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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

Don’t Give Up On the Reformation

Okay, let me just pray briefly here after that little introduction and then we'll get into our message.

Father in heaven, bless us tonight as we think of some thoughts here for this Vesper service.

And thank you for your safety and travel for those who went to Japan and those who went to the Reformation, those who went to Kenya, the various mission trips.

And as we hear more of what's been happening around the world in the coming weeks, we just want to thank you for what you've been able to do through each of these groups.

Bless them, bless us tonight as we think about your word.

Yeah, so right away, Welcome back from Japan.

You did send me some links in the middle of the night.

I listened to music various places in the world.

I did not understand the introductions or conclusions, but I did understand the music.

And how have you watched the Crabtree Wedding?

Anybody here go to the Crabtree Wedding or watch it?

They had like 4 special musics or choir pieces during the wedding, which was just a delightful wedding.

I mean, I was, of course it was a different time zone, but Deutsch and I were watching it and we were very blessed by that wedding.

If you don't get a chance to watch it, you should watch that wedding.

We've had a lot of good, blessed weddings this year, right?

People are moving the stuff out of our houses now and moving away, as we heard.

But they're starting new homes, new Christian homes, which are, you know, be lights in their communities.

And that's hard to believe that it's been 31 years since I got married, but it just goes like that, so fast, right, doesn't it, Heather?

By the way, how many of you knew that Heather played the piano so well?

I think we should have her play more often.

I don't know if you're protecting your family from hearing your play, but give them our greetings.

Okay, truth is truth, even if no 1 believes it, a lie is a lie, even if everyone believes it.

And you know, when we were over in these reformation countries, it was important and interesting to see that many people that we were talking with or with, they had no idea about anything that ever happened in their city.

They had no sense of the magnitude of the things that happened in the buildings that they're walking about and among.

They had no connection between the economic success of their nation, for instance, and what happened in that church.

And they kind of looked at us somewhat odd when we began singing hymns around monuments and praying, and you could just tell they're looking, whoa, who are these people?

1 of the things that's kind of happened is that since the time of Martin Luther 500 years ago, people have stopped protesting.

Martin Luther said, peace if possible, but truth at all costs.

And now, Many times the people say, why don't we just all get along and find a way to just unify, which is not a bad thing.

But the question is, which is more important, truth or unity?

Truth and unity in Jesus' prayer, you find the word truth or the word of God 12345 times, and unity 1234 times.

So I guess truth wins by 1, but maybe that's not the way to look at it.

Go ahead and read it with me if you'd like.

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I have come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be 1 as we are 1, that they may all be 1 as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, and they also may be 1 in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

The glory which thou givest me I have given them, that they may be 1, even as we are 1.

I in them, thou in me, that they may be perfect in 1, that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and thou hast loved me, and thou hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Pretty much now it's like they may be 1, is kind of winning.

Would you say it's kind of winning in terms of the, in the passage so far?

I mean, this is the big thing, being 1, unity.

We hear a lot of messages like this, but now notice the qualifier.

I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou hast given me out of the world.

Thine they were, You can read it with me if it helps you focus.

And thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word, for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me, and I have given them thy word.

The world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." And how do you know?

Sanctify them through thy truth, thy Word is truth, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they may also be sanctified through the, Not sanctified through the unity, but sanctified through the truth and the word which brings unity, right?

How many of you have ever noticed people get together and unify for something that's not good?

Bertrand Russell, the famous atheist, said when he grew up in a Christian home, his mother's favorite text that taught him his whole life was, do not follow a multitude to do evil.

So you can have unity that's based on error or unity that's based on truth.

John 14, 31, But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me what commandment, even so I do." So these words that God gave his son included what?

And you knew that they were unified because of the commandments that unified them.

And he said, nothing that I spoke, that I speak on my own, but I got it from the Father.

So, in the New Testament, Jesus, when the words verily, verily is used, or assuredly, surely, or assuredly, surely in some translations.

That means so be it, so be it, and it's actually a quotation.

He's saying what I'm saying is not what I'm saying.

So when we enter into the words that Jesus has spoken, we enter into the commandments.

This is the only real foundation of true, lasting, positive, truth-filled unity.

And that's what he's saying in the prayer here.

So, righteousness by faith that doesn't have faith is not righteousness.

Some people are hyper-righteousness, and some people are hyper-faith.

So, some people will talk to you a lot about sanctification, some people talk a lot about justification, but it's both, right?

Here are they that keep the commandments and have the faith.

And It just depends on what their experience is.

If they say, I was raised in a legalistic home, they'll talk about the gift of righteousness.

If they were raised in a home of license, they'll talk about, we need holiness.

So if the Sahih know him and does not keep his commandments.

So, if you don't have the sanctification, you don't have the justification.

If you don't have the justification, you're probably never gonna be sanctified.

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Don’t Give Up On the Reformation

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