The Law in One Word

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Well, let's continue our rigorous pursuit of theological excellence.
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Take your Bibles and open them to Galatians 5.
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And we're going to look at verses 13 and 14 today.
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I wanted to go further, but as I started writing my notes, I realized 13 and 14 were rich with information that I thought was good for us to consider, so we're going to just work on these two verses today.
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You'll remember, well, most of you I guess will remember, when we started chapter 5 a few weeks ago, it was on the video that I sent.
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Chapter 5 begins on the subject of freedom.
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Paul says, for freedom Christ has set us free, and that we ought not to submit again to a yoke of slavery.
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What has Christ set us free from? He set us free from the curse of the law.
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The law condemns us, but Christ has satisfied the requirements of the law.
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Therefore, in Christ, we now live free.
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Not free to sin, but free from condemnation.
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We now live with a clear conscience before God, because Christ has set us free from the penalty of our sin.
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Now in verses 2-12, Paul gives a series of warnings to the Galatians and to the ones who are troubling them.
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What was the name of the group that was troubling the Galatians? And what were they saying? You have to be circumcised before you can...
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That's right, they tried to mix the law and grace, right? And Paul's point of this whole letter is if you try to take the road of law, you can't take the road of law and the road of grace.
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It's got to be one or the other.
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You've either got to be saved all of grace, or it's all of law.
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And if you try to be saved by law, you'll be lost.
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And that's the whole point.
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Even if you take only a little bit of the law and say, I'm going to hold on to this little bit, Paul says if you go that direction, if you take even a little bit of the law, you have to take the whole law.
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It's not something you can have just part of.
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You've either got to take it all or nothing.
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And so Paul is telling them in chapter 5 verse 1, Christ has set us free from that.
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And we ought not to be resubmitting ourselves to the yoke of slavery.
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And the yoke of slavery is the yoke of the law.
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Well, like I said, from verses 2 through 12, he gives warnings.
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Remember last week, verse 12 was probably the most harsh warning where he says to the Judaizers, or he says about the Judaizers, I wish they would just emasculate themselves.
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Remember, they were teaching that you have to be circumcised.
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And that means to cut around.
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And Paul says, well, I wish they would just be cut off.
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And so he uses a play on words.
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And some translations say, I wish they would castrate themselves.
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It was a pretty harsh play on words.
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It's a pretty harsh, we call it sanctified sarcasm.
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Basically, the point Paul's making, if they're making such a big deal about cutting around, I wish they would just cut it off.
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And the implication is, I wish they were cut off.
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I wish they were removed.
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I wish they were separated from you.
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Well, in verse 13, Paul returns to the subject of freedom.
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That was where he started in verse 1.
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He had this little aside about warnings.
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And now he comes back to verse 13, and he returns to the subject of freedom.
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And he begins to remind us that with freedom comes responsibility.
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Because even though Christ has set us free, Christ has not set us free to indulge the flesh.
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And it is dangerous to misunderstand the freedom that we have in Christ.
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So let's read the text.
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And then we'll pray.
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And then we'll begin to walk through the text together.
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We're just going to read verses 13 and 14.
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For you were called to freedom, brothers.
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Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
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But through love, serve one another.
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For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.
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You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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Father in Heaven, I thank You for Your Word.
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Lord, as we open the Word together, I pray that You would first and foremost keep me from error.
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I pray that You would open the hearts of these men to the truth.
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And I pray, Lord, that as this message goes out today, that it would be mixed with faith.
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And Lord, for the believers in the room, that they would be encouraged, that they would be drawn closer, that they would be convicted and rebuked, as Lord, as Your Word has the power to do.
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And Lord, for the unbelievers here, the ones who have not yet bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, or the ones who have been toying with the law, the ones who have been going back and forth, the ones who are trying to walk in the middle of the road.
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Lord, for them, I pray that today would be a day of reckoning, that they would come to the end of themselves, that they would see there is no good, that they can hold on to.
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But Lord, that they should repent of their sins, and even of their good works, Lord, anything that they would hold to and turn to Christ.
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For only in Him can salvation be found.
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Only by grace, through faith in Christ can we be saved.
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And it's in His name we pray, Amen.
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There's a point, I don't know what's happening, I guess I'm 13 again.
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There's a point in almost all of the epistles, especially the writings of Paul, where the material moves from being very doctrinal to very practical.
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Where he switches from focusing on our understanding of the faith to our living out of the faith.
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If you are familiar with Romans, it happens in Romans 12.
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You read Romans 1 through 11, and it's literally doctrine after doctrine after doctrine.
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Starts out with the doctrine of sin, moves to the doctrine of justification, then to the doctrine of sanctification, then to the doctrine of election.
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Then you get to chapter 12 and he says, therefore, submit your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.
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He goes into then the practical application of all of the doctrine that he gave before.
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We see this in Ephesians.
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We see this in several of his other books.
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It's very common that Paul will begin focusing on the doctrinal and then switching to the practical.
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Well, in Galatians 5.13, that's what we are seeing.
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Paul is switching from the doctrinal, which he has been hitting ever since he started.
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The whole point of the letter is that you have misunderstood grace.
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You have misunderstood works.
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You have misunderstood faith.
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You have had someone come in, the Judaizers, who have taught you wrong and I need to explain to you why you are wrong and you need to trust me.
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I'm an apostle of Jesus Christ.
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I have been taught by the Master and what I am telling you is the truth.
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And he has said this over and over and over and over.
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And then he gets to verse 13 of chapter 5 and he begins now to turn his attention to what is the application of this? What is the practical living out of this doctrine? So the idea is when doctrine becomes practical, Martin Luther, who I have been reading his commentary as.
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I have been studying Galatians to teach to you and so I have been quoting him a lot.
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Martin Luther says this about verse 13.
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Now come all kinds of admonitions and precepts.
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It was the custom of the apostles that after they had taught faith and instructed the conscience, they followed it up with admonitions unto good works, that the believers might manifest the duties of love toward each other.
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In order to avoid the appearance as if Christianity mitigated against good works or opposed civil government, the apostle urges us to give ourselves to good works, to lead an honest life, to keep faith and love one another.
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This will give a lie to the accusations of the world that we Christians are enemies of decency and of public peace.
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The fact is we Christians know better what constitutes a truly good work than all the philosophers and legislators of the world because we link believing with doing.
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Notice what Luther is saying.
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He is saying the reason why Paul doesn't leave out the good works, the reason why Paul doesn't leave out the application is because that's how our faith is lived out and that's how men will see us.
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Early Christians were accused of all kinds of hateful acts.
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You realize Nero accused the early Christians of burning Rome even though it was him.
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The history tells us it was likely him who set Rome ablaze.
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But he blamed it on the Christians.
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He said they're anarchists and they're the ones because they won't submit to Caesar.
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They won't say Kaiser Kurios which means Caesar is Lord.
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They say Yeshua Kurios, Jesus is Lord.
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They're not one of us.
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They're insurrectionists.
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They're rebels.
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And he convinced many people that the Christians were not good people.
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And Paul is saying and throughout his letters, he admonishes us to be good people, to live good lives, to be good citizens, to be good husbands, to be good fathers, to be good friends, to be good church members.
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Here's the thing, you're not saved by good works.
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But don't ever think for a second that good works aren't important.
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For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
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It is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.
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For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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So even though you're not saved by them, don't ever think for a moment that you're not called to them.
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Don't ever think for a moment that you're not called to goodness.
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You are.
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You're not called to badness.
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You're not called to follow after Satan.
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You're called to follow after Christ who only did good ever.
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Christ did good all the time.
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And He calls you to be like Him.
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You know, it's sad that I even have to justify that statement.
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We should understand that's the truth.
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As Christians, we should want to do good.
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We should want to be known for doing good.
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You ever done something bad and somebody say, man, that ain't very Christian of you.
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That's right! Come on.
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Now, I might not like to hear it, and I've had people say it when they were wrong.
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Because I preached something hard and they say, well, Christian, you shouldn't preach hard.
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No, no, no.
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If there was ever a hard preacher, it was Jesus.
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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
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Woe to you, scribes.
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Matthew 23, over and over and over and over.
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Just woe to you.
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And woe was not nice.
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Woe was a statement of condemnation.
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Almost as if a modern equivalent might be damn you.
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I mean, that's a harsh way of saying it.
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But that's essentially, when you say woe unto you, you're saying damnation upon you.
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So, Jesus was a hard preacher.
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But He did it because it was good.
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It was good to speak harshly to those who were leading the flock astray.
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What did we say last week? If you love the sheep, you will not be kind to the wolves.
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If you love the sheep, if you love the sheep and the wolves the same, guess what's going to happen? You're going to end up with a lot of fat wolves.
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Because they're going to devour the sheep.
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And a lot less sheep.
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That's right.
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But again, I digress.
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As Christians, we should not ever trust in our good works.
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But we also should never repudiate them and say that they have no purpose or value.
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Because they do.
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And so, at this point in the book, Paul's going to begin to talk about the goodness that we are called to.
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He's going to talk about walking in the Spirit, not in the flesh.
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He's going to talk about the fruit of the Spirit versus the fruit of the flesh.
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And the fruit of the flesh is envy and strife and drunkenness and all those things.
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But he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness.
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And against those things, there's no law because those are good things.
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And God never gave a law against good.
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And so, if you want to live out the law...
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And remember, that was the whole point that the Galatians wanted.
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They wanted to know, what do we do about the law? And Paul's point is simple.
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If you want to live out the law, do good.
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Love your neighbor as yourself.
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So this is the beginning of the practical section of the book.
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And before we read, again, we're going to look at verses 12 and 13.
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I'm going to break it down.
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Or 13 and 14.
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But I want to say this.
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Some people believe that because they're Christians, they have a...
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I don't know if the word is right.
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But I'll use the word right.
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Maybe if I come up with a better word later, I'll change it.
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But I think some people believe they have a right as Christians to live how they want because of forgiveness.
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You ever heard somebody say that? I'm forgiven, therefore, I can do x, y, or z.
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I taught an ethics class last year.
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Some of you guys were in it.
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In the class, I showed a video.
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I think I mentioned it in this class before.
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It was of a young woman on one of these dating shows.
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And how she said, yeah, I can have all the premarital sex I want because I'm under grace, not under law.
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Because the guy in the show had asked her, are you having premarital sex? And she said, yes.
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Who are you to judge me? I do all I want.
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I don't need your approval.
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Which is fine.
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I ain't concerned about his approval.
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I mean, he's nobody.
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But the point is, her attitude was, and she says these words, I'm under grace, not under law.
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Therefore, her understanding was, I don't have to worry about anything that I do.
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I can live indulging the flesh all that I want and there is no consequence because I'm forgiven.
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And I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people use that excuse for sin.
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I mean, I've had men come to me, I don't love my wife anymore, and I'm ready to leave.
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And I say, you know, they'll say, but God's going to forgive me.
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But that's not the point.
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The point of, you know, I'm going to excuse my sin because God's going to forgive me.
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I mean, how would you feel if somebody came up and shot you? And he shot you and you were falling down and you're bleeding out and you're dying and he goes, I just want you to know, I'm forgiven because I'm a Christian.
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And you say, that's such a wild example.
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No one has ever done anything like this.
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You need to be in a counseling room.
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Come and spend a week with me and hear the things that people say.
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Hear the things that people excuse themselves with because they're under grace and not under law.
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The Christian life isn't supposed to be a life of excuses.
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It's supposed to be a life of integrity.
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It's supposed to show the changed life that Christ has made in our hearts.
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So with that, let's begin verse 13.
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You were called to freedom, brothers.
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We'll stop right there.
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Again, I'm going to break it down one line at a time because he says, he's basically in verse 13, there's three statements.
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There's the calling, there's the concern, and there's the command.
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The calling is you were called to freedom, brothers.
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The concern is only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh and the command is but serve one another.
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So we see it three parts.
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So we see first the calling.
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You were called to freedom, brothers.
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This is hearkening back to verse 1.
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In Christ, you have been set free from the power of sin.
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You've been set free from the penalty of sin.
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And one day, you'll be set free from the presence of sin.
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Therefore, you now have the ability to live without the condemnation of the law and so you can now live with freedom.
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And people say, well, that means I'm free to sin.
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No, that's not what Paul is saying.
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Freedom from sin.
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The idea is this.
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I don't know how many of you have ever been to jail, but I know some of you have.
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Again, the point is this.
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The day you walked out of the jail, the day they opened the gates and you walked out, you had paid your debt, you had satisfied the law, and you were now free of that condemnation.
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You're now a free man and you step out of those gates and you're free.
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That's the picture that Paul is giving here because we were enslaved to sin.
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We were in the jailhouse of sin.
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Christ came and died, gave Himself for the penalty of our sin, and therefore, we were able to be set free.
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So now we have stepped out of that slave market.
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That's the picture that's given.
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It's called the agora, the slave market.
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We step out of the slave market.
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Now we're free in Christ.
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What do we do now? How do we live now? We live in light of that freedom.
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You wouldn't go back and knock on the jailhouse door and say, hey, I need to come back in.
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No, you would start moving forward and you would look forward to a new life, a free life.
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And that's the life that is here.
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And it's free from condemnation.
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Your condemnation is over.
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If you are in Christ, you are not, you will not be condemned.
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Ever.
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Yes.
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Condemnation to mean...
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Well, I'm giving you my understanding of the definition of condemnation because I don't have a dictionary in front of me, but it means to be under the judgment of something.
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So, let's say you steal something and you're caught.
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The judge says you're guilty.
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You're condemned.
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Guilty is condemnation.
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You are guilty of doing that, whatever the crime is.
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When you were in jail, you were condemned.
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I don't know about you, I'm just saying whoever.
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When a person's in jail, they are condemned.
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They have a penalty to pay, whether it's a year, six months, whatever.
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They have a penalty to pay.
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But once that penalty is paid, they're free.
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Christ paid our penalty for sin, therefore, we are free.
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That's the analogy that I'm making is when you walk out of the jail, you're free.
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When you come to Christ, you're free.
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Think of Romans 8.
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You probably have memorized it.
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I don't know if you guys have memorized a lot of Scripture around here.
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What does Romans 8.1 say? For there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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Listen to it though, because it doesn't stop there.
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It says, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
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See, there's two laws.
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There's the law of the Spirit of life and there's the law of sin and death.
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The law of sin and death puts you in the condemnation that you were in.
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That's where you were born.
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You were born in sin.
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You were born and grew up in sin and you were a sinner.
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And you're still a sinner, don't get me wrong.
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But what I'm saying is, you were condemned as a sinner until the moment Christ saved you.
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And at the moment Christ saved you, He set you free from that condemnation.
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You are no longer condemned.
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That's why He says there is now no condemnation.
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He doesn't say in the future.
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He says there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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You are no longer condemned.
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You are free from condemnation.
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That's the point.
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You were called to freedom.
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And the point of all this is these guys are wanting to go back to the law.
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And Paul's saying if you go back to the law, you're going to go back to condemnation because all the law does is condemn.
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The law can't save.
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If you go back to the law, you're back up at the jailhouse knocking on the door saying, let me back in.
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And they're saying, you're free.
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But I want back in.
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Why? Why do you want back in? If you're in Christ, you're free from condemnation.
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If you go back to the law, you're going back to condemnation.
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You've been called to freedom.
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Luther again.
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You have gained liberty through Christ.
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You are above all laws as far as the conscience is concerned.
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You are saved.
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Christ is your liberty in life.
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Therefore, law, sin, and death may not hurt you or drive you to despair.
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This is the constitution of your priceless liberty.
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You're free.
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If you're in Christ, you can have a clean conscience.
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You say, but pastor, I did so many horrible things.
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Maybe you did.
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I know what I've done.
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And if I had to live in the condemnation of just the things that I have done, I would never be able to show my face again.
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But in Christ, I am free from condemnation.
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But with that freedom from condemnation does not come a freedom to flaunt my flesh.
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And that's what we see in the second part when he says, only do not let your freedom become an opportunity for the flesh.
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Or do not use the ESV, do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
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That's the idea of because I'm free, now I have no responsibilities.
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You know what? That's not true.
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You realize you have more responsibilities when you're free.
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Think of it like this.
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If you've ever been to jail, when you're in jail, they tell you when to get up.
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They tell you when to go eat.
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They tell you where to stand.
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They tell you where to sit.
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They tell you to get in line.
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Don't get in line.
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They tell you what to do.
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Basically, you don't have any responsibilities at all except do what you're told.
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It's when you're free that the responsibilities really laid on you.
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Because now nobody's watching you.
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Now it's on you.
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There's more responsibilities when you're free than when you're in captivity.
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See, before you were in sin, but now you're free, but with that freedom comes responsibility.
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Yes, David, you have another question.
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Let me ask you a question.
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If you live in condemnation, and you live in fear of punishment, does that mean you're not saved? Well, let me say it like this.
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As a believer in Christ, if you are a believer in Christ, you shouldn't live in condemnation.
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But I do know that there are people who struggle with doubt, and that can lead them to feelings of condemnation.
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For instance, I always think about the man in Mark who came to Jesus with his son, and he said, please heal my son.
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And Jesus said, if you believe, I'll heal him.
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And he said, I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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There's never been a man in Scripture that I was more attached to than that man.
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That's my spirit animal, as they jokingly say.
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That guy, I know he's a spirit animal.
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Because when he said, I believe.
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Help my unbelief.
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I understand that.
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Because I do believe in Christ, but I still have times where I struggle.
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Whether my life's going bad, or maybe something's happened to me.
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Maybe I'm facing a hard time.
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Maybe I'm facing a season of doubt.
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And in those moments, I can feel the weight of the fear of condemnation.
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But I have to go back to what I know is true.
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Do you mind if I read something to you? I do, I guess.
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I'm really struggling.
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It says, I've been in fear of God, but not in a reverent fear, but in a fear of punishment.
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Which puts me in a guilt and fear every day.
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The word says, don't live in sin.
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But I feel like I do, because I'm so selfish, and prideful, and conceited at times.
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Worried about what others think.
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And these sins come to me every day.
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And I live in that.
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I mean, I believe.
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I believe the Bible.
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I believe in God.
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I believe God.
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And I believe Jesus died on the cross.
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But this is where I've been living.
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And I think it's causing...
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You know what I'm trying to say? And it makes me question my salvation.
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It makes me think, if I really believe in Jesus, why can't I feel free? Why can't I get out from underneath that condemnation? Why am I in fear? Because what's sin every day.
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I mean, it's just something that we do as humans.
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But I'm in fear of punishment.
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And I was reading Hebrews last night.
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It says that, He gives good rewards to those who seek Him.
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And I do seek Him.
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I mean, I don't want to live like this.
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And it makes me wonder if I'm really saved.
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I want to respond.
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He had his hand up.
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And I don't want to ignore you.
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But is what you're going to say quick? Because I want to respond.
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Please.
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Well, I want to share with you about something that, David, I think will help.
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Because the way you're describing your situation is almost exactly the way, and I know I keep mentioning him, but Martin Luther.
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Martin Luther is one of my, I've studied his life.
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I feel like I understand his heart probably better than a lot of people from history as far as people I've studied.
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But what you just said, that was Luther's life.
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Because he would live in constant turmoil over his sin.
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He would go into the confessional.
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Remember, he was a Catholic monk.
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And he lived in a monastery.
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Sort of like this.
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He lived with a bunch of other guys where they lived in close quarters and they sort of watched out for one another.
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But they were monks segregated from society.
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And he lived in constant turmoil over his sin.
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And he would go to the rector, the high priest, the guy who was in charge, and he would sit for hours and confess his sin.
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To the point to where the guys in charge would say, Brother Martin, please don't come back until you have something serious.
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I mean, because you're a monk living with other monks.
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What are you? You know, I was coveting Brother Richard's bread.
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I mean, what are you going to say? What's your sin? You know? But he knew.
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And this was the thing that Luther...
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This changed Luther's whole direction.
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This was the whole point.
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Because Luther knew that even the smallest of sins was worthy of God's condemnation.
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Even the smallest of sins was worthy of God's punishment.
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And so he would go and he would confess and confess and confess until he couldn't confess anymore.
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And then he would try to confess to unknown sins.
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Because he said, not only are there sins I know that I do, there's sins that I don't even realize that I'm doing.
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I don't even realize when I'm treating people bad.
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I don't even realize when I'm thinking bad thoughts.
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And so I've got to confess my unknown sins.
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And he just over and over and over and over until he's working his fingers and his bum.
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They sent him to Rome.
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They said, go to Rome and see the relics and climb the stairs where they climb up and kiss each step as they go up and they say a prayer every time.
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Find your peace there.
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He went there.
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He couldn't find peace there.
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He came back and he finally, finally, finally, Romans 1, 16 and 17.
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Turn in your Bibles.
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Romans 1, 16 and 17.
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This changed Martin Luther's life.
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And he says this in his writings.
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It was this passage that changed his life.
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Verse 16 and 17.
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Okay.
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For I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
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Verse 17.
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For in it, that is in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
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So you say, well, how did that change his life? Here's how it changed his life, David.
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He realized he is not able to trust his own righteousness.
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This verse says the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of David.
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This says the righteousness of God, not the righteousness of Keith.
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The righteousness of God, not the righteousness of Dan or Bobby or BJ or any of you guys.
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The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.
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You know what that means? From faith from beginning to end.
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There is nowhere where your works come into play.
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There is nowhere where your goodness comes into play.
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It is from faith in the beginning to faith in the end.
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You have to trust in the goodness of God, not in your goodness, because your goodness will never be good enough.
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But His will always be more than good enough.
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So my encouragement to you, stop trying to find goodness in yourself and stop letting your sin keep you in condemnation.
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For if you are in Christ, you are no longer condemned.
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Is that helpful? Yes, sir.
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Don't you think that the fact that our sin bothers us is evident that the Lord is working in our lives? Yes, and that is another secondary point.
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People who are slaves to sin love their sin.
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People who have been redeemed hate their sin.
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So the very fact that you hate your sin enough to write about it, the very fact that you hate your sin enough to say you don't want it, that is an example of God working in your heart.
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Again, I can't tell you that you're saved or that you're not, but I can tell you this, if you have repented of your sin, meaning that you've recognized your sin is wrong and that you hate it and you love Christ and you've trusted in Him, your sins will not condemn you because Christ is a better sinner than you are a Savior.
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I'd be more afraid if my sin didn't bother me.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Brother Ashley, your hand, go ahead.
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You know, we live in death.
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This is sin, you know, but we walk by the Spirit, you know, and there's one thing that's so...
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This is death.
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It's unworthy.
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It's filth and rags.
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It's unworthy, off the rip.
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So there's no improving that.
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It's sin.
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It's sin without thinking, just like Martin Luther was saying, or you were saying.
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And it's a song that goes, do you know how it feels to know you're a child of the King, your Heavenly Father owns everything? Do you know how it feels? Do you know you're all right when you lay your head on your pillow each night? You know, the fear of death becomes gone when we walk in the Spirit of God today and we know, you know, and to let go of that flesh, it's just the contention, the flesh and the Spirit, they're against one another.
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You know, they're born to one another, and it just becomes more and more and the closer we get.
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But we're all in different phases of a war.
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And we're going to get to what you just mentioned about the Spirit and the flesh battling.
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Verse 16 of chapter 5 of Galatians, he actually talks about the Spirit and the flesh being at odds with one another.
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And so in the weeks to come, we're going to talk more about that.
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But I hope that that story of Luther's life is helpful.
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I know it was for me because I've been there, man.
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I've been where I was like, how could I be saved? How can I feel any confidence in my salvation? It has to not rely on me.
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Do you have your hand up, brother? Okay.
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Okay.
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No worries.
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Thank you, brother.
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Let's look now.
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We've seen what it says.
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It says, do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
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We are forgiven.
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We are saved.
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We are, if we are in Christ, we are not condemned.
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But that not being condemned gives us a responsibility.
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That's what I was saying before.
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And so what is the responsibility? The responsibility is to live a life that's lived for Christ, not a life that's lived for flesh.
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The flesh is still here.
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Like you said, we live in this dead flesh and we have to deal with the flesh.
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But that is in no way an excuse for sin.
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Here's the thing.
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If you sin, you should repent, not excuse.
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We are masters at self-justification.
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You know what self-justification is? You do something that you should not have done.
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You sin in some way and you say, well, this is why I did it.
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And you justify yourself.
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I mean, I've been the worst.
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Be mean to my wife.
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Well, I had a hard day.
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Mean to my child, my children.
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Well, they're not doing what I told them to do.
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Harsh with somebody in the church.
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Well, they just caught me on a bad day.
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What I should be saying is, God, please change my heart in that regard.
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Please give me forgiveness and please give me the desire to go to that person and repent.
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Have you ever repented to your kids? Have you ever gone to your children and said, I'm sorry? Your wife, if you are married? Or maybe a friend? Maybe even your pastor.
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I tell you what, as a pastor of 15 years in the same church, I have had many people sin against me.
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I've had very precious few ever come and repent.
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Because they had a feeling of self-justification.
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I'm right and he's wrong.
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So they're entitled to do whatever they want to do.
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Gossip, slander, libel.
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I was called a low-life piece of trash on a public written forum for everyone to see.
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I've received hate mail, handwritten messages, and I'm not putting myself up as a martyr, because I have sinned against people too.
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The question is, do we justify our sin or do we repent of it? The Christian life is lived as a life of repentance.
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And so, Paul asks the question in Romans 6, are we to continue in sin so that grace can abound? No! Will grace abound? Yes, but that's not an excuse.
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And he says the same thing in verse 15.
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He says, are we to sin because we're no longer under law, but under grace? No, by no means.
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1 Peter 2.16 says this, and I think it's a parallel to Galatians 5.
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He says, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil.
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Live as people who are free, but don't use your freedom as a cover for evil.
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I mean, that's it.
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And then Jude, I know Brother Mark preached on Jude just recently.
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Jude tells us there are people who come into the church who actually try to get us to do that very thing.
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Listen to this, Jude 4, it's only one chapter.
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Certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for condemnation.
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They are ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality.
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They pervert the grace of God into a license for sin.
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The whole thing? Certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for condemnation.
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Ungodly people who pervert the grace of God into sensuality.
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These people come into the church and they teach grace without responsibility.
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That's what it is.
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It is a grace without responsibility.
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Beloved, as I said, if you are free, your freedom comes with even more responsibility.
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The responsibility is now that you have been set free and you are no longer condemned, you have a new master.
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Guess who your master is now? It ain't you.
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You were bought.
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You're not your own.
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1 Corinthians tells us you were bought with a price.
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You're not your own.
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You have a new captain.
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You're on a new ship.
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You're heading in a new direction.
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And He is the leader.
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I remember when I first realized that.
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Often we think of Moses as the lawgiver and Jesus as the grace giver.
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You know, the law came through Moses.
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Grace and truth came through Jesus.
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But Jesus is also a lawgiver in one sense.
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Jesus said, if you love Me, you'll keep My commandments.
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And what are commandments? Laws.
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And what was the greatest commandment Jesus gave? A new commandment I give to you.
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You love one another as I have loved you.
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And that's why verse 14 says what it says.
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I don't mean to jump ahead, but verse 14 tells us in Galatians 5, love is the fulfillment of the law.
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In fact, it says the law is fulfilled in one word.
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Love.
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The law is fulfilled.
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And you say, how can the law be fulfilled in one word? Like this.
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Let's go through the law real quick.
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Just ten commandments.
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Go through the ten commandments.
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Have no other gods before the Lord.
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Love God.
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Do not make any idols.
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Love God.
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Do not take the Lord's name in vain.
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Love God.
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Remember the things that are holy.
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The Sabbath is the example, but remember the holy things that are God's.
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Love God.
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Honor your father and your mother.
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Love others.
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Do not commit murder.
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Love others.
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Do not commit adultery.
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Love others.
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Do not steal.
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Love others.
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Do not covet.
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Love others.
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Do not lie.
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Love others.
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So there, all of the commandments, all ten are boiled down to two.
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And that's why Jesus says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
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For on these rests all the law and the prophets.
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Every command that was ever given in Scripture boils down to either a love for God, which is our vertical, or a love for others, which is our horizontal.
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This is a cool thing.
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I remember years ago seeing this.
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You know the word joy? Yes.
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Jesus, others, you.
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If you want to live in joy, Christ, God is first.
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Others, second.
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And you go last.
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And that's what love looks like.
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Now some people will say, well, if you love people, you'll never tell them something that's harsh.
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That's not true, as we already said.
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Sometimes loving God means we're willing to tell somebody something they don't want to hear.
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Sometimes loving others means we're willing to tell somebody what they don't want to hear.
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You've heard the phrase tough love.
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Probably heard it many times.
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I know I heard it growing up.
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I'm giving you tough love.
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It never felt like love at the time.
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Ever.
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Ever.
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But again, that is the fulfillment.
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Going back up to verse 13 just for a second.
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He says, through love serve one another.
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So we're not called to sin, but we're called to serve.
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And that word serve is in the imperative, which means it is a command.
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Who commands our life? Christ.
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Christ is the commander of the ship.
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And I think the greatest picture that Jesus gave us was on the night before He went to the cross.
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He sat down in front of His disciples and He took their mangly, dirty, well-worn feet in His hands and He washed them with the hands that created the world.
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And remember what Peter said? Lord, you will not wash my feet.
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Jesus said, if I don't wash your feet, you have no place with me.
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He said, wash everything.
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If that's what that means, then wash my feet and my head and everything.
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I don't want to get into all that because there's a lot of theological implications of what Jesus said after that when He talked about He who has been washed needs not be washed again, but only wash His feet.
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There's some theology in that.
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But the point of it I'm trying to make is this.
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Christ came into this world as a servant and He served others in love.
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Therefore, if He saved us, He becomes our example.
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And He says, follow Me.
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Not in circumcision.
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Follow Me, not in dietary laws.
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Follow Me, not in feasts and festivals and Sabbaths.
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But follow Me in love.
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Remember this.
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The Galatians had become convinced that they needed to fulfill the law.
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Paul has said, if you try to go down the path of law, you're going to be condemned.
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But I will tell you this.
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If you love one another, you're fulfilling the law.
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Because that's the law that we live under as believers in Christ.
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You say, now wait a minute.
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Is Paul speaking with a forked tongue? Is he confusing? Is he saying, oh, now we are under law? No, he's already told us we're no longer under law.
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We're no longer under condemnation.
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But you want to know how to live.
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You want to know what your responsibilities are.
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You want to know how you're supposed to walk in this world as a believer in Christ.
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One word.
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Love.
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Faith working itself in love.
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The Galatians were convinced they had to keep the law.
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The law they wanted to keep was external.
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Paul changes it.
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And he says, look to your heart.
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You know what? I've met a lot of people.
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I'm going to end with this.
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I've met a lot of people over the years who try to keep the law.
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One of the guys was even here for a while.
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He would come to me after every lesson and he'd want to talk about why he didn't eat pork and why he wanted to keep the Sabbath.
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And he'd want to tell me why we have to keep the law as Christians.
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And I would try to help him understand.
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In fact, I wanted him to know what Galatians said.
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I told him at one point, I said, you are ignorant of Scripture and of what Galatians says because Galatians condemns the very words that are coming out of your mouth.
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But here's the thing that really, really, really should bother us.
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The people who are always so concerned about whether or not you're keeping the Sabbath, whether or not you've been circumcised, whether or not you have been keeping those dietary restrictions, whether or not you're obeying those feasts and festivals.
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They're not worried about love.
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They want to keep the external things.
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And Jesus says, God looks not on the external.
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But He looks at the heart.
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Our faith doesn't begin on the outside.
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It begins on the inside.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I pray that this has been helpful and I pray that through this, Lord, that You would bless these men.
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I pray especially, Lord, for those who are struggling with doubt.
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Lord, I know what it feels like to struggle with doubt.
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I know what it feels like to struggle with internal feelings of condemnation.
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And Lord, I look at examples of men from the past like Martin Luther and I say, I know how it would feel to feel like I can't have any goodness in myself.
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But that's where we come to the end of ourself, Lord.
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And that's where we look to the goodness of Christ.
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And that's where we realize that this is by faith, through faith, and for faith, and nothing else.
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That our works cannot condemn us.
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Our works cannot commend us.
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Our works can do nothing for us, Lord.
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It is faith alone and Christ alone that brings us to the place where we can have confidence.
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Because our confidence is not in ourselves, but it is in You.
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We thank You, we praise You, we give You all glory in Jesus' name, Amen.