Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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So John Twelve, verse thirty six, through the end of the chapter,
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Jesus says, while you have the
light, leave in the light that you
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may become sons of light. When
Jesus had said these things, he departed
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and hid himself from them. Though
he had done so many signs before them,
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they still did not believe in him. So that the word spoken by
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the Prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.
Lord has believed what he heard from us,
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and to whom has the arm of
the Lord been revealed? Therefore,
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they could not believe for a Isaiah
said, he has blinded their eyes and
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hardened their heart, lest they see
with their eyes and understand with their heart
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in turn, and I would heal
them. Isaiah said these things because he
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saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless, many, even of the
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authorities, believed in him, but
for fear of the Pharisees, they did
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not confess it, so that they
would not be put out of the synagogue,
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for they loved the glory that comes
from Man More than the glory that
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comes from God. and Jesus cried
out and said, whoever believes in me
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believes not in me, but in
Him who sent me. And whoever sees
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me sees him who sent me.
I have come into the world as light
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so that whoever believes in me may
not remain in darkness. If anyone hears
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my words and does not keep him
keep them, I do not judge him,
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for I did not come to judge
the world, but to save the
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world. The one who rejects me
and does not receive my words have judge
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the word that I have spoken,
will judge him on the last day,
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for I have not spoken on my
own authority, but the father who has
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father who sent me, has himself
given me a commandment what to say and
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what to speak, and I know
that his commandment is eternal life. What
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I say, therefore, I say
as the father has told me. You
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may be seated. We live in
a time and a place that has many,
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many options. Many things are available
to us when we have a choice
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to make almost any choice you can
think of, whether it's what to eat
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for lunch, as we will enjoy
in a little bit, and I hope
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you will come to our fellowship meal, or what clothes we will put on,
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where we will live, on and
on and on. We have all
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kinds of choices and there's a lot
of blessing in that, to be sure,
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but sometimes the possibility of possibilities,
or our access to possibilities, we
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use as a sinful reason to wait
to make important choices. Now. This
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can happen even when buying toothpaste right
at the grocery store. These sort of
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paralysis. Maybe another day. No, hopefully you don't do that. But
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there are more very important choices,
though, that happen at much higher levels,
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and that includes our own salvation,
Jesus says. Jesus says in Verse
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Thirty Six. While you have the
light, believe in the light. While
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you have the light, believe in
the light. And that means that tells
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us, as do many other things
in this passage, that the world does
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not always have the light. It
will not always have the light. There
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is a day when the Gospel will
stop being preached. There is a day
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when the good news and the invitation
to come into the kingdom will be no
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more. That is the day when
the Lord returns to judge the world,
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a day that we don't know when
will happen. And when I'm talking about
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this, I'm talking about things from
a very big picture kind of perspective.
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In terms of the history of the
world, but this is true of our
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individual lives as well. Some of
US may have a sense that we are
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dying. We may know that our
our day is near. Maybe you were
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very sick. Others of US have
no idea that our day is very near.
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We simply don't know. But what
we do know is that that day
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will come, whether it's the end
of the world or the end of our
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own lives. Time does not go
on forever, not that kind of time.
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The possibility and the opportunity to come
into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ,
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to belong to him, to be
known by him, that does not remain
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forever open. Jesus says, while
you have the light, believe in the
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light. There's so many times in
our lives, as I've said, on
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every level, from small to big, where we unfortunately delay doing the right
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thing today for some time tomorrow,
but tomorrow never comes. It's only and
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always today, isn't it? It's
only an always right now. We have
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to make these choices now, but
we delay and we say out of fear,
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perhaps out of pride, out of
love, for comfort, I was
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Jesus says, of these rulers loving
more the glory that comes from Man,
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that comes from God. There's various
reasons for this, but we say,
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for now, I'm going to remain
in my sin because someday, someday,
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I'll do the right thing. Someday, all believe Jesus, someday all follow
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the light. The thing I said, as I'm saying we don't realize,
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or perhaps we do realize but ignore
and push down, is that someday these
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things will be taken away, someday
the grace of God will be taken away.
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God is so patient, though.
He's so patient with us. Turn
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to Romans Chapter Two and look at
a couple verses there with me, you
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can find the patience of the Lord
and expressions of it and teaching about it
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all over scripture. I'm here's just
one of hundreds and hundreds of places in
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chapter two of Romans. Verse Three
will start there. Paul says this.
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Do you suppose, Oh man,
you who judge those who practice such things?
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These are wicked things, evil things, and yet do them yourself,
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that you will escape the judgment of
God? Okay, pause there for a
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moment. Hear what Paul is saying. He's saying I know you. I
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know that you know the difference between
good and bad, because you are constantly
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pointing this out, particularly with other
people. You're constantly saying that's not fair,
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that's not right, and so on
and so forth. Whether it's out
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louder in your heart, we know
this. You are able to judge.
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You do it all the time.
And so do you think that you will
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yourself escape judgment? And of course
the answer is no. Paul knows that,
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you know that. I know that
none of us are going to escape
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judgment. And so then he asked
makes this point for the use of a
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rhetorical question. In verse four,
he says, or do you presume on
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the riches of his kindness and forbearance
and patience, not knowing that God's kindness
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is meant to lead you to repentance, but because of your heart and impenitent
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heart, you are storing up wrath
for yourself on the day of Wrath when
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God's righteous judgment will be revealed.
So God is like a very good father
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whose standards are incredibly high and yet
is also very patient with his children,
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like a loving father here on earth. Are Loving father in heaven does not
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come down hard and heavy on us
every time we make a mistake, every
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time we even outwardly and purposefully sin
in thought word. Indeed, can you
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imagine what life would be like if
every time you did something wrong, the
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Lord of Heaven and Earth colloquially came
down on you? Can you imagine?
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We wouldn't last a minute, none
of us. So what is he doing?
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Does he care as standards dropped for
obedience? Does God not care who
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we are or what we do?
Of course not. He loves us.
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He wants us to be like him. We are sons and daughters of him.
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He's brought us into our his family, so that he can make us
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like him. No, God hasn't
dropped the bar for us. He's patient
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with us, he's kind, he
is forbearing him. Sometimes he does come
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down hard, and when he does, it's because he loves us, because,
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like a good father, the Bible
says, he disciplines us, he
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teaches us, but he's also patient, isn't he? He's also waits.
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He lets us discover our mistakes,
discover our sinful patterns, lets us come
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to realize things in a kind way. But Paul recognizes there's this other thing
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that goes on that a lot of
people take that kindness and take that patience
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and forbearance and that grace that's being
given and they presume on it. Say,
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well, Dad doesn't care what I
do. Our Father in heaven,
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he doesn't care. I guess he's
not watching. It doesn't really matter,
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I can I don't worry Gout,
I'll just keep doing what I need to
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do, whatever it is we presume
on the riches of his kindness and forbearance,
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not knowing or not believing what should
be obviously true. It's meant to
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lead us to repentance, not keep
us away from repentance. God's kindness and
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His grace and his patients with us
is meant to make us go wow,
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he is really kind and gracious to
me. I can't believe that he hasn't
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struck me dead yet for all of
my sins. I should repent, I
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should change my ways, I should
look to him for salvation. But instead,
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tragically, what many people do is
they double down and what Paul says
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is they are in fact storing up
wrath for themselves. Can you imagine if
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you speeding down orange grove, let's
say speeding orange grove, and you get
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pulled over an the officer gives you
a warning. Next Day, speeding down
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orange grow, you get pulled over, the officer gives you worried speeding.
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Right, eventually, right, eventually, this officer is going to stop giving
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you warnings. If he's doing his
job, you will do the right thing.
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He will prosecute the law, as
he is called to called to do
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in his patience, right for which
perhaps many of us have received the patience
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of even our government. In receiving
that patience. What is that meant to
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do for us? To make us
go, oh, guess it doesn't matter,
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the law doesn't matter. No,
it's meant to make us double down
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on repentance, on obedience. But
we don't do that. Why? Hard
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and impenitent hearts? Because of our
nature. Are Sinful Nature. There are
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things that don't make sense in this
world, including ourselves, because we're broken
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people. We're sinful, twisted people. It's hard to draw straight line with
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a ruler. That doesn't work right. It's the same with us. What
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we discover in our lives and very
clearly in the scriptures, is that obedience
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to the Lord, walking in him, walking in the light, trusting in
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him, all that comes with belonging
to him is not something that's empowered by
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our own natural faculties, our own
natural senses and powers. When people are
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left on their own, they store
up wrath for themselves. Walk in the
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light while you have the light.
Jesus is speaking about himself, and if
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you want to know that he's very
serious about this, all you have to
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do is read the second half of
verse thirty six, a terrifying verse,
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if we understand it, which says
when Jesus had said these things, he
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departed and hid himself. To have
the opportunity to have the son of God
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speak to you his salvation and then
to turn away from it, it not
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only brings a loss in that particular
moment, but there comes a time in
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God's timing and in God's wisdom,
where he turns away and he hides himself.
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Do you see why I say that's
a terrifying thing? Do you see
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why I say that this is something
that God is not playing around about?
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He does this. He did it
right here, verse thirty seven. Though
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he had done so many signs before
them, they still did not believe them,
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believe him. There is a day
and we do not know when it
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is, when the Lord Takes Away
His light from those who remain hard in
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their hearts. This is something that
you cannot put off. You cannot push
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off to another day. Now this
warning is very hard, and the things
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that God goes on to say in
this passage are likewise very hard, offensive,
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even offensive to many, many people. He quotes Isaiah, he says,
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but the actions of these people at
this particular time are fulfilling what the
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Lord had already spoken in the Prophet
Isaiah. Isaiah is given a message and
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then we have this quote Lord,
who has believed what he has heard from
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us, and to he to whom
has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
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Kids the arm of the Lord is
a way of expressing the power of
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the Lord, the strength of the
Lord on his his his the revelation of
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his salvation and his power. Jesus
is the arm of the Lord. He,
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as you may remember, just previously
to this, had caused Lazarus to
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walt a dead man to walk out
of a tomb alive. The arm of
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the Lord Powerful, strong, saving. People are believing it. This is
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what Isaiah face, this is what
many of the prophets faced. The Great
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Gospel, in the good news of
Jesus comes into the world, this thing
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full of life and salvation, this
thing that literally makes dead people alive,
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and then human beings cross their arms
and and they turn away from it.
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Does that make any sense? No, it doesn't, except for the fact
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that God tells us that's the nature
of this word, that the Gospel is,
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by nature, and offensive thing.
It offends people, it makes them
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mad, and this is important because
for those of you who remain in sin,
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this ought to create a sense of
urgency in you. It ought to
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create in u a sense that I
may not have time to simply remain in
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my sins and wit, that every
moment that I'm waiting and that I'm standing
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apart from the Lord and I'm holding
crossing my arms and I'm defying him as
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another minute that I'm storing up wrath
for myself and to those of us who
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have believed, this ought to create
a deep sense of thankfulness, knowing that
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we have been saved not by the
power of our own strength in us,
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a spiritual power, of physical or
mental power, but we've been saved by
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the Lord who plucked us up out
of our sinfulness and misery. We ought
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to be people with huge hearts,
filled with such thankfulness for what he has
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done and to persevere in this hospital, even though it is an offensive thing
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to many, knowing what God says
here. And then I'll continue reading here
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from Isaiah. Excuse me. Isaiah, in verse forty. He has blinded
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their eyes, he has hardened their
hearts, lest they see with their eyes
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and understand with their heart and turn
and I would heal them. This comes
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this, this prophecy here comes in
the middle of a passage, or not
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in the middle but right alongside of
this passage, which is known as a
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great suffering servant passage, this great
prophecy in Isaiah, where the the coming
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Messiah is proclaimed, and it he
is proclaimed that he will suffer and he
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will die. That message is offensive
to people. God will use that same
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light that saves some to blind others. In that it reminds me, the
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Gospel reminds me of the Sun.
To those who stand and look at the
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sun and stare at it in defiance
will find themselves binded by its power and
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then unable to see by it,
unable to benefit from it, unable to
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walk by it. But those who
submit to the light of the sun are
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blessed all their lives from it.
They are able to walk, to see,
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to eat the plants that grow.
It's like this with the son of
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God. He is both. He
is powerful in his salvation and he is
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powerful in his judgments. As the
scriptures put it, he is a stone
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of stumbling and a rock of offence. Some people come to him and they
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trip over him and they fall and
they hate him, and he's he is.
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He is offensive to them because he
destroys the kingdoms of their hearts.
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They want to consider themselves equal,
selfsufficient, with authority to do what they
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want and when they want. But
it's simply not that way. But to
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those who believe in Jesus, that
stone of stumbling, that rock of offense,
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the Scriptures say, become the cornerstone, this stone in which the whole
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Temple of God is built up,
this temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells,
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this people, this kingdom in which
we all live, the rock of
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our salvation, as we read earlier
from the psalms, life changing, life
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giving. But it doesn't happen for
any and this helps us, those of
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us who are Christians, to understand
this perplexing thing. How come my brother
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can't see this thing? How come
my sister can't see this thing? How
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come my neighbor, my child or
my father or my mother or my boss
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or whatever, can't see the glories
of God in the Cross of Christ?
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Partly because that's the nature of the
Gospel. And it's not because God is
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mean, it's because God is fair. To those who look at the son
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and blind themselves, will they get
blind to those who stand in defiance of
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God and say I want my own
way? They get their own way,
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but of course their own way is
apart from God. Their own way is
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is awful. But it also reminds
us that we are saved not by our
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works, by His grace. And
so when we find ourselves in positions where
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we are having to make decisions in
this life about whether or not we will
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follow the light, or live in
the light, or follow Jesus or not,
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we must keep these things in mind. We must keep them in mind
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and with everything that is in us, with all of our power, we
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must throw ourselves on the cross.
We must throw ourselves at the feet of
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Jesus and say, I have nothing
to give you. Please bless me,
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please save me, as you have
promised to do and we have to do
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this not only is individuals, but
as a church. When churches walk away
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and find the suffering that they must
face for living for Jesus too hard,
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the Cross is one of the first
things to go. This good news of
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the Gospel, the invitation of the
Gospel, the hope of the Gospel,
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but also the offensiveness for the Gospel, which tells us that we are sinners,
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that we can't save ourselves, that
we need completely and totally God's grace.
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We downplay it, we say it's
too hard, we push it away.
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Why? Because we love. We
are tempted to love the glory that
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comes from Man More than the glory
that comes from God. All I can
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say is, let us not be
let us, each individually and together as
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a body, go before our Lord
and ask for his salvation. Let us
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go before the Lord in the Gospel, in the good news that he promises,
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this servant of his, who has
suffered through this Jesus, who has
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obeyed the commandment of God and brought
for us eternal life, as he says
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they're at the end of John Twelve, and find our selvation in him.
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It's as simple as that, and
it's as deep as that. We have
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no other hope, we have no
other way. But when we go this
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way we have everything. We have
light, we have life, we have
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blessedness, we have glory, comfort
for this life and the life to come.
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