Episode Transcript
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Be seated well. This evening I'm
going to preach genesis chapter seventeen versus one
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and two. I'm picking up,
as I we did with the Psalms,
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where we left off, but I
would also like to read to you some
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from Romans. For so we are
going to be spending some time in genesis
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seventeen. I'm not exactly sure how
long, but I'd encourage you to spend
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some time getting to know it here
and if you have opportunities outside of worship
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to to read and consider this passage, I'd encourage you to do so.
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That way you might understand it better, be able to pay attention better and
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and gain more from it. I'm
so genesis seventeen versus one and two,
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and then a little bit from Romans
Chapter Four. Genesis Seventeen, when Abraham
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was ninety nine years old, the
Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,
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I am God Almighty. Walk before
me and be blameless, that I
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may make my covenant between me and
you, and they multiply you greatly.
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The ABRAM fell on his face and
said to him, behold, my covenant
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is with you, and you shall
be the father of a multitude of nations.
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No longer shall your name be called
Abram, but your name shall be
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Abraham, for I have made you
the father of a multitude of nations.
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I will make you exceedingly fruitful and
I will make you into nations and kings
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shall come from you, and I
will establish my covenant between me and you
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and your offspring after you, throughout
their generations, for an everlasting covenant to
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be God to you and to your
offspring after you, and I will give
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to you and to your offspring after
you the land of your sojournings and all
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the land of Canaan for an everlasting
possession, and I will be their God.
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I'm going to stop there now.
In genesis seventeen, in turn to
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Roman's for Romans for verse thirteen,
for the promise to Abraham and his offspring
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that he would be the heir of
the world did not come through the law,
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but through the righteousness of faith.
For if it is the adherents of
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the law who are to be the
heirs, faith is null and the promise
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is void, for the law brings
wrath, but where there is no law,
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there is no transgression. That is
why it depends on faith in order
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that the promise may rest on grace
and be guaranteed to all his offspring,
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not only to the adherent of the
law, but also to the one who
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shares the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all. As
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it is written, I have made
you the father of many nations and the
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presence of God, and whom he
believed, who gives life to the dead
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and calls into existence the things that
do not exist. In Hope, he
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believed against hope, that he should
become the father of many nations, as
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he had been told. So shall
your offspring be. He did not weaken
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in faith when he considered his own
body, which was as good as dead
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since he was about a hundred years
old, or when he considered the barrenness
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of Sarah's womb. No, unbelief
made him waver concerning the promise of God,
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but he grew strong in his faith
as he gave glory to God,
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fully convinced that God was able to
do what he had promised. That is
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why his faith was counted to him
as righteousness. But the words it was
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counted to him were not written for
his sake alone, but for ours also.
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It will be counted to us who
believe in Him who raised Jesus from
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raised the dead. Jesus are raised
from the dead, Jesus, Our Lord,
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who was delivered up for our trespasses
and raised for our justification. So,
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as I said, we're going to
be spending some time here in genesis,
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chapter seventeen, and a considerable amount
of time because of the great importance
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of this particular chapter. There's also
a lot, a lot to cover it
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and it's just a long chapter.
But the themes of the chapter are all
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right here up front and it's this, as we read, when Abraham was
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ninety nine years old, the Lord
appeared to Abram and said, I am
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God Almighty, Walk Before me and
be blameless that I may make my covenant
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between me and you and may multiply
you greatly. Those two things, the
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call for Abraham to walk in a
particular way and the covenant that God is
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going to make or give to Abraham, are the two themes within this chapter
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and they go back and forth and
as you read that the rest of that
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chapter on your own, you will
see that and what we find here,
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and these are two things we were
going to be reflecting on for tonight.
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I want to focus on the first
of those two. The Lord's command to
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Abraham, which is walk before me
and be blameless. The big point of
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this evening, the point of this
chapter, the point of the Covenant and
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God's will for our lives, could
be summed up in these words. Walk
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before God, walk before me and
be blameless. Now the next verse says
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that I may make my covenant between
me and you. This is probably better
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translated that I may give my covenant
to you. In other words, this
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is the way in which God will
give his covenant. We realize, though,
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that the covenant that God gives is
a covenant of promise, not just
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from these verses here and the whole
of the chapter which will get to,
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but all over the scriptures and the
previous promises that God had made to Abraham.
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Paul is very explicit about this.
Isn't he that we read in Genesis,
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for that the promise of the righteousness
that comes to us is not based
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on the obedience to the law.
That is not how we are justified before
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God. No, we are justified
God through the righteousness of faith, just
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like Abraham. Is What he says
on what Abraham did, how Abraham reacted
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to these promises, receiving them by
faith alone. was how it was that
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it was counted to him. Is
Righteousness. The unity between what happened there
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and what happens here is clear,
Paul tells us, but inspired by the
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Holy Spirit, that these words were
not written and not given to him alone,
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but to all who have that righteousness
of faith through believing in the Lord
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Jesus Christ. And that's something will
explore in depth over the next coming wheat
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there in the coming weeks. But
I again, I want to begin with
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these words that we ought to walk
before God and be blameless. If you
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were, would have put in your
minds a single simple sentence to keep in
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mind every single day. This would
be a perfect choice. If you ever
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wanted to wake up every morning and
say, okay, what am I supposed
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to do today? What's the one
most important thing that everything else is supposed
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to fit into? This would be
a really good candidate to choose. In
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fact, any other thing that you
might choose is simply it might choose,
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and be right to choose, is
simply another version of this. This is
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the thing that we were made for, John Calvin puts it, and this
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excellent, excellent book, a little
book on the Christian Life. It's an
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expert from his institutes. I want
you all to read it. A little
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book on the Christian Life by John
Calvin. He puts it, he says
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that this way, right living,
has a spiritual basis where the inner affection
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of the soul is sincerely devoted to
God for the nurture of Holiness and righteousness.
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Right living. How do you live
right what do you do? Right
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living, he says, has a
spiritual basis where the inner affection of the
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soul, what we desire, is
sincerely devoted to God for the nurture of
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Holiness and righteousness. Here's another quote
from that same book. He says we
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have been adopted by the Lord as
children, with this understanding that in our
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lives we should mirror Christ, who
is the bond of our adoption. And
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truly, unless we are devoted,
even addicted to righteousness, we will faithlessly
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abandon our creator and disown him as
our Savior. Strong words, right addicted
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to righteousness. Now, usually we
don't like to talk about addiction to anything,
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but what does he mean here?
He means that all our heart,
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all of our mind, all of
our soul, our body and our strength
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is caught up with serving the Lord
above everything. There are, of course,
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other paths. Some people spend every
single day trying to figure out how
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to gain more comfort and more ease. That's what life is all about.
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How can I make this easier?
How can I make this more comfortable?
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Every question goes through that filter and
if they don't get that today, they
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hope that what they have done today
will help them get it tomorrow, because
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that's the goal, that's their focus, that's what their vision is. Other
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people filter their lives. They are
focused on fame or power or attention.
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What can I do today to get
that? Now or tomorrow? Some people
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live every day for food or for
sex or for possessions. But these are
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not paths for Christians. Why?
Well, here's Paul's answer from Ephesians for
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but that's not the way you learned
Christ. That's what he says, assuming
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that you have heard about him and
we're taught in him, as the truth
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is in Jesus, to put off
your old self, which belongs to your
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former manner of life and is corrupt
through deceitful desires, and to be renewed
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in the spirit of your minds,
and to put on the new self created
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after the likeness of God in True
Righteousness and holiness. So a question for
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us, then, is what is
your vision? What is the path that
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you're on? What is your goal? Some people, when they when they
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think about these things, are very, very well, let me put it
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this way. Not some people,
all of us, all of us,
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when we decide what our goal is, when we decide what our focuses,
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we're generally pretty good aiming towards that. Let me give you an example.
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Think about some somebody WHO's getting ready
to go to college. Maybe that's a
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year off, two years off,
maybe it's four years off, and they
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want more than anything else to get
into this school or that school, that
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particular school. And so what do
they do if that's the main thing they
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want, the thing they want before
everything else? Well, they think about
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everything through that Lens. How is
this class, this grade, this assignment,
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this volunteer project, going to look
on my resume? How is it
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going to look when I submit this
application process? What is this thing that
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I'm doing now going to get me
to the next place? They have in
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their minds this school and they work
towards it. Now it's not bad to
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have goals and to work towards them. But what is our ultimate goal?
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What is everything funneling in and funneling
towards? And it must be this,
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what the Lord says, to walk
before him, to be blameless. Tonight
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I want to look at three things. I'm regarding this. First, what
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does that look like? What does
it mean to walk before him? What
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does it mean to be blameless?
Why should we walk this way? And
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then how can we walk this way? First, what is it to walk
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before the Lord and be blameless?
Well, simply, it's to have him
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as our our chief end, to
glorify God and to enjoy him forever,
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as our catechism says. This morning
we had several people join our church and
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profess their faith, and one of
the things that they promised to do was
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to forsake the world. Right,
to live before God means to say we
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are not going to live before someone
else, we are going to forsake the
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world. Why? Because the world
gives no thought to God. It does
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what it wants, it serves it's
chief end. It serves and lives in
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this world as if God were not
watching right. It acts as though he
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were nothing. It acts as though
other things were more important. The things
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of this world, satisfying the lust
of our our bodies, gaining possessions or
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securing whatever it is we think will
make us safe in this world. That
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is what the world goes after.
To follow and walk before the Lord means
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you must forsake that. You can't
have your foot in both cams. You
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can't say, well, what I
really want is to serve God and what
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I really want is to serve money. Jesus says, you can't do borrow,
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you can't do both. It's impossible. It's either one or the other.
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There is only one God and only
one God in our lives. Well,
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those who belong to the Covens of
grace are those who forsake the world
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and set their eyes on God.
Each and every step they make, each
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the path that they take, is
with him in view. When you focus
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on a particular plan, you make
your decisions in light of that. You
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pray, you ask the Lord what
what would be good in this situation,
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you try to determine his will,
you try to do the right thing.
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Why? Because you are walking before
the Lord. You do things with him
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in mind. This is, of
course, what Abraham did when he followed
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the Lord's call. Back in end
of Genesis Eleven and Chapter Twelve, when
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the Lord called him out of idolatry, out of an idolatrous family, called
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him out of the Er or of
the Chaldeans, to go and possess this
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land of Canaan. He literally walked
before the Lord and in the Lord's promise,
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he heard what God said and he
said, that's what I'm going to
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do, I am going to now
live my life and literally take this step
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and this step and this step because
of the promise that he has given to
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me. He trusted the Lord,
he believed the Lord, and then he
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lived his life in light of that. He forsook the world that was his
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old world, he forsook the the
life that he was leaving behind, just
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like Paul says, a effesions for
we put off the old self and the
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old desires and we fall after Jesus. What is it to walk before the
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Lord? What is it to follow
the Lord? Well, it is to
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unfollow. It is to follow Jesus, our Savior. Remember, he comes
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in the name of the father to
draw us after him. Listen to these
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words and Matthew Chapter Four, while
he was walking by the Sea of Galilee,
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he saw two brothers, Simon,
who is called Peter, and Andrew,
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his brother, casting a net into
the sea, for they were fishermen,
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and he said to them, follow
me and I will make you fishers
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of men. Immediately laid left their
nets and followed him. And going on
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from there, they saw two brothers, James, the son of Zebedee and
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John, his brother, in the
boat with zebody, their father, mending
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their nets, and he called to
them. Immediately they left their boat and
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their father and they followed him.
This is what discipleship is. This is
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what it means to follow the Lord. It is to hear Jesus's voice and
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to walk after him. What's interesting
is immediately after this passage in Matthew Four,
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we have what's called the sermon on
the mount the several chapters in the
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book of Matthew Were Jesus tells us
exactly what it means to follow him,
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to follow after him in our desires, to follow after him in our emotions,
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in our minds and our doctrine,
in every way. He says in
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that in that sermon that we call
the sermon on the mountain, he says,
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do not think I have come to
abolish the law or the prophets.
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I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly,
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I say to you, until heaven
and earth pass away, not an
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iota, not a dot, will
pass away from the law until all is
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accomplished. Therefore, who relaxes one
of the least of these commandments and teaches
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others to do the same will be
called least in the Kingdom of Heaven,
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but whoever does them and teaches them
will be called great in the Kingdom of
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Heaven. For I tell you,
unless one is unless your righteousness succeeds that
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of the scribes and Pharisees, you
will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
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These are strong words, aren't they? This is the life that he sets
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before us, a life of obedience, a life of righteousness, a life
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of glorifying him, a following after
him, and we do that when we
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obey his commands. So now,
from the end of Matthew and Jesus ascended,
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or before he ascended, up into
Heaven, after the resurrection, Jesus
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came to them and we have this
very end of Matthew, what we call
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the Great Commission. He says,
all authority in Heaven and on Earth has
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been given to me. Go,
therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
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baptizing them in the name of the
father and of the on and of
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the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you.
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And behold, I am with you
always to the end of the age.
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This is what it means to follow
after the Lord. It is to walk
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before God, not as people pleasers, not in a halfhearted way, because
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that happens. Judas, for example, followed after the Lord as a disciple,
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but not fully right. He tried
to keep his feet in both camps.
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He tried to have sort of two
visions for his life, one which
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was following Jesus and another which was
following something else all together. Judas did
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not live in a blameless way,
or what we might call a way of
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integrity. To walk before the Lord
is to walk in accordance with the Lord's
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commands, but in a way with
integrity, not in a way that is
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sort of trying to make it look
like we're walking after the Lord. That's
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not the point, but to truly
walk after the Lord. To quote John
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Calvin again from that book, He
says let us fix our eyes on the
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goal and soul object of our pursuit. Integrity, he says, and by
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that Word Integrity, God means a
sincere simplicity of heart, free from pretends
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and deceit, just not not sneakily
following the Lord or trying to follow him,
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but really not follow him, but
just openly, freely from the heart,
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with sincerity and simplicity before God.
This is what it means to walk
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before the Lord and people aimless.
Now, why should we do this?
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Well, for one, God commands
it. We could possibly stop right there.
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When the Lord of Heaven and Earth
says jump, you better jump.
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When he says sit, you sit. He says stay, you stay,
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because he is God and we are
not. But there's so much more that
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we can add to this. Not
only would should we give our obedience to
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the Lord because he tells us to, but he made us for this purpose.
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As I mentioned earlier, in Ar
Catechism it says that man's chief end
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is to glorify God and to enjoy
him forever. God designed you for this.
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Have you ever bought something that was
designed for a particular purpose and it
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was designed so well and that when
you put it to you, as you
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just sort of stand back and go, man, I love this thing.
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Look how perfectly it's edges are cut. Look how seamlessly it was from this
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step to this step. Notice how
perfectly it executes this task. And I
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don't even have to do anything.
We Marvel, we wonder, we go
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out of our way to produce things
like this. We get frustrated when we're
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not able to get that kind of
thing. It's a thing of beauty and
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of joy when something that was designed
for a particular purpose does that thing.
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And if you've ever had the opposite
experience of buying something that you intended to
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work in a particular that way,
or someone you hired perhaps to work in
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a particular way, or you set
out to do a particular thing and just
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as such a struggle, it almost
feels like your work is cursed. It's
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frustrating, isn't it? You feel
like this is not how it's supposed to
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be. Well, when we walk
before the Lord and we walk with integrity,
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in a blameless way, that is
exactly what God has designed us for
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and it is a joyful thing.
It's a theme of calmness, a thing
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of peace, a thing that is
refreshing it's what God made you for.
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And, of course, the last
thing I'll mention is that it is exactly
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what God is doing by this covenant. We have fallen into sin. We
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can all just go ahead and affirm
that now. We do not live lives
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of integrity as we ought. We
do not work in the ways that God
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designed human nature to work. And
why? Because we have fallen. We
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are corrupt, we are bent and
perverse and broken. It the the system
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is broken, does not work,
and that's why God create its or or
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rather gives to us. I'll say
it this way. He creates this relationship,
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he gives to us this covenant of
Grace so that he can fix us,
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so that he can mend us,
so that he can heal us.
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That's why he institutes this covenant.
This is the whole purpose of the Bible.
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It's why Jesus came. It's everything
that God is doing. When we
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go and say to the Lord,
I want to follow you, I want
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to be blameless before you, we
are. We are working within the grain
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of grace. We are following after
the Lord, incording to his great purposes
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of love and redemption. How do
I know this? Well, from many
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places in scripture, for one,
some of the ones that I've read to
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you already, of Jesus is sermon
in the mount when he calls us to
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follow him and follow him in these
ways. But let's consider a couple others.
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Listen, for example, to first
Timothy. Chapter Four. Paul tells
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a Timothy to put these doctors,
these teachings, before the brothers. He
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says in Verse Six of Chapter Four, you will be a if you put
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these things before the brothers. You
will be a good servant of the Lord,
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being trained in it or being trained
in the words of faith and and
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of the good doctrine that you have
followed. So pastors should know two things.
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They should know their bibles and they
should know the things that the Bible
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teaches right, he says, have
nothing to do with the irreverence silly myths.
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Rather, train yourself for godliness.
Train yourself for godliness, he says.
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That's what these doctrines are supposed to
produce. These doctrines are supposed to
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bring about godliness. If you go
to chapter six, we find a similar
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thing. In verse three he says
if anyone teaches a different doctrine that does
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not agree with the sound words of
our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that
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accords with godliness. That's what they
teaching is for. He is puffed up
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with conceit and understands nothing. He
has an unhealthy craving curve controversy and for
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quarrels, a out words which produce
envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions
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and constant friction among the people.
What is the teaching of the Bible for
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Godliness? As I read earlier from
Calvin, which are basically just paraphrases of
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scripture, Jesus, we have been
adopted in Christ to become like Christ.
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We have been adopted as sons and
daughters of God so that we can be
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godly, so that we can be
like our father. One more passage of
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scripture. Take Titus Chapter Three.
Again, we're thinking about what is the
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purpose of Jesus is life in this
world. What is the purpose of the
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teachings of scripture? In Titus Chapter
Three he gives a number of these teachings
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in verses one through eight, and
then he says in verse eight the saying
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is trustworthy, and I want you
to insist on these things so that those
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who have believed in God, may
be careful to devote themselves to good works.
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These things are excellent and profitable for
people. This is God's desire for
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you, not just in how you
were designed as a created being, as
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one who bears the image of God, but as a Christian. It is
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the end of our Christian lives to
be like Christ, to follow after him.
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These are the reasons why God has
given to us this covenant of Grace.
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It's why Jesus has come. It's
why we are called to follow after
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him. So that feet brings me
finally to the the how of all of
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this. If this is what we
were designed for, if this is why
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we ought to follow these things,
how do we do this? How do
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we follow the Lord Jesus? How
do we become Godly people? Well,
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the answer he gives us is really
many places, but it is in the
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following verses of Genesis Chapter Seventeen,
and I hope that you will return with
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me to think about these things so
that we can see them more directly from
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the text. But the answer is, and as we read earlier in Romans
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Chapter for, the answer is that
we follow through the way of the Cross.
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We become godly people when we follow
after the Lord in the way of
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the Cross. Now this comes out
in genesis, Chapter Seventeen, through the
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Covenant that God makes with Abraham,
a covenant of circumcision and a sign that
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signifies the cutting off of the flesh, a marking of purification, of holiness.
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This is a covenant that God gives
which is intended to picture the removal
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of that which is fleshly, now, the ultimate righteousness that we receive is
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not through this particular sign. It's
not just by being circumcised, or else
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all the women would not be in
God. No, this sign is pointing
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us to something deeper, something in
our hearts. Ultimately, God wants our
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hearts to be circumcised. Our hearts
need to be changed. Remember what we
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said earlier. To Walk blamelessly as
to walk in integrity. It's to walk
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from the heart. Well, how
do you get a clean heart? How
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do you get a heart that is
no longer a heart of stone, but
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a heart that beats and lives for
God, when your heart is dead and
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corrupted by sin? The answer is
that you need a miraculous work of God
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to regenerate your heart and turn your
heart into something new. You need a
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miracle akin to a man who is
ninety nine years old having a son or
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a woman who is barren having a
son. A miracle like that, an
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act of grace in which God would
say, I will do this thing,
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I will make you holy, I
will surely do it. And that's exactly
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what he does with Abram and Sarah, Abraham and Sarah. He takes away
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every single possible way for them to
obtain this promise of becoming a father and
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a mother of kings and generations and
nations. Is it? COULD IT BE
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ISHMAEL? Abraham Says No. Could
it be alias? Are No. What
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about now? Know, what about
now? No, he will do it
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in his way and he will do
it in his time and he will give
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them a child, and he does. In fact, God at wants to
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prove this point so strongly that it
sat at a certain point. Later on,
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we're going to read that God tells
him, after this son is born,
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Isaac, to sacrifice the son of
promise, and Abraham has to go
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in faith that even if he sacrifices
the son of promise, God will still
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keep his promise somehow. And that's
what Abraham does. He takes every step,
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even up that mountain, Mount Mariah, to sacrifice his own son that
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had been promised, not understanding at
all what God is doing, thinking he's
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about to kill the one whom he
loves, thinking he's about to kill the
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promise of God, so that God
can show I will provide, and he
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does provide for Abraham. How do
we find godliness? How do we find
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a new life away from sin?
The answer is by faith alone. We
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cannot dig deep into our hearts and
simply will ourselves onto obedience. Remember the
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hearts broken, the hearts corrupt.
The only way that we can come to
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these gray and glorious ends is through
the very covenant that God is making here
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with Abraham, and it's called a
covenant of Grace for a reason. It's
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a covenant that simply receives and believes
and rests upon God's promises, in spite
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of the way things seem, knowing
that God is faithful and true to fulfill
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his promises, and he does and
he has. Ultimately, the New Testament
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will say, Jesus becomes our circumcision. He is cut off from God so
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that our sins might be atone for
he is cut off so that we might
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have fellowship with him so that our
hearts might be changed. Jesus gives us
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his spirit, he cleanses us,
he renews us, he he brings us
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in this new way of life.
He speaks this word, which is effective,
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a word of grace that says follow
me and you will be saved.
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And by the spirit and grace of
God, our hearts are changed and we
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follow him. And so I simply
want to conclude by encouraging you to think
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about these things and, more than
think about them, walk in them.
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Set before You the vision of God
that he has for your life and that
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he reveals in the Sun, which
is that, through faith in the sun,
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he causes us to follow him and
to do and to be what we
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were called for. And as we
recognize this work that is done, God
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has done, let us, by
faith, walk in that work and walk
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in those promises and live our lives
before God, through faith in him,
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on him. Let's pray together.
Our heavenly father, we thank you for
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or the joys that we have in
in walking before you and living lives that
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are not scurring in the darkness from
this corner of Sin to another corner of
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sin, but, Lord, lives
that are lived openly and freely before you.
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We asked that you would bless us
than these things, that you would
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renew in us a right spirit,
that we might live in the joy of
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your presence, that we might live
not at war with you, but peace
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with you, knowing that we have
been justified in Christ, knowing that our
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forgiveness has been established, that we
are those who are now inheritors of the
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promises that you made to Abraham,
even heaven itself. And as we do
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so, Lord, let us then
Sense Your Majesty and your oversight of us,
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your will and our lives, no
longer as the law which condemns us,
404
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but the law which guides us,
the law which is a joy to
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us, the law which is like
honey on our lips. Let us be
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servants of you and make choices that
please you, knowing that we have the
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freedom to do so, as those
who are in Christ, Jesus our righteousness.
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And to those who do not know
you, Lord, to those who
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continue to walk and even strive after
godliness, but to do so according to
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their own strength, we ask that
you would waken them from their sleep.
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We ask that you would help them
to see that they cannot serve themselves as
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God's will, trying to serve you
as God, but to know that the
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only way to live and walk in
you is by trusting you to do the
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things that they that we are all
unable to do on our own. And
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Lord, is you do these things
in us. We ask that your light
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would shine brightly, that your mark
on us would be evident before all,
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that the love of the saints for
one another and for God would be evident
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and unambiguous, and may this be
all to the glory and praise of your
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name, Lord. Finally, we
do lift up the request that have been
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made specifically this evening. We pray
for Aaron and we ask for his healing.
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We also pray for a Laine and
her teeth problems. We pray for
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others who are sick and not well, and we asked that you would heal
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them, that you would provide for
them help them to trust you through those
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trials. And we pray, Lord, for all of our other needs and
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that, as we go forth into
this new week, we would do so
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resting in your grace and in your
love promise to us in Christ. I
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pray this in Jesus name, on
Him
