Justification, Sanctification, & The Church

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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Though I'd love to be, I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Starting in verse one.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

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By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

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Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life.

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For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

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We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

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For the one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we also live with him.

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together as his people. Father, please bless us today as we open your word to talk about,

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Lord, these incredible truths. Lord, peace with you, justification, sanctification, the gift of the body of Christ, Lord.

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Help me, Lord, as a shepherd over these people to speak,

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Lord, in a way that glorifies you and teaches and instructs, blesses, changes, transforms.

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Please, God, speak by your spirit to your people. Let me decrease in Christ, increase in Jesus' name.

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Amen. So it's amazing, right? I mean, this is Romans chapter 6 is in this middle, essentially, of Paul's systematic explanation of the gospel.

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And it's important because we've been talking lately, a lot lately, about the gospel and how we have in the modern, in the west, we have in our time, a little sliver of time here, we've truncated the gospel.

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It's been done before in history, but we've truncated the gospel to something of an idea that the gospel is going to heaven one day.

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Like, that's the gospel. Say this magic prayer and you go to heaven one day. And that's what people will often say.

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That's, as a matter of fact, that's probably one of the most popular descriptions of the gospel today is, it means that.

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Pray this prayer so that you can go to heaven one day. There are people who go around and do videos and upload them, and that's what they do.

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They go door to door and watch me preach the gospel to this person. What they say is, uh, you're a sinner.

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Do you want to go to heaven? Well, yeah, I'd love to go to heaven. Fantastic. Then pray this magic prayer with me.

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They won't say magic prayer, but they say pray this prayer with me. Great. Did you pray that prayer? Fantastic. You are going to heaven, ma 'am.

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You are going to heaven, sir. That is what that means. You prayed that prayer. I remember being a chaplain at the hospital four years, full time, every day.

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New people in front of me every day. The worst of the worst. It was brokenness all day every day. Actually, one of the hardest things

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I ever did was being a chaplain at a hospital. It was hard, hard work. You were hearing the most terrible stories on the regular.

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I mean, just constantly, all day. It's a very sanctifying thing for me as just a believer, as a pastor, to have to endure that for four years.

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I mean, it was very, very, very hard. But one of the things that I heard so often with people who were in this rehab, this hospital, people who were shooting heroin and doing all kinds of drugs and lives just really in the pit for many, many years, lost their family, lost their friends.

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I mean, everything was just blown up. And it wasn't, you know, for all of them, it wasn't just like a moment.

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It was, you know, decades, two decades long of a fight with drugs and alcohol and just going full on into it.

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And it was amazing how many times I heard this. Well, Pastor Jeff, I'm saved.

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How many times I heard that? Well, I'm saved. I would say, what does that mean? What does it mean to you that you're saved?

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What's that mean? Well, you know, one time when I was like eight years old, I went to camp with a bunch of other kids and, you know, the guy was speaking up there and he said, raise your hand if you'd like to go to heaven one day.

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I raised my hand and he had us all recite this prayer. And so when I was eight years old,

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I was saved. This is a person who's like 50 years old now, has never gone to church, cares nothing about the word of God, has no desire for holiness or anything of the like, and they're saved.

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They're going to heaven. Why? Because I prayed that magic prayer. And that's what we mean typically today.

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Not always, but when we say the gospel, that's what we're talking about. It means I prayed a prayer and I'm going to heaven one day.

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Now, is it true in the gospel that there is repentance and faith as a gift from God, eternal life?

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I'm saved. I'm declared righteous. I'm not condemned. There's a moment in my life where God draws me to himself, grants to me a new heart, energizes me with life, brings me to life, grants to me repentance and faith, and I am declared righteous.

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Is that all true? Yes, that is true. That's at the heart of the gospel, the issue of justification.

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But as we've been saying, the gospel, the good news, is more than my own private individual relationship and salvation before God.

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It's more than just me going to heaven one day. When the apostle Paul proclaims the gospel in 1

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Corinthians 15, have you noticed that as he talks about what the gospel is, he's declaring something.

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He's declaring the story about who Jesus is, what he's accomplished, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and he says he is reigning now and he must reign until all of his enemies are put under his feet and the last enemy to be defeated is death, but he's declaring good news about Jesus and what he did.

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That's what's so good about it. Listen to this, God became man, lived the life of perfection, was sinless, died in the place of his people, he conquered death, he is ascended, and he is seated.

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That's good news. And you know what? There's good news of a kingdom that Jesus was out proclaiming.

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Good news of a kingdom. What's that even mean today? We don't talk about it like that.

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Like the kingdom of Jesus, his rule and reign is good news. It's good news that Jesus is on the throne, ruling over the nations right now, conquering the world with his gospel.

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That's good news. So there's context to this. There's different categories of thinking about the gospel.

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But it is interesting as the Apostle Paul in Romans 6, in the middle of the systematic explanation of the gospel, as he's just explained justification and how

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God has always saved his people, justified them by grace, through faith, and he goes back to Father Abraham.

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How was Abraham justified? Abraham believed God. It was credited to him as righteousness. This is not a new story.

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God doesn't have a plan B of salvation for people. He saves people by his grace, his sovereign will, and plan, and purpose.

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It's to his glory, not to us. It's faith. God has done this as a gift always.

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But it's amazing as Paul is laying out how God saves his people, and what he does, and why this is such great news for the world.

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He then gets to Romans 6 and he says, What shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means?

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How can we who died to sin still live in it? Like it's right there at the discussion of justification and union with Jesus Christ, all that.

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Paul now says, okay, now do we continue living in sin so that there's just more grace, so that it abounds, it increases, like here's the deal.

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This sounds nuts. Right? I mean, it's an imaginary objector that Paul's dealing with a person sort of in the background, sort of, you know, like with his response.

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Oh great. So like I'm saved. So I'll just keep sinning, because the more sin that I put in, like the more grace

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God gives, and the more grace God gives, he's got all this glory for saving all these wretched sinners.

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So the more sin means more grace, more grace means God gets more glory. So I'll just keep sinning then.

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And you might think, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. And it's amazing how many times

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I've heard that in my life. I remember, actually, in my sin, when

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I was involved in my drug and alcohol addiction, I remember that there was a time on the very end of all that when

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God was breaking my life, and he brought me to himself. I remember being in a room with a bunch of people who were professing

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Christians, all rolling on ecstasy, high on all kinds of drugs.

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And I remember that I was getting to a point where I was like, this doesn't seem consistent, for some reason.

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And I remember asking this group of Christians, professing Christians, doesn't this bother you?

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This is wrong, right? Like something is not right, like about this, and like we're supposed to be saved, and I was a professing

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Christian, and like this doesn't seem right. And the answer was Romans 6.

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Oh, no, no, I'm saved. I'm totally saved. Like I prayed that prayer when I was a kid.

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I'm saved. I want to do as much as I can now, while I'm still here, before I go to heaven.

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Why? Because I'm saved, and like I don't get to do this stuff in heaven. So I'd rather,

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I'm gonna just do it now, and enjoy it now. And plus, like God looks great at saving someone as wretched as I am.

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Like it seems like an insane thing to suggest, but people suggest it.

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And Paul deals with it as he explains the gospel, this very clear message of the heart of the gospel, of justification through faith.

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Paul has to actually answer the objector, who, the person in the background, is saying, well, just, let's just do it.

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Let's just keep on sinning to make God look great. And the answer is, by no means.

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The answer is this, is if you've come to Christ, Paul says, how can we who died to sin still live in it?

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You see, that is the explanation that's missing so much from the modern evangelical gospel.

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We don't call people to faith like that on the regular. You see, we talk about faith in some pithy, pithy way today, that we talk about it in terms of, it's merely acquiescing to facts about Jesus, right?

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Here are some facts of Jesus. Acknowledge these facts, and you're going to heaven one day.

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That's what we call faith. Just acquiesce to the facts. And the answer from Scripture could not be clearer

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Even the demons believe, and they tremble. They know these things are true.

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Demons are better theologians than any of us. Why? They have direct contact.

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They understand, and they would say yes and amen. It's all true, right?

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But they do not trust Christ. They do not submit to God, but they believe it all.

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And we have that kind of an idea of faith today, that it's an acquiescence. It's just merely saying, that's true.

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But we've missed the part, the way that Jesus and the Apostles proclaim the gospel, where they talk in terms of repent and believe the gospel, turn away from sin toward God, and trust in Jesus.

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He's the object of your faith, and you trust in Him for what? Salvation from your sins.

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Jesus talks about the gospel in a way that scatters a crowd. We talk about it all the time in Apologia.

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We try to make sure we emphasize this, that the way Jesus talks about the gospel is a way that actually shrinks the crowd.

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It doesn't make it bigger. It shrinks it in His ministry. He actually says to people, you must love others, the most important people in your life, in comparison to Him.

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You must love them less than Him. He must be supreme, or you're not worthy.

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Don't bother coming. Jesus talks about coming to Him in faith, and He says, you must take up your cross, or don't come.

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Now, that's what Paul is aiming at here. Faith in Jesus, trusting in Jesus, is coming to Him, and you recognize there's a context to this relationship.

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He's a holy God. I'm a sinful person. I deserve judgment. He has provided salvation.

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I'm coming to receive salvation, which necessitates an understanding that I need to be saved from this, out of this.

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So, I come to Jesus to die and to rise again. That's faith.

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Trusting in Jesus is coming to trust in Him, to be united to Him, in what?

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His death and His resurrection. What did He die for? Sin. He died for sin, for His people, for sinners.

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He says, how can we who died to sin still live in it? Coming to trust in Jesus is coming to die to sin.

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Now, it's important for us to recognize this, that yes, we can define these things. We live in a time where everybody wants to muddy...

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This is, by the way, I say, we live in a time. Of course, the gospel has been under attack for 2 ,000 years.

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Of course, there have always been heretics and false teachers and false brethren from within the church to try to corrupt the gospel.

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It's been, it's in the pages of the New Testament. It's happening in Galatians. But we do live in a very interesting time in the

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West where we've lost so much godly, biblical, gospel -saturated influence that we can't even think correctly anymore.

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We can't think consistently. We don't even care to. We've got Christian, quote, seminaries confessing sins to plants.

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Do you see that this week? People who profess

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Christ and confessing sins to plants. That's the time that we live in. People today, men dressing like women and calling themselves women.

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Women dressing like men and calling themselves men. People actually demanding that you actually refer to them as a gender that they're actually not.

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And they're offended that you won't do it. That's the time we live in. We say, no, you can't interpret.

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You can't really understand. You see, the culture out there says this, that this objective biology in front of you cannot be properly interpreted because it's subjective.

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It's how I feel. It's not what you see. It's how I feel. And so you can't properly interpret it by looking at what's objectively in front of you.

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That's the time we live in, in our culture. Even something that's biological right in front of me.

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I can touch. I can examine under a microscope. No, it's not what you think. But we have that theologically as well.

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People say, well, you can't really define the gospel. Who really knows what the gospel really is? I mean, do we really have a fix and understanding?

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Is it possible? Because here's the problem. There's so many people who profess faith in Jesus who say they believe the gospel, but they're all divergent.

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They're all so very different. They all don't sound the same. You've got different Jesuses. You've got the

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Muslim Jesus, the Mormon Jesus, the Watchtower Jesus, the Rosicrucian Jesus, the Christian Science Jesus.

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So many different Christs and so many different versions of salvation in the gospel.

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Who really knows? We don't know what a man and a woman is. We certainly can't define the gospel, for goodness sake.

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That's the way, that's the world that we live in. And what's amazing here is think about the inconsistency.

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What's the Bible say about answering the fool? Don't answer the fool. Proverbs 26, 4 and 5.

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Don't answer the fool according to their folly, lest thou be like unto them, lest you be like them.

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Don't stand in their position. Don't assume their things and actually accept it as true.

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Pretend that it is true, or you're gonna become a fool too. And then it says answer the fool according to their folly, lest they be wise in their own conceit.

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Step into their position, show them their feet, ask them to look at what they're saying. When the person says to me,

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Pastor Jeff, I don't think the gospel can be defined because, I mean, who can really say that they have the right interpretation?

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I mean, there's so many different ways Christians look at the gospel and Jesus. Can we really know?

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I mean, don't we need an interpreter? You can't possibly say, that's the gospel.

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That's arrogance, for goodness sakes. You are just a Calvinist arrogant person.

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You're, you Reformed folks are so very arrogant to say that, you know, and that it's so well -defined.

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Your gospel is, but not everybody else. Isn't it amazing? Did you catch it? The person saying to you, that you can't possibly understand it.

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You couldn't possibly interpret it, because it's not really clear. There's no way to fully understand a message, because we just can't possibly know.

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Nobody can really interpret what people are saying, is the person who's saying stuff to you.

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They're saying things to you, assuming what? That they can be understood.

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Did you catch it? The person who says that God can't be understood in the gospel, that the scriptures are not fundamentally clear, is arguing with you.

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Why? Because they believe they can be understood. So what they're saying, very arrogantly, is

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I, as a creature in the 21st century, can be understood, but God, the

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Sovereign, cannot communicate in a way that He can be understood. Where's the arrogance?

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You see, how do we know the gospel can be defined? Well, you see in Scripture that it is a clear enough gospel, that in Galatians chapter 1, the

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Apostle Paul really skips the pleasantries, and he says, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting

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Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for another gospel, which is really not another, though there are some who are troubling you, and want to pervert, what?

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The gospel. And he says this in the 1st century, not long after the resurrection of Jesus and ascension of Jesus, he's like, look, if I come back to you, the

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Apostle Paul, me, if I do it, if I come back to you and preach any other gospel, he says, anathema on me.

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Eternal condemnation, separation from God, upon me. If an angel came down from heaven, shows up in your room with golden plates, baby, and gives to you another gospel, the

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Apostle Paul says, what? Anathema. Now, what does that mean? If Paul can say anathema on me, anathema on angelic hosts, anathema across the board, preaching another gospel, if Paul can say that, then that means that the gospel can be defined.

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Doesn't do any good declaring anathemas on people when you can't even understand the gospel.

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Paul says, it is easy enough to understand the gospel that I can now say anathema on you, anathema on him, anathema on that, because the gospel is able to be understood.

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Now, by the way, that's not saying that there are everything in Scripture is easy to comprehend.

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The Apostle Peter says that. There are some things in Paul's writings that are hard to understand, hard to comprehend.

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But that doesn't mean that Scripture isn't clear. The Scripture is clear enough that Jesus can actually say to people on the road to Emmaus, after the resurrection, he can say to people, what?

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Chastise. Chastise them for what? For not believing all that the

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Scriptures have said about him. Now, it doesn't do any good to chastise people for not understanding a message that can't be understood.

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You getting the point? When God speaks, he speaks with clarity. He speaks in a way that you can understand.

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He speaks in a way that can be interpreted. The gospel can be understood. Now, in Romans 3 and 4, the

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Apostle Paul, we've done this in the last couple of weeks, I believe, Romans 3 and 4, the Apostle Paul talks about the universal indictment on sin.

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Jew and Gentile, all under sin. The law saving nobody, Romans 3. What's the law do?

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It shuts your mouth before the throne of God. It makes the whole world guilty before God.

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And then Paul says, but now, what? This righteousness from God is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

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It's not a novelty. The righteousness of God, what? Through faith in Jesus Christ.

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It's a gift, gift from God. It's all grace. And then Paul says,

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Jesus is that propitiation, that full satisfaction of the wrath of God.

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God's wrath diverted from us, poured out and absorbed in Jesus, so that God remains, what?

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Just. He's just because he's not letting sins just go.

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He's answering them as the judge of all the earth in his Son. There's a substitute.

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So Paul says he's just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

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Do you notice the language? Watch. Here's what I'm getting at. You guys are like, where are we going, Pastor Jeff? This is it. Listen, this is courtroom.

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Do you get it? It's courtroom. Context. God is a just judge.

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He is just and the one who declares righteous, justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

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So then Paul says this, what's really important here, because we always miss this in Romans 3. He says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

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That is legal language. Declared righteous. You are declared righteous through faith apart from the works of the law.

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To which every antinomian says, yay. I get to keep sinning.

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Because why? Because I'm justified through faith apart from the works of the law. Now only somebody who is perverse, doesn't understand the gospel call, would actually rejoice in the fact that we are saved through faith apart from works.

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It's a misunderstanding of the gospel to think that because we're saved through faith and not works we can go on sinning.

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Because Paul actually says in answer to that thought, he says very clearly in Romans chapter 3 verse 31, he says, do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

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By no means. On the contrary, we establish it. We uphold it. Do you get that?

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The Christian message? Faith alone. Christ alone. Grace alone. All God's gift. He saves unworthy people.

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All by his grace. Nothing to do with us. He is the just one. He is the justifier. He credits righteousness.

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Does not count sin. We are not condemned. This whole message, right? All to God's glory.

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Nothing to do with us has at the bottom of it this pillar, this foundation that says what?

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So do we then overthrow the law? Is it done? Is it over? Is it not important now because we're saved by all this grace and giftness?

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He says no. On the contrary, because we're saved in Jesus by his grace through faith, we establish it now.

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We actually establish the law because we're saved. Because we're declared righteous.

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Because there's no more condemnation. Because now I'm right with God. And Paul in Romans 4 goes into the whole discussion about Abraham and he believes

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God. It's credited to him as righteousness. And when was that? It's before he does anything.

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What's Abraham offer God when he's justified in Genesis 15 6? What's he offer him? What? What? Empty hands.

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Nothing. What do you got? Circumcision? No, that was later. That's Paul's point. Was it circumcision?

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No. That was later. How about offering Isaac on the altar? No, that's about two decades later.

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Oh, it's because he obeyed the law of God. No, that was Moses hundreds of years later. So what Abraham do?

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That's the point. Nothing. He brought nothing to God.

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He trusted and boy, was that a basic kind of faith.

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Do you think Abraham could articulate the Trinity? Like we can in a 21st century.

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When he when he first trusted. Do you think he could? By the way, this is something important. I wanted to throw out just I'm just thinking of it now.

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Very important. We got to be cautious. Praise God for Christian history. Praise God for the fathers.

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Praise God for what God has done to preserve the faith and all the rest everything else. But one thing my friend actually said this week,

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I think is important too. We really should be cautious calling them the fathers because it really was the infancy of the church.

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I mean, they're in many ways babies just because they were second century third century doesn't mean they have some special pull, right?

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It's I mean praise God for them, but that was the infancy of the church. I praise God that we can articulate the

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Trinity today. Clearly and I think better than second and third century

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Christians could because we've had so many fights. We've had to actually now be able to go to the scriptures to define so precisely.

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So I'll take the 21st century explanation and apologists of the Trinity over even maybe

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Abraham in that moment when he believed God it was Christ. It's a basic rudimentary kind of faith, right?

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It's very simple. It's very basic. It's without the full understanding of the scriptures that you have now post ascension.

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Do you get the point? We have a lot more special revelation from God today than even Abraham had.

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We know all that Christ did in his ministry. It's a powerful thing. But what Abraham offer faith, faith, trust.

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He trusts in God. And he's declared righteous and God doesn't count his sins against him.

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And then what's Paul say in Romans 4? He says just as David also speaks of the blessing upon the man to whom

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God credits righteousness apart from works. And Abraham and we have that moment and sorry in in Romans 4 where we hear about blessed is the man.

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So question is this, ready? Here we are. Are you the blessed man? Are you the blessed woman?

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Are you the blessed child? To whom God credits righteousness apart from your works.

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Does God count you righteous and not count your sins against you? Are you the person who has faith?

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Who comes to God with the empty hands? Are you the person who is the wicked one who has been declared righteous according to Romans 4?

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Are you? Have you trusted in Christ? Have you come to die with him? Because there's a context that is judicial here.

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It's in Romans 8. Again, Paul says in Romans 8, go to it. I want you to see it and we'll end on the justification question.

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In Romans 8, you can see this is clearly judicial. It's clearly courtroom context.

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Here's what he says. We'll start in verse 28 and we know that for those who love God all things were together for good for those who are called according to his purpose for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also

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Justified there it is again and those whom he justified he also glorified verse 31

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What shall we say to these things if God is for us?

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Who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all?

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things who shall bring any charge Against God's elect here it is

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God It is God who? Justifies who is to condemn

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Christ? Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for Us get it

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Do you hear it? Charges Condemnation it is

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God who? Justifies that's courtroom language. That's a declaration from the court of God and his throne.

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I declare you righteous How through faith in Jesus that's the heart of the gospel how we are saved how we are declared righteous

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How we have peace with God. Let me just say this there is no Human religion and man -made religion and message of salvation that comes close to that You want to find the heart of?

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Death in every man -made religion. It is here at this point. How do we have peace with God?

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Only the message of the gospel says it is not you It is not your works not now not in the past not ever.

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It is all to God's glory It's his courtroom He's a holy God and you need a declaration of righteousness and it is only in one place and that is in Union with Jesus Christ So are you united to him

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Paul says in Romans 5 the next part of the message is what he says if you're an

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Adam death if You're in Christ The gift of eternal life and righteousness.

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So who are you in? What's your identity? You see that's by the way

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What's also so beautiful about the Christian message and this is getting us to? What we're gonna be talking about after service today as a body is if you're in Jesus And you've been declared righteous and you have peace with God You've been taken out of death and brought into life and you are now identified with Jesus you're united to him that is what's so glorious about the

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Intimacy that is the Christian faith is that this is not a far -off

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God out there That you cannot really know or comprehend or in any way really understand there is this intimacy of Unity that we have with Jesus that man -made religion cannot touch

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There's peace with God a declaration of righteousness and there is an intimate union Each and every one of us have with the

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Savior you are in Christ No longer Identified as the wicked one no longer identified as the liar listen the adulterer the homosexual the thief that is

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Not your identity it is not You rise every morning in Christ through faith

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Not because of your efforts not because you're good because you're really trying and you're working your salvation out.

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Just right You wait, you're you're rising every day with this new life in Jesus under the mercy and grace of God Not because of a good day you had yesterday

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Not because you've been doing family worship all week and God's really satisfied with you

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You are rising now with those mercies and with that grace of God and that forgiveness in that life

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Because of Jesus and you are united to him the father sees you as blameless

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Because you are hiding in His son hiding in his son

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You have his righteousness and no more condemnation because of your union

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With Jesus and how do you get there through faith and this gets us?

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to The next part of the discussion Paul says in Romans 6 he read this at the beginning

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Romans 6 He says how should we who died to sin continue to live in it? Paul says in Romans chapter 6 go there.

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This is important verse 5 For if we have been united with him in his debt and a death like his he we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection

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Like his we know Listen, please that our old self

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Was crucified with him in order that The body of sin might be brought to nothing

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So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin For one who has died has been set free from sin

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Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again

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Death no longer has dominion over him for the death that he died to sin once for all but the life he lives

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He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus let not sin therefore

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Reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not

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Present your members don't go on presenting your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as Instruments for righteousness for sin will have no

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Dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace you

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Believers in Christ are recipients of the grace of God and what life?

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forgiveness Salvation you're not under this ministry of death in the flesh with law written outside of you

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You've been brought near to God in the new covenants in dwelt by the Spirit of God Joined together with Jesus Empowered by God to love him and to live for him, which means if God is present within you

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You're no longer dead you're alive to God and the interesting thing about people who are alive is they

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Are alive They're walking around they're not dead they're not still they're not unresponsive

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Alive people are responsive to their creator alive people want to live like they're alive

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How can somebody who's alive want to hang out all day with dead bodies in a morgue

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And be comfortable like this is this is this is this is my crew it's my crowd it's all dead people, right

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Right after a while somebody who's alive is gonna go I'm not really comfortable with this right even the mortician goes home for dinner

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Right. We don't like to live amongst death. What do we do even in our culture today? What do we do? We take death and we put it far away from us

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Like it used to be and it's like this in in Europe all over Europe you go to Ireland It's the church and then all the dead bodies next to it

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Right, it's the church and the cemetery is I mean you're coming to church and you're like, there's my uncle

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There's my best friend. I grew up and like, you know, it's like, you know, you're going to worship and it's like constant reminder

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You're coming here soon Right, like it's just different we think about death in a way like get it away from us

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Don't show it to us. Keep it keep it far away cover those, you know, cover those things up Just keep it don't want us think about death.

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Why because we want it away from us That's what people tend to do who are alive they don't want death all around them and the question is this are you alive?

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because Scripture teaches Clearly throughout the Gospels throughout the

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New Testament record teaches very clearly that something happens to you in Jesus, I'm gonna read this

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Text I think it's important again. This is topical today, but I think it's important to show the consistency here with all of God's Word We read to this to you from 1st

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John chapter chapter 5 you can go or not just listen 1st

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John 5 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the

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Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the Father loves Whoever's been born of him

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You love that This is weird Love the Christians have for one another right the desire to love other believers like we're

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We're constantly blowing it with each other. We're sinning. We're falling down We are we're failing

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But there is this powerful Divine love for each other that is inescapable and if you're a believer, you know what

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I'm talking about as Much as we blow it with each other and we fail each other on a regular basis.

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There is a very Powerful it is potent divine

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Aspect to this community to the love that we have for one another and John says that you've been born of God You're gonna love the one who's born of God.

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It's this really strange thing I've been all over the world and experienced fellowship and worship and so many different congregations

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Presbyterian churches Baptist churches, I mean all over the world and you meet Christians from all over the world.

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It's this instant Connection and fellowship and love and intimacy even for the weird ones

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But you get my point. There's this weird divine Seed of love for the brethren.

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That's amazing It's a gift from God, but here's what he says watch verse 2 by this

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We know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments

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For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments. Listen are not

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Burdensome For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith

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Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is a son of God?

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Let's wrap it up here. Let's go to 11 Verse 11.

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I love this and this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and This life is in his

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Son Whoever has the Son? has life Whoever does not have the

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Son of God does not have life. Do you hear that? There's that dichotomy.

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There's that There's that Bible that Word of God drawing lines saying this but not that Saying Jesus only way saying going to hell death not having life in Christ.

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It's one way It's amazing This next verse we're about to do a debate soon with some atheists

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It's amazing how? naturalistic materialism atheism You can't give you certainty it can get not give you any knowledge

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I Have heard atheist after atheist constantly say things like we can't have any certainty.

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You can't be certain about anything Just think about that for a second. Are you certain about that?

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Someone says we can't have certain about anything. We can't know anything For certain we just can't because we're blobs of protoplasm.

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There's no good. There's no evil blind and penniless indifference All this is is firing stuff. It's just this is neurons firing.

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It's just chemicals Happening in the world. It's just things moving throughout the universe. No different than rock snails dogs horses

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It's just stuff. You can't really know. Well, I'll tell you what I know The Bible says

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I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life a

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Certain claim Knowledge that I have eternal life. I know

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This is true. I know Jesus is the Son of God fact True whether you like it or not feel like it or not

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I know that I have faith in Jesus and I have the gift of eternal life I know that in Christ there is life and that is a certain claim all who have faith in Jesus listen have eternal life never -ending life and This is the confidence that we have toward him that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us

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And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask we know that we have the requests

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We have asked of him. Listen, if anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death

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He shall ask and God will give him life to those who commit sins that do not lead to death There is sin that that leads to death

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I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death

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We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on Sinning, but he who was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him

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We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one And we know that the

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Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him Him who is true and we are in him who is true in his

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Son Jesus Christ He is the true God. I love that and eternal life little children

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Keep yourselves from idols Don't you love that? I always I think listen

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I think that is so amazing and so many ways it's just it's incredible because it's the whole thing.

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It seems like a throwaway Did you catch this it seems like a throwaway

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Like this this powerful majestic epistle and like knowing God and eternal life and life and Jesus and we're in him

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We've been born of God. We overcome the world In this last little thing Jesus who is the true

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God and eternal life? Little children keep yourselves from idols. It seems like just a throwaway

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But it's the whole thing It's the whole thing It's interesting

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Because when the Apostle Paul is talking in Colossians 2 and 3 about sin and sanctification and union with Jesus He actually does that he says you've been raised up with Christ Keep seeking what is above not what is below where Christ is seated and then he says

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Therefore put to death what is earthly within you and he named some sins like sexual immorality and he says this is what it is

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Sexual immorality he says is idolatry Did you catch it?

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Sexual sin is idolatry. It's false worship It's coming to the altar of an foreign

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God a false God and it's worshiping there It's seeking in that thing

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Something you can only ultimately have in God or in what God has given to us

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It's seeking in this substance this thing this act Something I can only have ultimately in God what we do it across the board.

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It's with everything why do you think people are doing ecstasy and cocaine and heroin and Alcohol and abusing alcohol in the way that they why why pleasure?

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Freedom from guilt shame right joy delight. Oh all the things you're supposed to have in Christ Little children keep yourselves from idols.

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That's the key. That's the call for believers little children. Keep yourselves. Thank you from idols

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So I want to say these three points today to us as a church One we are justified through faith and through faith alone to We are sanctified if we're in Christ we've died a death we've been raised with Jesus sanctified and three we live in a body a body of believers all united to Jesus and We should expect two things one

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To be a community that is gracious Merciful to one another think about this for a second

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The Bible says confess your sins to one another so that you'll be healed Pray for one another right that would assume being in a body

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Where you're not going to be Pounced on and destroyed when you're confessing sins to one another

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Like we should have an environment as a body of believers. That's merciful Where we can struggle with sin together.

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Yes One of the things we said when apologia was first planted was this we had this interesting crowd of believers and When you came to apology at church people are tatted up there you walk through a cloud of smoke when you come in You know gauges

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I mean look like a rough crowd very rough crowd coming to apology at church the first two years or so We used to say leave the

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God face at the door Stop coming in here and pretending like everything's okay with you stop

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Stop pretending like you haven't struggled with drugs this week stop It's not helping if you're not gonna if you're gonna come into this body of believers and you're gonna pretend like all as well

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Then you're not gonna grow. You're not gonna heal you have to confess sin

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I held so many drugs in my hands in the first two years

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Because people could come to church and say pastor Jeff. I almost blew it. I Almost went back.

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I had a bad day. I went to my dealer Praise God for that message in that worship.

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My soul is satisfied Here's 25 ecstasy pills that I bought

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Take them and we would have a little worship ceremony We would go and dump them down the toilet together as an act of worship to God We had a community where you could be honest and you'd be gracious and merciful to one another and that should be the kind of Community we are as Christians.

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We are being sanctified. So we're gonna blow it I'm gonna blow it as your pastor.

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We're gonna blow it as your leaders. You're gonna blow it We're gonna sin against each other. The key is repentance constant repentance constant mercy constant forgiveness, however

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There's an aspect clearly and I think we all heard it, right? that if you've died to sin and been raised with Jesus and you're united to Jesus and You have life now

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The call is don't go on sinning which would mean this if you're a person who professes faith in Jesus and you love your sin and You want to continue in it and you abandon yourself to the sin and you say

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I would rather have the sin Than Jesus and what's pleasing to him then you are not to be called a

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Christian You can't say, you know him and you want to go on living in sin

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Here's the key thing ready and we are done with this because this is the key element People will say pastor

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Jeff. I hate my sin. I hate it. I can't believe I talked to my wife that way I don't know why

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I can't submit to my husband. I don't know why it's this old part of me And I just wish it would be done. I don't understand why

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I'm so angry I don't understand why I went back and the people are weeping and grieving over this in my response to that is yes

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Yes, yes Praise God That's the heart of a believer. You hate your sin.

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That's a gift from God Don't you understand if you didn't have a life in you you couldn't possibly hate your sin

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If you despise your sin loathe your sin, you want free from your sin. I say praise

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God. That's the answer That's how God frees you from your sin. By the way, it loses its luster

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It loses its taste and that's how God frees us from it. So it's not about Struggling with sin in the body of Christ like it's not gonna happen.

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It's going to happen that's how God sanctifies you in the struggle the challenge is this as believers who profess faith in Jesus Living in it and turning ourselves over to it

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And the scriptures are clear in Matthew 18 1st Corinthians chapter 5 if you have a brother or sister who wants to live a life

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Apart from God while professing the name of Jesus and wants to live in their sin the call of the church

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Is to now make that person an object of evangelism Is to now actually see that person as someone that we cannot have fellowship with or worship together with but to actually

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Mark them out as somebody who is the object of evangelism tax collector

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Prostitute it's not icky It's I need to Win this person call them to repentance and faith the discipline that happens within the body of Christ is

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Actually a tool a means of God sanctifying his bride It is

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I want to say those two things One let's be a community that is always filled with mercy and forgiveness and a desire to grow together a

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Community that confesses sins openly and is merciful about it. But let's also recognize as a community what

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Christ calls us to The Bible does say if somebody actually lives in a sin and refuses to turn away from that sin and names the name of Christ we are to actually put out the evildoer from among us and God uses the disciplining hand of the church to heal

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True believers who have fallen into sin and to heal and grow his people.

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Let's pray towards that end. Let's pray father, I pray You please bless as we come

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Lord to the table bless us with an An understanding of who we are who you are bless us with an understanding of the glory of the gospel and bless us as a church to rejoice in all of these aspects of your perfect plan our

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Justification our sanctification our life in the body Please grant to us

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Lord the ability to be so patient and so merciful Toward one another but also so encouraging to one another towards godliness in Jesus name.