Latest / Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services / Living Waters of Grace, April 9th, 2026

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Living Waters of Grace, April 9th, 2026 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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Your standard is the Holy One of Israel, the God of the universe,
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the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't compare to him, right?
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There's no way you can stand beside him and say, well, I'm
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just like him. I'm just as good as him.
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We all have fallen short of the glory of God, the Bible says.
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And then when we begin to understand and see that, all the
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sudden the light bulb goes on in our mind and we say, I need a
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savior. I can't do this myself.
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And so, by the grace of God, we begin to be convicted, and we
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ask the Lord to come into our lives and to save us and have
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mercy upon us. When food coloring is added to a
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glass of water, it becomes nearly impossible to make the
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water clear again. You have to pour all the water
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out to make it new. Today, Pastor Clark says you
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must remember that you'll never be anything without Jesus.
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He took all your sins to the cross.
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Without Him, you are condemned to death.
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But with him, you're allowed to be with him for eternity.
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Jesus took all the sin that made you dirty to the cross.
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Trust and believe that he's Lord.
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Let him guide your life. Now.
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Here's Pastor Clark in Revelation chapter 12 with
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today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
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Verse 13 and 16 through 16 is discussing the issues of what's
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going to happen in the last days, the last 3 1/2 years of
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the Tribulation in regard to the nation of Israel.
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And there's a lot of different views on Israel in these last
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days in regard to God's plan and purpose for that nation.
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We believe that God still has a purpose to fulfill with the
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nation of Israel, and we believe that when Christ comes back and
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the second coming, he'll establish his Kingdom for 1000
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years, the millennial reign of Christ, and Christ will rule and
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reign on the earth for those thousand years.
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But there's a big attack it seems today toward the nation of
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Israel, the Jews in particular, because of the anti-Semitic
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tendencies of all the nations of the earth.
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Israel is the most hated country in the world today.
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More countries are focused on the destruction of Israel today
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more so than ever before. And we know that the evil one
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has worked since the beginning and the garden to try to stamp
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out the seed that was to come of the Lord Jesus Christ and to
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prevent him from fulfilling his his desire and his goal to come
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and die on behalf of the human race, the sins of the world.
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We also know that the Jews have been attacked throughout the
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church history and in modern times as well with the abuses of
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Adolf Hitler and what he did to that nation and to the people.
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And the Antichrist is going to be even more hateful and
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vindictive and destructive toward this nation.
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And even Adolf Hitler, the dragon was enraged.
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The dragon is the Antichrist with the woman.
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The woman is the allegory, the picture of the nation of Israel.
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And he went to make war with the rest of her offspring.
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That's all the descendants, believing and unbelieving
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descendants that are still alive during this time of the
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tribulation. And he's going to keep who keep
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the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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So primarily the remnant, all those who are going to come to
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know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord during this tribulation.
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There's going to be a lot of people who who get saved during
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this time. And the devil hates Christ.
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He hates people who follow Christ.
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And so his whole goal and desire is to completely exterminate the
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the nation of Israel. It can't happen because God is
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watching over that nation. It's impossible for that nation
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to be destroyed, but it will be suffering a lot of difficulty as
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we move toward the final 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation.
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Now, this plan that God has for the nation of Israel has been
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centered in the person of Jesus Christ before the foundation of
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the earth. The Bible tells us that Jesus is
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a lamb that was slain before the foundation of the earth.
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It's just incredible, the plan of God when you think about it.
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God knew that when He created us, we would fall.
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He knew that His Son would be the Redeemer and that he would
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come and become one of us in the likeness of our flesh, being
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fully God and fully human and taking upon himself the sins of
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the world, dying on behalf of those who put their faith and
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trust in Jesus Christ. So God has always worked with a
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remnant since the beginning of time.
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Today, if you're here and you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you
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can be really excited that you're part of the remnant,
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you're part of the plan of God before the foundation of the
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earth. The Bible tells us that Paul the
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apostle who abused Christians for a great many years in his
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life before he had his Damascus Rd. experience.
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It's interesting, the Bible said that this man was chosen before
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the foundation of the world in his mother's womb to be
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separated to be an apostle. But all those years he was this
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vindictive and hateful toward, you know, anybody that would
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proclaim the truth of the Messiah and Jesus Christ.
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And so God has always worked through a remnant to accomplish
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his purposes. Way back in the Old Testament,
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he started with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all their
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descendants. It said through this seed, the
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seed that came through that race and that particular people
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group, God said through them all the nations of the earth shall
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be blessed. And so we want to look a little
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bit about Israel today, just so we're on the same page, so to
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speak, as to what we believe is a church.
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And I'd like you to flip over to Romans Chapter 9, verse 27,
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Romans Chapter 9, verse 27. And today we're going to
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highlight God's plan for this, this small little part of the
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world over there, this nation called Israel and God's
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intentions for it in the days ahead.
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This is Isaiah crying out concerning Israel.
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Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet who was given the
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anointing of God to speak forth to the nation regarding the
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purposes of God in the last days.
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And it says through the number of the children of Israel,
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although they be as a sand of the sea, the remnant will be
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saved. So all the millions upon
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millions upon millions of people who have ever lived.
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God has a specific number of people, the remnant in Israel
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that will be saved for he will finish the work and cut it short
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in righteousness, because the Lord will make a short work upon
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the earth. As Isaiah said before, unless
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the Lord of the Sabbath had left us a seed, we would have become
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like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah.
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So the the understanding that if God didn't do this by His mercy
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for these people, every one of them would have been destroyed.
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They admitted that they would have gone the way of Sodom and
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Gomorrah, but the Lord in His mercy didn't leave them without
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a seed. And what shall we say then?
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That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained the
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righteousness, even the righteousness of faith.
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But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained
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the law of righteousness. Why?
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Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by the
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works of the law. For they stumbled at the
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stumbling stone as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion,
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a stumbling stone, a rock of offense.
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And whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.
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So Jesus, when he came, remember, he said I've come to
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my own and my own receive me, not they.
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They didn't recognize him as a Messiah and God at that time
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wasn't put off in the sense, well, forget Israel, you know,
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I'll find another group of people.
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I'll work with the Gentiles and basically Israel's going to be
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destroyed. God just set them aside for a
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period of time because of the hardness of their heart.
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And if you study throughout the Old Testament, Israel has been
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hard hearted and stiff necked throughout biblical history,
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whenever God brought him through the flood with Moses and
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delivered them from the bondage of Pharaoh in Egypt.
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I mean, these people saw miracles, exciting things.
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I mean they visibly saw the power of God and they get
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through it and, and things begin to get a little bit difficult.
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They don't like the way things are going and they complain and
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they say they were better off before they were delivered.
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They were better off back in Egypt and Moses having to deal
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with these stiff necked people. This is as pastors have to deal
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with stiff neck people, you guys stiff neck.
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But it's just the way it is since the beginning of time.
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And you can't look at Israel and say, boy, those people real
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fools. And they were like, you know, we
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all have a tendency at times to like have 4 heads of bronze.
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We want it our way. And we're not going to listen to
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God even though we know we should.
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And we know he loves us and he blesses us.
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And still at times we demand and want our own way.
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So that that's not, that's not a healthy thing, obviously.
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But God in his mercy began to work with the Gentiles, the
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mercy of God, when Israel decided that they don't think
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that Jesus is a Messiah. Jesus didn't stop his plan of
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redemption just because the lack the nation of Israel turned
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their back on Him. He opened this wonderful plan up
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to every human being. There's no distinction between
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Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female, bond or slave.
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We've all been made to drink together the same spiritual
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drink, which is Jesus Christ. So aren't you glad that God had
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another plan? He just didn't finish it and
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say, well, my own people don't want me.
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So that's it. I'll just ZAP myself up to
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heaven and destroy the earth. No, God had a heart and has a
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heart for everybody, every race, every people group.
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But he has a distinct plan for Israel.
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Now Israel, if you, if you study in the Old Testament, they were
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given the law, the law, the 10 commandments, the Torah, the
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first five books of the Bible put down to show us the holiness
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of God, that no man, no matter how much he tries, could ever
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attain to perfection and being accepted by God by obeying the
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law because we all have broken it, right.
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We've all broken the law. But Jews have to this day,
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especially those who are still practicing, think somehow they
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can attain to their own righteousness by fulfilling all
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those mandates of, of, of the Torah, the law.
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And it's, it's very, very intense if you study all the
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details of what's expected of them.
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I mean, there's no way anybody could fulfill that.
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And God knew that we couldn't, and that's why He sent his Son
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to fulfill the law for us. He's the only one that lived a
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perfect life that before the Father on our behalf could say
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he never sinned. Of course, He's God in the
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flesh, impossible to sin, and He took upon himself the sin that
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you and I deserve, stood in our place as a perfect sacrifice, a
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perfect Lamb of God. That's what John the Baptist
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said when he saw and behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the
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sins of the world. Up until that point, the Old
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Testament sacrifices couldn't do it.
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The high priest in the Day of Atonement could not do it.
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It was all temporal picture of the picture of Christ the
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Messiah who was to come. And so the Jews to this day
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though the self righteousness of thinking somehow and even
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Gentiles, a lot of people in the world today think that they can
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be accepted by God because they live a good life.
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I talk to people all the time about their souls and they'll
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say, well, I'm pretty good. I'm not too bad.
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Well, pretty good and not too bad.
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According to who? According to me, if I'm your
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standard, yeah, you're probably better than me.
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But if your standard is the Holy one of Israel, the God of the
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universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, you can't compare to him, right?
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There's no way you can stand beside him and say, well, I'm
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just like him. I'm just as good as him.
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We all have fallen short of the glory of God, the Bible says.
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And then when we begin to understand and see that, all of
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a sudden the light bulb goes on in our mind and we say, I need a
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Savior, I can't do this myself. And so by the grace of God, we
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begin to be convicted and we ask the Lord to come into our lives
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and to save us and have mercy upon us.
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Now if you flip over to Galatians chapter 3, this is the
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issue of the problem in regard to the idea that man can somehow
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attain his own righteousness by fulfilling the works of the law.
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This is Galatians chapter 3 verse one.
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It says oh foolish Galatians and God could speak to us this
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morning and say oh foolish Calvary Chapel people, who has
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bewitched you or deceived you that you should not obey the
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truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed
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among you as crucified. This only I want to learn from
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you. Did you receive the Spirit by
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the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?
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Big question there. Did you receive the Spirit, the
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Holy Spirit, by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?
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Paul tells us faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word
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of God. He tells us it's by grace.
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We've been saved through faith, and this is not of ourselves.
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It's a gift of God, right? Not of work.
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So none of us can boast. So the answer to the question
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obviously would be if we're really tracking with what Paul's
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teaching here is it I received the Spirit of God.
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I received salvation, I received the person of Jesus Christ by
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the word of God and by hearing the word of God.
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And faith was given to me by God by his grace and not by anything
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that I could ever have done on my own.
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He says, are you so foolish in verse 3, having begun in the
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Spirit, you're now being made perfect by the flesh.
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When you begin to see God's plan, it takes pressure off
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because you're thinking, who am I to try to impress God in my
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own ability or your ability? The only person that impresses
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God is his Son. That's the only one that could
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redeem us. Now we want to live in the
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likeness of his Son, to hear well done, good and faithful
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servant, which Paul says is the least we can do after all that
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Christ has done for us. But it's all of Christ, right?
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It's all of grace. It's all of what he's done, His
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mercy. And so when I look at the
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Christian life and I'm endeavoring to live a holy life
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and to live pleasing before the Lord, I don't do this by my own
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works of righteousness, my promises to God, or I'll try
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better, or I'll do this because we all fail.
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I live for God when I'm thinking clearly by the power of the Holy
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Spirit. And you do too, Christ in you
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the hope of glory, not by might, not by power, but by my spirit,
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saith the Lord of hosts. And what happens to us in our
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Christian lives? We get so weighed down at times
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and we like all I'm just not passionate about the Lord
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anymore and I don't want to read his word and, and I don't, you
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know, I don't, I, I know I should be involved or plugged in
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and serve and whatever, but I just don't have the energy and
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I'm lukewarm and I'm backslidden.
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And we, we make all these excuses of God and God's like,
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but what's your problem? I mean, you know, what do you
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expect? You think you're going to do
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something? No, it's through the power of
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the Spirit, by faith. And so we ask God to do for us,
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in US, through us, what there's no way we could do ourselves.
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That's why Paul said be filled with the Spirit, walk in the
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Spirit. It's a command.
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Be energized in your daily life by the Spirit, because what the
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flesh profits nothing. Have you tried to prop up your
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humanness, your your fleshly abilities to try to do something
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for God? It doesn't work man.
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And it's something we all have to fight against every day of
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our life because it's just, it's just, it seems like it's endemic
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in human nature to somehow want to justify itself by its
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so-called self righteousness. You know when someone criticizes
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you for something or they make a statement to you about
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something, some failing in your life or weakness, are you
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insulted? And your ire goes up and you
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think, well, who are they to tell me about whatever self
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righteousness because you're wanting to prove to someone else
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that you're better than you really are, instead of just
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saying, hey, you're, you're right.
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I'm even worse than that. That's freeing, you know?
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And then say, but pray for me so that God can work in me, so that
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I can be what He's intended in me to be, not by my own
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abilities, but by the work of the Holy Spirit in and through
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my life. And so he says in verse 4, Have
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you suffered so many things in vain?
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If indeed it was vain, Therefore he who supplies a spirit to you
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and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of
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the law, or by the hearing of faith?
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Question again, just as Abraham believed God and it was
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accounted to him for righteousness, therefore know
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that only those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham.
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So when you look at all the Jews who have ever lived throughout
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the course of history, those who are part of the remnant in the
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Old Testament and the New Testament, who have believed in
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the Messiah to come by faith, are justified.
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Abraham for sure never proved to you or me by his life that he
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was perfect, nor did he ever make a statement that he was
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accepted to God, accepted by God because of what he's done, but
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because of what Christ has done. And he's noted in the book of
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Hebrews as the father of faith. And so it says the Scripture
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foretelling that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
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preach the gospel to Abraham beforehand, before Christ was
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even born, saying in you all the nations shall be blessed.
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So Abraham's out there that night, and God gives him a
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vision, shows him the stars, and it says as as the stars in this
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heaven, and as the grains of sand in the sea, so shall be my
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descendants, those who believe in that Messiah.
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This is Abraham has. And so the Scriptures for seeing
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this would justify the Gentiles by faith.
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Preach the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, in you all
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the nation shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith
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are blessed with believing Abraham, there's only one way to
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get to heaven. And Jesus said you must be born
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again If you flip over to John chapter 3.
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For some of us, it seems somewhat elementary, but if
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you're dragging around your human carcass trying to live the
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Christian life, you need to be reminded, as I did, that you and
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I, if we're Christians today, didn't get here by something we
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worked up in ourselves. It was a miracle.
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And if you remember back when the Holy Spirit came into you
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and you were born again, wasn't life exciting the Christian
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life? Wasn't it exhilarating, huh?
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I mean, you just couldn't wait to tell people about what the
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Lord's done for you. You were yakking and blabbing
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and wanting to grab everybody and take him into heaven.
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And then what happens so many months or years later?
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You're. Oh, yeah, the good old days when
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I was born again. I remember that I was really on
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fire. And boy, I wish I could go back
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to those days. Well, you can go back to those
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days, get rid of trying to do it in the flesh and ask the Holy
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Spirit to fill you again and control you and empower you.
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And when the. Spirit empowers us.
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Life gets thrilling again and exciting.
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And I can talk about this by experience.
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I got saved when I was 20 and long, long pilgrimage of ups and
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downs and walking in my own humanness and my weakness and my
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flesh. And I'm learning, as you know,
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as I go on a little more every day, to really believe it when
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the Lord says it's not by Mike Clark, not by your human
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ability, it's not by your power, it's not by your intentions,
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it's not by your obsessive compulsive behavior, it's not by
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anything but by my spirit, saith the Lord.
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And it takes the pressure off me guy, and you guys too.
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I mean, if you're here today and you know, you know that it's
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been a long time since you've drunk from that fountain of life
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that brings living water to your soul.
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It's here today. He's here, It's him, He's
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available. And all you got to do is say,
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Lord, I've been trying to do this myself again, and I'm
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giving up. And the Lord's not going to say,
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what do you mean you're giving up?
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You can't give up. I'm depending on you.
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I need you got the Lord's a good.
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Now I can take over. Yeah, well, now we can begin to
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get some things accomplished because I'm in charge, not you.
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So Jesus says you must be born again.
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He's speaking to this guy in verse one Pharisee name
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Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. And the man comes to Jesus by
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night. And this is a Jewish leader.
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He's A and he's a servant in the in the fair recidical movement.
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And he addresses Jesus as rabbi teacher.
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We know that you're a teacher coming from God, for no one can
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do these things that you do unless God is with him.
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And Jesus answered him and said, most assuredly, I say to you,
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unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
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He wasn't talking to him about obeying the law and fulfilling,
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fulfilling the law. He was talking to him about
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something he never heard in his life before.
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He said, and Nicodemus says to him, how can a man be born when
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he is old? Can he enter a second time into
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his mother's wombs and womb and be born?
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And Jesus answered most assuredly I say to you, unless
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one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the
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Kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is
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flesh, and that which is born a spirit is spirit.
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Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again.
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The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it,
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but cannot tell where it comes from, where it goes.
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So is everyone who is born of the spirit.
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And Nicodemus answered and said, How can these things be?
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And Jesus answered to him and said to him, are you the teacher
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of Israel and you do not know these things?
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Isn't that interesting? The blind leading the blind?
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How many churches a day on a Sunday throughout the earth are
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trying to tell the people they got to get better, they got to
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work harder, they got to do this and they got to do that and
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they're condemned and they're beaten down and they're walking
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out, man, I got to do, I'm such a loss.
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I just can't do it. And instead of the shepherds
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taking the load off and Jesus said my yoke is easy and my
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burden is light right coming learn to me all you that labour
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and are heavy laden. I'm that isn't my guilt trip.
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That isn't what I'm giving you. Learn of me, for my yoke is easy
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and my burden is light. And Jesus is saying you're a
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teacher of Israel and you don't know these things.
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Most surely I say to you, we speak what we know and we
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testify what we've seen, and you do not receive our witness.
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And there's a struggle in society and Christian society
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today of a group of people that believe in works righteousness
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and a group of people that believe in grace.
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And Paul couldn't have gone any clearer in Ephesians 289.
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For by grace you've been saved right through faith, and this is
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not of yourselves. It's what a gift of God, not of
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works, lest any man should boast.
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Thanks for being with us today here on Living Waters of Grace.
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We are in the Book of Revelation and we find it fascinating how
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influential and involved the angels are in this book.
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They bring about whatever it is that God has instructed them to
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do, but it's through their actions that much of the
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judgements come on the earth. The angels are in submission to
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God as their authority, but He utilizes them in unique ways
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throughout this book. Like angels have a specific
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purpose from God, you have a unique purpose and plan to.
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God wants to use you in your life as a testimony to others
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and to bring others who are currently lost into the fold of
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God. God would love more than
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anything for all who are willing to come to Him for salvation,
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but He wants it to be their choice, not a forced situation.
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This is the way God works, not forcing himself on anyone, but
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giving each person free will. If you're interested in learning
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about this choice that's free and that it's a gift, go to
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calvarychapelonline.com and click on the About Us tab and
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then find the link for what we believe.
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We'd love to be a help and a resource for you as you walk
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through what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
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If you find the contact tab on our website, you can get in
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touch with us or submit a prayer request.
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We'd love to hear from you. That's all for today's edition
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in Revelation, but there's much more that Pastor Clark plans to
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share with us from this culminating book of the Bible.
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Stay tuned for that and make sure to mention this radio
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program to others. Invite them to tune in to Grace
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FM 91.7 FM and they can stream worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM.
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This has been living waters of Grace.