{"id":18509,"date":"2019-02-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-17T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/ecclesiology-050\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:16:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:16:01","slug":"ecclesiology-050","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/ecclesiology-050\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclesiology 050"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[90],"series_event":[484],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18509","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-romans","series_event-ecclesiology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Ecclesiology 050","sermon_date":"20190217","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":19986,"sermon_slides":19987,"sermon_mp3":19988,"sermon_id":"217191347497304","series_or_event":484,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":90,"chapter_and_verse":"16:17","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nEcclesiology 50, Romans 16:17\n\n2-17-19\n\nLet us pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re thankful for today and thankful for Your church, Your truth, personally I\u2019m thankful for traveling mercies and I just pray that\u00a0 Your Spirit will be with us as we seek to study Your Word this morning.\u00a0 We pray for the Sunday School class this morning and with the main service that follows and we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen!\n\nIt\u2019s good to be back you all.\u00a0 Right now it\u2019s about the middle of the night for my body so I can\u2019t guarantee the quality of the teaching today.\u00a0 But we did have a wonderful trip and we got in yesterday afternoon I think it was.\u00a0 So it was basically going, going, going dawn till dusk for about two weeks, going all over the land of Israel.\u00a0 And David Hocking, it was his trip and he did a lot of the teaching and I did a lot of the teaching and so there\u2019s so much to tell you about I can\u2019t even process it all right now because the days are kind of running together.\u00a0 So I thought what we would do is just finish Ecclesiology.\u00a0 What do you think about that?\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles to John 8:58-59 and we\u2019re kind of at the end of our Ecclesiology study, the doctrine of the church.\u00a0 And the reason we\u2019re at 50 lessons is I\u2019m dealing with some subjects here that most people in Ecclesiology don\u2019t really tackle.\u00a0 And it has to do with the purity of the church so the issue here is how does the church keep itself pure in an impure world?\u00a0 And the Holy Spirit has given to the church two basic techniques or tools: ecclesiastical separation would be one tool, and church discipline would be another.\n\nSo we\u2019ve been talking about the first of those, ecclesiastical separation and it\u2019s been a little while since I\u2019ve taught you on this so you may not remember we\u2019re dealing with this. Of course, I want to thank Jim and Gabe and Tommy and everybody that filled in while I was gone.\u00a0 Did you guys enjoy Tommy?\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like you haven\u2019t had a whole experience in the Spirit until you\u2019ve listened to Tommy.\u00a0 He\u2019s a very interesting guy, wouldn\u2019t you say.\u00a0 When God made Tommy He definitely threw away the mold; he is one of a kind.\n\nBut we\u2019re dealing with ecclesiastical separation and under this we\u2019ve been talking about a few things.\u00a0 Number one, why separate.\u00a0 Well, the issue is if you yoke\u00a0 yourself to a group of people\u00a0 that aren\u2019t biblically faithful and you don\u2019t separate what that does is it robs the church of the distinctiveness and its power, and we\u2019ve talked about that.\n\nNumber two, or letter B is there a biblical basis for separation and we went through many, many verses in the epistles indicating that there are times that it\u2019s appropriate for separation, not the least of which is 2 John 7-11 which says concerning deceivers, do not receive them into your household, and I think there it\u2019s speaking of the local church.\u00a0 [2 John 7-11, \u201cFor many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as<\/em> coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. [8] Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. [9] Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. [10] If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your<\/em> house, and do not give him a greeting;]\n\n[11] \u201cfor the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.\u201d\u00a0 So there are many, many passages that indicate it\u2019s appropriate to separate under some circumstances.\u00a0\u00a0 And then we were dealing with number 3 or letter C here, what exactly do you separate\u00a0 yourself from?\u00a0 And first and foremost you have to separate\u00a0 yourself from groups that teach false doctrine.\u00a0 As you go through the qualifications for pastors and elders and you go through what pastors and elders are supposed to be doing, particularly in the pastoral letters, there is a huge emphasis on pure doctrine or correct doctrine.\u00a0 So therefore you shouldn\u2019t yoke yourself to groups or to people that are teaching impure doctrine.\n\nSo that requires and understanding of what correct doctrine is and here is a short list that we have been working our way through dealing with the fundamentals of the faith.\u00a0 You have to separate at least bare minimum on these issues.\u00a0 I have a list of ten things that I think are appropriate here.\u00a0 The first is if someone denies creation and the fall\u00a0 you have to separate yourself from them because if there was no creation and fall there is no reason as to why Jesus came\u00a0 into the world.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 See, Jesus is the solution and\u00a0 you\u2019ll never reach out for the solution until you understand what the problem is.\u00a0 So what\u2019s the problem?\u00a0 God created man a certain way and man fell in Genesis 3.\u00a0 And if those doctrines are not literally held to then there\u2019s no reasons to reach out to Christ as the solution. So I\u2019m sort of one of those that\u2019s very defensive about what people are doing with early Genesis.\n\nPsalm 11, and by the way, on the bus rides in the morning on our two week trip we started each day with a Psalm so I taught through Psalms 1-13 so the Psalms are sort of fresh in my mind.\u00a0 Psalm 11:3 says, \u201cIf the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do?\u00a0 So there\u2019s a reason that Satan has launched an attack on early Genesis because if he can obscure in the minds of people early Genesis which is the original design of God and the fall, then he can obscure in the minds of people the need to reach out to Christ as the solution.\n\nSo people that start to play games with early Genesis and say it\u2019s just poetry or we\u2019ve got to come up with some interpretation of it that allows us to slip Darwin in somewhere, or it\u2019s nonfictional or it\u2019s not historical, it\u2019s just an allegory, you have to separate yourself from such a mindset because Christian quickly falls.\n\nThe second issue that you always separate over if it\u2019s compromised is the inspiration and the inerrancy of the Scripture.\u00a0 Inspiration refers to the recording of Scripture in its original manuscripts and inerrancy is basically the idea that the Scripture is without error in the original manuscripts.\n\nSo we believe that the Scripture in its original manuscripts was both inspired and was completely without error.\u00a0 And it was interesting that one of the things we toured when we were there in Jerusalem was something in Jerusalem called the Shrine of the Book, which is a museum where they keep the Dead Sea scrolls.\u00a0 The Dead Sea scrolls were found in the Dead Sea area in 1947 in a cave called Qumran, and basically what happened in 1947, one\u00a0 year before the nation of Israel came back into existence in 1948 is was a shepherd was just sort of randomly doing his thing out there in that area and he threw a rock into cave and he heard some pottery breaking and what was discovered through that process and this poor shepherd had no idea what he discovered, was not just the discovery of the century but it was the discovery of the millennium, because what he found there were copies of many, many books, including a whole copy of Isaiah, not a partial copy of Isaiah but a whole copy of Isaiah, this particular copy goes back to 200 years before Christ.\n\nAnd you see, that\u2019s such a big deal because the copy of Isaiah that we have been using prior to 1947 that went to I think about 1000 A.D. somewhere in there.\u00a0 So we were sort of trusting that this 1000 A.D. copy of Isaiah was an accurate transmission of the original Book of Isaiah.\u00a0 Isaiah had his vision all the way back around the seventh century B.C.\u00a0 So we were using a 1000 A.D. copy of Isaiah.\u00a0 And this Dead Sea Scroll discovery gave us a copy of Isaiah that went back, it made a 1,200 year leap all the way back to 200 years before Christ.\u00a0 And so what do we do?\u00a0 We compared the 1000 A.D. copy of Isaiah that we had been using up to that point to this manuscript that was discovered at Qumran 1200 years earlier and we compared the two expecting to find a lot of mistakes, like the 1000 A.D. had was going to be inaccurate on some points.\n\nAnd you know what they discovered?\u00a0 How many mistakes were there?\u00a0 How many differences were there?\u00a0 There were nine differences and the differences were so small they\u2019re not even worth the cosmetic, they\u2019re not even worth mentioning.\u00a0 So basically what the Lord allowed us to discover with this Qumran discovery is that the copy of Isaiah that we had been using is extremely accurate going back 1200 years.\u00a0 So of all of the things that we found in the land of Israel, all the different sites we saw, if you rank them in terms of importance what was discovered at Qumran is the most important thing.\u00a0 So this was found in the Dead Sea area in 1947 and then they took these manuscripts and they\u2019re now housed in Jerusalem in a museum called The Shrine of the Book<\/em>.\n\nSo all of that to say we believe that the Scriptures are inspired and inerrant when they were originally written in their original manuscripts.\u00a0 And the copies that we are\u00a0 using of the Scriptures, because we don\u2019t have the original manuscripts, do we?\u00a0 The copes that we are using are about as accurate as they can be today.\u00a0 So this book here I\u2019m holding, the New American Standard Bible, you know, I don\u2019t look at this as\u2026 this is a copy, I don\u2019t look at it as inspired.\u00a0\u00a0 I look at it as a very accurate copy of an original manuscript which we no longer possess and I view the copy as extremely accurate.\u00a0 And that\u2019s basically what was discovered there at the Dead Sea.\n\nSo what do we believe?\u00a0 We believe that the Scripture was inspired by God as the Holy Spirit came upon the writers of Scripture and they recorded God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 We believe that when they recorded God\u2019s Word there are absolutely no errors in it and we also believe that the copies that we possess today, particularly Isaiah and other books are extremely accurate copies.\u00a0 And if people won\u2019t acknowledge that and they want to say the Bible has mistakes in it and errors in it or the copies that we possess aren\u2019t accurate dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, then obviously that\u2019s time to separate from such a group because they\u2019re attacking this source of Christianity.\n\nSo you separate over denials of literal creation and fall.\u00a0 By the way, concerning creation and fall there is an unbroken genealogy in Luke 3:23-38 linking Jesus, whose Hebrew name is Yeshua, all the way back to Adam.\u00a0 So Luke gives us a genealogy linking Jesus back to Adam.\u00a0 So if you start playing games with the historical Adam and Jesus is linked on an unbroken chain to Adam then it\u2019s not long\u00a0 until you start to play historical games with the existence of Jesus or Yeshua Himself.\u00a0 So creation and fall, literally interpreting that is a big deal.\u00a0 Inerrancy and inspiration of the Scriptures, interpreting that correctly, understanding the copies of the Bible that we\u2019re using today are accurate is a big deal.\n\nAnd then you also separate from people who deny salvation by faith alone.\u00a0 Religion will always say God did about 90% of the work and you\u2019ve got to kick in the last 10%.\u00a0 Well what do you have to do?\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ve got to pay, pray and obey!\u00a0 So if you\u2019re not praying, paying and obeying you haven\u2019t done your 90% and therefore\u00a0 you\u2019re not saved.\u00a0 That\u2019s religion.\u00a0 Every religious system in the world will say that.\u00a0 Biblical Christianity comes along and says Jesus did 100%.\u00a0 What was Jesus\u2019 final words on the cross?\u00a0 \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\u00a0 He didn\u2019t say it\u2019s about 95% done and you kick in the final 5%, He says \u201cIt is finished,\u201d and we rest completely on His grace for salvation.\u00a0 That\u2019s what makes our system completely different than every other system in the world today.\n\nSo Paul says [Romans 4:4] \u201cNow to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.\u00a0\u00a0 [5] But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.\u201d\u00a0 Romans 4:4-5.\u00a0 So the only thing that God will accept which is not a work, according to this verse, because it says \u201cto the one who does not work, but believes\u201d the only thing that God will receive from us in terms of our justification which is nonmeritorious is faith.\u00a0 \u201cFor without faith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please\u201d God.\u00a0 \u00a0[Hebrews 11:6, \u201cAnd without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.\u201d]\n\nAnd you see, this is an attack on the pride of man because we all think we can add something to the finished work of Christ to somehow get God to like us more.\u00a0 And the fact of the matter is you can\u2019t do anything to justify yourself before God other than to rest in His grace by way of faith.\u00a0 And anybody who adds any kind of work to that, whether it be saying a prayer, giving money, walking an aisle, showing contrition, resolving to do better, I mean, the list is endless.\u00a0 That becomes a work which Paul, the apostle, condemns as an anathema in Galatians 1:6-9.\n\n[Galatians 1:6-9, \u201cI am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; [7] which is really<\/em> not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.\u00a0 [8] But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! [9] As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!\u201d]\n\nSo there are many, many people that will add a little tidbit here and there and that tantalizes sinful man because we\u2019re all prideful by nature and we all think we can contribute something to our justification.\u00a0 And so a works based gospel is always appealing to people and many people to appeal to a larger group will add a little work here or a little work there and we at Sugar Land Bible Church say NO WAY!\u00a0 The Spanish version is \u201cNo way Hosea.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, if\u00a0 you won\u2019t believe that Jesus did it all and we receive what He has done as a gift by way of faith then we have to part fellowship, part company, which includes scrutinizing gospel tracts that compromise this and many other things.\u00a0 So that would be another place where I think ecclesiastical separation would be appropriate.\n\nAnd then of course there are those that deny the eternal existence of heaven and hell and I went through, I think, the last time I was with\u00a0 you, my memory is kind of faded, it\u2019s been a while, why the doctrine of eternal retribution is very real.\u00a0 In fact, the same Greek and Hebrew words used to describe an eternality of heaven or the kingdom and the eternality of God Himself is also used to describe the eternality of hell.\u00a0 So there are many voices today within evangelicalism that are compromising that and teaching a doctrine called annihilationism which is sort of what the modern day Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses teach where they say well, you\u2019re really not destroyed forever in hell, you just sort of poof and you go out of existence.\n\nWell the reality of the situation is this; as we talk about being saved but there\u2019s something that we\u2019re saved from. What are we saved from?\u00a0 Eternal retribution.\u00a0 And if someone compromises eternal retribution then all of a sudden the solution of the gospel doesn\u2019t seem as important.\u00a0 It loses its urgency.\u00a0 I mean, the reason we try to translate the Bible into foreign dialects to get it to groups that have no Bible, the reason we evangelize, the reason we send out missionaries is because we think there\u2019s something to be afraid of here.\u00a0 There\u2019s something to be saved from.\u00a0 And if somebody comes along and says well, hell really isn\u2019t that much of a hell, or really doesn\u2019t last forever we just part company and say you go your way and we\u2019ll go our way.\n\nYou also separate from groups that deny that the Triunity of God.\u00a0 We believe that God is one, we believe in monotheism, but He has expressed Himself in three personages, God the Son, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 The Son shares the same essence of deity with the Father, the Holy Spirit shares the same essence of deity with the Father and the Son, the Father shares the same essence of deity with the Son and the Holy Spirit, etc.\u00a0 But the Son and the Father and the Holy Spirit at the same time are separate personages.\u00a0 The Son maintains His uniqueness in His Sonness, despite the fact that He shares the essence of deity with God the Father.\u00a0 See that?\n\nAnd it\u2019s a complicated issue for our finite minds to wrap ourselves around but there are many groups that will deny the Trinity.\u00a0 Mormonism and the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses will teach you that Jesus really was a created being; they don\u2019t teach that He is the eternally existent second member of the Godhead.\u00a0 So if someone compromises that we have to part company and say sorry, what you\u2019re believing sounds like something but it isn\u2019t historic essential Christianity.\n\nWe also separate from groups that deny the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 If\u00a0 you deny the fact that the virgin birth was a historic fact, as many are doing today, I gave you some quotes I think the last time I was with you, of evangelicals that are kind of soft on this issue, then Christianity collapses like a house of cards.\u00a0\u00a0 I did a sermon on this, I think the Sunday before Christmas, which you can find in our sermon archives, showing all of the doctrines that begin to be compromised once you deny the virgin birth of Christ.\n\nAnd where we left off last time is number 7, you separate from groups that deny the deity of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Take a look if you could at John 8:58-59, this is sort of personal with me because my own mother was deceived about this for many years because she was raised in a highly educated home where her mother, my grandmother, taught her that Jesus was a good philosopher and a good moralist and a good teacher but He was never God, in fact, He never claimed to be God.\u00a0 And I\u2019m happy to say that my own mother is now saved and has moved away from what she was taught as a very little girl in her household.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is it\u2019s hard to get through the Bible without recognizing that the Bible teaches over and over again that Jesus, or Yeshua in Hebrew claimed to be God.\n\nThere are so many places He does this it\u2019s hard to keep track of them all but one of the most obvious is at the end of John 8:58, He\u2019s interacting with the Pharisees.\u00a0 \u201cJesus said to them, \u2018Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.\u2019\u201d \u00a0Now in Greek \u201cI am\u201d is \u1f18\u03b3\u03ce \u03b5\u1f30\u03bc\u03b9\u00a0 [eg<\/em>\u014d eimi<\/em>] and He\u2019s claiming a divine title.\u00a0 Now this divine title is first disclosed where?\u00a0 Exodus 3:14, [God said to Moses, \u2018I AM WHO I AM\u2019; and He said, \u2018Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 It was what God said to Moses there in Arabia I think it was, Moses was saying well, who shall I say sent me? I guess it wasn\u2019t Arabia but where was that, Exodus 3:14, Midian, thank you, Midian, \u201cWho shall I say sent me\u201d because he was tasked with going to the Egyptians and declaring to Pharaoh to \u201clet My people go.\u201d\u00a0 And God said to Moses, Exodus 3:14, you tell Pharaoh \u201cI AM\u201d sent you.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI AM\u201d is the self existent one.\n\nSo Jesus, in His interaction with the Pharisees John 8:58, says, \u201cJesus said to them, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.\u201d\u2019 In other words, before Abraham even existed I was there as the self-existent one, and when He says \u201cI am\u201d He just claimed His divine title that you find in Exodus 3:14.\u00a0 And there is no ambiguity here in the minds of Christ\u2019s hearers because look at verse 59. \u201cTherefore they picked up stones to\u201d what?\u00a0 And by the way, in Israel there\u2019s a lot of stones, everywhere, so I kind of realized why these people stoned everybody to death.\u00a0 Verse 58, \u201cTherefore they picked up stones to throw at Him,\u201d it wasn\u2019t His time to die yet so it says, \u201cbut Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.\u201d\n\nSo they knew exactly what He was doing.\u00a0 They thought He was blaspheming and they were following Leviticus 24:16 which says that if a mere man claims to be God he\u2019s to be stoned to death immediately.\u00a0 Leviticus 24:16, \u201c'Moreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall certainly stone him. The alien as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.\u201d]\n\nSo if\u00a0 you think Jesus somehow ambiguous here He\u2019s obviously not being ambiguous because His Jewish peers knew exactly what He was saying---He as a mere man was claiming to be God!\u00a0 So Jesus is not just a \u201cgood Joe,\u201d He\u2019s not a CEO, He\u2019s not there to give us leadership manuals on how to have good leadership practices.\u00a0 I mean, maybe you can use things in the life of Christ indirectly that way in some sense but that whole idea Jesus CEO mentality completely undersells who He claimed to be.\u00a0 I mean He claimed to God in the flesh.\n\nAnd over in the Book of Titus, chapter 2, verse 13, you have another statement related to the deity of Christ.\u00a0 If we started drilling down on this we may never finish this series because there are so many verses that clearly show Jesus was God.\u00a0 It says in Titus 2:13, \u201clooking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 Now there is something in Geek called the Granville Sharp rule.\u00a0 The Granville Sharpe rule is a law of grammar which says when you have a definite article and a noun, actually two nouns joined by a conjunction with the definite article before the first noun then the two nouns are equal.\u00a0 And it doesn\u2019t show up real well in the English translation that I\u2019m using but in the Greek it\u2019s very clear that you have a definite article before God.\u00a0 So who is Jesus Christ?\u00a0 He is (Granville Sharpe rule, definite article) \u201cgreat God\u201d conjunction \u201cand\u201d followed by \u201cSavior, Jesus Christ.\u201d\u00a0 Who exactly is Jesus Christ?\u00a0 He is not just Savior according to the Granville Sharpe rule but He is God and Savior.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a very strong proof there of the full deity of Christ.\u00a0 And if you run into groups that get fuzzy on this or deny this or marginalize this then you separate.\n\nAnother major doctrine to separate over is the atoning death of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Notice Isaiah 53:3-6.\u00a0 Isaiah 53 is part of that completed Isaiah scroll that I was talking about a little earlier found at Qumran.\u00a0 It says, \u201cHe was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;\u201d now people say well how do you know this refers to Christ?\u00a0 Well, because in Acts 8 Philip, the deacon, used this passage of Scripture to lead who to Christ?\u00a0 The Ethiopian Eunuch.\u00a0 And this is how the gospel once the Ethiopian Eunuch was saved made its way into Ethiopia because the assumption is that he left Judea and Samaria and he went back to Ethiopia and started a church there.\u00a0 So it\u2019s very clear that Philip, the deacon, believed that Isaiah 53 written 700 years before Christ ever walked the face of the earth referred to Christ.\n\nIsaiah 53 is a tremendous statement of what we would call the atoning death of Jesus or Yeshua in Hebrew. \u201cHe was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.\u00a0 [4] Surely our griefs He Himself bore,\u201d see that?\u00a0 \u201cAnd our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. [5] But He was pierced through for\u201d whose transgressions, \u201c our transgressions.\u201d\n\nDo you realize how amazing that statement is there in verse 5, that \u201cHe was pierced\u201d?\u00a0 How did the Jews kill people, as we just talked about?\u00a0 Stoned them to death.\u00a0 And here Isaiah,\u00a0 under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says that when the Messiah comes He\u2019s going to be pierced.\u00a0 So what did God allow to happen?\u00a0 He allowed the Romans to come into the land of Israel under General Pompeii, about 63 B.C. and that\u2019s why you have the Herodian dynasty in place when you get into the New Testament, the Herod\u2019s were sort of a puppet regime really working for Rome over the land of Israel.\n\nAnd the Romans came in and do you know what they did to the Jews?\u00a0 They took away from the Jews the right to execute their own criminals. This is why when the Jewish leadership determined that Christ was a blasphemer they turned Him over to Rome for execution.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t they just kill him themselves?\u00a0 Because of what happened in the land of Israel around 63 B.C. and following, the Roman occupation and the Romans taking away from the Jews or the Hebrews the right to execute their own criminals.\u00a0 Now how did Rome execute people?\u00a0 Via stoning? No, via what? Crucifixion.\u00a0 Now the Romans never invented crucifixion, that\u2019s what\u2019s interesting.\u00a0 The crucifixion idea was a grizzly practice, practiced by the Assyrians.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s a horrible way to die and when they crucified someone they hung you out there in public as a common criminal, as a statement that nobody else better act up and defy Rome because look what can happen to you.\n\nAnd by the way, when you understand what the Assyrians did with crucifixion you start to understand why Jonah, remember Jonah in the Bible, he went to Joppa, he was told to preach to Nineveh in the east, he got on a boat at Joppa (we were in Joppa by the way) and he went west to Tarshish, which is modern day Spain.\u00a0 And Jonah chapter 1 is the fleeing prophet; Jonah 2 is Jonah in the belly of the fish, the praying prophet, get me out of here Lord.\u00a0 Jonah 3 is Jonah getting his act together and doing what God said to begin with, the preaching prophet.\u00a0 And then what does God do?\u00a0 He shows grace to the Assyrians in Nineveh and now in chapter 4\u00a0 you have the what?\u00a0 The pouting prophet.\u00a0 Fleeing prophet\u2014chapter 1.\u00a0 Praying prophet\u2014chapter 2. Preaching prophet\u2014chapter 3, pouting prophet---chapter 4.\n\nJonah is the only prophet that we have in all of our prophets that we would call today successful.\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, every other prophet basically had no success, people didn\u2019t repent and lost their lives in the process.\u00a0 Jonah was successful with the Assyrian Empire.\u00a0 The name City of the Syrian Empire anyway in the east, a place called Nineveh, and Jonah didn\u2019t want to see the grace of God till there and when it came he was upset that God sent it.\u00a0 Now why was he upset?\u00a0 Because of the diabolical nature of the Assyrians.\u00a0 I mean, the Assyrians were the ones that invented the crucifixion after all.\u00a0 I mean, it was a grizzly form of execution among many other grizzly practices of the Assyrian Empire.\n\nSo when you understand that the Assyrians are the ones that invented the crucifixion you totally understand the reluctance of Jonah to see the grace of God go to those people.\u00a0 So when the Romans came to power over the land of Israel all the Romans did was reach back into history and say you know, this crucifixion practice looks pretty good, it\u2019s pretty effective.\u00a0 So the Romans never invented crucifixion, they just popularized it; they brought it back from the Assyrian days.\u00a0 And this is how Yeshua or Jesus or the Messiah died and you see what\u2019s happening here is Isaiah is seeing that process happen centuries before Rome came to power.\u00a0 He\u2019s seeing the piercing of the Messiah.\n\nAnd so this is how it\u2019s hard to deny that this is the Word of God.\u00a0 I mean, how could Isaiah centuries in advance see the Romans coming to power, removing from the Jews the right to execute their own criminals, and the reinstitution of the crucifixion?\u00a0 How could Isaiah have known all of this all the way back in the seventh century B.C. ?\u00a0 And by the way, Zechariah 12:10 also talks about the piercing of the Messiah.\u00a0 [Zechariah 12:10, \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.\u201d] If this had been written by a mere person it wouldn\u2019t have said Yeshua or the Messiah is going to die via piercing; it would have said He was going to die via stoning.\n\n[Isaiah 53:4 ]\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cAnd our sorrows He carried away, yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.\u201d\u00a0 [53:5] \u201cYet He was pierced,\u201d you should underline that word in\u00a0 your Bible, \u201cpierced\u201d because it\u2019s astounding what Isaiah is seeing under the inspiration of the Spirit.\u00a0 \u201cBut He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon\u201d who? \u201cHim, And by His scourging we are healed.\u201d\u00a0 I think that\u2019s talking primarily about our spiritual healing although once you receive your resurrected body, which is part of the grace package that God offers to you, you won\u2019t have any more physical diseases in your body.\u00a0 Did you know that?\u00a0 Did you know you\u2019re destined for a body that won\u2019t get sick or old or get cancer or anything?\u00a0 Now we can\u2019t guarantee that this side of eternity but we can certainly guarantee it once you\u2019re in your resurrected body.\u00a0 \u201cHe was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him. And by His scourging we are healed.\u201d\u00a0 See the idea of substitution here?\u00a0 \u201cAll of us like sheep have gone astray,\u201d by the way, that\u2019s some of the dumbest animals in human history, sheep, I mean, they\u2019ll follow each other right off a cliff if you let them.\u00a0 That\u2019s why sheep need a shepherd.\n\n[Isaiah 53:6] \u201cAll of us like sheep have gone astray,\u201d when we\u2019re compared to sheep here it\u2019s not a compliment.\u00a0 You think oh, that\u2019s so cute, they\u2019re so cuddly and fuzzy and I\u2019ll put them on\u00a0 all my Christmas cards\u2026 NO, it\u2019s basically an insult how misled we get as people without a shepherd.\u00a0 \u201cAll of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD his caused the iniquity of us all To fall on\u201d who? \u201cHim.\u201d\u00a0 So that passage there is a wonderful treatment of what we call the atoning death of Jesus Christ which involves substitution.\u00a0 The whole point of the atonement is substitution.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I kept emphasizing certain words\u00a0 here.\u00a0 It should have been me on that cross dying and receiving those punishments but Jesus stepped into the line of fire and absorbed the wrath of God in my place.\n\nSome illustrations that I\u2019ve\u00a0 used to communicate this is the Secret Service men in the movies, a bullet is fired at the President of the United States and the Secret Service man jumps in front of the bullet and absorbs the bullet in the place of the President.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Christ did for us.\u00a0 He stepped into the line of fire and absorbed the wrath of a Holy God in our place.\n\nWe\u2019ve also used the illustration of the bee sting, when I was younger in a\u00a0 youth group, we were traveling in a car and a bee got loose in the car and everybody was screaming, especially the girls, and the youth pastor reaches\u2026 how many times can a bee sting by the way?\u00a0 One time.\u00a0 He reached out and he grabbed this bee and then he opened up his hand and the bee flew out of his hand and you could see in his hand the stinger.\u00a0 He says you all don\u2019t have to worry about this bee anymore because I\u2019ve absorbed the sting in your place. See that?\u00a0 In that sense is what the bodily atonement of Christ is about.\n\nSo we refer to it as the vicarious substitutionary bodily atonement of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 You know the word \u201cvicarious.\u201d\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 There\u2019s a concept in the legal system called vicarious liability, it basically means in the place of somebody else.\u00a0 If you say someone is living vicariously through me you\u2019re saying they don\u2019t have a life and they\u2019re expressing their life through me.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of an insult.\u00a0 But vicarious means in the place of another.\u00a0 Substitute means in our place.\u00a0 Bodily means He absorbed these things in His body.\u00a0 And atonement means he bore the wrath of God in our place.\u00a0 So Jesus did not die on the cross to show us how to be good servants.\u00a0 Now can you learn lessons of servanthood from what Jesus did for us?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not the crux of the matter.\u00a0 Jesus did not die on a cross to show us how to be loving or to even show God\u2019s love for us.\u00a0 Now did He show God\u2019s love for us on the cross?\u00a0\u00a0 Yes He did, Romans 5:10.\u00a0 [Romans 5:10, \u201cFor if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.\u201d]\n\nBut I still don\u2019t think that\u2019s the whole crux of the matter.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have substitution in your concepts of death of Christ for us, i.e. Christ died in my place, as we read Isaiah 53:3-6 the punishment should be on me was borne by Him; if substitution is not part of\u00a0 your concept of what Jesus did then we\u2019ve missed the point, we\u2019ve missed the point of Isaiah 53 and\u00a0 you might want to jot down 1 Peter 2:24 which also expresses this same idea down in Isaiah 53.\n\nSo what do you do with people that come along as the early church was wrestling with this and trying to make it sound like Jesus died just to be a good servant, Jesus died to teach us how to be selfless.\u00a0 So don\u2019t get me wrong,\u00a0 you can learn all kinds of truths about selflessness and servant\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad-hood by studying the atoning death of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 But what do you do with people that say the death of Christ is something less than our substitute?\u00a0 Well you have a zero tolerance policy for that because they\u2019ve missed the whole point of Christianity.\u00a0 And you separate yourself from such people.\n\nWho else do you separate yourself from?\u00a0 You separate yourself from people that deny the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead in a physical body.\u00a0\u00a0 Take a look at 1 Corinthians 15 and notice verse 14. This was Paul\u2019s resurrection chapter.\u00a0 [14] \u201cand if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.\u201d\u00a0 Now on the trip to Israel we went to the Garden Tomb and there\u2019s a lot of debate on whether the Garden Tomb is actually the exact place where Christ was buried.\u00a0 There\u2019s pros and cons to that and so the actual place I don\u2019t think the Garden Tomb is something you can be dogmatic on.\u00a0 But I know this much, Jesus did die and was buried.\n\nAnd I think it would have been a very, very easy thing for the enemies of Christianity, as Christianity began to spread, and there were many enemies of Christianity, the unbelieving Jews hated Christianity, hated the church, as did the Romans.\u00a0 Josephus, who was somebody who was originally Israeli or Jewish, when the events of A.D. 70 happened he kind of was a traitor, the Jews look at him as a traitor, and gave in to the Romans without any resistance whatsoever, and he became what we would call a Roman historian.\u00a0 So they gave him, I think the first name, Flavius, if I remember right, is his Roman name that they gave him, Flavius Josephus and he writes many, many books about the historicity of that time period.\u00a0 He wrote something called The Wars of the Jews<\/em>, The Antiquities of the Jews<\/em>, and in his historical treatment he even makes a reference to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 So the resurrection of Jesus Christ can be found not only in the Scripture, which we consider reliable, but it can also be found in other documents outside of the Scripture, like the writings of Flavius Josephus.\u00a0 And in all of that writing that he does he never gives any hint that the Jews or the Romans went into the tomb and reproduced the body of Christ, here I\u2019m talking about the literal body of Christ, to stop Christianity.\n\nI mean, to my mind that would be a very simple thing to do; if\u00a0 you\u2019re an unbelieving Jew or an unbelieving Roman and you hate the spread of Christianity why not just dispel the whole thing by going into the tomb and getting the body, and bringing it out in the public and saying look, He never rose from the dead, here it is!\u00a0 Well how come nobody ever did that?\u00a0 There\u2019s a very simple answer, there was no body in the tomb to get because Jesus had risen on the third day, just like He said.\u00a0 And so Christianity will collapse like a deck of cards once you start fiddling around with the bodily resurrection of Jesus.\n\nIn fact, if you go back to 1 Corinthians 15 and look at verse 6, Paul the apostle, says, \u201cAfter that\u201d speaking of the post resurrection appearances of Christ, \u201cAfter that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time,\u201d now watch this, \u201cmost of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep;\u201d or died. \u00a0Paul stands up in front of the Corinthians, who were denying the resurrection and he says Christ, not only did He rise from the dead, not only did He appear to the apostles, not only did He appear to me, He appeared to five hundred other people and most of them are still alive.\u00a0 So check out the story with them.\u00a0 Now think about this for a minute.\u00a0 If what Paul said wasn\u2019t true and the resurrection of Christ could not have been validated or verified by these other a little under five hundred people then Christianity would have been discredited right out of the gate.\u00a0 And this book, called 1 Corinthians, would have never been respected and embraced, and passed down from one generation to the next.\n\nIt\u2019d be like this, let\u2019s suppose I wrote a book and I denied the fact that JFK was assassinated.\u00a0 I wrote a book saying JFK died of natural causes.\u00a0 Other people would arise, wouldn\u2019t they, and challenge the book?\u00a0 You could produce eyewitnesses who say I was there when he was assassinated and my book would never be embraced, it would never be passed down through the generations and it would be discredited right out of the gate.\u00a0 That\u2019s the radical nature of Paul\u2019s statement here that check it out through independent sources that Christ rose from the dead, He appeared to us apostles and five hundred other people, most of whom are still alive.\u00a0 Check out the story with them.\n\nSo we believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ and we believe that He came out of the grave, not as a spirit (as some say) but in a physical body.\u00a0 And this is the whole point of doubting Thomas, John 20:27-28, \u201cThen He said to Thomas,\u2019 \u201cReach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.\u201d\u2019 Now Thomas got the picture, got the message, because verse 28, \u201cThomas answered and said to Him, \u201cMy Lord and my God!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So what do you do with people that say well, maybe He rose from the dead and maybe He didn\u2019t.\u00a0 And if He rose from the dead He just kind of came out of the grave in the spirit.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s a denial of Christianity and so you would separate from such people.\n\nAnd finally, the tenth doctrine that you have to separate over is the bodily Second Advent of Christ.\u00a0 Christ is coming back to this earth just as literally and just as bodily as He left.\u00a0 Now what is the oldest book in the Bible?\u00a0 The Book of Job, and Job, the oldest book of the Bible talks about at the end of time the Messiah, Yeshua, coming back in a physical body.\u00a0 I\u2019m not here dealing with the rapture which is a separate event which precedes the seven\u00a0 year tribulation period, I\u2019m talking about the manifestation of the Messiah at the end of the age and at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 He\u2019s coming in a body.\n\nNotice Job 19:25, Job, the oldest book of the Bible, Job says this: \u201cAs for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,\u201d now the Hebrew for Redeemer here is the Goel, \u201cAs for me, I know that my\u201d Goel, \u201cmy Redeemer lives,\u201d it\u2019s clearly a reference to the Messiah, so what\u2019s He going to do, what\u2019s this Goel going to do?\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAnd at the last He will take His stand on the earth.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s going to stand on the earth, the oldest book in the Bible says that.\u00a0\u00a0 And you can\u2019t stand on the earth unless you have legs and feet, right?\u00a0 And if you have legs and feet you\u2019re probably in what kind of a body?\u00a0 A spiritual body?\u00a0 A physical body!\n\nNotice Zechariah 14:4, this is speaking of the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 I had a chance to preach on the Mount of Olives on this trip and it was freezing cold that particular day so I gave a sermon that lasted ten minutes.\u00a0 And by the way, a lot of these sermons that we did you can find them on our You Tube channel, just go to your You Tube search engine and just type in my name and it should come right up.\u00a0 We also posted them on Sugar Land Bible Church Facebook page if you want proof that your pastor can preach for ten minutes only.\n\nNotice Zechariah 14:4, \u201cIn that day His feet\u201d you mean the Messiah had feet; if He\u2019s got feet that means He\u2019s got to have a body, right.\u00a0 Why do we think He\u2019s in a body?\u00a0 Because He came out of the tomb in a body and He\u2019s coming back in a body.\u00a0 \u201cIn that day His feet will stand on\u201d where? \u201cthe Mount of Olives,\u201d now that\u2019s a literal physical geographical place on planet earth.\u00a0 I stood there myself a few days ago.\u00a0 \u201cIn that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which is in front of Jerusalem on the east;\u201d that\u2019s all true, \u201cand the Mount of Olives will be split\u201d look at that, \u201cin its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.\u201d\u00a0 That sounds very physical to me.\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about His feet standing on an actual geographical place on planet earth which will split the whole thing, from east to west.\n\nThis is the kind of thing Job is talking about when he says, \u201cI know that\u201d my Goel,<\/em> \u201cmy Redeemer lives and in the last day, or at the end He will take His stand on the earth.\u201d [Job19:25] Zechariah, who wrote later than Job, obviously is just giving us more details. But it\u2019s obviously a physical bodily appearing of Jesus.\n\nNotice Acts 1:9-11, now Acts 1 is the ascension and notice what it says there in verses 9-11.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cAnd after He had said these things,\u201d now this is speaking of His forty day ministry in between His resurrection and ascension.\u00a0 It says, verse 9, Acts 1, \u201cAnd after He had said these things He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.\u201d So here are the disciples being ministered to by Christ during this forty day interim and all of a sudden whoooo, He\u2019s lifted up out of the earth into the sky.\u00a0 And what would\u00a0 you be doing if that happened and you were sitting there?\u00a0 You\u2019d be looking up there wondering what in the world just happened.\u00a0 So they are rebuked by two men.\u00a0 Now some people don\u2019t believe these are angels, these two men; I personally do believe they\u2019re angels but whoever they are, verse 10 it says, \u201cAnd as they were gazing intently into the sky\u201d why were they gazing intently into the sky?\u00a0 How many times in your life have you seen someone standing right in front of you and all of a sudden they\u2019re launched into the heavens.\u00a0 That would be something worth looking up into the atmosphere trying to figure out what just happened.\u00a0 \u201c\n\n\u201cAnd as they were gazing intently into the sky\u00a0 while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. [11] They also said, \u201cMen of Galilee,\u201d this is the disciples, \u201cwhy do you stand looking into the sky?\u201d\u00a0 I would have said well I\u2019ve never seen someone depart into the sky.\u00a0 \u201cThis Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven,\u201d watch this, \u201cwill come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.\u201d\n\nHe\u2019s making a statement here about the bodily appearing of Jesus Christ. This is not the rapture, the rapture is a different event.\u00a0 This is the Second Advent\u00a0 at the end of the seven year tribulation period.\u00a0 In other words, He\u2019s coming back to this earth just like He left the earth.\u00a0 Well how did He leave? Physically!\u00a0 How\u2019s He coming back?\u00a0 Physically!\u00a0 How did He leave? Visibly.\u00a0 How is He coming back?\u00a0 Visibly.\u00a0 He left bodily.\u00a0 How\u2019s He coming back?\u00a0 Bodily.\u00a0 He left from the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 How is He coming back to the earth, to what geographical area?\u00a0 To the Mount of Olives.\n\nNow Arnold Fruchtenbaum has a slightly different rendition of this; he thinks Christ is coming to rescue the Jews in Petra, Jordan, and then He\u2019s going to make His way up to the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 That\u2019s a possibility.\u00a0 But either scenario you have He\u2019s coming back to the Mount of Olives in a body and His feet are going to touch the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 And if He has feet He has to have a body and the Mount of Olives is going to split in two.\u00a0 So it\u2019s a physical tearing apart of an actual place of geography on planet earth.\u00a0 And it\u2019s amazing the number of people that will deny this.\n\nDavid\u00a0 Reagan here is criticizing Loraine Boettner as follows.\u00a0 David Reagan says,\u00a0 \u201cLet me give you a classic example of spiritualization taken from the writings of a theologian by the name of Loraine Boettner. It has to do with his interpretation of Zechariah 14:1-9.\u201d Which we just read.\u00a0 \u201cThat passage says that in the end times Jerusalem will be surrounded by enemy forces and will be ready to fall to them when the Lord will suddenly return to the Mount of Olives. When His feet touch the Mount, it will split down the middle. The Lord will then speak a supernatural word that will instantly destroy all the enemy forces. And on that day, the Lord will become King over all the earth.\u201d So that\u2019s the correct understanding of the passage.\n\nDavid Reagan says, \u201cIn his commentary on this passage, Boettner completely spiritualized it. He argued that the Mount of Olives stands for the human \u2026<\/u> heart. The enemy forces symbolize the evil in this world that surrounds and attacks the heart. The Lord\u2019s return represents what happens when a person accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior.\u201d That\u2019s a pretty creative interpretation, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 \u201cThus, when Jesus comes into a person\u2019s heart, their heart\u201d represented by \u201c(the Mount of Olives) splits in contrition, and all the evil influences in the person\u2019s life are defeated, and Jesus becomes king of that person\u2019s heart.\u201d David Reagan says correctly, \u201cThat\u2019s what I call an exercise in imagination!\u201d\u00a0 [\u201cThe Beginning and the Ending<\/em>,\u201d online: http:\/\/christinprophecy.org\/articles\/the-beginning-and-the-ending\/<\/u>, accessed 19 April 2017, 1.]\n\nI mean,\u00a0 you wouldn\u2019t believe the games that are played by people to rewrite the Bible so that it sounds like Jesus Christ is not coming back physically in a body.\u00a0\u00a0 So what do you do when you run into evangelicals or groups that deny the bodily appearance of Christ at the end of the age?\u00a0 If they deny that, if they marginalize it, if they play games with it, then you just say I\u2019m sorry, we\u2019re going to separate.\n\nSo we\u2019re dealing with ecclesiastical separation and the first thing you have to separate over is doctrine and people say well what are some of the examples of doctrine that you would separate over.\u00a0 I would separate over a bare minimum of these ten things.\n\n---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n
    \n \t
  1. Creation\/Fall \u2013 Rom. 5:14<\/li>\n \t
  2. Inspiration\/inerrancy of the Scripture \u2013 Matt. 5:18; John 17:17; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20-21<\/li>\n \t
  3. Salvation by faith alone<\/li>\n \t
  4. Eternal existence of heaven\/hell \u2013 Dan. 12:2; Matt. 25:46<\/li>\n \t
  5. Trinity<\/li>\n \t
  6. Virgin birth of Christ<\/li>\n \t
  7. Deity of Christ<\/li>\n \t
  8. Atoning death of Christ \u2013 Isa. 53:3-6; 1 Pet. 2:24<\/li>\n \t
  9. Bodily Resurrection of Christ \u2013 John 20:27-28; 1 Cor. 15:14<\/li>\n \t
  10. Bodily Second Advent of Christ \u2013 Job 19:25; Zech. 14:4; Acts 1:9-11<\/u><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n______________________________________________________________________________\n\nNow I would expand that list greatly but here are the bare minimum ten things that you separate from.\u00a0 People that deny Creation\/fall, Inspiration\/Inerrancy of Scripture, Salvation by faith alone, Eternal existence of heaven\/hell, the Triunity of God, the Virgin birth of Christ, the Deity of Christ, the Atoning death of Christ, the Bodily Resurrection of Christ, and the Bodily Second Advent of Christ.\n\nSo the next time we\u2019re together we\u2019re going to finish this list and then get into church discipline and I\u2019ll give you some other things that we separate from as well.\n\nLet\u2019s pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for this Sunday School class on Ecclesiology.\u00a0 Help us to be good custodians over the doctrine You\u2019ve given us, knowing that doctrine is very important and so make us aware of these things so that we know who to fellowship with but who not to fellowship with because You\u2019ve commanded separation in some circumstances.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen!\u00a0 Happy intermission.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t