Latest / CCC West Covina / The Legacy of John the Baptist, Part 1

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The Legacy of John the Baptist, Part 1 · CCC West Covina

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Nothing greater than the the word of life.
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And so take the word which is life and open with me, if you
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would, to John chapter 1, the Gospel of John declaring the
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deity of, of Christ. And we're going to move off of
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John 6 today. John one verse #6 and I'm sure
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you're happy about that. And move on to verse number 7
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and even verse #8 and even verse #15 as we make our way through
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this great and glorious gospel. But it's all about the legacy of
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John, the legacy of John. I'm not so sure John would think
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of leaving a legacy. I'm not sure that was uppermost
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in his mind. A lot like you and me, we don't
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come to church and wake up each day thinking that, you know
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what? I'm going to one day leave a
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legacy behind until we get later in in life and we're about to
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die and wonder what our legacy will be left.
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Well, what you leave behind is what you leave before or what
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you live before all the people around you.
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You leave behind that which you live.
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If you live a glorious life that honors the Lord you, you leave
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that legacy. If you live a life that
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dishonors the Lord, you'll leave that legacy.
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The legacy you live always determines the life that you
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live before the people closest to you.
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And John would leave a legacy. In fact, you can.
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You can sum up his legacy in in 3 words and these 3 words will
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will somehow be a barometer for your life and the legacy that
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that you will live and leave. The first word is presentation,
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the second word is preparation, and the third word is
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proclamation. Presentation, that's number one.
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And then preparation, that's number two.
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And proclamation, that's number three.
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And those 3 words will inevitably, inevitably make up
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our three points this week, next week, and probably the week
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after as we begin to understand the legacy of John.
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So if you have your Bible, let me, let me read to you John
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chapter one verse #6 we'll pick it up there.
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There came a man sent from God whose name was John.
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He came as a witness to testify about the light, said all might
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believe through him he was not the light, but he came to
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testify about the light. Jump down to verse #15 John
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testified about him and cried out, saying, this was he of whom
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I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I pre
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existed before me. Then jump to verse #19 This is
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the testimony of John when the Jews sent to him priests and
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Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?
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And he confessed, and did not deny, but confessed I am not the
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Christ. They asked him, What then are
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you, Elijah? He said, I am not.
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Are you the prophet? And he answered no.
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Then they said to him, Who are you?
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So we may give an answer to those who sent us.
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What do you say about yourself? He said, I am a voice of one
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crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the
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Lord, as Isaiah the prophet said.
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Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.
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They asked him, and said to him, Why then are you baptizing, if
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you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?
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John answered them, saying, I, I baptize in water, but among you
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stands one whom you do not know. It is he who comes after me, the
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song of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.
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These things took place in Bethany, beyond the Jordan,
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where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming
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to him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the
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sin of the world. This is He on behalf of whom I
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said, after me comes a man who has a higher rank than I, for he
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existed before me. I did not recognize him, but so
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that he might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in
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water, John testified, saying, I have seen the Spirit descending
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as a dove out of heaven, and he remained upon him.
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I did not recognize him, but he sent me to baptize in water.
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Said to me, He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and
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remaining upon him, This is the one who baptizes in the Holy
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Spirit. I myself have seen and testified
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that this is the Son of God. This sums up John's legacy.
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It begins with a presentation, and that is that John came to
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present the preeminence of the light.
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He came, number one, to present the preeminence of the light.
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He said I am not the light, but I came to testify about the
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light. Notice six times in the passage
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we read, it talks about John's testimony, John's witness.
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I am a a witness. I am here to testify.
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I am a testimony to the light. He came to present the the
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preeminence of the light so others would be able to see what
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he had already seen and what he had already known.
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This is where John's legacy begins to explode.
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The Bible says he did this because, as it says in Luke
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chapter one verse #7 he came as a witness to testify about the
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light so that all may believe. That's why he did it, so that
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others would believe. And that's the theme of, of, of
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John's gospel. John 20 verse #31 these things
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were written. These things were a testimony.
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This was that which was testified before you, that you
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may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
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And John will give 8 witnesses 8 testimonies throughout the
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Gospel. This is the first of the 8.
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John the Baptist is the first testimony to witness, to
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proclaim, to present the preeminence of the light.
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And John is a great witness. Think about it #1 he's a
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prophet, right? Matthew tells us twice that
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everybody recognized him as a prophet.
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The Lord had not sent a prophet in over 400 years.
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Malachi was the last Old Testament prophet.
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And so for 400 years there was silence.
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Nobody had spoken from God. So when John comes on the scene,
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he is recognized as a prophet by everyone.
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So this gives him credibility. It gives him credibility.
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He was the voice of God to the people.
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In fact, over in John 5, which we will see further in a moment,
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it says in verse #35 that John was the lamp that was burning
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and was shining, and you were willing to rejoice for a while
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in his light, that that's just a great verse to describe John.
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John was, was a light that was burning, that was shining so
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that you could see the way to the Messiah.
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And so John becomes this credible testimony because he's
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a prophet. But now is he a prophet?
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He's a priest because he's a prophet, he breathes
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credibility. And because he's a priest, he
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breathes believability. Remember, his father was a
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priest and John was in the in the life in line of the
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priesthood. So for all practical purposes,
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John's a priest. Now, he wasn't trained in the
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priesthood. He didn't follow his father in
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the priesthood. More about that in a second.
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But everybody would know about his believability as a priest
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because all they would have to do is think back just just a
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measly 30 years to his birth. Do you not?
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Do you not think that the priesthood, the 18,000 priests
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in the land of Israel at the time of Jesus and John, they
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didn't know about the miraculous birth of John the Baptist?
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I mean Elizabeth was barren. She was in her late 70s, early
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80s before she gave birth to John.
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She was advanced in years. The Bible says so all the
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priesthood would know because they would look at Elizabeth as
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being cursed because she had no child.
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But then there's this birth announced by the Angel Gabriel.
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And so it was a miraculous birth.
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And on top of that, Zacharias was was unable to speak for nine
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months. Do you think the priest didn't
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know about that? Of course they did.
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They all knew that and outcomes John the Baptist and Zacharias
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is able to speak and continue his ministry.
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And then he he wrote this song, this prophecy is in Luke chapter
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1. And don't you think the
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priesthood knew about that? Of course he did.
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So everything about John as a priest breeds believability
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because everybody knew about the miraculous birth of John.
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That's why when we get to it next week, when they ask the
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question, who are you? It's not like they didn't know
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who he was. I mean, John grew up in the
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streets of Jerusalem. John grew up with all these
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other priests and Levites and Pharisees.
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They all, they all went to school together.
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They played together in the streets.
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That's why they ask the question, who are you?
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It's more like, who do you think you are?
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The Christ? Who do you think you are?
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Elijah? Who do you think you are?
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The prophet. But you see, he was lying to be
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a priest. And so it breeds believability.
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He was a prophet. It breeds credibility.
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But there's one more John, unlike other priests, was a
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protester. And because he was a protester,
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it would breed integrity. Because, you see, he protested
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the hypocrisy of Judaism. He protested the hypocrisy of
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the Pharisees and the scribes and the Levites.
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He would speak against, He would live against.
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He would even dress unlike the priests.
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He, he would wear. He would wear camel skin.
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Have you, have you ever been around a camel?
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I have. I've rode several camels.
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Camels smell to high heaven. Unlike any other animal.
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They smell atrocious and, and their hair is, is like a wire
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brush. It's not like a, a fluffy dog
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where you would lay down with them and, and put your head on
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their chest. And why say why this is so soft
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and and cuddly? No, they're camels.
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They're not comfortable at all. But this is John's outerwear.
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I'm not sure how he was able to get the stench out of the
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camel's skin. I'm not sure he could ever do
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that. I think it was just wrapped in
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it. And so wherever he went, he
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smelled like a camel. But his whole life was to
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protest the hypocrisy of the religious establishment.
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That's why he dressed the way he did.
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That's why he ate what he ate, and that's why he said what he
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did. Completely different man.
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This was John. And so John the Apostle uses
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John the Baptist as the primary testimony to presenting the
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preeminence of the light because not only is he the forerunner,
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he is the prophet, He is the priest.
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He is the protester who actually breeds credibility,
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believability, and integrity so that people would begin to
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understand who the Christ is based on the testimony of this
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one man and his legacy. And this is John's legacy, to
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present the preeminence of the light.
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So John 5 says that he was a burning shining light.
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And Jesus says at first you rejoiced in that light.
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At first you were excited about the light at first, but after a
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while saw a couple of weeks ago you thought John had a demon.
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But this is John the Baptist. And so I thought today and next
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week we would ask this question, how?
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How does John reflect the light so he shines so bright?
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And then we would ask the question, why did John reflect
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the light? Because they ask and answer the
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why. And the how is to ask and answer
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the question on how you and I reflect the light and why we
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should reflect the light. But the Bible calls us the light
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of the world. John says I am not the light,
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but I came to testify about the light.
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So all may believe, but the least in the Kingdom is greater
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than the greatest man. Whoever lived, that's you and
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me. And that's because we are the
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light. The Bible says you are the light
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of the world. You are the salt of the earth
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and we are to we are to let that light shine so that others will
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see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.
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And so we are to shine brightly for Christ that that's that's
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part and parcel to our legacy. We are we are to present the
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preeminence of the light by being the light of the world by
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being the salt of the earth. In fact, the Bible says in and
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Peter that we are partakers of the divine nature and God is
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light and the light lives within us.
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So part of our DNA is the light of the world.
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That's part of our identity. And that light is to shine
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brightly. Paul would say we're to walk as
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children of the light. Ephesians 5 verse #8 We're to
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walk brightly as children of the light.
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Why? Because when you begin to
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examine your legacy, that is what it is you're going to leave
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behind. It begins with a presentation,
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the opportunity to present the preeminence of the lights to all
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those round about you. That's what John did.
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So I'm going to make this really, really simple for you.
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I don't want to bring the cookies down to the bottom
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shelf. So all you got to do is take the
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word light, LIGHT in case you want to know how to spell it,
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and just write it down the side of your paper in which you are
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taking copious notes because you're great students of the
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Word and I know you love to take notes.
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And so just write the word light down the left hand side of your
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paper and I will show you how John the Baptist reflected the
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light. So you will know how to reflect
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that same light. Because when you give glory to
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God, remember we are to give glory to the Lord.
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Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do alter the glory of
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the Lord, right? First Corinthians 10/31 And the
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glory of the Lord is what the the the presence of God
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manifested in brilliant light. So when we as believers give
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glory to to the Lord, we are reflecting the righteous
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radiance of our Redeemer in and through his redeemed.
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That's what it means to give glory to the Lord.
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You're going to reflect the, the, the, the righteousness of
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your Redeemer. So others will see the purity
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and the beauty and the holiness of Christ in your life that they
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might, as John said, believe. Believe.
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And that's the theme of John's Gospel, and that's the theme of
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your life and mine. We let our light shine so others
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may believe. So how did John reflect the
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light? Well, let me explain it to you.
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The first way was lovingly and longingly.
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Lovingly and longingly. Now, we wouldn't think of John
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as a loving person necessarily. Oh, but he was.
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Why would you? Please remember this?
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Love is giving people what they need, not what they want.
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But we think we love because we give to people what they want.
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We think we love our children because we give to them what
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they want. Probably when you do that, you
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show you don't love them because loving is giving people what
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they need. And what did Israel need?
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They needed to see the lights. They needed to hear the hear the
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gospel. Now remember when John is
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speaking, the world is engulfed in darkness.
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John 3 verse #19 They walked in darkness.
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They lived in darkness, right? We, we live in a world that's
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dark and that world that's dark needs to see the light of the
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gospel. Remember, John was a, a voice
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crying in the wilderness. And yes, he was for location
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purposes in the wilderness. He was in the Judean wilderness.
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He was down by Bethany in the Jordan.
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Now think about that. That's a 40 minute drive by car.
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How long do you think it would take people to walk from
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Jerusalem to Bethany, beyond the Jordan, down below Jericho, if
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they were to make that that track or that journey in a day
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long time? And they were coming down by the
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thousands, by the scores of thousands to be baptized in the
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Jordan River. So it wasn't like they could
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just get in the car and and drive down to the Jordan and get
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baptized. They have cars, they had to
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walk. So they wanted to hear this
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prophet. They wanted to see this priest.
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They wanted to understand this protester.
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So they made this journey, this 30, the 35 mile journey from
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Jerusalem because the Bible says that all of Jerusalem was coming
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down to be to be baptized in the Jordan.
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But you see, John the Baptist loved his people.
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He loved them enough to give them the gospel.
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He loved them enough to give them the truth.
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He loved them enough to speak to them in a way that they needed
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to hear the truth. So when he reflected the light,
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he did it lovingly. In fact, when they asked about
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repentance, listen what he says in verse 10 of Luke 3, the
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crowds were questioning him, saying what shall we do?
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You want us to repent and be baptized, What do we do?
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He would answer and say to them, the man who has two tunics is to
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share with him who has none in the US.
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Food is to likewise. And some tax collectors also
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came to be baptized and they said to him, Teacher, what shall
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we do? You want us to be baptized?
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What does that mean? He says collect no more than
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what you have been ordered to because tax gathers would
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collect more for their own purposes.
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Some soldiers were questioning him saying and what about us,
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what shall we do? He said to them, do not take
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money from anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely and be
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content with your wages. Very lovingly, very kindly, he
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would speak to them and tell them you want to repent.
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You want to turn from your ways. Think about the other person
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because the, the commandment of God is to, is to love him with
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all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love your
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neighbor as yourself. So therefore show your your love
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to them. If you're truly going to repent
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of your sins, you're going to love your neighbor almost as if
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to say as as I love you enough to tell you the truth.
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But he did it lovingly and he did it longingly longingly.
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Why? Because he had waited a long
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time to be the forerunner. He waited a long time to be able
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to come out of the Judean desert and be able to proclaim the
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gospel of the Christ. Why?
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Because he lived in a state of expectation.
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He lived in a state of anticipation knowing that Israel
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was living in that same state. That's why it says back in in
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Luke chapter, chapter 3, verse 15.
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Now, while the people were in a state of expectation, why?
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Because they were longing for the expected one.
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Remember, that's a title for the Messiah.
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Psalm 118, Psalm 40. He's called the coming one or
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the expected one. That's why we talked to you
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about Luke 7, where, where John would come back when he was in
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prison and say, hey, are you the expected one?
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Are you the one that we've anticipated?
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Are you the coming one? Are you the one that we've
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longed for? Because when John would preach
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and teach, he would do it longingly.
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Why? Because there was a longing in
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this heart for not only his people to know the Messiah, but
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there was a longing in this heart for the King to come
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instead of his Kingdom. See the same way.
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For for you and me, we reflect the light lovingly and longingly
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because we live in a state of expectation of Christ's coming.
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Again, we live in a state of expectation that Christ could
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come at any moments, and he's the King.
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So we live in anticipation of that coming King.
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And this was John. Not just longingly, not just
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lovingly, but John would reflect the light instinctively and
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incessantly. Instinctively, John didn't have
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to to to work up a message then to think about what he was going
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to say because it was part and parcel to his, his DNA.
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He, he was filled with the Spirit of God from his mother's
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womb. No one else ever was like that.
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So he was filled, controlled by the Spirit of God from his
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mother's womb, so that so that everything about his life would
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be under the control and domination of God's Spirit that
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would move him through life. So that he would instinctively
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always speak about the Christ, always present the preeminence
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of the light. So he did.
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Oh, by the way, the Bible says in action to one verse #8 that
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when you receive the Spirit of God, right, power will come upon
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you when you receive the Spirit, and you will be my witnesses,
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then say you will do witnessing, because we don't do witnessing.
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We are witnesses. It's part of our DNA.
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You don't become a witness, you are a witness.
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You don't become light, you are light.
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You don't become salt, you are salt.
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This is who we are, this identity.
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So when the Spirit of God comes upon you, you will receive
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power. And once you receive that power,
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you will become someone. What a witness, John says.
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I'm a witness. I came to testify to the truth.
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It's what I do. When we become believers and
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we're infused with the Spirit of God, we become witnesses.
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And so we are able to reflect the light instinctively.
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It's what we do. It's who we are, but not only
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instinctively, but incessantly. This is what John did.
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If you go back to John chapter one in verse 19, it says this is
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the testimony of John when the Jews sent to him priests and
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Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, who are you?
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OK, that's day one. Day 2 is verse 29.
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The next day he saw Jesus coming to him.
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Day three is verse 35. Again.
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The next day John was standing. So.
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So John the Apostle gives us 3 consecutive days in the life of
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John the Baptist to show you the incessant nature of his
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presenting, the preeminence of the light.
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It was something that he was always doing because his whole
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life was consumed about describing one person and the
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purpose he came. That's what John did.
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That's who he was. That's why the Bible says preach
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the word in season and out of season.
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That's because the Word is always in season.
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It's never out of season. It's always available, it's
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always there, and we are to live a life that incessantly promotes
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nothing but the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So this is John who's a testimony, a witness to the
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light. His legacy is to present the
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preeminence of the light. He does it lovingly, he
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longingly, He does it instinctively and incessantly.
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Listen to this one. He does it graphically and
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graciously or gracefully. He does it graphically.
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And this is so important because John calls out sin, calls it for
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what it is, because he knows that the wages of sin is death.
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He knows that all of sin then come short of the glory of God.
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So he's very graphic on how he portrays sin.
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That's why he says to the Pharisees, you are snakes,
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you're snakes, you're a brood of Vipers.
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He tells them who told you to flee from the wrath to come
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because you're about to experience the wrath of God,
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see, because he knew the judgement was coming.
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You compare John's reflecting of the light to our reflecting of
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the light. We've come to a place where we
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we want to present the lights in a way that's non judgmental, non
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confrontational. You can't do that because when
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you present the gospel, it confronts every Sinner in their
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sin. So you can't water down the
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gospel to appease the Sinner. You have to tell him that
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judgment is coming and that if they're not right with Christ,
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their soul will be damned forever.
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And you call them into account. And John would very graphically,
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yet very gracefully present the preeminence of the lights.
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And we'll talk more about that next week.
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Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today
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and the brief opportunity we had this morning to look at the word
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of the Lord. Thank you for John's testimony.
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That legacy that he is, he is left.
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Our prayer, Father, is that we'd recognize that legacy and live
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in line with it, that we might leave a legacy that impacts
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those round about us. Pray, Father, you'd be honored
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and glorified. And for those who are here today
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and do not know you, we pray for their salvation.
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They would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ our
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Lord, that they might be able to present the preeminence of the
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light. Pray this in Jesus name, Amen.