Book of Romans - Ch. 4, Vs. 1-6 (08/15/2004)

Park Meadows Church

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We're in Romans, the fourth chapter, verse 1. And Russell, who is that behind you?

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Who? David. David. David. David.

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David. David. Well, I'll get the Davids mixed up. All right.

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Yes. Well, good. Let me ask you a question.

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Are we to live in such a way that the

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Lord can use us, Russell?

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But should we strive to live in such a way that the

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Lord himself can use us, John? Yes.

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David, you're messing with the question.

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David, can we live in such a way that the

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Lord can use us? What?

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Yes. I thought I had brought you all much further than this.

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David? It's a question that's tricking us,

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Otis. Well, you just have to listen to it. You cannot live in such good listening to the

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Lord. That's right. You cannot live, we cannot live in such a refined way that the

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Lord can use us. Do you understand?

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And you yourself, me, myself, and I cannot come up to the right standards for the

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Lord to smile on us and use us. Is that,

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Dennis? Yes. What do you say? Well, I think we could live absolutely perfectly.

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We would be raised in the

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Lord. All right. But is it dependent upon you,

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John? No. No. So you cannot live in such a way that the

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Lord can use you. Yes. Why would the

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Lord accept it if he can?

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Well, I don't know, but I'm sure he can. Because he does. What?

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He could change it. It's all the

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Lord. It's not you. None of you. It's not me. I'm not living in such a way that the

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Lord can use me. I would hope I'm living according to his plan, and I hope he is using me.

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Well, I know he's using me because he uses all of us. But we cannot live to please him.

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If you cannot understand it, that's why. But what

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I'm trying to get you to see is that you yourself, outside of God whatsoever, you yourself are not living according to the rules and dictates of God.

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He causes you to do that. And it's not us, ourself.

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Yes. Yes. That's right.

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Every day when you get up, or before you get up, or when you wake up, or when you're dreaming about it, then wake up.

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You're supposed to submit unto the Lord each day. And he will guide you.

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Yes? I think you just said the key word. I think in terms of the whole way we were brought up, we're striving.

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We're striving to work at something. And there's really only one thing

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I think we should strive to do, and that is to build a spirit. Because at that point, he works in us, which is totally different than us striving to live the kind of life that God would be pleased with for his future, which is what almost 100 % of the

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Christian world today thinks they're supposed to do. That's right. But when that Pharisee came and he raised his hand and said,

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Lord, I'm glad I'm not as that other man. See, that's the attitude of a person who's trying to live his life for God's good.

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If God was displeased with him, he would go home lost. And the other man he was jeering at would go home saved.

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So I think what you said, you submit. When we wake up in the morning, we submit to the

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Holy Spirit's fellowship with our spirit. He takes care of us.

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And as Paul said, he takes care of the rest. Yes. Well, this keeps all men out except those that he calls.

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If he has called you, you know it. Now, verse one.

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What shall we say then? That Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, had found.

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He found something. Now, justification.

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Justification, sanctification. What's the difference, Dennis? All right.

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That's it in a nutshell. The first changes us. The first will change our state.

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And the second, our nature. The first is perfect.

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The second is gradual. The first is from the obedience of Jesus the

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Christ. Sanctification. The second is from the work of the

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Holy Spirit. Why is it, do you suppose,

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John, that when we profess our faith, when we get saved, we say, when

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I have become illuminated, we say, why doesn't God change me completely?

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Lots of reasons, I think. I mean, all kinds of things are going to come to mind. Like, you have to learn what he expects of us, what we should do.

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It'd be too much all at once. Yes, it would be.

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And if he changed you completely like the finished product, you wouldn't be here. The first gives us title to heaven.

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The second makes us fit for heaven. Justification and sanctification.

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Self -justification is like a man caught in a rainstorm, and he runs into a house without a roof.

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He thinks he's safe when he isn't.

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Question. Can faith conceive great things?

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Joy. Well, I'm back in a thousand.

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Can you, through faith, conceive great things? I'll put it like that. Joy. Well, think.

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Well, we do have everything through faith. But faith cannot conceive real things.

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Well, that's different. Now, John, what is or who is the controlling agent in your salvation?

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All right. You got that right.

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Can faith conceive great things? No. You cannot call faith up whenever you want it.

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Faith has got to be there. You've got to act in faith.

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You cannot act ahead. You cannot run ahead of faith. Faith is the controlling agent in your work.

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And all that faith can do is let us or place us as an instrument in God's hand.

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That's what faith is. Faith working is but God's will.

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Now, can a hammer drive a nail, Debbie? No. Can a book read?

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No. No, we're just instruments in the hand of Christ.

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The book is an instrument to carry the thoughts of the author to the mind of man.

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And that's exactly what Jesus did. He brought the mind of God down to the mind of man.

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Do you see that? That's why he was called the Word. The Word is a vehicle carried from God the

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Father to the mind of man. Two, for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.

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Now, he could glory before men, but not before God. For what saith the scripture concerning Abraham?

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Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

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Now, Dennis, what is the it in that sentence?

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It's it. Well, keep it in the language of the sentence.

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Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. What is it?

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All right. It's not his belief. Do you see it?

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It's not his belief. Now, Russell, what does the word counted mean?

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Counted unto him for righteousness. All right.

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All right. To put to his account, even though the payment had not been made yet, it was put to his account.

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Now, we have Adam. We have Moses. We have Abraham. We have all of the

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Old Testament saints. We have all of the New Testament saints.

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Some haven't been born yet. Dennis, when were they all saved?

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Or were they all saved at the same time? Well, that's true, but are they saved yet?

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That's true. Well, is this statement true,

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David? All of God's children were saved at exactly the same time.

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Yes. And when was that time, John? When Jesus died on the cross.

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All right. When Jesus died on the cross, when he was resurrected, we were saved.

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Everybody was saved. Now, Dennis, did that one act that he did, the whole thing, did that affect every human being on earth, or just the saved?

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It affected every human being.

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But it didn't save us. All right. How did it affect them? Well, the

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BC and the AD. I know they didn't save the saints, but they saved the

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Lord. And, again, his spirit, his thoughts, his belief in God, his belief in the church, they're affected by it.

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All right. All right. All right. Russell, how did it affect the unsaved?

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That's the difference. His death and resurrection has sent those unsaved to hell and the saved to heaven.

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He made it possible to judge the world. Without his death, he couldn't judge.

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Think about it. Yes. The Jewish guy would argue.

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That they what? That they had the law. They would argue that.

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That's right. But they're wrong. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt, works and grace.

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The word worketh means what in this verse, David? All right.

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All right. What's that young man's name,

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Dave? Dave, what is work? Something we do.

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All right. Can you do nothing and still work?

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I'm thinking of a person in a class and the teacher puts a problem on the board, blackboard, and he tells them to work it out in their mind.

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Is that work, Dave? Thinking is work for some more than others.

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Work is energy spent. And he spent energy working, thinking.

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Now the word debt. If man could work and gain his salvation, what would that mean as far as God is concerned?

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David? God would mean that man's level of salvation would be greater than God's own.

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That's right. That means that he would be put in a position of debt.

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Now, Debbie, is God ever put in a position of debt? God can not ever be put in that position.

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He does not owe anybody anything. That's right.

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He would be a subservient of everybody.

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So salvation cannot be based on that which man does.

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Five. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

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Now to him that worketh not, or to those that do not work for their salvation, but they believe on him that justifieth the ungodly.

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Who is that, John? It's the person that believes that Jesus died for us, and that's why we're righteous.

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All right. It's his righteousness, and it is imputed to you.

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What's the word impute mean, Debbie? What?

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Privilege. All right. There's another important ingredient. Right.

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Privilege. Right. All right. There's still another one. Somebody else puts it in.

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All right. Still another. David?

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David does. Well, that's all true.

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What you have said is all true, but there's another very important ingredient in the word impute.

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Joy? B? It's counted.

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Go ahead and finish. I guess you did finish.

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To impute something to someone means you give them full use of it, but they don't own it.

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You're responsible for it, but you don't own it. That's why our righteousness is imputed to us.

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We can never own it. Yes? And God, Jesus Christ, gives us his righteousness.

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It's imputed. It always wants to be imputed. So that means we have no righteousness.

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Right? That's right. We have no righteousness.

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I exhibit righteousness, but it's not my righteousness. It's the Lord's. You see the difference?

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I'll say it does. It's righteousness on loan, and you're held responsible.

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Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom

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God imputeth righteousness without works. What's it mean without works,

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Dennis? He can earn it. That's right. He can never earn it.

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Now, somebody... John turned to Galatians 1, 15, and 16.

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Dennis turned to Revelation 17, 8. And Russell go to Revelation 17, 14.

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Galatians 1. 1, 15, and 16. But when it pleased

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God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his

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Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred him not with flesh and blood.

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Now, let's read that without the prepositional phrases. But when it pleased

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God, who separated me from my mother's womb...

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No. But when it pleased God to reveal his

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Son in me... Well, I...

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But when it pleased God, skip the next one, who separated me from my mother's womb, he's simply stating that he was born, and called me by his grace to reveal his

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Son in me, he did. So, when it pleased

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God, he revealed his Son in you. When it pleased

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God, he revealed his Son in me. When it pleased

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God, he did not reveal his Son to you for me.

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To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately

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I conferred not with flesh and blood. He didn't have to go get it confirmed someplace by a priest.

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Jesus the Christ has been in us for how long?

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Forever. Even before you were born. Before the world was born.

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Now, Revelation 17, 8. Alright.

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Alright. When were the... Let's see here.

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They will wonder, and on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book.

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From when? Oh, what do you know? Their names were never written in the book.

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From the very foundation. Now. 14.

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Revelation 17, 14. So, there must be a group that is with him.

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A group that was never written in the book of life. And those that are written in the book of life.

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See the difference? 17, 8.

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Whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation.

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They never were alive. Spiritually. Well, one more.

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Yes. Alright.

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Sure. Sure.

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It would just follow if a God that made them, and he made us, and he did not write their names in the book of life.

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That he would also say that he was responsible for their name not being written.

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He has given them a certain path to follow. Now, this does not lessen our responsibility.

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Or our response to them. One more.

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Saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, given, and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

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There is that word impute again. Blessed is the man to whom the

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Lord will not impute sin. Quickly, someone tell me.

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What does impute mean? That's right.

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Alright, is there anything else that you wish to discuss? Alright.

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You're not alone. Well, you are alone in understanding.

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I've taught it so many times. Yes. Well, that's what makes it so interesting.

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Any book that you read in the Bible, it's a brand new book.

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Yet, you have gone through it umpteen times, Debbie, and have exhausted it completely.

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And it doesn't change. But what is there that changes?

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The circumstances around which we are living, they change.

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And that causes us to see something new. That's why it is so interesting and informative to go back over a book many, many, many times.

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That's right. The faith is constant.

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Now, you understand things you didn't before, and you do now.

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And there are things at which you will understand later, the next time we go through it.