Pastor Mike Abendroth, Luke 10:25-37 \"The Parable of the Good Samaritan?\"

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Pastor Mike Abendroth, Luke 10:25-37 "The Parable of the Good Samaritan?"

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A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.
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Now, by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed on the other side.
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So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by the other side. But a
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Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was and when he saw him, he had compassion.
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He went to him, bound up his wounds, pouring on wine and oil, and he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
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And the next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper saying, take care of him, and whatever more you spend,
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I will repay you when I come back. Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among robbers?
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He said, the one who showed mercy. And Jesus said to him, you go and do likewise. Dear congregation, what do you think that means?
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What's the point of the parable? I have a dream job.
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I get to preach to a well -informed congregation that knows the Bible, knows theology.
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You are a veritable pastor's dream. But you can learn more, right?
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And for some of us, we look at the parable of the Good Samaritan and we think, we should be nice to strangers.
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That's the point. Others think, you know what? Let's go out of our way to help the marginalized in society, the oppressed in society, strangers.
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Be kind to people that don't look like you, not in the same socioeconomic area.
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Some of us read the parable of the Good Samaritan and say, you know what? I'm too inclusive and I need to branch out.
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I have too many prejudices and I need to stop that. What does this parable mean?
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One of my favorite things to do is when I'm studying the Bible, sometimes I have like a preconceived notion of what something means.
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And then when I see it in context, for all it's worth, I think, there it is. No wonder that's the meaning of the parable.
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And so if I wasn't your pastor and I was just an adversarial person, which
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I never am usually, I would say, do you really know the understanding of the
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Good Samaritan parable? You think you know the answer to what it means, but I don't think you do.
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Well, many of you do. Turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 10, the parable of the Good Samaritan. What does it really mean?
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And today you'll be encouraged because it's very applicable to something that we regularly have the privilege to do, the parable of the
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Good Samaritan. And as you know, dear congregation, context is king.
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The situation or the occasion where Jesus gives parables determines everything.
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And so if you think about Luke chapter 15, and we'll get there in months to come, about the lost coin and the lost sheep and the lost son, our lost sons.
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We understand what it means by the context. The tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to him, and the
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Pharisees and scribes grumbled, this man receives sinners and eats with them. And if you understand the context of that parable, you get the meaning.
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And so for all of us, we want to know what the text means. What did God mean when he wrote it? Not what we want it to mean.
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Something that's called eisegesis means putting things into the text that aren't in there because we want them in there.
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And so today we're going to look at the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10, verses 25 and following.
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And I just want you to see the context. I want you to be better Bible students, and then you'll see the implications.
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Now we know, as we come to the passage, that we're dealing with the Lord Jesus and the gospel of Jesus according to Luke.
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And as you think about Jesus, the mediator, theologians say there's a trifold office.
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And the mediator has three offices. And you know those offices? They are what? Nice. You didn't say it with much emphasis, but that's all right.
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Prophet, priest, and king. And it doesn't take you very long to say to yourself, you know what?
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With a priest, priest offers sacrifices for sins. Since we're guilty, we need a priest.
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Kings rule, and since we're under the tyranny of Satan and the world in our own sin, we need a king to liberate us from that tyranny.
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And the prophet says people are ignorant. They don't know
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God's word. They don't know him. And so the prophet reveals truth, proclaims truth.
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The priest is needed because we're guilty. The king is needed because we're oppressed. And the prophet is needed because we need to be taught.
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We need to understand what God says. And so Jesus comes to liberate, to assuage guilt by dying for us, but also to teach.
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And so here we have the greatest preacher, the greatest teacher. There's no one like him. There's no better evangelist.
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When you listen to Jesus teach, you just think, huh, I've never heard anything like that before.
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So we're going to look at Jesus who's sent by the Father, having full authority of the Father to teach us.
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In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, And the word that you hear is not mine, but the
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Father who sent me. The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the
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Father who dwells in me does his works. I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my
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Father, I have made known to you. So here we get to see Jesus on the way to the cross, on the way to Calvary, setting his face towards Jerusalem, still teaching, still preaching, still proclaiming as the ultimate prophet.
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Now Luke chapter 10 has been one of those chapters where I think, I know I'm not supposed to do this, but if I'm on a desert island, those proverbial desert islands,
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I maybe want Luke 10. Well, wait a second, Luke 15, okay, Luke 24, there's so many, but Luke 10, remember
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Jesus sends out the 70. He sent out the 12 in chapter 9 to the house of Israel, and now
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Gentile nations, some have counted 70 back in Genesis, and now he's sending the 70 out to those
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Gentile nations. And remember, they came back after the debrief, during the debrief and said to Jesus, we have so much power, we can cast out demons, and we're so happy, we have joy, and Jesus said, that's a good thing to have joy for, but you should have joy that your names are written in the book of heaven, that you get to go to heaven, that's even more joy.
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And then remember in Luke 10, we saw that there's a greater joy than even salvation, and that is
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Jesus' joy in the Father who sovereignly saves some.
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So now we come to Luke 10, verse 25, the parable of the Good Samaritan.
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I think our strategy today and next week, our plan is that we're gonna work through the passage, we're gonna have some theological, practical helps, and we'll look at the parable.
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So that's what we're going to do. Boy, it sure got quiet in here, didn't it? Did the air conditioning turn off?
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If you're new to the church, just wait till winter because the snow starts coming down, and it comes down perfectly when
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I want to make an exclamation point, the snow comes down. Or maybe the sirens could come across and I'm thinking, this is a wake -up call, red alert, you need to believe.
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If I had a goal, my prayer, praying even yesterday for you, I want you to be more thankful for Jesus after understanding this parable.
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I want you to say, thank you, Lord, for my salvation. I appreciate it more.
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I want you to be a better evangelist, and I want you to understand the passage.
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That's really what I'm after. So, here we go. We come to a passage that gives us the essence, essentially, of Christianity, and that is works.
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Works. The essence of Christianity is doing. Now, some of you want to march out right now, good for you, but it's not our doing, because we're going to see that we can't do enough to get to heaven.
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It's going to be the doing of another. Luke chapter 10, verses 25 and following.
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I see in this section here in verses 25 through 28 some traps, just to give us some mental hooks as we work our way through.
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The trap number one is set, verse 25. The trap is set. And behold, which means pay attention.
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Here we go. Buckle up. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put
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Jesus to the test. By the way, a very bad idea. Saying, teacher, what do
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I do to inherit eternal life? Earlier, in verse 21, do you see it?
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In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things about salvation, sovereign grace, selection, from the wise and understanding.
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In other words, people that think they know, people that think they're wise, people that think they don't need the prophet to inform them, spiritual truths are hidden.
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It's like the dimmer switch with the light bulb, and it slowly goes down and down and down.
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And so, all of a sudden, a lawyer, by the way, this isn't the lawyers that we make jokes about on coffee breaks.
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This is a law -er. This is somebody that is a master in the
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Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the law, the
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Torah. Here's a guy who's a master in the law. He understands what the law teaches, and he comes up and asks
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Jesus a great question with satanic motives. It's the right question, but he's got bad motives underneath it.
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And whether standing up is an assertive gesture or standing up is what they did in the culture back in those days when they wanted to ask a question, it doesn't matter.
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We understand that behind the scenes, he's going to test Jesus. Did not, in Luke chapter 4, the
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Bible say, you should not put the Lord your God to the what? Test? Remember back in the wilderness,
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Satan and Jesus? As Satan tests Jesus, or tempts Jesus, this man as well, with Satan as his father, comes and is going to try to test
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Jesus. He wants to defame Jesus. He wants to dishonor Jesus. He wants to put Jesus in some kind of trap.
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And so everybody says, oh, Jesus isn't the Messiah. Don't follow him. This man is an expert in the
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Bible. He's an expert in the law of Moses. One man said he asked the right question, but he asked it in a wrong spirit.
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If only this man knew really who Jesus was. Can you imagine standing before Jesus?
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And Jesus has the keys to eternal life. Everyone's going to die.
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You, me, this lawyer. Can you imagine talking to the one who owns the keys to eternal life, and you're asking him about eternal life?
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And instead of coming with humility and no pride, and I'm just needy, and I'm a sinner, could you help me?
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The one that holds the keys to eternal life, this man is coming to, and what a tragedy.
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1 John 5, and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true in his
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Son, Jesus Christ. He, Jesus, is the true God and eternal life.
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People say, well, the Bible doesn't say Jesus is God anywhere. 1 John 5, 10, 5, 20, rather, would beg to differ.
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God has put eternity in our hearts. We realize there has to be something more than this world.
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We're all going to die and stand before God and be judged for our sins, and this man's going to use this language of eternal life to try to test
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Jesus, to try to attack him. Everything about this is wrong. How idiotic it is to go try to test
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Jesus on theology. It sounds like a child just going, bah, bah, bah, bah.
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See how I did that there? I'm like, God, you're under my thumb.
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I'm going to test you. I'm going to prove you to be wrong. This man should have been thinking,
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I am going to die one day, and I see the law of Moses. I see what's going on in Genesis.
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I see Torah, and I see my own sin, and I'm going to need help.
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What must I do, look at it again, to inherit eternal life? Only legal heirs inherit.
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Only legal heirs inherit. And how can I be a son or a daughter of God, who is not the father of all people, but the father of his children, adopted through Christ Jesus?
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I mean, when you go ask Jesus these questions, he doesn't really give the answer.
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He reminds me of Nicodemus. Rabbi, we know that you've come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs unless you do them.
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Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. This man stands up with antagonism, and he said, what must
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I do to inherit eternal life? Eternal life, by the way, is not just duration, it's quality of life.
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You have to be thinking about that, dear Christian. You will live eternally because Jesus has granted you eternal life.
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It's just not a long life, although it's that, it's a priceless life, in quality.
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When I read passages like Romans 5, the love of God shed abroad in your hearts, on earth, imagine what that's like in heaven.
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When I read Philippians chapter 4, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding, we get that on earth.
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Imagine what heaven will yield. 1 Peter chapter 1, 8, we receive today joy inexpressible and full of glory.
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I wonder how many times that will be in heaven. Will Jesus get caught in the trap?
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I think Jesus has met his match. By the way, let me ask you the question.
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If someone comes up to you and says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? What do you give them for an answer? How do
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I get to heaven? What would you say? I know I'm gonna die one day and then stand before God.
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How do I get to heaven? What would you say? I'd like my sins pardoned.
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Is there any hope for me? It's interesting with the kind of Charlie Kirk effect.
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I think more people are asking these questions. I mean, typically the world is caught up with, what do I eat, what do
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I drink, what do I wear, what do I watch, what do I do? And now you're seeing some interest. And so maybe, dear congregation, in the next weeks to come, before it maybe dies out like 9 -11 stuff died out, people are going to ask you questions.
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I'm curious about heaven. I've seen death on TV. I realize now
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I'm going to die. How do I get to heaven? What would you tell them? They come to you and they say,
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I know it's appointed for man once to die and then the judgment. Is there any relief? This man's trying to trap
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Jesus. Now Jesus is gonna trap him. Second trap found in verse 26 and 27.
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Jesus said to him, what is written in the law? Moses.
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Next question. How do you, Mr. Lawyer, read it? What does the law say?
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And as we learned in Sunday school, Galatians chapter three, the law has become our tutor, our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.
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What's happening here, big picture, and then we'll zoom back in. When you give God's law to people, when you give
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God's standards to people, they should say to themselves, I fall short. I don't do those things.
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I'm a sinner. I need mercy. I need grace. You give the law to people to show them their sin because who needs a savior if you don't think you're needing salvation?
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And so Jesus says, what's written in the law? Side note, the best apologetic for the
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Old Testament's inerrancy, infallibility, authority, sufficiency, and more is how
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Jesus viewed the Old Testament. I don't usually go to prophecies fulfilled, although that's fine.
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I don't go to archeological data, although that's fine. Do I think Genesis one, two, and three all the way through Malachi chapter four is divinely inspired?
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Yes, for one reason. Main reason is because that's what Jesus thought of the Old Testament. And here
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Jesus doesn't say, by the way, what do your traditions say about getting to heaven?
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What's kind of group think? What do some of the big shots in Israel say? Have you polled people?
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How do you get to heaven? I wonder what they say. Jesus goes right to the issue. What's in the
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Bible? What does the Bible say? What's written in the law? How do you read it? This is our faith and practice.
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This is our final authority. Sola Scriptura. What's in the Bible? You know what he's really saying?
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The answer's in your Bible. The answer's in your Bible, son. The lawyer responds correctly.
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Verse 27. And he answered, You shall love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.
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That's right there from Deuteronomy. In the law. And your neighbor as yourself.
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Leviticus 19. In the law. The lawyer knows that in Deuteronomy 6, what we call the
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Shema, and in Leviticus 19, everything is summarized under these two laws.
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Love God and love neighbor. What do you do to inherit eternal life?
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You love God and love neighbor. And by the way, if a creature, every human, made by the creator, does what the creator says, well there's no punishment.
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There's no judgment. And so if you could perfectly love God and perfectly love neighbor, you're in.
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Now let me read this again with the focus on the word all here because I think it's important.
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And if you're here today and you're not a Christian, this is all you have to do to get to heaven. You shall love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
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All, all, all, all. With every fiber of your being, totally committed, totally surrendered, totally obedient.
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How many minutes in a day, by the way? Come on, somebody's got to know. Quick, come on.
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1440, is that right? Huh, Vadim? That's right? 1440, right?
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What's 60 times 24? I'm looking over to the WPI grads. I'm going to look over here to the homeschool people.
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They know instead. That wasn't in my notes, obviously.
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Minutes in a day? Oh, seconds, okay. Either way, 24 -7, to use the vernacular, you just have to obey
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God and love neighbor. That's all you have to do to get to heaven. That's what the
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Bible teaches. And again, it's an impossibility because of Adam, sin has affected us.
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But this is talking about the necessity, the necessity of perfect obedience to God's law. And by the way, for all of us, as Christians, we look back and we think, you know what?
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I'm so glad I got saved because simply me thinking about my prayer life would show that I'm completely undone.
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As an unbeliever, what I thought about, what I did, what I didn't do. And of course, you know, the
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Jews back in those days, love your neighbors yourself. They thought neighbors were Jews, not
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Gentiles. This guy's got the right answer. We call that orthodoxy.
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The right answer. And the legal answer to the legal question is, if you love
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God truly with your heart, soul, mind and strength, love your neighbors yourself, you're in. That's all you have to do.
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But the purpose of Jesus is trying to show as a prophet, as a proclaimer of, don't be ignorant anymore, son, is that you can't do it.
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If we could get saved by doing these days, then why send Jesus? That was cruel and unusual punishment.
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We're not justified by the works of the law because we can't do it. And so, everything here is designed for this young man.
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And if you're not a Christian here today, for you to say to yourself with this man, then that's an impossibility, then
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I'm damned, I'm not gonna make it. Jesus didn't say, you know what, may your good outweigh your bad, may you be kind to people, may you be a decent citizen, pay your taxes on time.
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It doesn't say any of that. It says you want heaven? Perfection is needed. By the way, because God is perfect, and his heaven is perfect, and you think he's going to let the imperfect saunter into his presence in heaven?
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Verse 28, the trap snaps shut. And he said to him, you, lawyer, have answered correctly.
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Orthodox answer. Do this, and you'll live.
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Now let me just interpretively translate it. And Jesus said to him, you've answered correctly, according to the
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Bible. Obey loving God and loving neighbor, and you will live eternally.
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Remember, it's a question about eternal life. How do I get eternal life? Love God and love neighbor.
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You've got the right answer, now go ahead and do it. If you want eternal life, just perfectly obey
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God, entirely obey God, exactly obey God, and perpetually obey God.
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And if you're here as an unbeliever, my question for you is, if it's do this and live, how are you doing?
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How are you doing? Jesus kindly, graciously, in a shepherding way, shows this man the law so this man can see his sin.
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That's out of the goodness and kindness of God. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.
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I bet this man knows it. This man should say, I can't do it, I've never done it, I came here to test you, and now it's flipped around, and I realize
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I need mercy.
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Help. Is there a grace for me? Could my name somehow be written in the book of life?
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Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem to die for people just like this, and so he's going to make sure it's the bad news before the good news.
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It's the smashing of self -righteousness to show that you need righteousness of Jesus. Proper theology is not enough because God requires full obedience.
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Cursed it is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and to do them.
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Maybe this guy will get it. Maybe he'll say, I need mercy, I need grace, please help me, could you forgive me?
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I've heard stories about you back in Luke chapters one through nine and how you're kind to people and merciful and like a shepherd.
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You've said many times you're going to die for sinners and be raised from the dead and ascend. Would you forgive me?
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But look what this guy does, verse 29. But he, and this is the
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CV or the MO for every unbeliever seemingly, desiring to justify himself said to Jesus, who is my neighbor?
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Instead of him thinking, do you know what? I haven't loved God with my whole heart, soul, mind and strength for one minute of the day.
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Especially when you think of the word love, agape love, not family love, not intimate love, not brotherly love, but to love in a self -sacrificial way.
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Love God that way, love neighbor that way. I haven't done it. So dear
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Christian, one of the things that I think evangelicalism has lost is the preaching of the law in evangelism.
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Probably the people that do it the best are the Ray Comforts of the world and Way of the Master world and Todd Friel world, where they're talking about the law to show people their sin so then they can run to the
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Savior by faith. I love hearing stories about evangelism and when the
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Lord gives me strength, I love to do it. One of my favorite ways to do it is I just have learned this from Martin Holt in South Africa.
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I just like to say to people, did I just say Africa? I have no idea, that is so funny.
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I did say a couple times yesterday, New England has rubbed off on me. I said a couple times at the wedding,
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Brian and Emmer, but it was okay. I love to say, have you read your
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Bible today? Are you a church -going person?
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The law in theology has a first use and a third use.
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The third use is it tells Christians how to live in light of their salvation, but the first use, it's called a mirror because when you look at a mirror, you see the real you and the law of God found in Scripture summarized by love
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God and love neighbor shows an unbeliever who they really are and by the way, it benefits believers too because we realize what we really were.
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God saved us and we're super thankful, but I want you to start thinking about people that start talking to you about Bible, death, hell, sin, salvation.
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I want you to start preaching to them God's law, God's standard, because they need to know who they really are.
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The theologian Machen said, a new and more powerful proclamation of that law is perhaps the most pressing need of the hour.
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Interesting, he said that 100 years ago. I think it's true today. Men would have little difficulty with the gospel if they only learned the lesson of the law.
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So it always is a low view of the law brings legalism and religion and a high view of law like Jesus was doing makes a man a seeker after grace.
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Machen, pray God that the high view of the law may again prevail.
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Now because the law condemns, because the law silences, because the law accuses, sometimes people think the law isn't good.
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Is the law good? Answer? Yes. Turn your Bibles to 1 Timothy 1.
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We're gonna go to a couple places, 1 Timothy and then Romans, and I'm trying to reinforce what you know, dear congregation, because I think you already know the parable of the good
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Samaritan. That was just a rhetorical device in my introduction. We need to give people the bad news so they'll run to the good news by faith.
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We need to give people the law so they see who they really are. We need to show them what
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God demands, and by the way, what God demands is a reflection of who He is. 1
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Timothy 1, verses 8 through 11. The law is good because it's from God. It shows us who
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God is. Yes, it shows us who we are, but look at this in verse 8. This is called first use of the law, a mirror for the unbelievers.
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Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane.
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He's describing unbelievers. If you're an unbeliever today, He's describing you. If you're a believer today,
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He was describing who you used to be. For those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed
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God which I have been entrusted. We give the law to people so they can see they're sinners, so then they run to the one who's a savior of sinners.
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Turn your Bibles to Romans 7, please. 1 Timothy and Romans. God's law is good because God is good.
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God's law is holy because God is holy. The law is not floating around out in the
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Earth's atmosphere somewhere, ethereally, some kind of weird vapor.
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No, it's the law from God. It reveals who God is. So we want to be law preachers so then we can preach the good news, the gospel, what
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God has done in Christ Jesus. Romans 7, 7 and following.
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This is also what we call first use of the law. When you read things like husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church, that's third use.
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That's in the context of helping believers live. This is the context of what the law does with unbelievers.
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What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means, no way. Here's what
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Paul is saying. If it had been not for the law, I would not have known sin.
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I would not have known what it is to covet. If the law had not said, you shall not covet. And look at this language here.
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But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
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I was once apart from the law. When the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. Interesting verse 10, mark it.
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The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
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Isn't that interesting? That's right from Luke 10. The law that promised life. What do
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I do to inherit eternal life? Do the law. Because if you do it, you actually make it.
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But it proved death to me because of Adam's sin and my own sin. For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
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Is God's law good? Yes, verse 12. So the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
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God's law shows God's character. Man is not held accountable to some abstract thing.
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He's accountable to God and His law. The law accuses.
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The law is like a mirror. Calvin said, just as a mirror represents to us the spots on our face.
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I've said it many times, especially as I've gotten older and I have glasses and I need to put them on.
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In the morning I wake up and I don't have glasses on and when I look in the mirror, looking pretty good. And then
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I put the glasses on and I'm like, what in the world? Drooping eyelashes and eyelids and all this other stuff and my face and my eyes and everything else.
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I'm like, man, you look like you're 75 years old. They're paying attention at least.
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And then you get a mirror with a glowing orb around it and you realize, what in the world?
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As all you old men know, you've got hair on your ears, hair on your nose, it's just a crazy thing.
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I always told Kim, if I'm ever in a rest home, please, for the love of God, take care of the nose and ear hairs.
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God in His goodness has the law before the unbeliever and it shows that unbeliever exactly who he is or who she is.
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Turn your Bibles to Romans 2, please. As Nathan's long finger went out and said to David, you are the man.
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The law of God says to the unbeliever, you are the sinner. You're that man. You should feel convicted.
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You should feel like I can't sleep at night. I've preached to a lot of people before and they said, I can't sleep at night.
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I don't want you to sleep if you're an unbeliever. I want you to say, I need to do business with God. God, be merciful to me.
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I'm a sinner. I need help. I can't do it. I'm enslaved to sin. I have no way to somehow extract myself from this.
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And in Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3, the first part of chapter 3 at least, Paul is trying to show people they need
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Jesus. And I want to try to show you, if you're an unbeliever here today, that you need Jesus.
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And I want to show you, Christian, that when you are evangelizing, before you get to the good news, would you preach the law?
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Romans 2, 6. He's talking to religious people. He's talking to people that are saying, you know what, there's a lot of bad pagans in chapter 1.
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There's a lot of bad people like homosexuals in chapter 1. But I'm not like them. And Paul says, you just as well should be.
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And so he says in verse 6, this is directly tied to Luke 10, theologically.
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He, God, will render to each one according to his works. By the way, if you obey, blessing, disobey, cursing.
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Whatever you reap, you'll sow. To those who by patience, this is people that will obey, if they could obey, by patience and well -doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
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Sounds like what Jesus said to the guy. If you just love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself, you have answered correctly, you will make it in.
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Do this and you'll live. But for those who are self -seeking, verse 8, and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, this is for people that don't do, look at these terrifying, awful, horrifying words.
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This is our lot before Jesus saved us and this is the lot of everyone who won't bow the knee by faith to Christ.
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There will be wrath and fury that doesn't end.
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As Nahum says, who can stand before his indignation? Look at these words, they're awful.
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There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the
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Jew first and also the Greek. As it says in John chapter 3, he who believes in the
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Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, for the wrath of God abides upon him.
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By the way, if you do good, verse 10, glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good all the time, 24 -7, love
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God, love neighbor, the Jew first and also the Greek. And now we boil it all down to this verse that is a theological tie -in to Luke 10, verse 13.
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For it is not the hearers of the law who are justified or righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified.
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Son, the lawyer, you've got the right answer, and you've heard rightly, but you have to do it.
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The legal way to get into heaven is to perfectly obey. And so everyone should then say, but I'm not doing it,
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I need a Savior. And that's where chapter 3 comes in. The doers of the law shall be justified.
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How are you doing? Now, if I think of a riding lawnmower, and it has forward, reverse, and neutral.
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Adam's in the garden, and he's in neutral. And God said, I want you to go into first gear, and I want you to obey me.
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There are certain things you should do, certain things you shouldn't do, and so I want you to go into first gear and obey.
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Do. But what did Adam do? I don't even think he used the clutch, he was just so wicked.
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He jams it into reverse. Into the reverse of disobedience. And the
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Bible says, just like we have two senators that represent us in Massachusetts, whether we like them or not, they're our representative.
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God said Adam's your representative, so all of us in Adam have jammed it in reverse, and we see the fruit of that with our sins.
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So Jesus, the last Adam, the one who did this and live, the perfect obedience of Jesus, I mean, think about it, if Jesus died when
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Herod was killing babies, he wouldn't have been earning righteousness, he wouldn't have been doing.
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But all the way up to the cross, Jesus is doing, obeying. He's loving God, he's loving neighbor.
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But first, to get from reverse to neutral, our sins have to be paid for.
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We didn't do, Jesus pays for our sins, and we're back to neutral. But God expects
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Adam and everyone in Adam to obey, all creatures to obey. He expects to go into first gear, he expects to do this to live for God.
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And so in the middle of all this, don't forget, while we don't do this and live, praise
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God from whom all blessings flow that the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed the law, exactly obeyed the law, entirely obeyed the law, perfectly obeyed the law, and you receive
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His righteousness simply by faith, by trust. The law sends us to Christ for mercy, and we get both
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His forgiveness and His doing. And so, dear
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Christian, I want you to know, when you get to heaven, since you're in Christ, since He's paid for your sins, since God looks at you like you've perfectly obeyed, you're going to do nothing except praise
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God for Jesus' law -keeping and for paying for your law -breaking.
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When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under what?
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Law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive adoption as sons.
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It's been said by Horatius Bonar that the only perfect thing that's ever been presented to God in man's behalf is
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Jesus' righteousness. You're declared righteous through faith, dear
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Christian, because Jesus didn't come to abolish the law, but to what? Fulfill it.
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When I look at passages like Luke 10, do this and you'll live. I think about Adam, that's true, and how he didn't, and I got credit for that, and how it's an impossibility and a need to flee to Christ, but when
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I flee to Christ by faith, I realize He paid for my not doing, and then He did for me as well.
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Because you see, Jesus as a Savior, as a mediator, He's not just a prophet that says, here's the truth.
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He's not just a king that says you're out from the tyranny. He's the priest that said, I'll pay for your sins as the priest.
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I'll give you perfect righteousness. As Zacharias says, take away the filthy garments from Him.
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See, I've removed your iniquity from you, and will clothe you with rich robes. What a picture of salvation.
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So when you're evangelizing, I want you to think about law, then gospel.
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I want you to start thinking about bad news, then good news. I want you to say, you know what? Jesus did not fail the evangelism test.
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That's what MacArthur used to always say. If Jesus took an evangelism class, would
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Luke 10 show that He failed the class? What must I do to inherit eternal life? Do, obey.
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You say, well, you didn't tell me what the parable meant. You just don't know it.
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And next week we'll look at that, because if you get this right, and you have it right, you'll understand the parable.
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And we'll look at some other theological implications as well. Romans 8.
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For God has not done what the law weakened by flesh could not do. By sending His own
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Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, He condemns sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the
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Spirit. Today's the day, if you're an unbeliever, to say,
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Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. I know you're a righteous Savior, but has mercy as well, and you've proved your power over sin and death and hell by the resurrection.
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And if you're a Christian, I want you to say to yourself, I'm so thankful for my salvation, because I couldn't earn it.
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I want you to say, Lord, give me opportunities to preach the gospel this week, but let me start off with the bad news, called the law.
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Bow with me, please. To think, Father, that there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
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We earned condemnation. We earned wrath and fury and tribulation and distress, and instead you've given us joy inexpressible, full of glory, the hope of heaven, adoption as sons and daughters, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, the promise of glorification, the peace that passes all understanding.
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You give and give and give and give. Thank you for that. I'm thankful that Jesus was a great preacher, a great evangelist, and a great
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Savior. I'd ask that you give me and every person here an opportunity this week to tell people about Jesus, the one who died for lawbreakers and the one who kept the law on behalf of all those who believe.