Episode Transcript
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Please remain standing if you're able,
and let's turn our attention to John Chapter
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Three, verses a twenty two and
following. So the Gospel of John Chapter
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Three, Verse Twenty Two, is
where will begin. Let us hear God's
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word. After this, Jesus and
his disciples went into the Gadean countryside,
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and he remained there with him where
with them, and was baptizing. John
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also was baptizing at Ainon, near
Salim, because water was plentiful there and
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people were coming and being baptized,
for John had not yet been put in
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prison. Now a discussion arose between
some of John's disciples and a Jew over
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purification, and they came to John
and said to him, rabbi, he
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who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look,
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he is baptizing and all are going
to him. John answered, a
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person cannot receive even one thing unless
it is given him from heaven. You
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yourselves bear me witness that. I
said I am not the Christ, but
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I have been sent before him.
The one who has the bride is the
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bridegroom, the friend of the bye
at bridegroom, who stands and hears him
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rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.
Therefore, this joy of mine is now
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complete. He must increase, but
I must decrease. He who comes from
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above is above all. He who
is of the Earth, belongs to the
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earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above
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all. He bears witness to what
he has seen and heard. Yet no
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one receives his testimony. Whoever receives
his testimony sets his seal to this.
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That God is true. for He
whom God has sent utters the words of
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God, for he gives the spirit
without measure. The father loves the son
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and has given all things into his
hand. Whoever believes in the sun has
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eternal life. Whoever does not obey
the sun shall not see life, but
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the wrath of God remains on him. My God, bless his word to
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us, he may be seated.
Let's begin by setting the scene. In
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the first part of this Gospel,
we were introduced to a man named John,
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the Baptist, what the other gospels
tell us as the cousin of Jesus,
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and we learned that John Occupies a
very special sectual place in history.
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He was the last of the prophets
to Harold the Messiah. He himself was
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prophesied about and was the fulfillment of
an Old Testament prophecy. And so for
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these reasons we can say that John
the Baptist occupies a very special place in
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history, and it's from that special
place and a recognition of that uniqueness that
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he answers this question that comes to
him about his relationship to Jesus. John
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is a big deal. People know
that, they recognize that. They've been
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coming out into the desert to be
baptized, to see him, to hear
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him a preach and teach. But
now things are changing. John is not
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as big of a deal as he
once was. This Jesus, who was
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with John at one point, now
seems to be above John, beyond John,
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and so he john is asked these
questions. As we see in at
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the beginning of this passage, I
read in Verse Twenty Six, Rabbi He
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who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness. Look,
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he is baptizing and all are going
to him. Is this a problem?
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It sure looks like a problem.
You are good, you are sent
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from God, you're the fulfillment of
Old Testament prophecies, and now they're all
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going to him. The story also
involves not only this relationship between John and
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Jesus, but it also involves a
question about purification. In Verse Twenty Five,
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we read that a discussion arose between
some of John's disciples and a Jew
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over purification. This question about purification, this question about how one can belong
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to the Kingdom of God, is
also related to this question. The second
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question about who is John and who
is Jesus? Both are heralding the Kingdom
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of God. Both are baptizing,
washing cleansing. How can we be a
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part of that? Everyone is going
to Jesus for baptism when they used to
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come to you. Is John Lose
something? Losing something? Is John Failings?
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Should John be worried? I want
to begin by thinking about why we
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might ask these questions, why we
might ask these questions about John, or
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about teachers, preachers or anyone that
is doing the work of Christ, anyone
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that is ministering to others. Why
do we ask? Why do we wonder
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about purification, for example? Why
do we wonder about the relationship between the
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person who ministers Christ and Christ himself? Well, there of course, good
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and holy reasons for this. Let's
consider those first first, in questions and
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in thinking about purification, remember that
Jesus himself said in John Five, truly,
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truly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and
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the spirit, he cannot enter the
Kingdom of God. Titus three five says
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he saved us not because of works
done by us in righteousness, but according
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to his own mercy, by the
washing of regeneration and the renewal of the
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Holy Spirit. Washing, washing.
Here's another verse about Washing and renewal in
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the spirit. Christ loved the Church
and gave himself up for her. This
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is effusions five, that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the
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washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church
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to himself in splendor, without spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, that
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she might be holy and blameless.
So this question about washing, this question
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about purification, is a big deal. Without this you cannot enter the Kingdom
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of God. That's what John says, that's what Jesus says, that's what
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the apostles say. We sense the
need for this purification when we consider the
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weight of our sin, when we
consider the holiness of God, when we
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consider the purity of his kingdom,
when we consider how awesomely good he is
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and how awesomely not good we are, we realize that something has to happen.
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Purification, when we feel the weight
of our sin, it's guilt,
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its shame. If it were physical
thing, we might smell it, we
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might smell the stink of sin.
What might sin smell like if it were
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a physical thing? Might smell like
death, because that's what sin is.
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That's where sin leads us. It
leads us not into the Kingdom of God,
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into life and to holiness, it
takes us into judgment, to death
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and to hell. So the promise
of the Gospel, the promise of God,
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is that he washes us. He
takes something that stinks like death,
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something that that is leading to death, something that is in fact dying,
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and he cleanses it, he purifies
it, or, is Jesus said to
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Nicodemus, he causes a man to
be reborn. Our souls are on the
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line when it comes to belonging to
Jesus, belonging to the Kingdom of God,
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and so you can see why there
might be questions about purification. And
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who do I go to do I
go to John, do I go to
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Jesus? It matters a great deal. It matters a great deal because if
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we are not cleansed, will not
be saved. And the baptism that they,
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the baptisms that they, that John
and Jesus is disciples, were performing,
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pointed to this reality, the need
for our cleansing, the need for
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our purification, just as the scriptures
a testify to and so this would be
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a very good reason to ask this
question. A sense of one's own sin,
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a sense of the holiness of God, a need and a desire to
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want to be close to him and
be with him, and yet recognizing this
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problem that is solved by purification.
How, Lord, can I dwell with
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you? How can I have a
clean heart? So that's a good reason
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to ask these kinds of questions.
But of course, when people ask religious
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questions they don't always mean it in
a truly religious or in a in a
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good way or a holy way.
Sometimes these kinds of questions, as maybe
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the case here, come out of
rivalry and competition, factionalism. These sorts
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of things are some of the sins
of God's people. Not every person who
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shows forth the love of and the
Gospel of Christ is equally gifted in doing
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so. Right. We recognize differences
among us, but just because there are
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differences among us doesn't mean that we
are in competition with one another. And
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yet this always seems to happen.
I follow Apolos, I follow Paul,
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James and John, you may remember, go to Jesus and they pull him
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aside and they say, Hey,
when you come into glory, we'd really
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like to be on your right in
your left hand. And you know what
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happens? The other disciples hear that
and they get upset. What are you
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guys doing? You're trying to push
your rank. They're trying. You're trying
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to get ahead of us, and
there's this grumbling and contention and of course
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Jesus corrects all that and he says
this is not the way of my disciples.
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It's not by elbowing one another into
the Kingdom of God, it's not
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by pushing and competing and and separating
yourselves, but it's by giving yourselves to
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one another, like I do for
you. The Lord Jesus sacrifices his very
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life. He gets down on his
hands and knees and washes his disciples feet.
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He's lifted up on a cross so
that our sins might be forgiven.
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The Lord Jesus does these things not
to put us in competition with one another,
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but to make us one. John
and Jesus are not competitors. They
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belong together, and John will testify
to that in a moment. You might
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consider the church. I'm kind of
like a puzzle. Each and ever each
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and individual piece is different from every
other piece. Right. Some are edge
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pieces, some are not. Some
have lots of color, some do not.
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Some are put into the puzzle first, some are put into the puzzle
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last, but all of them have
a place and all are necessary to make
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the puzzle whole. In fact,
if only one piece of a puzzle is
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missing, all the pieces lack something. Right, the church is like that.
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Each of us are different, individual
and unique. Some have this personality,
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some have that personality. Some have
these gifts, others have those gifts.
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Some have these weaknesses, others have
those weaknesses. Some are useful in
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some ways, some are useful in
other ways. Some are put in first
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and some are put in last,
but all have a place, all are
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necessary to make the puzzle complete and
all are lacking. If only one piece
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is missing. So, just like
you would never sort of dump a puzzle
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on to a table and then make
the pieces compete with one another for a
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place, that you would never have
a puzzle that way. You would never
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complete the whole. So too in
the church we ought not to be complete
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competing with one another for place,
because we all have a place in Union,
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in with Christ and with one another. Now perhaps you will think,
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well, what about false believers?
But about false teachers? Well, of
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course there are those that pretend to
belong to the church, pieces that are
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mixed into the puzzle that really belong
to something else, but that doesn't change
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anything. In to separate ourselves from
the metaphor for a moment, what do
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we do in a situation like that? Well, we call them to repentance,
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we call them to belonging to Union
in Christ, and if they refuse,
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they are removed from the church.
Why? Because they don't belong.
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They're not there, they're not of
us. You also might hesitate at this
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comparison by saying, well, the
body of Christ is not unified. There
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are in fact divisions, different churches, different denominations. Some of them even
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hold bad beliefs, and this is
of course true, but recognizing that fact
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doesn't deny the truth of what God
is doing. Until the master builder returns,
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the Church will struggle to express and
live out the perfect unity that we
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have in Christ. Sin Still remains. When you get a puzzle piece out
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of the box, it's crisp and
clean, it's snaps right with other things.
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None of us are like that.
There's not a single one of you
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here there are cliss Crisp and clean
and snap neatly and work with all of
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the other puzzle pieces here. All
of us come out a little mangled,
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a little broken, a little bit
wet and Soppy, and we're trying to
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do our best to work together and
fit together. But our hope, as
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I'm going to talk about a little
bit more, is not that we will
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eventually figure it all out, but
that God is the one doing the work.
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God is the one who is assembling
us and putting us together and puts
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us into relationship with on another.
God can even perfect, heal, fix
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repair what is broken. So these
realities that we wrought our right to recognize,
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about division that exists, about false
teachers, these kinds of things,
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it doesn't undermine the point of scripture, which is that there is unity,
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but in the things of God.
There is unity between John and Jesus,
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there's unity between those who minister Christ
and even with Christ himself. Why?
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Because we judge ourselves not on the
basis of this piece or that piece,
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or even our ability to integrate into
a whole. The Gospel is the good
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news that we judge ourselves according to
God's plan, God's promise, God's ability,
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not ours, that he has already
made us one in Christ and our
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justification, that he's caused us to
be reborn and regenerated into this new reality,
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that he is at now at work
conforming us and perfecting us, and
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that one day he will bring us
to a state of glorification at his return.
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All of this work that God does, work that John was emphasizing in
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this in his Gospel, in the
previous passage, about the spirit blowing where
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he wills, about the works of
God being carried out in God. God
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does this by removing our sins where
we could not, by purifying us when
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we were dead, by giving us
his righteousness. And since it's the work
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of God, since it's his purification, his work, his kingdom, he
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does create a unity in the spirit
such that rivalry and competition goes away.
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That's based on our attempts to atone
or to achieve something, something perhaps that
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someone else can have. But,
brothers and sisters, all that we have
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and all that we need is already
achieved and given to us in Christ.
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And that's why James and John are
rebuked and that's why John says what he
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says to his disciples. He doesn't
say, yeah, you really should go
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talk to those guys and get them
back here. I'm do and something important
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now. He sees himself in relationship
to Christ, he sees the work that
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he's doing in proper relationship to Christ's
work, and so he points them to
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Jesus and these things. Before we
get so to some of those specifics,
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I want to mention one more thing, one more way in which we sometimes
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ask these questions and and in thinking
about our relationships, as we, as
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we minister to one another and as
we, as we serve Christ in these
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ways. Sometimes, if one of
our sins is to tear each other down
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through rivalry, competition, factionalism,
these kinds of things, another sin that
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we commit sometimes is building up in
a false way, or perhaps to put
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it better, putting people on pedestals
that they simply don't belong on. Too
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often, if I could put it
this way, even Christians will look for
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other Christians to be their savior.
They want those that mentor them, disciple
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them, preach to them to be
the one that is capable of changing their
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hearts. In other words, John
is pointing to Jesus and as disciples are
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pointing at John and they're saying we
want you, and John Saying you're missing
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the point. Right. It's true
that God does use means. He has
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used John, he is using John. Paul says that, even though he
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is nothing but a jar of Clay, God has put the treasure of the
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Gospel in him. God uses means, he uses us, and that's a
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wonderful thing. In his work,
God uses us in all kinds of ways.
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When we share our food, our
money, our hearts with each other,
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when we encourage, we bless,
we correct and gentleness, when we
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open our homes, when we sing
songs of grace, when we tell each
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other about the reason for the hope
that is in us. In all these
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things, God is at work,
unifying us together in his spirit and in
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love. But sometimes. Sometimes people
get things a little bit mixed up.
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We get a little bit mixed up
and we begin trust in God's tools more
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than in God himself, sometimes even
to the exclusion of God. If sometimes
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we tear people down to get the
things of God, sometimes we improperly place
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people on a pedestal and make them
our God. You'll see how foolish this
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is if you imagine a child who
sees a carpenter for the first time.
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Child sees a carpenter, let's say, using a drill, and it sees
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that. The child sees this amazing
tool right that's boring these holes at lightning
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speed. One moment no hole,
another moment a whole, and it's worrying
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and it's loud and it's impressive and
all of these things. A drill is
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an amazing tool. It can be
used to do all kinds of things.
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But what if the carpenter sets down
the tool and the child then goes over
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the drill and starts asking it all
kinds of questions? Can you build a
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treehouse for me? How do you
work? Can I spend time with you?
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I want to learn how to do
what you do right, you would
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say. You'd probably think they were. There's something wrong there. You would
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probably think there is something wrong because
the drill is amazing a tool. It
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is. It's just a tool.
It's not the carpenter drill has even a
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power. Drill has no power in
and of itself. It just sits there.
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It doesn't will tree houses into existence. It doesn't make anything apart from
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the one that is using it.
A retired minister told me this week that
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he would sometimes have to tell people
I'm not Jesus, I just work for
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him, and that's what John says
in this passage. John says you testify
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yourselves that I said. He who
comes after me ranks before me. Yours.
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Tell me what I told you.
And yet you're not getting the point.
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He must increase and I must decrease. And Notice John doesn't say that
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with a sort of hands in his
pocket, heavy heart, kind of bummed
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out about the way things have turned
out. What does he say? He
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says the friend of the bridegroom,
who stands and here's him, rejoices greatly
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at the bridegroom's voice. You'd probably
be pretty upset at your best man,
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right those of you have been married, if you're best man was trying to
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upstage you at your wedding or was
upset right that you were getting married and
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not you're like bud, you're here
for me, right, you're supposed to
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be excited about this, and that's
what John says. He's I'm I'm the
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I'm the best man, I'm excited, I am overly, I am rejoicing.
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He says, therefore you, this
joy of mine is now complete.
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When John says in verse thirty,
He must increase in my I must decrease,
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he's not bummed out about it.
He's saying this is exactly what's supposed
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to happen. It's the wedding day. Get up there. I'm here to
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point to him. It's a wonderful
thing that John does, and anyone that
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is truly ministering Christ will do that. If someone is constantly drawing attention to
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themselves, if someone makes you think
that you have to have them and no
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one else in order to have Christ, they're not the ones you need to
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have, because they're not pointing you
to Christ, they're not serving Christ.
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So perhaps you've heard someone say that
sometime. I'm not Jesus, I only
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work for him, and maybe you
have to remind yourself about that, about
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someone you are trusting where you should
be trusting in God. God does use
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amazing people to do his amazing work. He uses John, he uses you,
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he uses us as members of his
body to bring about eternal things.
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But the danger is always this,
that we begin trusting ourselves more than him
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who makes us what we are.
Whether we do that by competition, jealousy,
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rivalry or towarning, or by turning
ordinary people into little gods, all
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of its wrong. And we should
do as John tells us to do,
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as the Holy Spirit tells us to
do through his profit, to look to
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Christ, to look to Christ for
everything. So how do we do that?
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How do we get these things in
their right order, get ourselves and
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are thinking in our minds and how
we think about other people in the right
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place? Frederick Dale Bruner, in
his commentary on John, Divides John's thoughts
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into two parts that I think are
helpful and helpful for us, a helpful
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way for us to think about I'll
use his his structure here to explain this.
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He talks about John's psychology, how
John Thinks about himself, and he
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talks about John's Christology, how he
thinks about Christ. Three things for each
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and I'll go through them briefly.
First, John is content. He's exactly
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where he's supposed to be. This
is verse twenty seven. We turn too
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many pages there. Verse Twenty Seven. John answered. A person cannot receive
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even one thing unless it is given
to him from heaven. John understands where
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he is. He understands that he
is not God. He understands that everything
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that has come to him, the
proclamation of Christ, the calling and Jesus
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himself, all come from heaven.
The next thing John understands is that he's
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the best man. He's not the
bridegroom. He understands his place in relationship
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to Christ. He understands that Christ
is not entirely dependent on him, but
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that he's blessed to be used by
him and he's happy about it. The
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third thing, as I've said,
he is happy to decrease. Because what
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happens when Christ increases in our minds, in our hearts and our churches and
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our homes? Do Things get better
or worse? They get better. We
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come to know him more, we
are drawn closer to him, we are
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more dependent on him, we are
blessed by him for us to become less
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and for him to become more.
As a wonderful thing. We don't disappear
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all together, we don't stop being
us. In some ways, you could
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say we become ourselves in Christ.
He makes us, he makes us into
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his image and blesses us in many
ways. And that all comes from how
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John Understands Jesus and verses thirty one
through thirty three. He understands that Jesus
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is over all things. He is
above all things. He comes from above.
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John says he is from above,
he is above all. He who
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is of the Earth, belongs of
the Earth and speaks in an earthly way.
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He who is from heaven up,
is above all. If you think
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of Jesus is sort of an equivalent
with John. Of course they're going to
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be compete in some sense. They're
both baptizing, they're both preaching the Kingdom
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of God, perhaps something like that. But John saying it's not like that.
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He ranks before me, above me. Why? Because he's he was
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before me and because he is above
me. He came from Heaven People.
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He's totally different than me. He
is God himself, the word of God,
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who has come into the world and
taken on human flesh, the lamb
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of God, John says, who
takes away the sins of the world?
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Don't trust me, trust him in
all of this. He sees and believes
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that Jesus Works and he he works
on by his spirit. Verse Thirty Four,
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for He whom God has sent,
utters the words of God, for
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he gives his spirit without measure.
And then thirty five and thirty six.
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The father loves the son and he's
given all things into his hand. Trust
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his son. God has given everything
to him, even eternal life, he
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says in Verse Thirty Six. Whoever
believes in the sun has eternal life,
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and the opposite is also true.
Whoever does not obey the son shall not
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see life, but the wrath of
God remains on him. John is just
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a messenger, he's just his goal
is just, to be clear, he
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doesn't have any power to judge people, I'm to to give them the grace
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and mercy that would lead to eternal
life or to give them the judgment they
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deserve, as in in their sinss. John doesn't have any of that.
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All he does is proclaim these things
that are true. All he does is
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point to the one who has these
things so no, it's not a problem
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that people are going to Jesus and
his disciples for baptism. Jesus is how
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we enter into the Kingdom of God, and John, like every other Christian
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preacher, like every Christian servant,
like everyone who serves the Lord and his
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name, no matter what task it
is they are doing, is ultimately doing
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this. It's for him and through
him, and buy him and to him
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that we serve. Go to him, trust him, love him or,
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as John says, believe on him
and you will have eternal life. Go
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to John and seek that. Go
to yourself and seek that and you will
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not find it. The wrath of
God will remain on you, punishment,
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hell and all the rest. But
go to Jesus, trust in Jesus you
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will have every good thing. I'm
in
