Good News - Romans 1:16-17

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Pastor Mike preaches Good News!

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle
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Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, dear Emmanuel Baptist Church, before I start the sermon today, just a couple of reasons why
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I love this church. Number one, you're willing to meet in a comfortable, air -conditioned building like this or in a goat farm.
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And so when I preached for you last year, looking down, there were evidences of a goat farm right under my feet, and so I love it that you love the
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Word of God, and I also love this church because your pastors regularly, weekly stand up and declare to you the riches found in Christ Jesus.
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That's a rare thing. You can go around the world, and I've been around the world, and typically what you get from pulpits is be good, do good, be nice, simple moralism, but where can you find the men of God who will stand behind the sacred desk and say, here is the
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Lord Jesus, Him we proclaim. And so if you haven't encouraged your pastors lately, Steve has not paid me to say this, but if you haven't, would you encourage your pastors to continue to preach the
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Word of God? How many people this week will encourage their pastors by prayer or a phone call or a good gift certificate?
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Okay, I see those hands. I'm going to hold you to that very thing.
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You probably have a favorite Bible chapter. If you've had a Bible for a long time and you just say,
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I open up the Bible, and it naturally just falls to maybe Psalm 23, maybe a certain section that's really ministered to you.
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When I just opened my Bible, it opened up to one of my favorite passages in all the
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Word of God, and it opened up to Romans chapter 1. Why don't you take your
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Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 1 this morning as we look at a familiar passage, but one that I think will encourage you, give you motivation.
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I'm sure there'll be some conviction involved as well. This is not my normal preaching
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Bible. It's my daughter's, so I will confess this morning that I put a big crease in this Bible so it would go to Romans chapter 1.
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My seminary professor said every good theologian should open his Bible and it should go to Romans. And so seriously, every student started creasing their
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Bibles. Romans is a wonderful book.
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Hamilton said it's the greatest book in the Bible. Coleridge said it's the profoundest piece of writing in existence.
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C .A. Fox said, unquestionably, the fullest, deepest compendium of all sacred foundational truths.
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I like one man where he said, if any minister wants to strengthen his people, he can hardly do better than to give them a massive dose of Romans.
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And William Tyndale said, no man can verily read it too oft, study it too well.
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For the more it is studied, the easier it is. The more it is chewed, the pleasanter it is.
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The more groundy it is searched, the preciouser things are found in it. So great treasures of spiritual things lieth hid therein.
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And one of the great things about Romans as you study it, you know what happens in those first 11 chapters, leading and driving you to do something.
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And that something is this, Romans 11, oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways.
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For who has known the mind of the Lord, who has been his counselor, who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things.
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To him be the glory forever. And the last word in that section, amen. Everything in Romans is driving you so that you might think, oh, the praise and the glory and the honor of the
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Lord. And that's what theology is supposed to do, right? Theology should lead to doxology and praise.
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And so today we're going to look at Romans 1, 16 and 17, and I'm going to kind of take a different approach to this.
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And I think I'm going to ask you nine questions about Romans 1, 16 and 17, and then answer them from the text.
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And if you're little here and you're taking notes, I don't want you to say he spent 10 minutes on the first passage, first point.
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And that means 10 minutes times nine, we'll be here a long time. I don't want you to do that. We're going to kind of make some faster, some slower.
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The longest term I ever preached on a Sunday morning was 92 minutes, by the way. You say, why 92 minutes?
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Because the senior pastor who asked me said, I want you to preach 92 minutes. I said, okay, but why 92?
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He said, you know, those cassettes, 90 minute cassettes, technically there's 46 minutes on each side. So make it 92.
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I said, okay. Today will be less than 92. Paul has a desire to go to Rome.
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He wants to kind of set up a home base there. It's an important city. It's a strategic city. And he writes this letter.
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Question number one, to help you understand and grasp the gospel in Romans. Question number one, what is the theme of Romans?
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What's the theme of Romans? And it so happens that it is our verse. If you'd like to know the theme of this 16 chapter book, sometimes complex book, sometimes difficult to understand book, but at least
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I understood, oh, what's it mainly about? Then I can read everything in light of the main theme. And the main theme is found in verse 16 and 17.
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For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith, for faith, as it is written and stands written, the righteous shall live by faith.
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If you'd like to know the theme of the book of Romans, there it is. Simply, it's the gospel or the good news about the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, if you know that fact, which you now know or are reminded of, that's the theme of almost every book that Paul writes.
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You want to know how to understand Colossians, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians? This concise summary of the letter is, in fact, the gospel of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to know Paul's theology overall, it's found right here.
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If you had to say, you know what, I'm in a class and I need to give one word to summarize Romans, you could say gospel, you could say
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Jesus, or you could say righteousness. Everything in this book is about righteousness.
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The first two and a half chapters, we have no righteousness, we need it. Chapter 3b and 4 and 5, this is how
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God gives us righteousness, credited to us. That righteousness is lived out in chapter 6 and 7 by the power of the
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Spirit of God and sanctification. That righteousness will never leave you, chapter 8. Righteousness is sovereign 9 through 11, and there's an application in our life in chapters 12 through 16.
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What is the theme of the book of Romans? I'm glad you asked. It is the good news that reveals the righteousness of God.
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So far, so good? All right. Question number two, what should be your attitude regarding the gospel?
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What should be your attitude regarding the gospel? Well, what does Paul say? I think this is a good illustration for us, a good example unto us, for I am not ashamed of the gospel.
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Dear friends, we know that the world hates the gospel. This exclusive,
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Jesus -only, the narrow way, it is to be despised, it is to be hated by the world.
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The world of plurality, the world of inclusivity, the world of my truth is my truth, who are you to tell me, don't you preach to me?
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And what does Paul do? Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Now I love figures of speech.
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I should have paid attention in college to English classes, but I never did. But so, the good news is,
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I now enjoy English in figures of speech. This is a figure of speech, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
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What kind of figure of speech is that? And if you understand it, it'll help you grasp the verse. Is it a simile?
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Is it a metaphor? It's a fun figure of speech, and if I was a kid, I'd love to say this word. I love to say it as an adult.
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It's a laetites. Some churches, you look to your left and say to that person, say laetites, but this isn't that kind of church.
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Laetites. It looks like laetotes, but it's pronounced laetites. And a laetites does something very interesting.
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It puts together a positive note said in a negative way. So I'm not ashamed of the gospel, so what's
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Paul saying using negative language to say something positive? What's the positive thing he's trying to say? I'm proud of the gospel.
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I love the gospel. The world might hate the gospel, despise the gospel. They don't want to talk about heaven and hell, sin and judgment, but for me,
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I am not ashamed of the gospel. If I was in California by the beach, I would say what Paul is saying is he's stoked for the gospel.
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He's pumped up for it. Yes, this is what gets me out of bed. Paul shows up in town.
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He's got two questions, as people say. Where's the synagogue? Because I'll take the Old Testament scriptures and talk about Jesus, and then after that, where's the jail?
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Because I'll be there. He's been scorned. He's been stoned. He's been ridiculed.
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He's been mocked. He's been called a fool. They try to kill him. But Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
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I am not ashamed of the good news. B .B. Warfield, a dozen ignorant peasants proclaiming a crucified
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Jew as the founder of a new faith, bearing the symbol of their worship, an instrument that was the sign of slavery and crime, preaching what must have seemed an absurd doctrine of humility, suffering, and love to enemies, graces undreamed, demanding what must have seen an absurd worship for the one who died like a malefactor, and making what must have seen an absurd promise of everlasting life through one who had himself died, and that between two thieves.
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You can't even save yourself, Jesus. The offense of the cross, the offense of the gospel, bigoted, narrow, not loving, not tolerant.
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By the way, back in the day, think about how people thought of Christians. They're cannibal.
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They have this thing where, unless you eat my body and drink my blood, you have no part with me. I think they're behind the scenes there in those caves.
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They're cannibalistic. Not only that, they have things called love feasts, and they get together in this strange kind of inappropriate, intimate behavior at these love feasts.
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A crucified Savior, and Paul said, for me, I have no reluctance, I'm not afraid,
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I can't wait to proclaim the gospel. Drop me off anywhere in the planet, and I have this.
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I'm not going to be full of shame. Spurgeon said, when we preach
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Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, stutter, hesitate, or apologize. There's nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed.
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Isn't that good? And I know that's how you feel. That's why I love to preach to a well -taught congregation. Question three, if the theme is the gospel or righteousness, and our attitude should be one of, we're proud of and confident in, question three, rightly to be asked, what is the gospel?
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He says in verse 16, and you see it right there in your verse, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel, what the gospel is.
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Here's a three -by -five card. Write on that three -by -five card the definition of gospel. I wonder what you might write.
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Some people might write, right? Some might write that.
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Some do. Eighty -two percent of Americans think that Ben Franklin's quote is from the
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Bible. Some might write it's a kind of music, maybe. Medieval times, people would say the gospel is this,
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God will not deny His grace to those who do what lies within their power. That's kind of what people think the good news is.
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You do a little bit, and God kind of helps you along the way, kind of like you've ever ridden an e -bike. They're everywhere these days.
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I was at my son's house down in Solana Beach, and he loaned me his e -bike, and, you know, you're pedaling on your own, and then when you need a little assist, then off you go.
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It's kind of like that. You know, I do my best, and then God, you know, helps me with my little assist button. The gospel is not be like Jesus.
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The gospel does not have purpose in your life. The gospel is not feed the poor. The gospel is not make
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Jesus the king of your life. The gospel is not the sinner's prayer. The gospel is not the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.
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The gospel is not let go and let God. The gospel is not what would Jesus do. What is the gospel?
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The gospel means, simply, even by the word, it means good news.
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It means the kind of news that you tell people. It's so exciting. You stand on your tippy -toes.
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You ever heard tippy -toes from the pulpit in this particular church ever in your life? Well, there you go. Tyndale said, it signifies good, merry, glad, and joyful tidings that makes a man's heart glad and makes him sing, dance, and leap for joy.
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It's good news. The emperor, Augustus, had a kid. They all have to say, that's good news. Here though, it's not an emperor on earth.
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This is the kind of news where we say things like, God demonstrates, He makes conspicuous, that He loves us even though we were sinners.
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For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son. It's all about who Jesus is. It gives promises and gifts, no demands.
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It's just good news. It commands. John Colquhoun said, nothing. It does not even enjoin us to believe and repent, but it declares to us what
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God in Christ as a God of grace has done. Now here's the neat thing.
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If you go back to chapter one, verse one, in a non -ordinary greeting of Paul, he tells us a little bit more about the gospel.
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And when I hear the word gospel, because it's kind of a moniker these days, I always think Jesus, because it's good news about Jesus.
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It's shorthand for Jesus. When people say, are you a gospel -centered church, I hope it means we talk about Jesus a lot.
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As a matter of fact, the last two days in the preaching conference, I had two main points. Point one, what were those points?
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Who was here? Point one, talk about Jesus a lot from the pulpit.
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Point two, smile when you do, because it's good news. And Paul tells us about the object of our faith, who this is in chapter one, verse one.
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What does he say about it? Paul, chapter one, verse one, a servant of Christ Jesus called to me an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.
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This is good news about God, of God, from God. This is news about who
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God is. It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 15, where the subject of almost every verb is about Jesus.
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Christ died for our sins, accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, He was raised, and He appeared.
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This is God's gospel, and it's good news not to be tampered with or added to. Not only that, do you see in verse two, which
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He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Now, the gospel's good news, right?
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But the gospel's not new news. It just didn't come on the scene after the 400 years of silence in between your last book of the
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English Bible, Malachi, and then Matthew. This is old news, but it's still good news, and it goes back to what we call the
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Old Testament. That's what He's saying there in verse two. You see it. He promised beforehand through His prophets in the
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Holy Scriptures. And for Paul, that was the law and the prophets. That was our Old Testament. Jesus is the fulfillment of everything that God said in the
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Old Testament. It's good news, but it's not new news. I like Martin Luther for lots of reasons.
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Number one is he's Christ -centered, but number two, if I give kind of a snarky tweet,
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I don't feel too bad compared to Luther. Luther, Christianity did not originate by accident or in the fate of the stars as many empty -headed people presume.
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It became what it was to be by the certain counsel and premeditated ordination of God seen in the
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Old Testament. So, when Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, he's talking about this gospel from God, of God, about God, and he's talking about something that started back in the
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Old Testament. I was telling the students the last couple of days, remember back in the Old Testament, even every sacrifice pointing to this ultimate
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Lamb of God who takes away our sins, believers' sins. And Adam's sins, one animal slain for Adam that he might be covered and forgiven.
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You move forward in redemptive history, Exodus chapter 12, and you have one animal slain, not for just a person, but for a family, right,
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Passover. You move a little farther, and you think Leviticus 16, Day of Atonement, one animal slain, not for a person or for a family, but a nation.
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And then finally, you think, okay, John the Baptist looks back, he sees all this, and he says, behold,
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John 129, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the, just a person, just a family, just a nation, or of the world,
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Jews and Gentiles. All the sacrifices, all the kings and priests and prophets, all the ceremonies, all the law driving in the
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Old Testament to the one who would come. Even if you look down at verse 17, the tie -in to the
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Old Testament is found from back at chapter 2, verse 4. The righteous shall live by what?
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Faith. Verse 3 of Romans 1, when
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Paul talks about the gospel in verse 16, he's already written these things about the gospel of God and how it's promised in the
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Old Testament. And now he hones in on the personal work of the Lord Jesus concerning verse 3, it says, concerning His Son who was descended from David according to the flesh.
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Jesus is truly human. Jesus is perfectly human. Why do you need a human to be your representative?
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Remember Job's language, for he is not a man as I am that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
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There's no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on both of us. Job is saying this, here's a thrice holy
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God, and here's thrice sinful me, and I'm going to have to have some kind of an advocate.
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I need an arbitrator. I need an umpire. That's really the word. And that umpire is going to have to be able to say, you know what,
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I can lay my hand on God, as it were, and I also can lay my hand on man, as it were, to be the perfect mediator.
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To be our representative, we have to have a man, but that man is going to have to be more than a man.
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We're going to see that in verse 4. But what Paul is saying is, Jesus is really, truly human.
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If Jesus wasn't human and isn't human, there's no hope for us. The incarnation is important. The eternal
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Son adds humanity, keeps it forever, and the Word became flesh. If you don't think the incarnation is good news, you should, because there's no hope without Jesus, the incarnate one.
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I love the Belgic confession. The Son took the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man, truly assuming a real human nature, with all its weaknesses except for sin.
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Conceived in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit without male participation, in order that He might be a real human.
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Now we're going to need a man so that He can identify with us and represent us, and live for us.
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But we're going to need somebody who's divine who can do that, and what do we see in verse 4? When you talk about the gospel, you should be thinking it's
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God's gospel. It's all in the Old Testament. We have the eternal Son who becomes incarnate, and now here we see the divine side.
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Verse 4, and was declared, are made conspicuous. That word is horizon. How do you know the difference between the sky and the land, the horizon, the demarcation?
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He's declared to be the Son. Of course, He's the eternal Son, but you want to see the epitome of what it is to be the Son. You want to see the defining moment, the climax of His Sonship in power according to the
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Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead.
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This is the exclamation point to prove His divinity. Of course, He's always been God, but here is the exclamation point.
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So what Paul is saying, I have good news. You have a Savior who can put His hand on God, as it were, because He is
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God and He has righteousness, and He can put His hand on us to have an advocate.
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This is 1 John 2 language. We have an advocate. By the way, if you are preaching the gospel or giving your testimony,
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I wonder if you could give a testimony or the gospel presentation without mentioning you. Some people say,
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Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, nobody reads those. The only gospel they read is you. How's that working out for you?
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I mean, don't you just look at me and say, that's good news incarnate, Mike. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Mike.
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One man said, if it's not something what God did and through the historical Jesus 2 ,000 years ago, it's not the gospel. I don't want to be the fifth gospel.
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By the way, that's why I have great confidence in the power of the gospel, we'll get to in a second, through a weak and frail person like me, because it's not good news about me.
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It's good news about somebody else, and so be very careful, congregation, I know you're well taught, but we don't preach the good news about God saying, you'll have a better marriage and you'll have a better this and you get more money and all this prosperity stuff.
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That's not about what we're after. We're about a God who reconciles sinners and a God who takes sinners that are supposed to go to hell, like every one of you.
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Can you imagine? Die this second without Jesus, the mediator, you're going straight to an eternal hell.
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Me too, but because God in His love sends this God -man to rescue us, it's all about Him.
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Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you this day is born a Savior in the city of David, which is
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Christ the Lord. God in the gospel of Jesus forgives you.
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How many sins have you committed? How many have I committed? Forgiven. Do you know because of Jesus, you,
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Christian, are justified, you're redeemed, you're saved, you're strengthened. The law says to you, you're a sinner and you're going to hell, and the gospel says,
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Jesus Christ came in the world to save sinners, even you. Now, when
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I was a kid, we grew up watching TV. I didn't grow up in a Christian home, so we could watch Bewitched. My parents didn't care.
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It's a show about witches, for those of you that don't know. Good witches, white witches.
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And we also watched Casper the Friendly what? Ghost. You pagans, they're everywhere.
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So, I try to redeem that, and so there's a theologian you might look up sometime to read, Casper Olivianus, and I just call him
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Casper the Friendly Olivianus. And he's so friendly because he's always telling me good news. And this good news is important to us because built into our hearts is the law.
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The world gives us law. You wake up and go to work, and it's law. You want to go on a diet, it's law.
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Can I get an amen? The way we hear the gospel has to be from a preacher. That's why the preachers who are in this pulpit every week tell you about the same message, about the same great risen
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Savior. Casper Olivianus said, the good news, the gospel, is what
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God doesn't demand but offers and gives us the righteousness that the law requires.
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This righteousness is the perfect obedience in the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.
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Just imagine if we had to stop sinning in order to come to Christ. What if the person evangelizing said to you, you know what?
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Just quit sinning and now come to Jesus. That's not good news. Did you know
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God justifies ungodly people? Aren't you glad? Can you imagine, dear
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Christian, knowing what you know about yourself, those skeletons in your closet that you won't tell even your wife or spouse?
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Every one of those, because of Christ the God -man, has been washed. But you know you're clean.
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You know you're forgiven. Every one of those sins has been pardoned, not just for the rest of your life, but forever.
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If you go back to verse 17, it talks a little bit too about righteousness. We dare not forget that as wonderful as Jesus' death is,
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He also gives us righteousness that He talks about later in chapter 3. But just to make a quick comment now, it's the righteousness of God revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.
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Why did Jesus not come on Friday and die for our sins and then be raised on Sunday? Well, God requires obedience.
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And the illustration I like to use is, let's just say, well, if I was in New England, I'd say it's snowblower.
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But here I'll say a lawnmower. You guys have lawns anymore? Okay, you're astroturf.
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Let's just say you had snow, and you're in your snowblower, and you've got three gears.
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Well, two gears, really. Forward, reverse, and in the center, you're not going anywhere. That's called neutral.
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So Adam's in the garden, and God says, I want you to go forward. I want you to obey me.
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Adam, for a while, did. And then he said, you know what? I'm going to disobey you. And he jams it in reverse without dropping the clutch.
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Adam's sinful. We are all in Adam. He's our federal head. Thankfully, there's a later
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Adam, the best Adam, the last Adam, Jesus. And He pays for all our sins.
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We're back to neutral. Good. Aren't you glad? But God still requires obedience.
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And therefore, we need a Savior not only to just die for our disobedience. We're back to neutral now.
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That's good, but to live for us. And that's where we see the word righteousness. Because if I were thinking to myself, what's righteousness mean?
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What's the root word for righteous? Is it wrong? It's right.
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If you do the right thing, God is righteous. Scholar William Cunningham said,
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The righteousness of God is that righteousness which His righteousness require Him to righteously require. Right?
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Belgic. Jesus is our righteousness, crediting to us all His merits, all the holy works
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He has done for us and in our place. Therefore, never, dear Christian, think,
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I did my quiet time, He loves me more. I disobeyed, He loves me less. God the Father looks at you like you're in Christ, and do you know
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He couldn't love you less? Do you know He couldn't love you more? In New England, they have something locally for young people, and they bring in kids for a week, and then they have to study.
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And after they study, they are allowed to eat. And they call it, no devos, no breakfast.
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Not bad to have devotions before breakfast, is it? I mean, I was thinking about the band, Devo, but okay, no devotions.
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And I think that lends itself to this idea where I have to kind of earn God's favor. Friend, it's been earned.
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God loves you, and He's never angry with you. How'd it go last week?
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Husbands, loving your wife with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Wives, gladly submitting to your husbands, never exasperating your children.
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If God judged you based on your merits this last week, how are you doing? So we come to the worship today to be reminded,
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I stand before God with all you believers, not based on what I have done, but what the Lord Jesus has done for me, credited freely to me.
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That's righteousness from God. No wonder Luther said, I can't stand the righteousness of God, because God is righteous.
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I can't meet His righteousness. Until his mentor, Shabbat, said, you know what? It's not righteousness just of God, but from God that He gives to you freely.
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We believe that Jesus lived for us and died for us. And by the way, that makes us sing. Lots of our hymns say this very thing.
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With the good news in our heart, when He shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in Him be found, dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.
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Another hymn, no condemnation now I dread, Jesus and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him my living head and clothed in righteousness divine.
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I think that's pretty good news, don't you? Could you think of better news? Conor McGregor defeated with a broken ankle?
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Number four, why is the gospel powerful? Why is the gospel powerful?
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Oh, this is going to be such an encouragement. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, verse 16, for it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.
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This gospel has so much power, it makes people alive. It causes them to be born again.
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It takes people from death to life, from hell to heaven, from condemnation to justification. It's saving.
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How can I overcome my sinful patterns in life and nature? I may have told the story before,
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I don't remember, but we were newlyweds. I wasn't married. I'm sorry. Everywhere I go,
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I sin. We were newlyweds. I wasn't saved. I remember I got mad at Kim.
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I never hit her or anything like that, but I took the dresser from Ikea and slammed it down. All the good news about Ikea, it's cheap.
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Bad news is, 20 pieces. And I remember Kim looking at me, and at the time,
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I didn't really figure it out, but looking back, she looked at me like, why did I marry you? And secondly,
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I thought to myself, I got a real anger problem. Don't you know if you've got an anger problem?
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Maybe you go get counseling and work on anger management, but what if you're the problem?
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What if you need a new you? I don't need behavior modification. I need a new me.
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Try to get a new you. How do I get a new you?
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How do I get new nature? Here we have the power of God, and it takes people, and it makes them new creatures in Christ Jesus.
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Calvin said, whenever the gospel is preached, it is as if God himself came into the midst of us, because God saves through the preaching.
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So you say, well, you know what? What's a good application of that? You ever meet somebody that you'd love to see come to Christ Jesus by faith alone, and you think they're too smart, they've got too high of a position,
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I don't know how to do it, I'm gonna get all tied up, I don't really know much, except Jesus loves me, a faulty sinner, a sinful sinner, and I want to talk to them about it.
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Do you know when you're preaching the gospel to them, it is at God's sovereign will, no problem to make that person a
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Christian. I don't need to have a Harvard PhD to talk to somebody that's got a
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Harvard PhD. Effectual power, mighty power.
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I have a question to your congregation. How does God make a Christian? Answer, you're a
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Christian. Through the proclamation of the word of God, because it's got power. How did
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God make the world? How did God make light? Genesis chapter one, let there be light.
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Interesting, Paul uses that in 2 Corinthians chapter four. God said, let light shine out of darkness.
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And he has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.
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What's he saying there? How does God make a Christian? It's the same way by divine fiat, by divine power, by the power that can make nothing turn into everything.
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He says, dear sinner, I'm going to make you a Christian by divine power.
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That's amazing to me, creative power. Maybe one of my favorite stories that Spurgeon tells is a pastor that was converted by his own sermon.
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He wasn't a believer, he's up preaching, and he got to the gospel part of the liturgy. And here's what
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Spurgeon said. He was preaching a sermon he did not understand. I tried to tell the guys the last two days, don't do that.
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He was preaching a sermon he didn't understand, and while he preached, he got converted. By God's grace, he began to feel the power of the
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Holy Spirit and the force of divine truth. Spurgeon wrote, he so spoke that a Methodist in the congregation called out, the parson is converted.
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I mean, when a Methodist shouts out, you know it's big. The Greek word for Methodist is sitting on your hands.
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The Methodist, he's converted, he's converted, and all the people owned it and praised God and broke out into praise
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God from whom all blessings flow. Kind of a guy that wasn't well educated said, you know,
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I don't know a lot about Jesus, but he's got a lot of power. And I know that because he turned, in my house, alcohol into furniture.
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I used to waste all my money getting drunk, and now I've been able to provide for my wife. New creatures in Christ Jesus.
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Power. If you think the word of God and the power of the gospel is handicapped because you're frail and sinful, dear
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Christian, rejoice. Live a holy life. Honor the Lord. But he will not be handicapped by your frailty.
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Think about it. Who preached the gospel to you? How perfect was your grandma? How perfect was your father?
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How perfect was that guy down the street that preached the gospel to you in the college dormitory? Did you expect them to be perfect?
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Maybe you did as an unbeliever, but it was the power of the gospel, and therefore Paul says, you know what, I can go to Ephesus and they can shout out for two hours, great is
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Diana of Ephesus, great is Diana of Ephesus, two hours over and over and over.
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And Paul says, you know what, what does the gospel do? You're an idolatrous person, done. You're a sexual deviant, done.
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Because it's powerful. It makes people alive. It forgives them. It redeems them. It reconciles them.
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Number five, how do you receive the good news? How do you receive the good news?
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And you see it in verses 16 and 17, do you not? Three times the word believes or faith. To everyone who believes, the righteousness of the
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God is revealed from faith, for faith. The means of receiving the benefit of our
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Lord Jesus is through faith. Faith alone. There are no antecedent conditions to faith.
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It is faith alone. Good thing. Galatians 2, three times it says faith, three times it says not justified by works.
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A person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ Jesus and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law, no one will be justified.
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If I had to describe for you saving faith, because the demons believe, and that's not saving faith, it would be knowledge, you know about Jesus, assent,
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I give agreement, and then trust. K -A -T. It's the only cat
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I like, but that's okay. K -A -T, knowledge, assent, trust. The response to the gospel, the believer is preaching the gospel to the unbeliever, and he says, here's what
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God has done in Christ Jesus, believe on the Lord Jesus. We don't use words like surrender.
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We don't use words like yield, submit, treasure, our desire. Those are good words for Christians, but for the unbeliever, it is faith alone, because if you have to surrender everything in order to come to Christ, you have to surrender everything, and you can't do it.
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But believing is receiving what God has done, and a little faith, a weak faith, a sin -tainted faith, which it all is, in the right object is salvific.
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Resting, receiving, trusting. And Paul says in verse 17, does he not?
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From faith to faith. People argue about that. I think it's simple. It's rhetorical for nothing but faith.
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And of course we know, do we not, at this church that that faith is even given by God. This non -meritorious instrument given by God.
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Jesus said, no man comes to me except the Father who sent me draws him. If in fact faith connects us to the righteousness of Christ, then it must be distinct from it, authors say.
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Faith didn't die for us, faith didn't live for us, faith isn't our Savior, but faith receives what God has done.
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And I'm so glad that it's by faith and by faith alone, because the other option would be words. What do you call those little things that are made out of marshmallows around Easter time?
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The little chicken -shaped things you see at the high impulse aisles? What are they called? Go ahead and say it. Peeps.
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I want to remind you of something, so every time you see a peep, you're going to think theologically. Okay, that's what
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I do. God required this of Adam, and this is what
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Jesus did. And if you'd like to get to heaven on your own, this is what you must do. You must obey God perfectly, entirely, exactly, and perpetually.
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P -E -E -P. Perfectly, entirely, exactly, perpetually. That's from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, by the way.
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Perfect obedience, heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's not good news, unless you can keep it.
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It's good news that Jesus kept it. Can you imagine, who would say things like this and then do it? Jesus said,
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I always do the things pleasing to my Father. I perfectly obey. I entirely obey.
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I exactly obey. And I perpetually obey. You've got two options to get saved.
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Trust in the one risen Savior, or perfectly obey. And it's impossible.
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We have Adam's sin now. It's just a theoretical thing. It's just simply impossible. The doers of the law will be justified.
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I ask you the question, if you're here as an unbeliever, how are you doing? How many times do you have to spit in the face of a king before he banishes you to the dungeon?
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Remember Romans 3 .19? It says, now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.
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The only way to get saved is to trust in the Lord Jesus by faith and by faith alone. The other option isn't an option because the law will tell us we're not holy, we're not blameless, and we should just be quiet when it comes to the law and just say, you know what,
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God, guilty as charged. I have no excuses because by the works of the law, no one shall be justified.
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So I ask you the question, dear congregation, do you believe? I would say maybe most of you do believe.
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But if you think you can get to heaven by being baptized because your mom's at church, because you've got a deacon as a relative, you must believe.
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If you are believing, then what's my exhortation to you? No matter what the trial or temptation, keep believing.
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Question six, do we have different gospels for different people?
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I dare you to go ask Pastor Steve afterwards, what's our strategy for reaching millennials?
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What's our strategy for reaching skateboarders? I dare you. What did Paul say here?
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I'm not ashamed of the gospel, right? I'm proud of the gospel. I'm proud of the good news about Jesus Christ, the God -man, risen
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Savior, for it's the power of God. It saves people, to everyone who believes, to the
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Jew first and also the Greek. Now in context, I think he's talking about historical precedence to the
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Jew first and also to the Greek, but he's including now everyone. What's my strategy for people?
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My strategy is this, the gospel. Say, well, you know, these people here, what's hot now is social gospel, social justice.
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Friends, that's empty and it's not good news. That's bad news. Well, you know, maybe a lot of people who are oppressed,
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I'll give them a liberation gospel. I'll give them maybe a feminist gospel. There are a lot of feminists out there, maybe they need to have the gospel.
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From Sicily to Sri Lanka, from prostitutes to policemen, to whatever country you're in, the good news doesn't change.
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What does Paul say in verse 15? I hope you've been saying, I hope you back up a little bit to verse 15, because verse 16 says four, and why does he say four?
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Answer verse 15. So I'm eager to preach the gospel to you who are also in Rome. Okay, Paul, what's your strategy for Rome?
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What about, do they have yuppies there? Do they have Gen Xers there? What are you going to do to a city that's full of incest, slavery, abortion, prostitution, oppression, poverty, and everything else?
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On steroids in Rome, what's Paul's strategy? Well, let's see, what would George Barna say?
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Paul said, I have good news for you. I have good news for you because you think those are problems.
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Yes, they are, but they're the fruit of the problem on the inside. How do you turn darkness to light?
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It's the Great Commission, and I love preaching to this church because there aren't two commissions at this church, the
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Great Commission and the Social Commission. Well, that's not here because I'll tell you one thing that it's proven. If you get rid of this
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Great Commission by adding an additional commission, you will eclipse the Great Commission. I wonder if you thought to yourself, how do we change culture?
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Now, you can go out privately and do whatever you'd like, but the ministry of the church is nothing new, nothing up to date, nothing audience friendly, nothing as Nietzsche called herd mentality, as Kierkegaard called age of the crowd.
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No, we have no cultural mandate. Some people say there are five solas of the
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Reformation, right? The baseline sola scriptura, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, and the umbrella of the glory of God alone.
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And then they start adding other solas. You're going to save yourself with that sola. Sola bootstraps up, right?
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You think people go to heaven by homeschool alone? What's that called? Holt's sola homeschula.
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I'm not against homeschooling. And now sola cultura. There's an eighth one.
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Culture, you tell me what you want and we'll deliver it. I'm telling you, there is a total, it seems to me, although that's an exaggeration, capitulation from almost all the big shots in big name evangelical ministries to this very issue.
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It's sad to watch. When I want to have a good cry,
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I usually read John Payton's biography. He was a missionary to some cannibals in New Hebrides. What would you do if you're
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John Payton? I'm going to go to this cannibal island. I don't speak cannibalese, number one.
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Number two, how do I like play this? For John Payton, it was,
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I have good news for you. Here's what he said. For the first time, the Dorcas Street Sabbath School teacher's gift from South Melbourne Presbyterian Church was put to use, a new communion service of silver.
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They gave it to me in faith that we would require it. And in such, we received it. And now the day had come and gone.
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For three years, we toiled and prayed and taught for this. At the moment when
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I put the bread and wine into those hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, but now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the
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Redeemer's love, Payton writes, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces.
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I shall never taste of a deeper bliss until I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself.
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How'd that happen? He had his message. He wasn't ashamed of it. He knew it was powerful and he proclaimed it.
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Now, we have three more. That means we're going fast. Ready? Number seven, are there results of the gospel?
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Of course there are. Fruit, evidence, love, obedience, commitment, surrender.
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You're saved by faith alone, but that faith isn't alone. So I put this here not because I see it in the text, but because many people think that if you're preaching the gospel about being saved by faith alone and talking about Jesus all the time, that that's going to lead to lawless living.
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Know what God does when he saves people. He not only redeems them and forgives them, he gives them power, union with Christ, the power of the
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Holy Spirit, and you will love and you will work and you will obey. But you should never say this, what must
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I do as a Christian to keep my salvation? What must I do as a Christian to warrant salvation?
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What must I do as a Christian to keep in the good graces of God? Never say that, Christian. Instead, you say this, what should
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I do in response, in gratitude to my loving Father? Question eight, what happens if people reject the gospel?
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Well, first, don't change it. But secondly, if you're here today and you must say to yourself,
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I don't believe any of this, I want to live my own life, this is your destiny if you will not believe.
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And I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
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And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened. Then another book was opened, which was the book of life, and the dead were judged what was written in the book according to what they had done.
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And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead who were with them, and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done.
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Then death and Hades were thrown into the fire, this is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the fire.
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Dear friend, if you reject the Son, you'll be eternally rejected. Of course,
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I don't want that, I offer you freely to come by faith. Number nine, does the gospel also strengthen and motivate believers?
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I'm so glad you asked that question. Chapter 16, please, and we'll end here, Romans chapter 16.
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Sometimes we think the gospel is good to get into the kingdom, but now we're saved, just give me a list of things to do. But I want to remind you that the whole life of a
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Christian, initially, and while we're on earth, and then ultimately, is a life that's centered on the
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Lord Jesus, by faith on earth and by sight in heaven. Paul starts off talking about Jesus, good news, gospel truths, and he ends that way.
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What motivates a Christian to obey? Well, he starts to say in chapter 16, verse 20, the
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God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. God is going to do
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His work. God is my help and my shield. God, I confidently trust in you to work on our behalf.
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I don't care if there's divisions or Satan, we know who you are, Lord, and we know what you're going to do. And our champion
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Jesus is there, and it says now in verse 25, now to him who is able to strengthen you.
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By the way, don't you need strength, Christian? That word is where we get steroid, strength.
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You think, okay, I would love to have a little more strength to be a better witness at work.
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I'd love to have strength to say, you know what, I'm in the sin, I need something to help me through that temptation. I need strength to teach me to die to self and not live for my own self.
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I need strength to evangelize. I need strength for this, that, or the other. How do you get that strength? To -do lists?
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I'm not, to -do lists aren't wrong. But if that's it, if your Christianity is just give me a list of things to do, you've missed it.
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Nothing wrong with law unless that's the only thing. What does Paul say here? Now, to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.
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That's amazing. Paul brings back the central theme of who Jesus is, and now he says, dear
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Christian, if you think you can be sanctified and motivated without the Lord Jesus Christ, stop thinking.
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It strengthens, divine aid through Jesus. It's the power of God to save and it's the power of God to establish.
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Jesus, to me, that's good news. If you say, I need help,
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I need work, I need strength, Jesus is glad to give it.
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Sinclair Ferguson said, the ability to focus our gaze, fill our minds, and devote our hearts to Jesus Christ is a basic element in real
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Christian growth. I mean, what would you do if you had a struggle? You went to Pastor Steve in counseling, or Rob, and he said, one of them said, you know what?
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We understand, we struggle too, and by the way, here's a book I'd like you to read about Jesus.
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You know, I could do that to anybody that comes in. I have anxiety, I have depression, I have pornography, I have this, I have that, I have the other. I could just hand them a book about Jesus.
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By the way, when's the last time you read a book about Jesus? That's an interesting question.
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Sure got quiet in here, didn't it? Well, Marshall, you cannot love
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God if you're under the continual secret suspicion He's really your enemy. You can't love
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God if you secretly think He condemns you and hates you. This kind of slavish fear will make you a
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Pharisee. How much does God love me?
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I'm walking in my Christian life, and I'm strengthened knowing that, you know what? While I desire to be, I still fall short, but that doesn't change
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God's love for me. And when you know you have a God who's so kind and so good, giving you the
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Lord Jesus, don't you want to obey such a great Father? I went back to John Payton, and he said,
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I watched through blinding tears till my Father's form faded from my gaze. He's going off to seminary, then hastening on my way.
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Vow deeply and oft by the help of God to so live and act so to never grieve or dishonor such a father and mother as He had given you.
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You want to know what motivates obedience? Not scolding people, law only, but a reminder of a
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God who loves you and gave Himself for you. Sinclair Ferguson went to a conference about Christian living, knowing
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Christ was the title. And he got confronted by the leaders, and they pulled him aside and said, you have addressed us for two hours, and yet you have not told us one single thing to do.
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How would you like to rebuke Sinclair at the conference? When I thought God was hard,
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Ferguson said, I found it easy to sin. But when I found God so kind, so good, so overflowing, so full of compassion,
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I smote my breast to think that I could have ever rebelled against one who loved me so and sought my good. Isn't that good news?
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The gospel also strengthened. Let's pray. Father, thank You for our time in Your Word. May You bless this dear people in Jesus' name.