Episode Transcript
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Well, please reign standing and let's
turn to Micah, chapter three. MICAS
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a small book in the Old Testament. I'm small, not in importance,
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just in size. Comes after Jonah
some of the other minor prophets, and
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tonight we are listening to God's word
from Mica Three. Like a three,
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the focus of the sermon will be
on the first part and the last part
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of Mica three in the next time
will focus on the middle. So let's
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give our attention to God's word.
And I said here, you heads of
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Jacob and rulers of the House of
Israel, is it not for you to
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know justice? You who hate the
good and love the evil, who tear
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the skin from off my people and
their flesh from off their bones, who
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eat the flesh of my people and
flay their skin from off them and break
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their bones in pieces and chop them
up like meat in a pot, like
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flesh and a cauldron. Then they
will cry to the Lord, but he
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will not answer them. He will
hide his face from them at that time
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because they have made their deeds evil. Thus says the Lord concerning the Prophets
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who lead my people astray, who
cry peace when they have something to eat
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but declare war against him who who
puts nothing into their mouths. Therefore,
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it shall be night to you without
vision and darkness to you without divination.
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The Sun shall go down on the
prophets and the day shall be black over
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them. The seers shall be disgraced
and the diviners put to shame. They
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shall all cover their lips, for
there is no answer from God. But
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as for me, I am filled
with power, with the spirit of the
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Lord, and with justice and might
to declare to Jacob his transgression and to
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Israel his sin. Hear this,
you, heads of the House of Jacob
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and rulers of the House of Israel, who detest Judge Justice and make cook
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it all that is straight, who
build Zion with blood in Jerusalem with iniquity?
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It's heads give judgment for a bribe, it's priests teach for a price,
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it's prophets practiced divination for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord and
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say, is not the Lord in
the midst of us? No disaster shall
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come upon us. Therefore, because
of you, Zion shall be plowed as
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a field, Jerusale, Jerusalem shall
become a heap of ruins and the mountain
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of the House a wooded height.
This is God's word. He may be
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seated. These are very strong and
vivid words that come from Mica and he
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doesn't hold back. He speaks,
as he says, with power and with
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the spirit of the Lord. He
speaks on this word of God. We
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considered some of the context for this
last time. We don't have to,
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I think, do that again,
partly because Mike is very clear about the
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context, why he's saying phase things, why these particular judgments are going to
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come upon the people of God.
The passage is clear in a lot of
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ways. He condemns of the rulers
and the prophets in particular, for their
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sins against God and his people,
and he tells them what is going to
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happen to them, that they will
be destroyed, that in the day of
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their distress, they will call upon
the Lord and he is not going to
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answer. They will cry out for
help, he will not hear them and
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Zion will be plowed, taken down
to rubble, a heap of ruins.
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How do we understand, or what
are we to make of a passage like
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this? What are we to take
from it? What are we do understand
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and of God and of what he
wants for us. Right this was spoken
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at a particular time, in a
particular context and place. Nevertheless, it
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is God's word for us and there
are many important things that he has to
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teach us. One of the things
to start out with is just to keep
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in the back of our minds that
the judgments of the Lord that is given
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at any point in history or even
in our lives, be it really small
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or in this great in a great
way like this, and even a way
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that is purposely intended to foreshadow things
to come, we are to remember that
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one day judgment will come, as
we saying at the end of our last
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hymn, my hope is built on
nothing less. The scriptures promised that one
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day the judgment, that God,
Jesus, is coming again to judge the
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world, and so these pictures of
judgment in time and in these particular moments
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in history help us to begin to
understand that end time judgment, that last
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and final judgment of the Lord,
which is still in front of us.
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With that in the back of our
minds, I want to begin by saying
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something about the nature of God's kingdom. What is a passage like micathree?
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What is Mica three teach us about
the nature of God's kingdom. Want to
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point out two things. First,
the law is good and second, God
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puts, establishes leaders who are supposed
to judge well. They are supposed to
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be good leaders according to that law. Turn some Psalm nineteen, if you
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would, or at least prepare yourselves
to hear it. Psalm Nineteen, seven
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through eleven, good passage, be
good to memorize concerning the law of the
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Lord. Psalm nineteen, verse seven, versus seven through eleven. The law
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of the Lord is Perfect, reviving
the soul. The testimony of the Lord
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is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right,
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rejoicing the heart. The Commandments of
the Lord is pure, enlightening the
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eyes. The fear of the Lord
is clean, enduring forever. The rules
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of the Lord are true and I
just all together. More to be desired
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are they than gold, even much
fine gold, sweeter also than honey and
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the drippings of the Honeycombe. Moreover, by them, your servant is warned.
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In keeping them, there is great
reward. So this is what the
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law of God is, and he
has established his kingdom on I'm with certain
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laws requirements that are to be fulfilled. A lot of times when we hear
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the word law or requirement, we
have this reaction, this unfortunate immediate reaction,
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and words like oppression, entrapment and
slavery and things like that come to
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mind. But some nineteen speaks against
that when it comes to God's law,
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Anyway, God's law is to be
more desired than the drippings of a Honeycombe.
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If you're like me, you might
have a little bit of a sweet
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tooth around bedtime and you know,
you look in the fridge and you go
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have on something to eat and the
celery just doesn't look appealing. You know
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it's be good and you must think
of this spite Phil but what you want
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is a little bit of honey drizzled
on some bread. That would be really
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good. Sweet things are so desirable
wonderful. We celebrate that over them.
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We we, you know, take
our our spouses out to eat and we
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celebrate by getting desert right. This
is this is good, and the scriptures
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compare the law of the Lord to
that, the drippings of a honeycomb,
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that kind of sweetness. And so
when we think about God's kingdom and the
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kind of the kingdom that he's established
and we say that it's a lawful one.
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We're talking about that, we're talking
about pleasure, safety, joy,
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on holiness, righteousness, a place
that is good and works and accord with
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God's will and and nature itself and
all of these things. There are moments
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in our lives to where I'm not
just God's law in the abstract. I
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mean to say that this principle and
that principle and that principle are sweet to
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us, but the way that they
hold together, I'm perhaps you've seen somebody
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make a very difficult decision that you
were unsure how to make, and you
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see them make it and that wisdom
and you say, yes, that is
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right, that is a wise thing, and it through brings you a little
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joy, right, maybe a lot
of joy. You remember, for example,
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on the story of Solomon and these
two women who come before him and
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they want to divide or they they
they are both arguing about whose child it
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belongs to, and he says,
well, let's split the baby in half
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and we'll give each of you half, and the real mother, of course,
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says no, let the other lady, the false mother, the lying
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mother, have the child. And
in this the child was saved. In
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this Solomon knew who the true mother
was and all was made well, and
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we all kind of go right.
That wisdom, that righteousness, that law,
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that's justice was upheld, is a
sweet and pleasurable thing, and that's
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what the God's kingdom is supposed to
be about. And those that are particularly
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called, like Solomon, to lead
injustice or, as he says in verse
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one, to Know Justice. They're
supposed to heed this and understand that,
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as I said, this is verse
one. Here, you heads of Jacob
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and rulers of the House of Israel, is it not for you to know
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justice? And this is not just
intellectually, but know it deeply, practice
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it. This is your job,
if you are a king, if you
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are a judge, if you are
a priest, a levite who is making
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decisions, that is what you are
supposed to do. God's kingdom is supposed
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to be a safe place, a
protected place, a righteous place, a
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place where people are not oppressed,
but where the oppressed are protected, where
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those who have no power are are
made powerful and cared for through the upholding
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of the law, where the leaders
who are in charge of of making these
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judgments, of upholding justice are to
uphold the good and put down evil,
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but what we see in Mike a
three is exactly the opposite of that.
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Is Happening. God's not just a
little angry because who knows, he's angry
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because his kingdom is being underminded by
the very people that are supposed to protect
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it. And not just kingdom,
as in you know four square, you
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know boarders, but the people.
The leaders are to protect and care for
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the people, according to justice.
Is it not for you to know justice,
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you who hate the good and love
the evil? The description of this
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is awful. God describes how bad
things have gotten in terms of murder,
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even cannibalism. You who tear the
skin from off my people and their flesh
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from off their bones, who eat
the flesh of my people, flay their
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skin from off of them, break
their bones and pieces and chop them up
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like meat in a pot, like
flesh in a cauldron. The people that
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are supposed to be the leaders,
the heads, the rulers that are supposed
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to be in charge of protecting and
caring for the people according to the law,
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are devouring the people. To contrast
this with something else in scripture,
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to feel more of the weight of
this, consider what King Jehosha fat says
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in Second Chronicles Nineteen. King Jehosha
fat brings the people back to the Lord.
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He establishes some reforms in one of
the things he does, the scriptures
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say, to establish people back under
the Lord, is this. He appoints
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judges in all the land, and
then he says to those judges, consider
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what you do, for you judge
not for man but for the Lord.
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He is with you and giving judgment. Now, then, let the fear
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of the Lord be upon you.
Be careful what you do, for there
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is no injustice with the Lord,
our God, or partiality or taking bribes.
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The passage goes on and describe that
he not only establishes these judges,
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but also levites and priests, the
heads of family. The scriptures say he
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did this to supports so that they
could give judgment for the Lord and to
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decide disputed cases. They had their
seat in Jerusalem, and he charged them.
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Here's what the king charges these rulers, said rulers with he says,
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thus, you shall do in the
fear of Yahweh and the fear of the
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Lord, in faithfulness and with your
whole heart. Whenever a case comes before
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you from your brothers who live in
their cities concerning bloodshed, law or commandment,
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statutes or rules, then you shall
warn them that they might not incur
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guilt before the Lord and Wrath may
not come upon you and your brothers.
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Thus you shall do and you will
not incur the guilt. Deal courageously and
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may the Lord be with the upright. All right. So this is the
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this is the command of God's good
king to people in the land, to
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these judges and rulers and leavites and
priests and heads of families. They are
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to make decisions, hard decisions,
sometimes based on their confidence in the Lord,
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their fear of the Lord, their
knowledge of God's word, trusting that
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he will equip them to do that
work. And when they do that work,
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God's people will be protected and cared
for. But if they do not
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do that work, then guilt will
be upon them. Reminds you of Jesus's
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words of not let do not let
many of you be teachers. There is
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a strict standard and and rule,
because he says that if you fail at
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this, Israel, oh heads of
Israel, all the people, will come
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under a condemnation. Well, how
does this command that Jehosha fact gives.
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Compare with what we have in micathree. I couldn't be further from the opposite.
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or You could compare psalm one and
Psalm to blessed is the man who
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walks. Let's just go ahead and
read it. Blessed is the man.
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Okay, I said, will read
it. Psalm one and two have a
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great contrast. Blessed is the man
Psalm one who walks, not in the
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council of the wicked, nor stands
in the way of sinners, nor sits
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in the seat of scoffers, but
his delight is in the law of the
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Lord, and on his law he
meditates day and night. He's like a
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tree planted by streams of water.
Yields its fruit and its sees in and
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it's leaf does not whither, and
all that he does, he prospers.
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Here's one contrast. The wicked are
not so they are like chaff that the
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wind drives away. Therefore, the
wicked will not stand in the judgment,
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nor sinners in the congregation of the
Righteous, for the Lord knows the way
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of the righteous, but the way
of the wicked will perish. Psalm,
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too has a similar continues that theme
then and says why do the nation's rage
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and the People's Plot in vain?
The kings of the Earth set themselves and
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the rulers take also together against the
Lord, against his anointed, saying let
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us burst their bonds apart, let's
cast away their chords from us. How
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does the Lord React? Well,
you heard it in Mike Athree. Here
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it in Psalm too. You heard
in Psalm one, the wicked are not
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so like chaff. Blows them away, Psalm to verse, for He who
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sits in heaven laughs. He holds
them in derision. He will speak to
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them in his wrath and terrify them
in his fear of saying. As for
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me, I have set my King
on Zion, my Holy Hill. I
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will tell you are, will tell
of the decree. The Lord said to
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me, you are my son.
Today, I Have Begotten You. Ask
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of me and I will make that
nation's your heritage, the ends of Earth
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your possession. You shall break them
with a rod of iron and dash them
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to pieces like a Potter's vessel.
The Lord is very compete. The clear
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and very plain which makes the sins
of rulers, I'm who are called to
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rule in the name of the Lord
and yet devour the people of the Lord
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that much more egregious, where the
leaders are called to be protectors, not
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only have they been negligent, they
have become themselves destroyers of the worst kind.
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So that's the first thing that we
see about, I think, week.
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One of the things I want to
draw your attention to that we learn
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from this passage about the nature of
God's kingdom. It is to be ruled
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by his law, and those who
are called to serve in accordance with that
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law are to do so in kind
of goodness and in truth. Now this
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of course, reveals to us the
rotten truth, about the depths of our
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sin, even in supposedly religious people. It is also revealing to us of
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the great character of our God,
because this law that is here, this
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good law, this sweet law,
this wonderful law on which the kingdom is
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to be established, is comes from
a law giver. The law is good
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and pleasurable and sweet and righteous and
pure and holy, because the law giver
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is all of those things. And
so as we see God condemning this evil,
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it reminds us how good he is, and this is, I think,
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a great encouragement to us. Whenever
you are in a dark place,
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whenever evil surrounds you, whether that's
in your own soul and you feel the
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weight of your sins and the torments
of temptation and be or whether it's external
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and the attacks of the evil one, like these princes and Psalm to muttering
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and murmuring in secret places and trying
to devise plans against the Lord. Whenever
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we find ourselves in dark and evil
situations, we must remember that the Lord
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is good, that he knows,
that he sees Mike Athree doesn't beete around
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the Bush. It cuts right to
the heart. God looks these men in
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the eyes and says, I know
what you're doing. That can be hard
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for us who are suffering under such
people. Why is God not acting?
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Why to this keep going on?
I'm being devoured. Where is the Lord,
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who is supposedly good, who is
supposedly as this great law in this
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kingdom? I am being boiled alive. It can be frustrating, it can
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be terrifying to be in a situation
like that, but we must remember that
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the Lord is good and that his
restraint is not negligence. God is not
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being partial, God is not taking
a bribe. What is God doing then?
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He is being patient, he is
being long suffering, he is training
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us, he is strengthening us.
When you are working out in your muscles
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cry out to you, why are
you hurting us? What do you do?
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You say, stop complaining, you'll
rest in a little bit, and
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you make them stronger. The Lord
is like this with us. He tests
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us, he proves us, and
in doing so he's ultimately proving his own
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work, his own character. So
we need not be afraid that he will
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fail. We make mistakes when we
work out. Sometimes we know go too
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hard, push too strong, don't
go enough. God doesn't make these mistakes
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when he trains us for righteousness,
when he trains is for perseverance and godliness,
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he knows exactly how much and he's
watching over us. These are just
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some of the things that God is
doing. But though God is patient and
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long suffering and restrained, we often
accuse him of being something else because him,
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of being like us, of being
someone who's too afraid of strife to
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do the right thing, of someone
who bows to the demands of men who
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think they're powerful. But Mica three, remember Mica three. God is long
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suffering, but he's no dormat,
and there comes a time when judgment comes
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and the time of patience and the
time of long suffering and the time of
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calling come to me, come to
me. This is a time of salvation
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and repentance. Kiss The Sun lest
you die in his wrath. There's a
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time when those calls come to an
end. God even says that when they
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cry out for help under his wrath, his answer will be no. I
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believe that this is a much stronger
image than many of us are used to
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hearing or even believing, that there
will come a time when God will no
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longer take I'm sorry. There will
come a time when judgment is at hand.
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It is the time for a judgment
now, is that not not that
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time? Praise God, turn away
from your sin. But there is coming
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a time, and it's promised over
and over again in scripture that that time
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will end. We cannot, as
Paul says in Romans, presume on the
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kindness and the patience of God.
Long suffering, yes, a doormat no.
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And this, of course, is
only fair, especially in the case
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of these rulers who have turned a
hard ear against the please of people asking
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for help, asking for justice,
asking. Will you hear me? Will
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you hear me? Take my case, don't take a bribe, do what
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is Jost No, I'd rather have
my pockets lined, I'd rather have this
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fancy house, I'd rather have my
fancy friends. I will not hear you.
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What's fair as fair. And when
they cry out to the Lord and
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they beg and they plead, on
the Day of judgment, he will say
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no, not out of wrath and
malice or or well, out of Wrath,
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but not out of any kind of
evil hatred, not because he's lining
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his pockets or doing some other awful
thing, but because of justice. And
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this is not an isolated verse.
Hebrews One thousand and thirty one tells us
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that it is a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of a living God.
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Psalm, too, tells us that
he will crush those who fight against
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him, like with a rod of
iron breaking a piece of pottery. Or
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here this parable of Jesus's from Psalm
to or, I'm sorry, Matthew,
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twenty five, it's a parable of
the ten virgins. Then the Kingdom of
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Heaven will be like the ten,
like ten virgins who took their lamps and
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went to the meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish, five of
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them were wise, for when the
foolish took their lamps, they took no
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oil with them, but the wise
took flasks of oil with their lamps.
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As the bridegroom was delay, they
all became drowsy and slept. But at
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midnight there was a cry here is
the bridegroom, come out and meet him.
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Then all those virgins rose and trimmed
their lamps, and the fool is
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said to the wise, give us
some of your oil, for our lamps
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are going out. But the wise
answered saying, since there will not be
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enough for us and for you,
go rather to the dealers and buy for
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yourselves. And while they were going
to buy, the bridegroom came and those
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who were ready went in with him
to the marriage feast, and the door
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was shut. Afterward the other virgins
came also, saying Lord, Lord,
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open up to us, but he
answered and said, truly, I say
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to you, I do not know
you. Then Jesus says, Watch,
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therefore, for you know neither the
day nor the hour. Don't be foolish.
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The time is at hand. This
is the day of salvation. So
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these things remind us that of the
character of God, God's Great Justice and
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his awesome power in executing and prosecuting
that judgment is a relief and a and
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a reminder to all the upright who
suffer under injustice, who suffer unfairly,
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who are persecuted by evil, by
by evil and even the evil one,
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and to those who are the persecutors
and the oppressed, sirs who rule against
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God and against his law. It
is a warning, it is a reminder,
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a call to come to him.
Judgment did come from it, from
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it from for Israel, but that
was just a moment at time. Life
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continued on, this world continued on. This is recorded for us as a
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as a call to us to heed
the judgment of the Lord and to turn
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to him and for forgiveness and for
repentance, while judgment is not yet here.
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So, knowing our God, who
is good and powerful, knowing our
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God who establishes a kingdom that is
full of wisdom and and the law and
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joy, how do we respond?
First we hear a passage like this,
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and we ought to take into account
our own sins and our own wickedness.
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How foolish would be to be to
hear a condemnation, condemnation like this against
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these people, and to walk away
self satisfied and feel protected in our own
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sins. Let's not do that.
We too have our own measures of hiding,
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cruelty, anger, lying, being
hurtful to others. If you're not
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sure what you've done, then it's
time to consider God's law. Look at
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the Ten Commandments, see the ways
that you have broken them. Confess all
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your sins. We also ought to
look at the ways in which we have
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presumed upon the kindness of the Lord, patience and long suffering that is meant
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to lead us to repentance. We
ought to ask for forgiveness for the ways
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in which we have instead used it
as an excuse for more sin. We
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also ought to look at the ways
that we have accused God for ignoring us,
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for not helping us, for not
caring, for not being good and
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for all these sins and more.
We ought to respond with Second Corinthians six
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two in our minds, for he
says, in a favorable time, I
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listened to you and a day of
salvation, I helped you behold. Now
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is the favorable time. Now is
the day of your salvation, and how
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do we find salvation? We turn
away from ourselves to the king, who
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has revealed these things to God,
the father and his son, whom he
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has established and whom no one can
break apart. Those bonds, as Jesus
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says, I and the father are
one, and indeed they are. To
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break apart the bonds between the father
and the son is to break apart God
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himself, impossible. We turn to
him and we turn to the king,
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who is way better than King Joseph
at way better than the kings and rulers
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that are mentioned here. When Jesus
comes to establish in a final form the
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Kingdom of God, he does so
imperfection. Moreover, he does so based
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on his obedience to the laws and
not our own, as we sang earlier.
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My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus, blood and righteousness.
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And because the Kingdom of God is
built on the righteousness of Christ, we
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need not fear that our king will
somehow slip and we will all fall in
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his path. As the king goes, so goes the people. This is
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the story of the Old Testament.
It's the story of the New Testament to
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as the king goes, so goes
the people. And where has the King
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God to his father, to exaltation, to rule, to authority? As
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for me, I have set my
King on Zion, my Holy Hill.
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The Kingdom of God is established,
and that means we turn to Christ in
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our repentance and for forgiveness, we
can know that we are perfectly safe in
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him forever and for all time,
because his righteousness perfectly fulfills the law so
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that the Kingdom is forever established.
Moreover, God is doing the work to
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create or to make that kingdom so
that it works as it's supposed to work.
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God promises in the prophets that he, in the new covenant, will
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put his law in the hearts of
his people, and he's doing that.
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And one day, when the Lord
comes and on that Great Day of Judgment
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and we rise in glory when him
and in his name and we all rejoice
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and praise at the glorious victory of
our King, we will live and dwell
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forever in a kingdom that is as
perfect as you can imagine, where there
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is no disobedience, no fear of
judgment, no fear of persecution, where
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the law is always perfectly fulfilled,
where wisdom just flows in the streets and
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from our hearts and between each other. This is our God and that's what
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we have to look forward to on
the Day of judgment, if we are
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in Christ
