morgan postulated that he was
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twenty years old and I don't know
how he gets that. I don't know
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that we can, but again we
don't know exactly. But the most important
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phrase in verse two is the Word
of God came to John. Now he's
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been noted that people often say this, that John Comes on the scene when
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the prophetic voice in Israel had been
silenced for over four hundred years. And
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I don't want to quibble, but
I think the Luke, the book of
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Luke, proceeding what I read to
you this morning, tells us we've already
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had several prophetic voices. The first
was John the Baptist himself, but much
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earlier when he was in a womb
of his mother Elizabeth. When Jesus came
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into the house in the womb of
Mary, he leapt in his mother Elizabeth
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Womb. Now it's true he didn't
say anything, but I think his action
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was prophetic. Then we have his
mother Elizabeth, who gives maybe the most
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amazing words in the gospels outside of
our Lord Jesus. I don't know if
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you've ever thought about this. Think
about what she said when Mary comes in.
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She says, blessed are you among
women, and blessed is the fruit
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of your womb. And why is
this granted to me, that the mother
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of my Lord should come to me? Think about that, the faith that's
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required, the prophetic things to say
the mother, in other words, that
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child, very early, that child, and you, Mary, is my
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Lord. That's amazing. Think about
that. She recognized by an encounter with
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the fetus that this was her Lord. So we have two babies still in
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the womb, one very early,
that are still doing actions that we would
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associate with human means. You're as
Thomas Brooks, the Puritan, would say.
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You are wise and know how to
apply it. Then we have the
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message of his father, Zachariah,
who said concerning his name, he said
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his name is John. He didn't
say his name should be called John.
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He didn't say I think John would
be a good choice. He said his
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name is John. prophetically, that's
what he was saying. There's no other
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choice in this. His name shall
be John. Then we have Simeon and
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Luke too, who says, behold, this child is appointed for the fallen
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rising to many in Israel and for
a sign that is opposed, and the
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sword will pierce to your own soul
also, so the thoughts from many hearts
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may be revealed. Immediately after that
we have a prophetess by the name of
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Anna, who says in verse Thirty
Eight, and coming at that very hour,
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she begin to get thanks to God
and to speak of him to all
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who are waiting for the redemption of
Jerusalem. So the prophetic voice has been
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in existence now for thirty some years
at this time, although it's been few
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and far between. Verse Three tells
us, Interestingly enough, that John Appears
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into and goes into all the region
around the Jordan's you say, well,
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I don't understand what's interesting about that. Um. Well, the interesting thing
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is that is a word for word, Um Translation, basically of how the
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Old Testament describes the land uh that
Sodom, that lot chose when Abraham gave
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him the choice. This is the
same thing, in other words, John
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the Baptist ministries apparently involving that area
of Sodom, or Sodom and Gomorrah.
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Once we're now John Goes into the
wilderness. We don't know the name of
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the Wilderness. I don't know if
John went into the Wilderness on a horse
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with no name, I don't know. But but this is where God begins
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the preparation for the appearance of his
son. And then there's a phrase in
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verse three we need to mention at
least because it seems a little odd perhaps
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to somebody. says, proclaiming the
Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.
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Now we we said that niceeing creed
here this morning and I had a
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couple of families come to me in
the church that I passed through a couple
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of churches ago and, uh,
they said, uh, you know,
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we have a real problem with that
phrase and I don't think we can say
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it. So we're just being silent
during that. I said, well,
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you can be silent if you want, but I want to let you know
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that that phrase is not from the
nice seeing paid first, it's from the
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scriptures first. Uh, so you
might have trouble reading the scriptures as well.
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Um, we know that we don't
believe that baptism is that which cleanses
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our sins. We do not believe
it. But what we believe is that
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baptism is a sign of that.
And that what what we have often in
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the scriptures and what we call sacramental
language, where the thing itself is spoken
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of has uh the sign has spoken
of as the thing itself, as doing
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the thing itself. And for example, when Jesus stands before the disciples in
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the last supper, he says this
is my body as he gives them the
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bread, but of course his body
is standing right before them. But again
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this is sacramental language. Even the
Jewish history of Josephus, who has a
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reference to John The baptist, says
they must not employ it baptism to gain
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pardon for whatever sins they committed,
but as a consecration of the body,
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implying that the soul was already thoroughly
cleansed by right behavior. Now I know
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that's not an Orthodox statement. That
Joseph fitzmaiden and he was not a believer,
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but it does speak to the idea
that they recognized in John. It
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wasn't the baptism they gave forgiveness of
sin. Even our repentance doesn't merit forgiveness
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of sins. By grace. I
saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
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It's the gift of Godless to anyone
should boast. But of course repentance
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is necessary and it is a consequence
of God's work in us. Now,
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verses four through six tell us that
John the Baptist Ministry is a fulfillment of
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prophecy and it's a direct quotation out
of Isaiah, chapter forty, versus three
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through five, and one of the
strongest proofs we have of the inspiration of
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scripture. Of course it's not the
ultimate proof of our confession would tell us,
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but one of the strongest evidential proofs
we have is the fulfillment of prophecy,
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and here we have exactly that fulfillment
of prophecy should always make us be
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amazed of what God has said and
how he has brought it about. There
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was an old evangelist by the name
of Gypsy Smith, and he was once
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asked as he was coming across the
Atlantic on his way to a preaching engagement.
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They said, how do you do
it, Mr Smith, how do
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you stay so fresh in the things
of the Lord? And Gypsy Smith replied
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because, my friend, I have
never lost the wonder of it all,
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and May that be true of me
and you as well, that we don't
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lose the wonder and by applying this
prophecy that John the Baptist Lucas telling us
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that this isn't the Messiah that people
are looking for, but he is one
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sent to prepare the way for the
Messiah. He is the forerunner of the
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Messiah. He proceeds Christ in several
ways. He is born before Christ,
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he ministers before Christ and he points
people to Christ and he will die before
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Christ. These verses seem to indicate
from Isaiah the fact that when a great
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ruler would come into a city,
that the people would go out and try
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to make the road smooth so that
there would be no tripping or falling or
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stumbling of the horses as they came
into the city with the great ruler,
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and and so they would be very
careful that the road going in to the
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city would be level like that.
And then all flesh will see the glory
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of God, which of course,
would be the appearance of Christ. And
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this doesn't mean that all flesh is
going to be saved, but it does
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mean that all kinds of flesh will
be saved. Then let us notice versus
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seven to fourteen. We have a
very bold pick preacher in John the Baptists,
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as you can tell by the words
that he speaks. Philip Riching,
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in his commentary tells the story of
an evangelist you may have heard of by
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the name of Peter Cartwright that went
around preaching. One Time Cartwright was preaching
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and before the service they came up
to him and they said, Mr Cartwright,
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you need to know that tonight President
Andrew Jackson is in our service and
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you must be very guard did in
what you say. So when a sermon
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Cartwright said, I understand that Andrew
Jackson is here. I have been instructed
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to be guarded in my remarks.
Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he
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doesn't repent. After the service,
President Jackson actually went up in Chok Cartwright's
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hand and said, sir, if
I had a regiment of men like you,
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I could conquer the world. And
so the boldness. Well, John
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the Baptist is such a preacher.
He addresses the people that came up to
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him and he calls them a brood
of vipers. Now, you may have
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noticed I didn't use that phrase in
addressing you this morning and there's a reason,
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because I didn't want my visit to
be too short here, but it
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is the phrase that Jesus used to
describe, describes and Pharisees. Now we
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don't really have vipers much in Minnesota, but you do have a few of
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them down here, don't you?
So that picture might be more vivid to
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you than it would be to me. But the point not everyone who comes
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to a religious ordinance or religious service
is coming from right motives. There are
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people who are coming to John who
are not really sincere, just as there
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are people who come to church,
not saying this church, but the church
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in large, who are not really
sincere. John asked WHO's warned you to
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flee from the wrath to come?
Kelvin says here. All the center gains
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from by fleeing from God is to
provoke more and more the wrath of God
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against him. In Verse Eight,
John Preaches against the idea that our our
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our hereditary heredity, will put us
into heaven. He speaks specifically of the
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Jews, saying that they had Abraham
as their father. As Kelvin puts it,
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they believed that God had adopted all
the posterity of Abraham. William Hendrickson
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says the reason why these people were
headed for damnation. was that for their
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eternal security? They were relying under
dissent from Abraham. But this can equally
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apply to people today who rely on
their posterity, or their their ancestors,
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as should say, for their Christianity
and religion. Some of you know I
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came from the pentecostal world. After
several years there was an old pentecostal minister
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who said very phrase. I think
it's pretty Orthodox. He says God has
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no grandchildren, and that's true.
God has children, not grandchildren. Now
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I understand covenant, but these people
were claiming they were a part of the
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Covenant with Abraham because they descended from
him. and John said that's not enough.
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And here we have one of those
statements about what God can do to
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stones and uh and so this is
one of many that will find in there.
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He can, he can raise up
people out of stones. I mean
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he did raise people out of dirt
right Um, so I think he can
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raise people out of stones. God
has done some some wonderful things with stones.
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When we came in here, coming
in from Minnesota, Arizona, we
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passed us the parts of of UH. I think it was New Mexico.
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Not. Maybe its Arizona. You
don't know what I mean, but there's
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a part where you go on in
the in the freeway and there's just stones
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piled upon another in beautiful formations and
they're just I'm taking pictures. I can
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send them to my kids because just
so glorious and beautiful. So so God
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can do wonderful things. Satan used
that as a test for Christ. If
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you be the son of God,
turned the stones into bread, which he
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could have done, but he didn't
in the ninety in response to the Pharisees
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who criticized the disciples were praising,
and he said, I tell you,
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if these were silent, the very
stones would cry out. So yes,
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God can do great things with stones. Here we have one of the fifteen
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references to Abraham and the book of
Luke, so he does play an important
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part. In Verse Nine, John
Gives a picture of pending judgment, the
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axes laid to the word of the
tree, in other words, the time
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to bear fruit is now. Just
like the parable Jesus, we're telling Luke
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about the tree that not bears fruit, that you should cut it down,
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and so we must bear fruit.
And maybe John is referring perhaps to the
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instruction of Jerusalem. That will come
in in versus ten to fourteen. John
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gives instructions to various groups of people, to the people in general here,
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just generosity. If you have more
than you need, share with one in
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need. To the tax collectors,
he told them they shouldn't take any more
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money from people than what was authorized, which was actually a very common practice
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among tax collectors. The pillar commentary
says that an honest tax collector was a
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starving tax collector. I probably don't
need to tell you about tax collectors being
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despised in those days, on like
tax collectors today, which are greatly beloved.
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But it was permiss it was permissible
by Jewish law to lie to a
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tax collector. I'm not saying you
should take that law into your own practice,
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but it was permissible in Jewish law
to lie to a tax clicker.
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But the interesting thing is worth missing
here. What we might expect to be
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here. What doesn't John Say?
He doesn't say go out and get a
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new job. He didn't say that. He just says do it right,
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do it honestly. To the soldiers. Here's his contentment and again not taking
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from people what was rightfully there's which
soldiers would do. And again notice he
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doesn't say that it is unlawful to
be a soldier. He doesn't say that
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at all. And the common link
in all these instructions is money. Not
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that any of us have problems with
that. Today, Martin Luther said that
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a man needs two conversions, one
of his soul one of his pocketbook.
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Well, I'm gonna talk about that
in a second, but so let me
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get into that. There's more I
could say in the text, but I
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want to try to keep in the
bounds of the time that your pastor is
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set. and Um, I tend
to go longer. My wife would tell
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you that I try to make up
for it by speaking faster. But anyway.
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So John's advice to the people would
revolver on money, and the issue
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was where people being generous. As
Calvin points out, John Wasn't telling the
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people that they were sinful if they
had two quotes. Okay, probably not
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a big issue here in Tucson,
but where I come from in Minnesota that
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can be an issue. UH,
mightn't be pretty handy to have two quotes.
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The issues that John's giving is are
we people that are willing to share
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Paul says enrollments twelve thirteen contribute to
the needs of the saints. In Second
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Corinthias, ninety seven. He says
everyone must give as he's decided in his
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heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
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Now, I don't know if you're
like me or not, but I'm gonna
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be honest. I struggle with generous
I don't know if I struggle being generous,
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but but I do struggle very much
trying to figure out when should I
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be generous and and how much should
I give here or there? Now I
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notice down here you have the same
people we do up in Minnesota, who
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said or stand on the crosswalks with
a sign asking for money, and as
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I go by those people I always
struggle and think should I give them something?
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Now? Again, you, being
much more spiritual than me, would
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not have these thoughts go into your
mind, but I would have thoughts like
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why don't they get a job?
I mean there's jobs everywhere right now.
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Why? Why don't they just get
a job? Or I've heard these people
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make a hundred thousand dollar a year
doing this or I need to be discerning
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in how I give my money away
and all they probably spend it on liquor
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anyway, and I would just be
encouraging sinful behavior. These are the kind
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of thoughts that go actually go through
my mind as I think about this and
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I wonder, Lord, and sometimes
I've convicted enough I reach in my wallet
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and hand. Maybe it's wrong,
I don't know, but Lord, I'm
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going to do it all my life. I was told you need to save
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up money for retirement. Maybe you
heard that too. You need to save
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up money so when you come to
retirement you have money to live on.
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So I did it. I saved
that money. Now I'm struggling with that
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money, thinking what should I be
giving that money? Should should should be
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using it for us right now,
so other people don't have to waste money
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on us or and all these things. But I pray Lord helped me to
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be generous. It's a difficult thing
for me to understand where the lines are,
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and I think it can be difficult
for all of us to understand,
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but God loves generosity and cheerful givers. Second I want to be clear that
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John's message, though maybe some would
not see it, it was really a
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gospel message. John Preached Repentance.
But Repentance is part of the Gospel Ministry
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and Amount Gospel Message. The problem
in much of the Church today is that
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the Gospel message has been lost.
People are exhorted to come to Jesus but
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they really have no idea why they're
coming to Jesus. The church I was
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a part of for about forty years
in my life, not as a minister
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forty years, but in my life, was the assemblies of God, and
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we're talking about this a little bit
in one of the fellowship groups this week
395
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and uh, the one thing I
say the assemblies of God has in common
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with this denomination is that they do
believe the Bible is the authoritative word of
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God. They interpret parts of it
differently, but but they were a Bible
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believing, Gospel Preaching Church. But
in the last ten years or so I've
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been very saddened by attending several funerals
in these churches led by pastors. One
400
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week before we came to Tucson we
attended a funeral of a man who had
401
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been a part of ice I believe
God church for seven years and he had
402
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died of covid around Thanksgiving. But
they had the funeral service several months later
403
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for him, and the pastor's message
was kind of based on this man's life,
404
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about how he was always encouraging people
not to be lukewarm Christians. And
405
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there's nothing really wrong with anything that
he said. It's all fine. But
406
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what was wrong, and what I
noticed in other funerals that I've attended is
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what wasn't said. There wasn't one
mention of the Cross, nor one mentioned
408
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of the sacrificial death of Christ and
the need there was for that. No,
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I'm not trying to be critical of
another church per se, and I'm
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sure there's some that this is not
true of, and the pastor who did
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the funeral has been a friend of
mine for about forty years. But the
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Apostle Pausa of the Corinthians I determined
to know nothing among you Save Jesus Christ
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and Im crucified. He also said, God forbid that I should glory saving
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the Cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. If we leave out the message of
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the Cross, we haven't rightly preached
the Gospel. If I finished a message
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here, and I'm gonna talk about
this for a little seconds before I closed,
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if I finished the message here and
I haven't pointed you to Jesus and
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the Cross, I haven't given you
the Gospel. I need to do that.
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As much as we think of the
Old Testament prophets, including John Perhaps
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as the last of the Old Testament
prophets, we think of them often as
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people who railed against others and their
sins and judgments that they proclaimed that God
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was going to give. But don't
lose sight of the fact they also proclaimed
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forgiveness of sins. And my personal
devotions this past week I read Jere my
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thirty one and these two verses,
thirty three and thirty four. For this
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is the Covenant I will make with
the House of Israel. After those days
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to play as the Lord. I
will put my law within them, I
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will write it on their hearts.
I will be their God, they shall
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be my people, and no longer
shall each one teach his neighbor and each
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his brother say no the Lord,
for they shall all know me, from
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the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will
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forgive their iniquity and will remember their
sin. No more Isaiah. Come now,
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let's reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet,
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they shall be white as Snow Ezekiel. None of the sins that he
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has committed shall be remembered against him. He has done what is just and
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right. He shall surely live.
My reading through the Puritan Thomas Goodwin this
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week I came across the chapter where
he dealt with the phrase in First Peter
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Five ten, the God of all
grace. Think about that for a moment,
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and Goodwin really expounded this. But
think about the God of all grace.
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Whatever your need is this morning,
God has grace for it. Do
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you need grace to receive forgiveness and
believe and forgiveness? Do you need grace
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00:34:02.200 --> 00:34:06.440
for a need that you're going through? Are you suffering? Is there some
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family need? You need grace?
God is the God of all grace.
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Neomiah says you are a God ready
to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow
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to anger and abounding and steadfast love. God is a God ready to forgive.
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The Bible and Basic English says you
are a god of forgiveness. This
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is God's nature, he said to
Moses and extus thirty four. The Lord
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00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:38.719
passed befom and proclaimed the Lord,
the Lord of God, Merciful and gracious
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00:34:38.760 --> 00:34:44.840
slow to anger, abounding and steadfast
love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for
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00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:49.000
thousands, forgiving the nicotine and transgression
and sin, but who by no means
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00:34:49.079 --> 00:34:52.719
clearly guilty, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers on the children and the children's
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children to the third and fourth generation. If you are one who loves the
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Lord seeks to serve him with all
your heart, but you fear that there
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are sins you've committed that are too
great, or doubt that you have been
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forgiven, let me say he is
the God of all grace. He is
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the God of forgiveness. In the
children's books we need to Pooh the character
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tigger says bouncing is what tiggers do
best. Well, forgiving is what God
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does best. As a young Christian, I struggled for a time believing I
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had committed the unpardonable sin and for
a good period of time it hindered my
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00:35:36.639 --> 00:35:45.360
relationship with God and I thought I
was unique for the sin I had committed,
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the sins I had committed, and
I thought nobody else struggles with this.
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00:35:50.639 --> 00:35:52.840
And then they became a pastor and
found out many people struggle with it.
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But I finally came to realize that
the only forgivable sin isn't not coming
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to Christ, because he said,
he that comes to me, I will
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never, never, cast out.
So we can take that promise. And
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so if you're concerned this morning that
I'm not saying there's anyone here, but
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if you are that you've committed that
sin, let me assure you the very
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00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:27.960
fact that you're concerned shows you haven't. He said, whoever comes to me,
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I will in no wise. He
didn't leave room for any exception cast
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00:36:34.920 --> 00:36:39.119
out. In order to appreciate the
message of forgiveness, you need to know
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you have sins to forgive, and
John gave those sins to the people that
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came to him. But even the
common people of that day would be very
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conscious of their sins because they had
the Pharisees and of his adducies and scribes
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00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:55.440
so lead them, who gave them
all kinds of laws that they needed to
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00:36:55.480 --> 00:37:01.679
live by and neglected many of the
main ones. The message of some one,
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00:37:01.679 --> 00:37:05.719
Oh, three twelve says as far
as the East is from the West,
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00:37:06.519 --> 00:37:09.320
so far does we remove our transgressions
from us? We came from the
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00:37:09.360 --> 00:37:15.119
Midwest the east to here, but
that doesn't even begin that's not even a
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00:37:15.239 --> 00:37:22.039
micro chipper, micro whatever, of
of of what this is saying as far
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as the East is from the West. And so my job is to point
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you as John The baptist. I
have the same ministry, not in the
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00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:35.119
same power authority, but have the
same ministry, and that ministry requirement is,
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00:37:35.400 --> 00:37:39.039
Hey, point people to Jesus.
That's what you're supposed to do as
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00:37:39.039 --> 00:37:45.719
a minister, point people to Jesus. That's what John did. He said
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behold the lamb of God, and
if I get to the end of a
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00:37:50.079 --> 00:37:53.320
sermon and I haven't done that,
then I failed. But I need to
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tell you to point to Christ,
who is the God of forgiveness. There's
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00:38:00.599 --> 00:38:05.400
a story I heard a long time
ago, and you have to take the
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00:38:05.480 --> 00:38:07.119
story in the spirit in which I'm
giving it. I know it's not theologically
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00:38:07.159 --> 00:38:15.000
accurate, but Um, a man
was was struggling with the friend of his,
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00:38:15.119 --> 00:38:20.480
it was Catholic, and going to
a priest for confession and he said,
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00:38:20.519 --> 00:38:22.760
you know, I don't really believe
that that priest says any authority.
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00:38:22.920 --> 00:38:27.679
No, I don't either, but
nonetheless I don't believe the priest has authority.
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00:38:28.119 --> 00:38:31.800
And he said, Um, you
asked that priest, I committed a
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00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:37.039
sin when I was a young man
of sixteen years of age and that sin
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00:38:37.159 --> 00:38:38.960
is really bothering me and I want
you to ask that, if that that
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00:38:39.000 --> 00:38:45.239
prince is really from God, would
you ask him to ask God and if
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00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:51.079
he can come to me and say
what the sin is? I believe so.
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00:38:51.119 --> 00:38:53.159
A period of time passed and the
man met his friend again. He
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00:38:53.199 --> 00:39:00.400
said, did just the priest what
the sin was that I committed, and
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00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:05.440
the priest said and a man said
yes, yes, I did. Then
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00:39:05.480 --> 00:39:10.760
what did the priest say? He
said God said, I forgot. Now,
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00:39:10.800 --> 00:39:19.280
I know that's not theologically accurate,
but God forgets and forgivets and we
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00:39:19.320 --> 00:39:22.119
can come to him, to Christ, the lamb of God, and receive
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00:39:22.239 --> 00:39:27.639
all of the grace that we need. Let's pray now to God. We
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00:39:27.719 --> 00:39:31.639
think of your word and pray this
morning and in some way I appointed people
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00:39:31.679 --> 00:39:37.719
to Jesus that if they hadn't gone
to him, the Lord, they won't
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00:39:37.760 --> 00:39:43.559
leave this place without doing so.
Lord, I pray that your word would
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00:39:43.599 --> 00:39:46.960
speak to the hearts of your people
and help us to trust in you.
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00:39:50.000 --> 00:39:53.159
Lord, we need the lamb of
God, as we prayed this morning,
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00:39:53.239 --> 00:39:59.360
lamb of God, we are burdened
because of many things, but, Lord,
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there were is ample forgiveness, there
is ample grace for us. We
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00:40:04.760 --> 00:40:08.679
can receive it from you. You, God, are the God of all
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00:40:08.840 --> 00:40:16.920
grace and all forgiveness and, Lord, there is nothing impossible with you,
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and if any come to you,
you will receive them, for you are
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a gracious and Holy God. Amen.
