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We welcome all of you to the service tonight, especially those of you who may be visiting.

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We're pleased you've come during this Christmas season and we hope that you'll come and see

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us again and often.

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Jesus posed a question to his disciples on an occasion when he said to them, whom do

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men say that I am?

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Peter responded on behalf of the whole group and he said, you are the Christ, the Son of

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the living God.

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And Jesus acknowledged that Peter's answer was accurate.

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When I ask you a question, who do the people at your office, your place of employment,

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those in your neighborhood, who do they say that Jesus Christ is?

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If that question were literally posed to them, I'm sure you would get a variety of answers

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as to who he is.

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We believe that Jesus Christ is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, deity come in flesh.

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We believe that.

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We've been taught that most of us from our earliest years, but how do we show that to

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someone else?

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How do we open our Bible and take it as a means of undergirding and supporting and proving

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this doctrine which is essential to biblical Christianity, the deity of Jesus Christ?

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Last week we talked about the claims of Christ, claims which he himself made.

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First of all, his claim that God was his father, uniquely so.

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Secondly, his claim to sinlessness.

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Third, the claim of worship from men.

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Fourth, he claimed absolute authority over the laws and the institutions of God.

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And finally, he claimed that he was God.

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And we concluded that either he was a liar, a lunatic, or he was in fact the Lord of glory.

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And we know the answer to that, that he was the Lord, is the Lord, ever shall be the Lord.

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Tonight I want to move us to another thought regarding the proving of the deity of Jesus

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Christ and think about his character.

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Last week his claims, tonight his character.

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What was Jesus like which would indicate to us that he was more than a mere man?

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My first answer to that question is this.

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He never once sinned.

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Obviously none of us would dare make such a claim that we never sinned.

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But it is true about Jesus Christ that he never once sinned.

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Now we said last week that he claimed that for himself.

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But let's think of those who were closest to him.

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Those who would tell the real truth if the truth were other than what Jesus claimed.

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For example, let's think of Peter.

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One of those to whom Jesus had said, follow me and I will make you a fisher of men.

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Peter walked with Jesus for the most part of three years.

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What was his conclusion regarding Jesus Christ?

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He gives it in one place, Acts 3, 14.

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We will not take time to turn there.

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But he says to that great crowd that was before him on that occasion that Jesus Christ is

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the holy and righteous one.

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Peter knew exactly what he was doing there.

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He was referring back to Old Testament statements regarding Jehovah God when he was called the

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holy one, the righteous one.

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Places like Isaiah 48, 17, Hosea 11, 9, and many other places.

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Peter's conclusion after knowing Jesus intimately for three years was he is the holy and righteous

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one.

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And he was willing to publicly testify to that fact.

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Even in so saying, indicated that Jesus Christ was sinless as far as he was concerned.

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When he wrote his epistle that we call 1 Peter, he said regarding him, Jesus Christ, who did

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no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

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Think of all the conversations, think of all of the sermons that Peter heard.

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Peter said not once did he uncover deceit from the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He watched him deal with people.

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He watched him react in pressure situations.

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And Peter's conclusion was he did no sin.

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Now that's from somebody who knew him and knew him well.

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Let's think then of John.

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John says about him in his Gospel, chapter 1, verse 14, and we beheld his glory.

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That glory includes sinlessness.

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John is saying he observed Jesus, observed him closely.

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As of all the disciples, it was John who was humanly the closest to Jesus.

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And John says regarding him, we beheld his glory.

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The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

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There was no shadow of untruthfulness with the Lord Jesus, says John.

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It was full of grace and truth.

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He says further regarding him in 1 John 3 and verse 5, in him, in Christ, is no sin.

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And so John's testimony comes across loud and clear, no sin in Jesus.

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But I'd like you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews for a moment where we have

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another writer of Holy Scripture saying more regarding the character of the Lord Jesus

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Christ.

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Look in chapter 4 of Hebrews and the fourteenth verse.

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Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the

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Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

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He urges them to faithfulness, to holding fast what they professed.

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He says for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.

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Putting it the other way, we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses.

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He says, but one who has been tempted in all things as we, yet without sin.

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So there is the strong affirmation in the book of Hebrews that though the Lord Jesus

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Christ was tempted by sin, sorely tempted by sin, he never once yielded to temptation.

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Not once in all of his life, not in the wilderness, not in all the many temptations that followed

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that until the cross.

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Not once did he yield to temptation though he knew every temptation that is known to

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man.

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Never once did Jesus ask for forgiveness.

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You examine all of his prayers, never once did he come to his heavenly Father and begin

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with a confession of sin before he proceeded further, not once.

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He was tempted but without sin.

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Indeed, he could not sin.

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He could not sin because he was God and God cannot sin.

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He was tempted to sin but he could not sin because he was God.

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That means he is unlike the angels.

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Someone asked me that after the service last week and it was a good question.

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Jesus did not sin but the angels haven't sinned either and that's true.

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Some of the angels, some have sinned, the demons, fallen angels, but there are many

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holy angels that have never sinned.

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But you see the difference between the angels, in this respect at least, is that the angels

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could sin.

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They could sin, many didn't, but they could sin.

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The Lord Jesus Christ, because he is God, could not have sinned.

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That does not mean that his temptations were false, that they were without meaning.

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Quite the contrary, in fact, if you stop to think about it.

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Because he could not sin, temptation was able to do its fullest on him.

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It gave him everything it had and could not cause him to yield.

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Turn over a page to Hebrews chapter 7.

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Look at these words in verse 26.

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It was fitting that we should have such a high priest as the one he's just described,

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holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who

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does not need daily like those high priests, that is of Israel, to offer up sacrifices

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first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

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He did not have to offer up sacrifice for his sins.

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He was able to offer up himself as a sacrifice for our sins.

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Look at the words used, holy, set apart by God for unique and special mission and purpose,

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innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners.

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He identified with sinners.

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Thank God for that.

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We couldn't be saved if he hadn't.

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But he was separated from us.

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A great chasm between us and Jesus Christ in one sense, in that he was without sin and

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could not sin, and we have sin and do sin.

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The Lord Jesus Christ never sinned.

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This was underscored by those who knew him best, but it was underscored as well by his

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enemies.

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Pilate, for example, concluded, I find no fault in this man.

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The soldier at the cross who helped crucify him said, truly this man was the Son of God,

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recognizing they had crucified an innocent man.

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Neither could the high priests and the religious leaders of that day, who were bent on destroying

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him, prove any sin upon him.

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At last they concocted the crime of blasphemy against him, of which he was not truly guilty,

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and for that they nailed him to the cross.

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It was underscored by those who knew him best.

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It was underscored by his enemies, but his sinlessness was also underscored by one of

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his greatest persecutors of all time, Saul of Tarsus, who became one of his most loyal

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followers to be sure, but who early on was one of his greatest persecutors.

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Jesus said to him, Why do you persecute me, Saul?

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What did Saul write about the Lord Jesus Christ?

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Well, he wrote a number of things, but included 2 Corinthians 5.21, where it says, For God

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has made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us.

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Paul's conclusion was that Jesus Christ knew no sin.

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That means more than the fact that he did not sin in action.

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It means that there was no sin in him.

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There was no nature in him to sin.

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Though temptation could come to him and do its best, there was nothing within the Lord

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Jesus Christ to respond to that temptation, because he was sinless and he had no sin nature.

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Who knew no sin, says the Apostle Paul.

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So of this one Jesus Christ, if we come to the Bible, there's one thing that we see

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clearly.

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He was a man without sin.

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That makes him unique in the annals of history.

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The only one who could live without sin and be without sin is God, who came in flesh.

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There's a second aspect of this character I want to talk about.

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The Lord Jesus Christ never feared death.

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Have you ever thought about that?

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It is normal for a human to fear death.

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It's normal for Christians to fear death.

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We don't fear its result.

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We know what is going to happen when we die.

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To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and we're not afraid of the

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Lord.

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We're not afraid of being present with him.

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But it is perfectly normal for every human being to fear death.

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We don't want to die.

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That's why we go to doctors.

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That's why we have operations.

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That's why we take care of our bodies, because we want to live.

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God has made us with that drive, that desire to live and not want to die.

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But never do you find the Lord Jesus Christ afraid of death.

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Whereas most people run from death, Jesus actually stalked death until finally he cornered

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it and allowed death to do its best against him in putting him on the cross.

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Then Jesus came back to destroy the power of death.

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Death today is only a gatekeeper.

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That's all he is.

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The authority of death has been wrested from him by our victorious Savior.

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Jesus Christ was not afraid of death.

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As someone says, but didn't he say in the garden, pray to the Father, if it be possible

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let this cup pass from me.

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Doesn't that indicate he was afraid to die?

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Not at all.

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If we understand what the cup was, the cup was not the experience of dying.

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The cup was becoming sin.

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The cup was identifying himself with your sin in mind and all of its vileness, all of

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its degradation and filthiness.

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He the pure and holy innocent Son of God realized in the garden that that was about to come

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upon him.

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It was that which he prayed about as he spoke of the cup.

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But it was not that Jesus was afraid of death.

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We see this underscored a number of times in the gospels, but would you turn with me

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to the gospel of Luke, for example, in the ninth chapter.

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Let's look first at Luke 9 in verse 51, where it says, and it came about when the days were

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approaching for his ascension, that he resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem.

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Look at verse 53, and they did not receive him because he was journeying with his face

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toward Jerusalem.

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The picture is very graphic here.

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His face is set with determination like a rock.

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He is determined to go to Jerusalem.

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Ah, but does he know what Jerusalem holds for him?

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Does he understand what awaits him when he arrives in Jerusalem?

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Ah, yes.

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Look back earlier in the chapter, for example, at verse 22.

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Jesus says to his followers, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by

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the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

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Did he know what was going to happen in Jerusalem?

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Absolutely.

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Look at the details that he knew about.

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He knew that he was going to suffer.

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He knew he was going to be rejected by the religious leaders.

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He knew he was going to be killed.

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He knew he was going to be raised.

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He knew that that resurrection was going to be on the third day.

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Look again at verse 31.

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Here he is seen speaking with Moses and Elijah, and it says, Who appearing in glory were speaking

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of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

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What I'm saying to you is that the Lord Jesus Christ was determined to go to Jerusalem.

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Why?

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So that there he might face death head on and conquer it.

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He was not afraid of dying.

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We see this yet again in the Gospel of John the very night before he went to the cross.

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Turn to John chapter 13.

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In the Gospel of John you see several times the phrase, His hour had not yet come.

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Jesus knew that his hour had not yet come.

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Now his hour had come.

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His appointment, his mission was about to be accomplished.

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Verse 1 of chapter 13, now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour

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had come, that he should depart out of this world to the Father.

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Notice that.

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He knew that now was the time.

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Look at verse 3, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand and that

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he had come forth from God and was going back to God.

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How?

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Through the portal of death.

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He knew this.

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And yet look in chapter 14 verse 27.

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See what he says to his disciples knowing what he does.

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Peace I leave with you.

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My peace I give to you.

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My peace he says.

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Not as the world gives do I give to you.

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Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

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Now friends he is hours from what he knows is coming.

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He knows he is about to experience death, cruel death, suffering that was horrible.

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And yet he speaks to them regarding peace.

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And you see this happen again in the conversation I will not take time to point it out tonight.

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But Jesus Christ did not fear death.

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That is supra-human because human beings naturally fear death.

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He did not.

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Why?

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He was more than a man.

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He was God.

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And then I want you to consider with me the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, thirdly,

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was the perfectly balanced person.

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We're talking about his character now, what he was like.

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He was perfectly balanced.

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We see this suggested, for example, in Luke once more in the second chapter in what Luke

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says regarding his development.

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Do you remember these words in verse 52?

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And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

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Notice the balance here in this word regarding his growth and maturity as a human being.

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He kept increasing, it says, in wisdom.

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That is in his learning, his intellect, his knowledge.

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He kept increasing in stature.

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That's the physical aspect of him.

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And in favor with God, spiritually he was developing from a human standpoint.

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And with men, socially, he was developing, increasing in favor with men as well.

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The Lord Jesus Christ was the perfectly balanced human.

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Bernard Graham writes these words, If God were a man, we would expect his personality

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to be true humanity.

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Only God could tell us what a true man should be like.

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Only there are anticipations of the perfect man in the piety of the Old Testament.

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Foremost must be a complete God-consciousness, coupled with a complete dedication and consecration

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of life to God.

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Then ranked below this are the other virtues, graces, and attributes that characterize perfect

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humanity.

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Intelligence must not stifle piety, and prayer must not be a substitute for work, and zeal

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must not be irrational fanaticism, and reserve must not become stolidity.

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In Christ we have the perfect blend of personality traits, because as God incarnate, he is perfect

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humanity.

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Now obviously in our congregation we have some people who are very close to being wonderfully

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balanced people, right?

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Yourself included.

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But if we take an honest look at ourselves in the mirror, if we do a thorough self-evaluation,

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or even better, if we ask our wives to do it, or our husbands to do it, or our children

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to do it, we find that all of us come short of being balanced.

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We all have our quirks, our strange side, that part of us that we really don't like

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to show in public.

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We're all that way, but not the Lord Jesus Christ.

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You can look at him from any angle you want to.

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He was perfect.

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As he was, that is evidence that he was more than a man.

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He was God come in the flesh.

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He was in his personality, in his character traits.

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He was perfectly balanced.

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He was all that we would expect God to be in true humanity.

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So as you think about the deity of Jesus Christ, you can approach it from the aspect of his

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character.

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You can show from what the Bible says about him that he had to be more than a man.

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There's another aspect that I want to talk about tonight, and that is his works as well.

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The Lord Jesus Christ did works that can only be attributed to God.

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For example, turn with me to Mark, the second chapter.

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This one will close tonight, but it's important to see this.

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Mark chapter 2, beginning in verse 5.

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Here we have the account of the paralyzed man who was let down from the roof into the

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presence of Jesus.

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Do you remember that?

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One of the favorite Sunday school stories of boys and girls.

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And Jesus, seeing their faith, chapter 2 verse 5, said to the paralytic, my son, your sins

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are forgiven.

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He suggests here that this man's condition may have been because of sin in his life.

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Not always, for sure, is illness because of sin.

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The Jews believed that in that day, but in this case Jesus sees this man and the condition

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he is and immediately goes to what must be the heart of the problem, the man's life.

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And he says to him, your sins are forgiven.

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But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does

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this man speak that way?

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He is blaspheming.

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Who can forgive sins but God alone?

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Now it is true that we are to ask forgiveness of other people and when we do that in sincerity,

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we are to be forgiven by those people.

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So we forgive on that human basis.

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But Jesus is here forgiving sins as God and those people recognize that.

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His sin against God, his offense against the Lord, and that is the basic direction of all

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sin.

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What he deals with here, and these people reason within themselves saying who can do

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that but God.

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And immediately Jesus, aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves.

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That in itself is evidence of something, isn't it?

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He read their thoughts.

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And he said to them, why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?

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Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven?

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Or to say arise and take up your pallet and walk.

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Well you answer me, which is easier?

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It's much easier to say your sins are forgiven, right?

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Because who knows whether they're forgiven or not, but you've said it.

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But if you say take up your bed and walk, it's going to be apparent pretty quickly

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whether you can work miracles or not.

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But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,

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he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home.

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And he rose and immediately took up the pallet and went out in the sight of all.

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So that they were all amazed and were glorifying God saying we have never seen anything like

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this.

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The Lord Jesus Christ performs a miracle here.

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He does it to underscore his authority to forgive sins.

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Jesus said it's easy to speak those words, your sins are forgiven.

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But to show you that those words mean something, he said to the man, get up, take your bed

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and go home.

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And the man did it.

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The Lord Jesus Christ had the authority to forgive sins and he still does today.

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He forgives sins.

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He does that not because he is man, but because he is God.

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For only God can forgive sins.

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Isn't it wonderful to know that he's forgiven us based upon his own sacrifice for our sake

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of the cross.

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And that whatever the sins of our lives may be, that he is able to deal with those sins

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in a cleansing and forgiving way.

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For if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another

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and his blood cleanses us from all sin.

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Praise the Lord tonight that because he is God, you and I have a savior who can forgive

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our sins.

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Let's pray.

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My friend, are your sins forgiven?

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We're talking about the one alone who can deal with them and deal with them thoroughly.

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Will you come to him now?

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Will you understand his work of love for you?

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That he as eternal God came into the world taking upon himself the likeness of our humanity

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that he might save you from your sins.

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We thank you tonight for who you are and for giving us understanding of that by the Spirit.

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There are many who ask that question that you ask your disciples and they have all kinds

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of wrong answers.

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But you have led us to know, just as you led Peter to know, that you are the Christ, the

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Son of the living God.

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And we worship you.

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O come, let us adore him.

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Amen.