Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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And we think about the greatness of
it, and how we, like the
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Psalmist, have to cry for mercy. And Lord, we need mercy.
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It is our desperate need in our
condition. And so Lord, indeed like
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this almost we cry to you and
we say, Lord, please have mercy
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upon us. We admit Lord that
we do not always do what we should,
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that we do not love you with
all of our heart, mind,
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strength and soul. But Lord,
we thank you God that still you work
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in us. And Lord you are
ever changing us from glory to glory.
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And we thank you Lord for all
that you're doing. But Lord, we
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need you in order to understand your
own word. And Lord, I pray
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this morning as I deliver your word
to your people, that I would be
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faithful to it. Lord, keep
me from false doctrine, from heresy,
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keep me from anything that would put
a bondage upon your people that has not
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proper. Help me, Lord,
to be forthright and honest. But Lord,
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help me not to go beyond your
word. And Lord, if I
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do, I pray God that you
would just keep it from the people,
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and Lord, help them Lord to
know it in truth. But Lord illuminated
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it to us this morning. We
love your word. It is truly a
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lap to our feet, light to
our path. It is God the treasures.
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Lord. It is sweeter than the
honey in the honeycomb. And so
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Lord, we love to come to
it. And we pray God that you
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would bless it to your people,
for I asked this now in Christ name.
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Amen. The text I'm reading is
from the Gospel of Luke chapter six.
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I mentioned last week. I spoke
on the first five verses, but
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I wanted to put both stories before
you, and I want to do that
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again this morning, because they kind
of form a little combined story. He
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here and one deals with one aspect
and another another. So I'd like to
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read the text as well that I
read last week, and and we also.
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I will begin with verse six as
I preach, but let us start
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with verse one. Luke chapter six, now reading God's word to you.
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On a sabbath, when he was
going through the grain fields, his disciples
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plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But
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some of the Pharisees said, why
are you doing what's not lawful to do
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in the sabbath? And Jesus answered
them, have you not read what David
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did when he was hungry. He
and those who were with him. How
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he entered the House of God and
took and ate the bread of the presence,
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which is not lawful for any but
the priest to eat, and also
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gave it to those with him.
And he said to them, the son
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of Man is lord of the Sabbath. I another Sabbath. He entered the
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synagogue and was teaching, and the
man was there whose right hand was with
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her, And the scribes and the
pharisees watched him to see whether he would
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heal in the habits, so that
they might have keep find a reason to
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accuse him. But he knew their
thoughts, and he said to the man
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with the withered hand, come stand
here. And he rose and stood there.
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And Jesus said to them, I
ask you, is it lawful and
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the Sabbath day to do good or
to do harm, to save life or
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to destroy it? And after looking
around at all of them, he said
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to him, stretch out your hand, and he did so, and his
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hand was restored. But they were
filled with fury and discussed with one another
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what they might do to Jesus.
That's will in the reading of God's word,
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please be seated, so again,
I've read both of these um accounts
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to you, even though I preached
on the first five verses last time,
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because again I think it very closely
related to one another. And last week
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I tried to give you some incipos
of sabbath keeping, uh knowing uh those
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that were found in these verses.
And I could say that last week's text,
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the first five verses, we were
dealing I think with what we're perceived,
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not real sins, as their lords
said they weren't sins, but perceived
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sins of commission, with the disciples
eating the grain and plucking that and rubbing
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that and doing what the Pharisees would
have said that they were reaping and they
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were threshing, and they were winnowing
all which were forbidden by their man made
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rules about the Sabbath. So this
morning we're gonna deal more with sins of
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omission in the Sabbath. And I
I think oftentimes, and maybe particularly and
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reform circles where we actually do try
to keep the Sabbath, I think oftentimes
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we think of it more of what
we shouldn't do. As I spoke about
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last week about the thirty nine categories
of work that the Pharisees had put together
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there um and come up with But
I don't know if we think it's so
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much about what we should do on
the Sabbath. And that's what I think
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this second story is about. That's
why I'm linking them together, because I
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think those are two different aspects of
what can be sins on the Sabbath.
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But I think, and it might
not be true of you individually, but
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I think it's a common thing in
our ranks to think more of sins of
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commission than sins of omission. So
we're gonna begin this morning. At verses
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six through eight, Luke tells us
that he's relating the story that takes place
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on another Sabbath, but he doesn't
specifically identify for us what sabbath that is
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uh. In other words, is
that the next Sabbath after what had just
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happened previously, We don't know.
But I do want you to note once
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again, where do we find the
Lord on the Sabbath. We find him
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in the synagogue, gathered with God's
people. So if there's one thing we
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can positively know about the right way
of keeping the Sabbath, it is attending
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the Lord's house with God's people.
We can be absolutely assured of that that
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that is true. I have heard
people say at times to me through the
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years, well, I don't really
like going to church because I really never
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learned anything new there. I think, well, I think our Lord might
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have had that objection a bit.
Uh. I don't know what he ever
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heard that was new. Um,
So I think if there's anyone that could
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have legitimately used that excuse, it
was he, And he did not use
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that at all, but he attended
that. And uh, I think about
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that, and I think, you
know, I've I've had some difficult audiences
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that I've preached through the years,
but I don't think anything so difficult,
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as you know, having the lords
sitting like in the front row as I'm
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speaking, that would be quite uh
intensive. But then again, he is
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here, so he is in the
audience, so I have to remember that
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as well. We not only don't
know what Sabbath, you don't know what
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synagogue. Luke doesn't inform us what
synagogue it is that our Lord is in.
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But there is a man who has
a withered hand. It's a strange
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word. It's only found twice in
the entire New Testament, and any other
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place, you probably wouldn't even think
about it as where it would be.
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But the only it's in Luke.
It's later on in Luke and as Jesus
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speaking, and he says that if
they do these things when the wood is
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green, what will they what will
happen when it's dry? And so they're
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the word is translated dry. The
idea is that the juices of the arm
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have have have become useless and dried
up. That's that's kind of the thought
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behind this man with the withered hand, some some kind of deformity that that
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he has. Uh there defines the
word as members of the body deprived of
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their natural juices, shrunk, wasted, and withered. And I'm sure I've
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known people through the years and you
probably have too, who had an arm
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that was basically useless and not being
able to be used, and so um,
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we can imagine what that man might
have looked at. It is interesting
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though, that out of the three
gospel writers that record this for us,
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Matthew, Mark, and Luke,
Matthew and Mark both mentioned a man at
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a withered hand. But Luke,
who is the physician, he notices it
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is the right hand that is withered, And so we find that out in
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Luke. And this is important.
You might say, what difference does it
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make? It made it. It
made a big difference, because in those
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days it was the right hand there
was looked at is necessary for you to
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have gainful employment. So our Lord
is actually going to restore a man to
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gainful employment by healing his right hand. So who are the two groups that
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are there in the synagogue, whether
the groups that always seem to be opposed
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in the Lord, the scribes and
the Pharisees. And although they're never really
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painted very favorably in the Gospels,
we don't find much favorable bottom we have,
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as I mentioned a few messages ago, we at least know about some
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favorable Pharisees, and in Nicodemus and
uh in Um Paul, and so we
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know there were some good Pharisees that
came out of things. But nonetheless,
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out of all the things describes and
the Pharisees do in the Gospel, this
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is probably the absolute lowest that they
sink to in this particular story. They're
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watching Jesus for the express purpose I've
seen whether or not he will heal on
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the Sabbath day. Why so they
can rejoice, so they can be glory
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together and say, oh, this
is We've never seen anything like this.
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No, they're doing it so they
might accuse him. They're not going to
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rejoice that this man can be a
profitable, profitable member of the community.
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Again, they're not going to do
that. They're just looking at him to
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see if you'll do something like that, if you heal the man, so
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they can accuse him of sin and
put him to death. I mean,
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that's pretty despicable to do that.
Reverend Annabua Boy mispronounced his name, but
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he points out that in social sciences, this is called confirmation bias. He
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says, confirmation bias happens when a
person takes whatever evidence is contrary to their
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position and interprets it in a way
that confirms their position. Now, I
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don't know if you do that.
We have done that. We we actually,
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my wife and I have come up
with another name for this. We
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name it after a lady in one
of our churches, and we call it
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the I won't say it, but
the blank blank uh syndrome named after this
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lady, which means that the person
has become to us such that whatever she
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does, however, nice. The
thing that she does to what is we
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see an ulterior motive. I don't
know if you know anybody like that,
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or if you've ever been afflicted with
that particular syndrome, but I can tell
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you that we were. And so
this is very similar to this confirmation bias.
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So if she brings a gift to
us at church, we think,
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okay, what's she up to now? And we start wondering about that.
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So anyway, that's something we've encountered. Maybe again, you you may be
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more holy than I, but here
is Christ doing one of the most wonderful
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acts of mercy. And the scribes
and the Pharisees are determined and looking at
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it as a negative thing. And
and he says, Reverend Annabuey goes on
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to say, when we operate with
the confirmation bias, we do not really
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adjust our thinking with new evidence presented. We rearranged the evidence to leave our
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bias undisturbed. And so Luke says, they're watching him. The word actually
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means they're watching him closely. They're
observing him very closely. Calvin says,
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here, and this is one of
those governdants say this, I say this,
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This is one of those sermons.
I'm going to quote Calvin quite extensively
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because he just had so much good
to say about this. But uh,
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he said, Uh, this narrative
and that which immediately proceeds it have the
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same object, which is to show
the scribes watched with the malicious for the
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purpose of turning into slander everything that
Christ did, and consequently that we need
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not wonder if men whose minds were
so depraved were his implacable enemies. And
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so last week I talked about these
man made rules that they had the thirty
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nine categories for Well, not only
did they have those ones on reaping and
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threshing, et cetera, but they
also had categories about healing and what kind
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of healing could happen on the Sabbath. And there were only really three kinds
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of healing that were permitted on the
Sabbath. So let us go through these
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three quickly and just see if this
particular healing would pass the test. So
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the first rule is that if the
matter is life and death, if you
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don't attend to it right now,
the person is going to die. That
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was permitted on this isn't it gracious? That was permitted on the Sabbath,
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you could do that. Well,
Obviously, the man has had a withered
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hand for a long time. He
can have it for a few more days.
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Not gonna matter, not life or
death. The second thing was whether
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or not by healing on the sabbath
you could you could stop a certain condition
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from worsening, so it would be
harder to heal after that. Well,
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again this fails the test, because
no, it wouldn't matter to the man
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if you waited a day or two
more. Third one might be a little
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more difficult for you to determine whether
or not it falls in the category.
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It is whether or not Uh,
people were people would be allowed to help
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in the birth of a child on
the Sabbath? Uh? Probably not the
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case here. So and those things, most most things, almost everything to
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do with healing was work and so
forbidden. Well, if you have been
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observing closely and listening to the sermons
I preached here, you might notice that
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Lucas made several strong statements about the
deity of Christ. As we've gone through
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this, He has authority to forgive
sins that only belongs to God. He
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is the lord of the Sabbath.
Only God can be the lord of the
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day that he's instituted. And now
we have another statement. It says in
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verse eight he knew their thoughts.
And the last chapter of John, Peter
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comes up to Jesus, and of
course they have that exchange about whether or
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not Peter loves the Lord, and
Peter says, at one point, Lord,
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you know all things well? Who
knows all things? God, past,
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present, future, everything. God
knows all of that. So again
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Peter saying, Jesus, you are
God. You know everything. And so
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now he knows the thoughts. And
again Luca's assigning deity to Christ. And
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so he asked the man to come
forward and stand by him, and the
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man obeys him. It's always a
good thing to obey Christ. It's a
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good thing. It's going to lead
to great things, and it's going to
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do here as well. So let's
move on to verses nine and ten.
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In verse nine, Jesus asked one
of those wonderful questions that really there's only
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one answer for. But of course
for the scribes and Pharisees there's not even
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going to be that one answer.
And that's what's so wonderful about this question.
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He asked, this, is it
lawful on the Sabbath to do good
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or to do harm, to save
life or to destroy it. But those
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of you that have young children,
I think if you ask those kids and
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said, and you could do that, said, uh, is it better
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to do good things on the Sabbath
or really bad things? I bet most
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of your children that are two,
three, four or something, they I'm
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betting they can answer that question.
It's not a difficult question. And it's
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not only not difficult, but it's
brilliant. And of course this shouldn't surprise
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us coming from Jesus. But the
question is phrased even though it's a very
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simple question, but Jesus puts it
in such a way that they can't answer
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it. There's no way for them
to answer the question. It's like the
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old question. The old question I'm
going to um, I'm going to paraphrase
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it for Sunday morning. But because
have you stopped mistreating your wife yet?
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You know that that question that you're
in trouble no matter which way that you
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answer it. But in the Lord's
case, the question he asked, if
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they say it is lawful to do
good, then they're going to condemn themselves
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for what they're thinking. And no
rational human being is going to say,
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no, it's better to do evil
on the Sabbath day. So what do
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they do? They keep quiet,
probably good idea. They don't say anything.
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But I think our Lord is getting
at something even more direct here because
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he knows their thoughts. So he's
not just saying I know you're here,
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and I know your thoughts are malicious
that you want to accuse me. But
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I think what he's saying is here, I am trying to restore life to
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someone, and you want to plot
how to kill me. Which is which
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is more proper to the Sabbath.
I think that's what he's trying to say
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to them. So the fair Sees
are getting ready to do the worst possible
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thing to the greatest human being that's
ever been, both man and God,
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which is the height of evil.
And yet they're criticizing the Lord Jesus for
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wanting to restore a man to health
on the Sabbath. Do you see how
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illogical people in sin become. They
can't think straight? And so the Pharisees
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teach us that there can be evil
done in the name of religion, and
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often many times. I was having
a discussion with one of my family members
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who believe Christians are like the most
evil people on the face of the earth.
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And I told him that much good, more good has been done by
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Christians in this world than any other
group. But there are people who justify
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religion to try to do some evil
actions and all of that. And of
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course, depraved hearts will do depraved
things, and we understand that, and
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it only confirms us in our doctrine
of the depravity of man. And so
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the right we have obedience to this
abbath. They're trying to stop our Lord
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from doing and what could be a
worse violation than that. But Jesus is
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the Lord of the Sabbath, so
he can do whatever he wants. He's
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free to do whatever he wants to
do on the Sabbath because he's the Lord.
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That's why John calls it the Lord's
day. As I mentioned earlier,
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it's his day. He instituted whatever
he wants to do. Who can say
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it's not right to do this?
And I wondered as I was preparing this
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message, that thought came into mind. I'm trying to think that this disciples
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after Christ's resurrection, did they ever
run into a Sabbath controversy? And I
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couldn't find one in the Book of
Acts where they ever ran into a Sabbath
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controversy. I mean, Paul talks
about the Sabbath and his writings and things,
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but I don't remember them ever uh
running into one. Now, maybe
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you can think of one that I
didn't come up with. It possible,
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and then I tried to figure out
why that would be, and I didn't
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really come up with a good answer. So if you solve that, you
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can tell me that would that would
be fine. But anyway, in Matthews,
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the count of this story, Matthew
adds one thing that our Lord says
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in chapter twelve of Matthew Versus eleven
and twelve, he said, which one
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of you who has a sheep,
if it falls into the pit on the
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Sabbath, will not take hold of
it and lifted out of how much more
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value is a man than the sheep? So it is lawful to do good
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on the Sabbath. Now, what's
interesting about that is it appears that this
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particular saying of Jesus all Um actually
changed rabbinic law on that particular subject um,
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because some later writings after the New
Testament among the Jews said different things
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about this. Uh, and it
appears because of what Jesus said. One
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later law said, you couldn't help
the beast, that would be a violation
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to Sabbath, but you could put
planks in the pit so the beast could
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walk up it. So that was
that was then legal to to do that.
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Another said on Sabbath, you couldn't
help them out of the pit,
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but you could at least provide food
for them so they could live till the
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next day when you could take them
out. So, uh, these are
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laws that we see that there's an
incongruity between the Pharisees concerning animals and humans,
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but it was apparently a common practice
at this time to do this.
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So Jesus argues from the less to
the greater. So, in other words,
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if it's lawful to help a beast, how much more lawful is it
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to help a human being? Now
you notice what Jesus is doing there.
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He's actually admitting there is a difference
between an animal and a man. Okay,
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he's saying he's arguing from if you
can help a beast, you can
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certainly help a human being who is
much higher and much greater of worth.
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And that so our our Lord is
doing that. Uh, spurgeon said,
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at last, some acts if a
man were not better than an animal,
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for their dogs and horses are better
housed than their laborers. And they are
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more indignant about the killing of a
fox than the starving of a pauper.
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So that's spurgin, that's not me, So don't get mad at me.
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Um. So again, how much
more is it true? In our day?
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We we need to keep a Biblical
view of creation and the order of
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creation and doing this so if we
offer to help an animal, the Pharisees
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don't even dispute it that the Bible
doesn't condone cruelty to animals in any way,
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but it doesn't endorse putting the life
of an animal above the humans.
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And so the point our Lord is
making, as the words of Gooday said,
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he said, good omitted is evil
committed. Good omitted is evil.
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Good omitted is evil committed. James
Edwards puts it this way. For Jesus,
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human need poses a moral imperative.
Human need poses a moral imperative.
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So in verse ten, our Lord
is gonna ask someone to do a work
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on the Sabbath. They're gonna He's
gonna ask him to stretch forth their hand.
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The problem is can't do it.
So our Lord is asking the man
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to do something that he can't do. So he has to exhibit faith in
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doing so. Faith which the Lord
gives James Edwards against his faith is a
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risk that Jesus is worthy of trust
when no other hope can be trusted.
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Mark adds in his account of this
story, and he looked around them with
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anger, grieved at the hardness of
heart. He's looking with anger and grief.
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Calvin says again, as this passage
assures us the Christ was not free
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from human passions, we infer from
it that the passions themselves are not sinful,
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provided there be no excess. He
goes on to say, in consequence
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of the corruption of our nature,
we do not preserve moderation, and our
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anger, even when it rests on
proper grounds, is never free from sin.
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And he closes by saying, we
ought therefore to or from Heaven the
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Spirit of God to correct our excesses. Well, let's look at verse eleven.
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The s V says they were filled
with fury. The Greek word that's
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translated His theory again has only found
two places in the New Testament. Here
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is one of them. The second
one is in Second Timothy three nine.
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Paul says they will not get very
far, for their folly will be plain
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to all, as was that of
those two men. That's what Paul says.
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So there's translated folly. So Strong
says the word basically means stupidity.
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But it's anger, but it's stupid
anger, it's it's dumb anger. There
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should shouldn't be anger in this.
And Luke is much kinder than Matthew and
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Mark, for he simply says they
discussed what they might do to Jesus.
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Mark says, the Pharisees went out
and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against
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him, how to destroy him?
And Marxis the Pharisees went out and immediately
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held constant or. Matthew says,
the Pharisees went out and conspired against him,
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how to destroy him. And here
they're so intent on at the Pharisees,
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who hate the Herodians. Why wouldn't
they hate the Herodians. The Herodians
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are friends of Roman and Inheritance medium
Adamite and all of that, but they
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even are willing to join together with
their own arch enemies if by some way
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they can somehow put their Lord to
death. The old Saints says, politics
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make strange but bedfellows, and it
certainly does here as well. So let's
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apply what we have here this morning. Last week I gave you principles for
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help in keeping the Sabbath. But
I think there's something to notice in this
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story that is different, that has
much to say to us. As I
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said, I think, I think
sometimes we that hold to have view the
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Sabbath can be quite phariseico in how
people other people keep the Sabbath. And
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I think we can be more concerned
about what we shouldn't do than what we
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should do. And that can be
true in the way we judge others as
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well. We look at people and
they're doing something on the Lord's Day that
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we wouldn't do, and so of
course we point our fingers at them.
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And I um last um last Lord's
Day, was preaching. A lad came
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up to me after the service and
told me a story that I hadn't heard
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before. But it was about a
man that was driving and he went by
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another member of the church, and
this man was riding a horse on the
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Sabbath. I don't maybe it was
Mike Pixley. I don't remember, but
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but somebody was was riding a horse
on the sabbath and uh, and the
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man asked him and and said,
what what are you doing? Riding a
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horse on the sabbath? And doing
that on the sabbath? I might not
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be getting the story exactly right,
but the man riding a horse said,
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why are you condemning me for riding
a horse this day? When you had
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to use two of them to come
see me? That's a good story.
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Hendrickson, who is Vonnie's professor,
Uh said a sabbath in winter snow drifts
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blocking roads and highways. The only
way in which a certain village pastor can
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get from parsonage to the church is
by skating over the frozen canal. This
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he does. Upon his arrival.
The consistory is not pleased. Was not
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what he had done tantamount to joy
riding on the Lord's day? After lengthy
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deliberation, the decision has reached the
demand of the pastor that he answered his
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question, did you enjoy the trip? If the answer is yes, he
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must be censored. If no,
the case can be dropped in the pastor's
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action can be charitably regarded as a
work of necessity. That's how ridiculous we
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can get. But we don't usually
get too upset with people about what they
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don't do on the Sabbath. And
as we look at these stories in Luke
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and other gospels, it seems like
Jesus is always working on the Sabbath,
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doesn't it. It appears that he's
always busy doing something on the Sabbath day.
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And and when when it's when the
gospel writers tell us that's the Sabbath.
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He's not idle, he's not just
laying around. He's doing things.
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He's healing somebody or doing something that
looks suspiciously like work. And to me,
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the lesson is we should imitate our
Lord in doing works of mercy on
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all days, of course, but
especially on the Sabbath day. The apostle
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John says in First John four twenty, if Amancy I love God and hates
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his brother, he's a liar,
for he loves not his brother whom he
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has seen. How can he love
God whom he has not seen? Then,
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he says in chapter three seventeen,
but if anyone has the world's goods
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and sees his brother need, it
closes his heart against him. How does
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God's love abide in him true at
all times? But again, I think,
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especially in a Sabbath, Calvin again
says, he who takes away the
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life of a man is held to
be a criminal. And there is little
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difference between manslaughter and the conduct of
one who does not concern himself about relieving
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a person in distress. The fact
that one shows compassion doesn't make one a
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Christian, but a Christian should be
one who shows compassion. I wonder this
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is my own wandering now, But
I wonder sometimes if the sharp division in
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our country doesn't sometimes hinder us from
being merciful two people. That's just my
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thought. You can do with it
what should like. And Isaiah one,
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the Lord complains of Israel's work worship
that has become ritualistic. Converse thirteen,
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he says, don't bring any more
vain offerings in senses an abomination to me.
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New moon and Sabbath and the calling
of convocations. I can endure niquity
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and solemn assembly. And in contrast, he says, in versus sixteen and
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seventeen, wash yourselves, make yourselves
lean, remove the evil of your deeds
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from before my eyes. Cease to
do evil, learn to do good,
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seek justice, correct oppression, bring
justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's
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cause. So I said, I
have a lot of Calvin quotes, and
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here's another one. He says,
for so strongly are we inclined to outward
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rights that we shall never preserve moderation
in this respect unless we constantly remember that
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whatever is enjoyed respecting the worship of
God is in the first place spiritual and
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secondly ought to be regulated by the
rule which Christ has laid down in this
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passage. So Christ is saying here
that not only should we show mercy,
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but it can be wrong to withhold
mercy on the Sabbath day. And I'm
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gonna ask your forgiveness and advance.
So I'm doing that now. So I'm
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going to refer to a television show, and the television show Seinfeld. End
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of that TV show ended with the
four main characters being in a city in
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some eastern state and there's a man
getting carjacked and they sit there and laugh
398
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at the man because he's heavy and
and he looks ridiculous, and they they're
399
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all laughing at him, and the
cop comes over and arrest is rest them
400
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for violating the state's good Samaritan law, which said you were required to help.
401
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Now that isn't a real law,
but it's one was in the television
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show. But the idea of that
is really good because it reminds us that
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we can be guilty not only by
what we do, but by what we
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don't do. And so Ken you
says, no matter how religious you are,
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if you don't care about the welfare
of others, if you have no
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concern about the salvation of the lost, you are lost. Don't soften this
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because Jesus never did. But our
sins of omission should set seldom bother us
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as much as our sins of commission
do. Jesus did different acts when he
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healed people. You know that sometimes
he touched their eyes, sometimes he touched
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their ears, or he might make
mud out of dirt and put it in
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her eyes. But what does he
do here? Nothing? Absolutely nothing.
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All he does is tells the man
to stretch out his hand. What are
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they gonna be able to accuse the
Lord of what has he done? He
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just said, stretch forth your end. Maybe they wanted to want to accuse
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the man of putting forth his hand. I don't know how you could accuse
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that, But what in the world
could you accuse someone of doing that?
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And so it would be like,
you know, it would be like the
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Pharisees accusing Jesus because there's a blind
man on the Sabbath, and Jesus said,
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well, just go go go on
your way and see what are they
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going to accuse him for doing that? So he outwitched at every turn.
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Not only does tell him it logically
makes more sense to do good than to
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do evil, but before he performs
a healing without doing anything that could even
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be against their own laws the wisdom
of God. Let me mention something else
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along that line. I find it
interesting that oftentimes what Jesus has these disputes
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with the Pharisees and describes, they
often end up with no answer from the
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scribes and the Pharisees. And I
find that fascinating because I don't know if
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you've ever listened to debates. I
mean, they are religious debates out there
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right on infant baptism versus adult baptism
or things like that, and people argue
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that or some exclusive salmody and non
exclusive salmody. And you'll listen to these
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debates and people do. But at
all the debates I've ever listened, I've
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never heard anybody in the debate go, you know, that's a good point.
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I think I'll change my mind.
Let's send this debate right now.
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I've never heard anybody do that.
But he or everyone that Jesus enters into
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nobody can continue the debate. They
can't do it at all. And of
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course it's because our Lord is so
brilliant, because he is God. And
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I think that's one of the most
wonderful things about the ministry of Jesus is
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how often he made people just be
silent and not be able to say anything.
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And I love that, you know, I just I'd love to I
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love to argue. I love to
argue with people and then just walk away
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because they're silent, don't have anything
to say. That'd be great. But
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that never seems to happen to me. But anyway, happened to Jesus a
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lot. So we looked again in
our exposition. I look with you that
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that our Lord asked the man to
do something, particularly that he was not
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able to do. You know,
he could have said that, Lord said,
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you know, stretched forth, the
army is that's my problem. I
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can't do that. I need healing. But Jesus said, stretch forth your
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arm, and so in so doing
he was doing something that was impossible for
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him to do. But this is
the same way it is in our salvation.
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God commands us. In next seventeen
we read that the times of ignorance
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God overlooked, but now he commands
all people everywhere to repent. God commands
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repentance. And in first John three, this is his commandment. This is
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his commandment that we believe in the
name of his son Jesus Christ and love
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one another. That's his commandment.
We said, well, people say,
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well, well, pastor, if
a man is totally depraved, how in
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the world can he have the ability
to repent or believe? You say,
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he's totally depraved. So how is
that fair? What's fair? For the
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same reason that Jesus can say to
the amendment the withered and stretch forth your
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hand, because God gives the power
in order for them to do that.
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And that's why it is fair.
God grants these things. In Second Timothy,
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to Paul says, correcting his opponents
gentleness, God may perhaps um grant
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them repentance, leading to a knowledge
of the truth. God may grant them
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the power to repent. Efesians to
aid in nine may know the scripture from
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a grace. You've been saved through
faith, and that is not your own
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doing. It is the gift of
God, not a result of works,
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so that no one may boast is
God's gift. But what was commanded of
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the man to obey, and that's
what God commands of all people to do.
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He commands them to obedience. And
we can't give the excuse that I
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can't do that. Thomas Manton said. It is one of the sophisms of
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every age to argue to urge the
spirits efficacy as a plea for the neglect
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of means. It is folly in
presumption to think that because power is with
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God and from God, efforts should
not be in ourselves. You know,
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I've heard people, well, you
know, I can't do that till the
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spirit moves me. You know,
now you are commanded to obedience, it
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becomes just an excuse. And as
we close this morning's eye close, I
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mean the stories about Sabbath keeping,
let me just say, well, I
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think we need to be careful that
we go don't go to extremes either way
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on the subject, especially when we're
dealing with the judging of other people.
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Again, courting Spurgeon said, let
none, however, from this liberty and
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for a license, and treat the
Lord's day as if it were their own
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and might be spent for their own
purposes. They best keep the sabbath who
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on the seventh day? Are they? They best keep the sabbath who on
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the seventh day, and always rest
from their own works, as God did
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00:36:50.360 --> 00:36:53.800
from his. But how can a
man rest until he knows the finished work
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of God in Christ, Jesus.
How can a man rest unless he knows
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00:37:00.320 --> 00:37:07.639
the finished work? How can you
rest this morning if you've never rested in
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00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:10.360
the finished work of Christ? Jesus
said, come on to me, all
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00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:16.440
you that are heavy laden, all
you that are burdened, Come to me
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and rest. Because we need to
learn the rest of the Lord. We
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need to learn what life is like
without trying to earn our salvation by works,
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but by just totally resting in the
atoning death of Christ that we're going
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00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:31.559
to celebrate here in a few moments. That's what we need to do.
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Just rest in the work of Christ
and what he has done. That is
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the proper way you can. You
can keep the Sabbath today in no more
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00:37:39.119 --> 00:37:43.400
proper way than if you've never rested
on the death of Christ, that you
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would rest on his death this morning, you would most properly keep the Sabbath
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in that way. And then when
we learned to rest on Christ, we
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learned to enjoy his rest on this
day and to use it for his glory
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00:37:59.440 --> 00:38:02.239
and to find ways. Not it
won't be every week that we find something
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or anything like that, but that
it reminds us that we're not only to
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perhaps cease from certain things, but
indeed, in a line with that,
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we should do certain things where we
can declare the Lord's mercy to the world
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around us. Let's pray, Lord, we thank you for your word.
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Thank you God that we were able
to look at it this morning. And
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I pray we just judge our own
hearts today. Lord, we all fail
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in many of these things. Lord, there's no question about it. We
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do. And Lord, we don't
keep the Sabbath exactly as we showed,
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even to those that might be the
most meticulous among us. Lord, even
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they cannot keep it the way it
is properly to be kept. Because we
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just fail so often. But Lord, I pray above all things that every
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person here will rest on your finished
work, and that they will trust only
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in your blood and atoning death,
and rest done. That that they will
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receive and obey the faith that comes
to them this morning. And God,
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that they would believe on you as
you command all men to do, and
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then to properly keep. This day
is your day. May all of us
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learn to rest in You, and
may all of us, Lord be an
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example of what it's like to properly
keep this day. We thank you for
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00:39:25.840 --> 00:39:28.760
it in Christ's name, Amen,