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Mark 7:14-23 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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Amen. Please take out your copy of God's Word and turn to the Gospel according to Mark chapter 7.
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The Gospel of Mark chapter 7. Our text for today will be verse 14 through verse 43.
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! But before we get to reading that, let me just remind you that this is the summation of Jesus' Galilean ministry.
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He's no longer going to journey about the region of Galilee, preaching any longer.
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He's about to, you'll notice in verse 24, go off to the region of Tyre and Sidon, which is on the coast of the Mediterranean,
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never to return and preach in Galilee again.
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And I think, fittingly, he closes up his time with a very important message,
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and that is a message of proper worship of God.
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And we addressed last week, if you'll notice in chapter 7, verse 7,
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he says of the scribes and the Pharisees and all of Israel,
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in vain do they worship me.
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This is a prophecy from Isaiah 29, 13, and certainly it was being fulfilled in this day.
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In vain do they worship me because they were hypocritical,
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because they had their hearts distant from God,
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and because they placed the tradition of men above the commandment of God.
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This vain worship was such a concern in Jesus' time, just as it is in our time,
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that Jesus then addresses the larger crowd in our text together.
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So let's read together.
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Mark chapter 7, beginning in verse 14.
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And he called the people to him again and said to them,
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Hear me, all of you, and understand.
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There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him,
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but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
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And when he had entered the house and left the people,
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his disciples asked him about the parable.
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And he said to them,
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Then are you also without understanding?
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Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him,
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since it enters not his heart, but his stomach, and is expelled?
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Thus he declared all foods clean.
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And he said,
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What comes out of a person is what defiles him.
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For from within, out of the heart of man,
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come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness,
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deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
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All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.
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This is God's word to us.
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It's written for his glory and our good.
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We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and obey its commands.
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Let's pray together.
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Father God, it is certainly true that we need you in every hour of every day.
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Lord, that we ask that you would come close to us now,
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because we certainly need you in the hearing and understanding,
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the application of your word to us.
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We thank you for it,
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that you passed it down through all the ages,
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that we might open it and read it in our language,
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and commune with you in the study of it.
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Father, have your way with us this morning.
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Accomplish exactly what you intend to accomplish with us.
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Tear down barriers to your goodness in us.
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And we pray this in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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Amen.
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So, we observe here that Jesus continues this discourse on defilement.
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This was kind of the issue that was surrounding Jesus' accusation of the scribes and the Pharisees
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at the beginning of chapter 7,
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that some of the disciples weren't washing their hands.
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They weren't going through this extra-biblical ceremony
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that the people of that day thought defiled them,
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thought set them apart from God.
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The truth of it is that it didn't at all,
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but they thought that it did.
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And Jesus uses this example of Corban,
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things that were committed to God,
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was a tradition in the day.
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And the way that was put on top of the command of God,
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which was to honor your father and your mother.
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And so,
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so he broadens this.
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He continues this discourse on defilement with the larger crowd.
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We see this in verse 14,
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and he called the people to him again and said to them,
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hear me, all of you, and understand.
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Right?
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Such an important issue of the day that he draws everybody back together
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as he's had this side encounter with the scribes and the Pharisees.
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He then pulls everyone together
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and speaks this very simple and short parable to them that we find in verse 15.
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There's nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him,
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but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.
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And then he goes on to give further explanation of this comment to the disciples.
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Note verse 17,
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and when he had entered the house and left the people,
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his disciples asked him about the parable.
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And we now get this further explanation of that
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with the parenthetical statement on the part of Mark.
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Thus he declared all foods clean,
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that there were no longer things that people ate that set them apart from God,
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but now people could eat anything and it wasn't necessary for them to divide up what they could and couldn't eat.
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And for us to kind of wrap our minds around this,
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I think we need to first understand what was meant by defilement.
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What does it mean to be defiled?
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And this word in the Greek means to be dirty,
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to be unclean,
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to be impure,
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to be corrupt.
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It is a word used often in the New Testament
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and its Hebrew counterpart is used over 200 times in the Old Testament.
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But it wasn't merely an exterior purification that was necessary.
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In fact, the Levitical law was meant to teach us of our need of a deeper purification.
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The external purification was meant to show us of our need of a deeper purification,
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the purification of our hearts,
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because we cannot enter into the presence of God unless we have first been made clean.
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It was designed to point to a cleansing that would come through faith in Christ.
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We now, on this side of the Testaments, get to see that and understand that.
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The writer of Hebrews wrote in chapter 10, verse 19 through 22,
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Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
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by the new and living way that He opened for us through the curtain,
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that is, through His flesh,
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and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
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let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
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Let us draw into the presence of God with true hearts and full assurance of faith,
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with our hearts sprinkled clean from evil conscience,
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and our bodies washed with pure water.
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It is this internal cleanliness that we need.
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It's a changing of who we are that is necessary in order to be in relation with the Lord God.
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But the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Jewish culture at large
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had added literally hundreds, hundreds of extra laws to the Levitical law.
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And in that process, right?
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And I think in the well-motivated process of trying to stack on laws upon laws upon laws upon laws,
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they had lost the point altogether of what the Levitical law was meant to accomplish,
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which was to point us to Christ.
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You see, they believed that purity was an exterior issue and not an issue of the heart.
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And Jesus rebukes the Pharisees for this.
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He does it time and time again.
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Let me give you one example.
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Matthew chapter 23, verse 27 and 28.
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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
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For you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful,
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but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanliness.
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So you also outwardly appear righteous to others,
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but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
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Right?
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They had the appearance of righteousness.
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As far as anyone could observe, they lived rightly,
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but they were dead inside.
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They did not have changed hearts that worshipped God.
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This is a serious issue in our day as well.
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And I would venture to say that even amongst us,
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there are people who come and sit in our audience
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thinking that it somehow gains them merit with God.
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Insert joke about finals here, which Wes already took from me.
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Right?
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You would be better off studying this morning
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if you think that coming to church gains you favor with God
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so that you might do well on your finals.
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This is not the case.
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Right?
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The things that we do are an outflow.
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They're a response to what God has done already in our hearts.
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We do things because of who we are.
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And this is heart worship.
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This is what it means to worship God from the heart.
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And God requires of us heart worship.
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Deuteronomy 6.5.
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Do you guys all know it now?
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
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with all your soul, and with all your might.
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With all of our being we are meant to worship God.
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And how is this possible if we are born into sin,
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if we are utterly destroyed by sin,
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our image-bearing possibility has been torn down
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because of the effects of sin.
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We cannot bear the image of God apart from Christ because of sin.
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We are enemies of God apart from Christ.
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Do you remember the rare scribe, Mark chapter 12, 28 and 34?
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We spoke of him last week.
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And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another.
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And seeing that he answered them well,
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Jesus being answered them well,
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asked him,
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Which commandment is the most important of all?
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Jesus answered,
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The most important is,
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Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
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And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
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and with all your soul,
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and with all your mind,
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and with all your strength.
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Jesus expands for us what that looks like, our being.
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Verse 31,
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The second is this,
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You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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There is no other commandment greater than these.
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And the scribe said to him,
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You are right, teacher.
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You have truly said that he is one,
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and there is no other besides him.
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And to love with all the heart,
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with all the understanding,
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with all the strength,
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and to love one's neighbor as oneself
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is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
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It is outward worship.
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Right?
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Much more than all of those things.
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And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely,
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he said to him,
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You are not far from the kingdom of God.
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You see, the scribe understood it in his mind.
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He got the commandment of God in his mind,
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but it had yet to work into him and change his heart.
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He possessed the right knowledge,
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but he didn't possess heart change.
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I hope that this scribe was part of the kingdom soon after.
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Jesus teaches us that those who are part of the kingdom of God
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do not vary in degree,
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but in type.
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There's two types.
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There's not somewhere in between.
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I'm more holy than you are holy.
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That we're gaining our holy points,
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but we vary in types.
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You are a child of God,
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or you are an enemy of God.
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Those are the only two categories.
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Put different names on them if you wish.
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Those are the only two categories that you can live in.
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You are a child of God,
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or you are an enemy of God.
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There is no in between.
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This is something that I'm trying to teach my boys at a very early age.
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And Sam and I decided early on
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that we were going to use language
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when we punished them,
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and we're reconciling with them after the fact,
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after they were spanked and sobbed on the bed for a while,
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and we go into them to bring correction.
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And I'm confident that they don't understand a word I'm saying
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at this point in their lives.
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But I hope they do when I say to Cade,
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when I say,
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Cade, you are my son,
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and I love you.
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And that is why I want you to obey.
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If we are children of God,
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our response to God's love for us
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should be obedience to Him.
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Because we know He loves us.
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Because of our status.
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He is our Father.
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And I hope for my kids,
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I hope that they can get that with me,
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that there's nothing that they can do
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that will remove them from that.
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They will never stop being my sons,
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that I love them with an unconditional love,
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that I'm always seeking their good,
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not perfectly,
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because I'm fallen as well,
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but I'm always looking to their best interest,
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to the best of my ability,
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and as such,
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they should want to be obeyed.
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It should be the natural response
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of their status.
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I am a son of Nathan Rayner.
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Therefore, I obey,
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and I do what Nathan Rayner asks me to do.
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This is the way we function as believers,
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those who have regenerate hearts.
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We get some great metaphorical pictures of this.
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Luke chapter 6,
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verse 43 and 45.
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Jesus says,
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For no good tree bears bad fruit,
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nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit.
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For each tree is known by its own fruit.
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So see the category here is
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bad tree and good tree.
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For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes,
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nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush.
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The good person out of the good treasure of his heart
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produces good.
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And the evil person out of his evil treasure
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produces evil.
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For out of the abundance of the heart
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his mouth speaks.
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So you see,
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what we do is a result of who we are.
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What you do does not change who you are,
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but who you are changes what you do.
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Jesus used another plant metaphor
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in the parallel passage to today's
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in Matthew chapter 15,
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verses 10 through 14.
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And he says,
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And he called the people to him,
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and he said to him,
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Hear and understand.
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It is not what goes into the mouth
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that defiles a person,
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but what comes out of the mouth.
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This defiles a person.
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Then the disciples came and said to him,
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Do you know that the Pharisees were offended
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when they heard this saying?
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Of course they were.
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Of course they were offended
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because they thought all of their careful preparation
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and all their very, very careful observance
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of these extra laws that had been created
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is what made them righteous.
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It's what set them apart.
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It's what kept them from being defiled.
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Of course it was an offense to them.
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Verse 13,
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He answered,
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Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted
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will be rooted up.
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Let them alone.
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There are blind guides.
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And if the blind lead the blind,
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both will fall into a pit.
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Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted
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will be rooted up.
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Rooted up plants are destroyed.
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Listen to what Jeremiah says of our hearts
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before they are changed by the grace of our Lord.
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Jeremiah 17, 9,
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And the heart is deceitful above all things
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and desperately sick.
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Who can understand it?
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Jesus said in Mark 2, verse 17,
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Those who are well have no need of a physician.
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Those who see themselves as well.
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None of us are well.
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But those who see themselves as well
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have no need of a physician.
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But those who are sick,
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those who are humble,
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those who recognize their broken state,
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know that they need fixing.
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And then he says,
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I came not to call the righteous,
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but sinners.
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Jesus Christ is about the work
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of fulfilling the prophecy of Ezekiel.
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Where God spoke saying in Ezekiel 36,
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verse 24-28,
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I will take you from the nations
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and gather you from all the countries
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and bring you into my own land.
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I will sprinkle clean water on you
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and you shall be clean
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from all your uncleanliness
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and from all your idols.
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I will cleanse you.
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And I will give you a new heart
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and a new spirit I will put within you.
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And I will remove the heart of stone
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from your flesh
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and give you a heart of flesh.
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And I will put my spirit within you
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and cause you to walk in my statutes
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and be careful to obey my rules.
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You shall dwell in the land
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that I gave to your fathers
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and you shall be my people
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and I will be your God.
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I will give to you a new heart.
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I will cause you to walk in my ways.
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You see that it is our identity
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that affects how it is that we live.
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Proverbs 4.23 says,
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Keep your heart with all vigilance
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for from it flow the springs of life.
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So good fruit comes from good trees.
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Righteousness comes from people
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with changed hearts.
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Righteousness is the response
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of a heart changed by God.
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Now the opposite is also true.
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Jesus states it here for us
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in the negative.
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I've been saying it in the positive.
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Jesus states it for us here
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in the negative.
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In verse 15 and then 18-23.
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It seems a bit tongue-in-cheek even
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that He says in verse 18,
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Do you not see what will go into a person
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from the house that cannot defile him?
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Since it doesn't enter into his heart
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but a stomach and it's expelled
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and the Greek here literally goes
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into the latrine.
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It passes through you.
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Right?
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It doesn't go into your heart.
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It just passes through you
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is what He's saying to us here.
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And then He gives us
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this list of things
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that come out of a person
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and those are the things
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that are the evidence
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of what kind of tree the person is.
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Right?
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It's an evidence of what their heart loves
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because they participate
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in these things.
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For from within,
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out of the heart of man,
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now just listen to these.
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I just want to read them to you slowly
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and just let these sink.
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Come, evil thoughts,
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sexual immorality,
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theft,
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murder,
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and remember Jesus says
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if you hate your brother,
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you've committed murder in your heart.
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Adultery,
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if you look on a woman with lust,
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you've committed adultery in your heart.
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Coveting,
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wickedness,
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deceit,
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sensuality,
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envy,
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slander,
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pride,
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and foolishness.
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Beloved,
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we are all guilty
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of all of these things.
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And proper,
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humble hearts,
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regenerate hearts,
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those who understand the gospel
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get this.
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I am guilty of these things.
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Praise God
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my righteousness comes from Christ.
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Praise God
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that He is working in me
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to make me new.
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I have a new heart
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and that overflows
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into righteous living.
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I don't do it perfectly,
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but that is the trajectory
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of my life.
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I'm headed away from sin
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and towards holiness.
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If you look at the graph
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of my life,
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it should be trending
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toward holiness.
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If you zoom in on any one moment,
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I can't guarantee
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that it would be.
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But if you look at it
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in a whole,
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I should be moving
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towards holiness,
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towards Christ-likeness.
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As with people
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who don't have changed hearts,
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we shouldn't be surprised
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when they sin.
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It shouldn't be a shock to us
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that they have forsaken
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the ways of God
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to follow their own passions
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and their own desires.
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It shouldn't shock us a bit
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when our co-workers,
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our classmates,
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our neighbors,
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our friends,
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our family members sin.
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It shouldn't shock us
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if they're not found
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in Christ.
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Because the unregenerate heart
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is a sin factory.
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That is what it's bent on doing.
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It's bent on generating sin,
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on doing things
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that say to God,
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I hate you.
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I don't want to submit myself
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to your ways.
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I want to live in my way.
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My way is better than your way.
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I want to be like a God.
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This is what the unregenerate heart does.
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And if this is the trajectory
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of your life,
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if it doesn't lead away
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from these things
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listed here in verse 22 and 23,
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right,
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our evil thoughts,
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sexual immorality,
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theft, murder, adultery,
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coveting, wickedness,
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deceit, sensuality,
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envy, slander, pride, foolishness,
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right,
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then you are defiled.
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That's your stance.
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It's where you exist.
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That is your unclean.
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You're not set apart
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for the worship of God.
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You can't be in relationship
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with Him
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because you are dirty.
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If your life
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is generally characterized
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by any of the things
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our Lord has listed here,
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then this is the evidence
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that you are a bad tree.
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You are a bad tree.
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If you're a bad tree
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which produces evil,
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then you're not one
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of God's trees.
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You're not a child of God,
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but rather an enemy of God.
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And how damning it is
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to be an enemy of God.
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What a frightful end you have
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if you are an enemy of God.
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God is love.
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He has extended to us grace
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in Jesus Christ.
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We can have our image-bearing possibility
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restored in Jesus.
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God has done so much
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to lavish love on this world.
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In fact,
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He does it in every way
21:08
in every day.
21:09
His sustaining grace,
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the fact that any of us
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woke up this morning,
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whether we're a child of God
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or an enemy of God
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and breathed air
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and were automatically
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thrown into a pit of hell,
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is His extension
21:20
of His love and grace.
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I hate when the wrath of God
21:23
is preached that people say,
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well, but God is love.
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Of course He's love.
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He's done so many things
21:29
to show His great love for us.
21:31
Stop for a moment
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and count for blessings.
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Even if you think there are few,
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there are so many.
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They abound to us
21:35
in every way.
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But God must punish sin.
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For those of us found in Christ,
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He punished it in Christ.
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He didn't just dismiss it.
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It must be punished.
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He punished it in Christ
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on our behalf.
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If you're not found in Christ
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at the end of all things,
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you will bear the wrath of God
21:55
for your sin.
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This is a scary thing.
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I would plead with you
21:58
to avoid this judgment.
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In a broadening metaphor,
22:03
Jesus says that anyone
22:04
that persists in doing evil
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does not abide in Him.
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John 15, 6.
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If anyone does not abide in Me,
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he is thrown away
22:12
like a branch and withers.
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And the branches are gathered,
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thrown into the fire,
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and burned.
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If this is your final resting state,
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you will know in that day,
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you'll fully comprehend and get
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that the only thing
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that put you there
22:27
was your unbelief.
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This will be the damning thing for you,
22:31
will be your unbelief.
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You will not blame God for it
22:34
in that day.
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You will not stand in judgment over Him.
22:38
You will see Him as a right,
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a just judge,
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properly punishing your sin.
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Repent and believe.
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Please repent and believe.
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This is an eternal matter
22:50
that we have before us.
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That we might have life
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and life everlasting.
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And not judgment everlasting.
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It's a serious, serious issue.
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And this is why sin is so serious.
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It's persistent sin
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that leads to death.
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Persistent sin leads to death.
23:12
And now hear what I'm saying here,
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that if your life has this trajectory of sin,
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that's an issue,
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that's an evidence
23:18
of where your heart is
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which leads to death.
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Right?
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If your trajectory is different than this,
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if you are hating sin
23:24
by the grace of God
23:25
and turning to Him,
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then this is not the trajectory of your life.
23:28
Then your heart is,
23:29
in fact,
23:30
regenerate.
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But persistent sin leads to death.
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And Jesus has stark words to say about it.
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Mark chapter 9,
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verse 43 through 48.
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And if your hand causes you to sin,
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cut it off.
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It is better for you to enter life
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crippled than with two hands
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to go to hell
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to the unquenchable fire.
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And if your foot causes you to sin,
23:51
cut it off.
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It is better for you to enter life
23:54
lame than with two feet
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to be thrown into hell.
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And if your eye causes you to sin,
23:59
tear it out.
23:59
It is better for you
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to enter the kingdom of God
24:01
with one eye
24:02
than with two eyes
24:03
to be thrown into hell
24:04
where their worm does not die
24:06
and the fire is not quenched.
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Cutting off your hand
24:11
and tearing out your eye
24:12
does not solve the issue of sin.
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Jesus is not suggesting to us
24:16
that we mutilate our bodies.
24:18
But what He is suggesting to us
24:20
is that we put to death
24:21
sin in our life
24:22
by the power of Jesus Christ.
24:24
This is what He's teaching us here.
24:27
Brian Hedges in his book
24:28
License to Kill says,
24:29
we will not exert
24:30
holy violence against our sins
24:31
until we're convinced
24:32
that they really are dangerous.
24:36
We're all so comfortable.
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We're all so lulled to sleep
24:42
by how easy life really is.
24:45
Sin is serious.
24:47
And there are serious consequences for it.
24:50
Please hear that
24:52
from the Word of God today.
24:54
There's encouragement
24:56
to those of us
24:57
who find ourselves in Christ
25:00
for the serious nature of sin.
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Paul says in Philippians 2,
25:03
verse 12 and 13,
25:04
Therefore, my beloved,
25:06
he's recognizing they are Christians,
25:07
as you have always obeyed,
25:09
so now,
25:10
not only as my presence,
25:11
but much more as my aspens.
25:12
Work out your own salvation
25:15
with fear and trembling.
25:17
Give evidence to the fact
25:19
that you are regenerate
25:20
by the things that you do.
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Be about the work of God,
25:24
proving time and time again
25:26
that He has given grace to your heart.
25:28
For it is God who works in you,
25:30
both to will and to work
25:32
for His good pleasure.
25:35
If sin is not being put to death
25:37
in your life,
25:38
then you are not God's.
25:41
Then you are not God's.
25:44
But you can be.
25:46
So don't hear me just speaking
25:47
condemnation down on you.
25:50
If you're not found in the faith,
25:51
if you're not a child of God,
25:53
I need to tell you I love you.
25:55
Don't go to hell.
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You have to leap over my body
25:58
to get there,
25:59
as Spurgeon said.
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Repent and believe.
26:03
Believe in the Gospel.
26:04
Believe that Christ
26:05
bore your wrath on the cross.
26:08
Ask that He would change your heart.
26:11
That He would make you new
26:12
day by day
26:13
into His image.
26:16
Believe that Jesus is
26:17
who He said He is.
26:18
He is the Christ,
26:19
the Anointed One,
26:21
the Son of God,
26:22
who came and took away
26:23
the sins of the world.
26:26
Examine yourselves.
26:28
2 Corinthians 13.5
26:29
Paul says,
26:30
Examine yourselves
26:31
to see whether you are in the faith.
26:33
Test yourselves,
26:34
or do you not realize
26:36
this about yourselves,
26:37
that Jesus Christ is in you,
26:39
unless indeed
26:41
you fail to meet the test.
26:44
Examine yourselves.
26:46
Ask God to search you,
26:48
to try you,
26:50
and to lead you.
26:52
Psalm 139, 23, and 24
26:55
says,
26:58
Search me, O God,
26:58
and know my heart.
27:01
Try me and know my thoughts,
27:04
and see if there be
27:05
any grievous way in me,
27:06
and lead me in the way everlasting.
27:08
Ask that God would expose to you
27:10
those things that you can't see yourself.
27:13
Ask that God would get inside of you
27:14
and shed light into dark places,
27:17
to see if there's anything
27:18
grievous in you
27:19
that you might repent and believe.
27:24
We want to find ourselves
27:25
in the state that John encourages
27:28
in 1 John 2, 28-29.
27:33
And now, little children,
27:36
abide in Him,
27:36
so that when He appears
27:38
we may have confidence
27:39
and not shrink from Him
27:40
in shame at His coming.
27:42
If you know that He is righteous,
27:44
you may be sure
27:45
that everyone who practices righteousness
27:47
has been born of Him.
27:51
Beloved, we have great charge
27:53
placed out before us.
27:55
A great deal of conformity
27:57
to bring ourselves in with.
27:59
There is so much teaching
28:00
in the Scriptures
28:01
about the things that we ought not do,
28:02
and the things that we should be doing.
28:04
But so many of us miss the point
28:06
that when we're not doing the things
28:07
we see the Scriptures teaching,
28:08
we've got to behavior change
28:10
or modification.
28:10
We've just got to get in there.
28:11
We've got to work a little bit.
28:12
We've got to do a little better.
28:13
We've got to do a little more.
28:14
When what needs to happen
28:15
is our hearts need to change.
28:17
Even those of us
28:18
who have regenerate hearts,
28:19
our hearts can grow cold sometimes
28:21
to the truth of the Gospel.
28:22
We can forget the realities of it.
28:24
We can stop believing it at times.
28:28
Stop understanding what it is
28:30
that God has done for us
28:31
in Christ.
28:34
Recognize that all sin
28:36
is an issue of the heart.
28:39
Who we are at our very core.
28:41
In our essence.
28:43
And the response
28:44
wherever you find yourself today,
28:47
wherever you find yourself,
28:48
is to repent of that sin
28:50
and to believe.
28:51
Turn from sin
28:52
and turn to God.
28:55
This is the call for those of you
28:56
who don't know
28:57
if you're found in Christ.
28:58
You don't know
28:59
where your eternal end is.
29:00
You may find
29:01
that you're feeling
29:02
some conviction
29:02
that it may be destruction.
29:04
That you have been living life
29:05
your way
29:06
and that your heart
29:07
has not changed.
29:08
The answer to you
29:08
is repent and believe.
29:11
Turn from your sin
29:12
and turn to God.
29:14
And for those of us
29:14
who find ourselves
29:15
in the faith,
29:17
as you mature in your faith,
29:19
you will realize
29:19
that our lives
29:20
are this constant cycle
29:21
of repentance and belief.
29:23
Messing up
29:23
and being made right.
29:24
And messing up
29:25
and being made right.
29:26
But at least we know
29:28
when we fall,
29:28
we fall in the right direction.
29:30
We know that our trajectory
29:32
is set heaven bound.
29:33
That we are being made
29:34
into the image of Christ.
29:37
It is a heart issue.
29:40
It's not what goes into us
29:41
that defiles us.
29:43
It's what comes out of us
29:45
that defiles us.
29:47
Let's pray together.
29:48
Thank you.
29:49
Thank you.