Only Righteousness Saves From Death

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If you want to open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, that's Old Testament for those of you guys that are new to your

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Bibles. Book of Proverbs, that's God's book of divine wisdom. Proverbs chapter 10, so this will be part two of the message started two weeks ago.

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Chapter 10, verses 1 through 2. This is

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God's book of wisdom from above. How do we apply God's truth, the knowledge we receive from God, how do we apply it, how do we live in a way that's glorifying to God, how do we live like Jesus in conformity to His life?

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Proverbs chapter 10, verses 1 through 2. Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. The Proverbs of Solomon, a wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

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Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.

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Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together as His people. Lord, we seek

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Your face today. We seek Your hand, Your blessing. To understand

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Your word, to understand, Lord, the truths that You've given to us.

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Lord, You've revealed Yourself. You've told us what is true, what is beautiful, what is lovely, what is wise.

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God, You've given us the good news. And Lord, the verses from Your word today that are before us are so potent, so important for us to understand.

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I pray that, Lord, You would allow the teacher to get out of the way today, that You would speak by Your spirit to Your church.

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And Lord, that we would understand the glory of the gospel, Lord, in principle, that's in this verse that's before us.

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We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. So when we started this particular section, we talked, of course, about the verse 1, a wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

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So we spent time unpacking that and talking about, really, the glory of the family, that what

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God has created in father and mother and child and wisdom and understanding being given to the child.

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We've talked about what that means and how God intends to bless the world and bless the family and bless me when

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I live according to God's principles and what He has created in the world. In other words, God's built the world in a certain way.

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When we walk the other way, when we try to actually drive the car in a way it wasn't designed to be driven, we break down, we crash, we die.

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And what's contained in that first verse here in chapter 10 is really a summary of so much of what the scripture says about wisdom, about the family, about how

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God intends for wisdom to come from the family. And in verse 2, treasures gained by wickedness do not profit.

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We talked about the fact that sin never actually pays off. False gods never really satisfy real spiritual needs and so we can pursue the profit of sin and wickedness thinking that it's going to ultimately pay off, but in principle it will never pay off.

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It may appear for a time in someone's life that sin is actually paying off, but that's not how

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God built the world. Again, you can try to drive the car in a way it wasn't designed, but it's going to end up bad for you.

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You'll break down and the point is, is though it may look at times as though people are actually profiting from sin, profiting from wickedness, it never actually pays off.

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It will always have an end to it of destruction. I was thinking about this this week just to add on to what we already went over in this particular text and I think we all basically grasped the understanding of it, but this week

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I played in Apologia Radio, I played a series of clips from people who have undergone the process that is so pursued today of transforming their gender, of becoming something else.

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I know that I'm biologically male, I have the male parts, it's all shouting and screaming male, but I feel deep down like a woman, like a lady.

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I feel like I have to live this way, even though the creation itself is shouting to us

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God's purpose for us, we can go the other way and so people today are actually advocating for destroying your body, mutilating yourself, mutilating your body, doing things to your body that will guarantee that for the rest of your life you are going to be a patient.

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Doing things to your body that will guarantee pain, that will guarantee surgeries, that will guarantee suffering throughout your life and people are saying no, this is good for you, don't live according to God's ways, this will profit you, you will gain so much reward and treasure if you just oppose what

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God wanted for you. Clearly creation is shouting at you, but just oppose it and go your own way and you will profit from this and the series of clips that I played were people who were post transformation talking about the severity of their pain, the severity of their difficulty, of having to dilate numerous times a day because when you cut things off and you create a hole in the human body, the human body will always do what

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God created it to do and that is try to heal the wounds and so people try to say well let me just distort the body, destroy the body and I'll live happily that way and now they spend their lives in so much devastating pain and consequence, having to dilate several times a day to keep that wound open, having to do something to cover up the scent that's coming off of their bodies because they're walking around with an open wound for the rest of their lives.

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We're telling children you feel like a lady even though you're a boy, okay, this will profit you, take these pills, take this medication that was once given to sex offenders to chemically castrate them.

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Let's guarantee these children never have a healthy sexual experience with a spouse.

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Let's guarantee that they're never able to function properly, but we tell them this will profit you.

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You will receive gain if you just go against the created order, destroy your body, destroy your body, become a permanent patient and we see the devastating effects because now let's be honest, many of us are old enough to have lived through the 70s and 80s and everything else and seen this big transformation that's taken place where this was something that was in the dark, it was something that you didn't speak about, it was something that actually was public shame and now it's public popularity, now it's encouraged and now we have people being told, do the medication, do the transition and that's only fairly recent in our history in terms of a big boom with it and what are we seeing today?

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Now we see the fallout. Now we're hearing the testimonies. Now we're hearing the testimonies that are right there before us in this archaic book.

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The testimony that treasures gained by wickedness do not profit. It's never going to pay off.

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It's never going to work. Why? Because false gods do not what? Satisfy real spiritual needs.

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They never will. And so the text then moves into, but righteousness delivers from death.

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Righteousness delivers from death. This is everything. Like, come in now because if you want to hear what the

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Christian faith is really all about, if you want to hear about what the message of Jesus Christ is all about, it's contained right here, chapter 10, verse 2 of the book of Proverbs.

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This is a summary of what's at the heart of the gospel. Here it is, righteousness delivers from death.

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Righteousness delivers from death. It's at the very heart of the gospel. It's why the gospel is necessary. It's why we have a savior that we call

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Jesus. It's why we confess him as Lord. It's why we talk about the meaning of that cross and why it's so beautiful.

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And we talk about the supremacy of Jesus. It's because right here in Proverbs it says that righteousness delivers from death because our fundamental problem is that we are alienated from God.

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We are broken. We are rebels. Scripture calls us enemies of God. And scripture says about our condition that we are dead in our sins and trespasses.

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You want to know what's wrong with the world? You want to know why it feels so broken? You want to know why there's so much injustice and backbiting?

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You want to know why there's such a lack of love and actual hatred and animosity and so much bitterness in the world?

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You want to know why the world is so broken? The answer is because we abide in death. Because we are rebels against God who is the very source of life.

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And scripture says here it is righteousness that delivers us from death. And this is really important in terms of unpacking the text here because this is thematic.

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It's everywhere. And I've been saying that. You probably are now like memorizing that. Jeff constantly says it's thematic and that's because God's wisdom that's given to us here is thematic.

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It's throughout scripture. It's going to be consistent. It's thematic. Righteousness delivers from death.

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Note in the text, righteousness is connected to life. Whereas wickedness is connected to death.

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Righteousness delivers from death. So two points here.

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Ready? Two. One. This text is clear and true and we can all embrace the truth of it when we think about the temporal aspect of this truth.

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Think about it here. Ready? Righteousness delivers from death. That's true in terms of the temporal experience.

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Just what's going on around us. Righteousness will deliver you from death.

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If you live righteously and skillfully, you will live long and peacefully.

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That is a principle right there in scripture. And I think all of us can embrace, yeah, that's true in principle.

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Righteousness delivers us from death. If we live righteously, if we live uprightly, if we live according to God's standards and God's wisdom, it will deliver us from death in principle here and now in this life.

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You see this at the very beginning of the book. Just move back a little bit to the first chapter. It's something we touched as soon as this opened.

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Proverbs chapter 1, starting in verse 8, after the foundation is laid, the fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of knowledge, fools despise wisdom and instruction. The text immediately moves to this, hear my son your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching.

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There it is again. See, remember it's thematic. It comes from the family. We don't need the family. We don't need dads.

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We don't need moms. That's not how wisdom comes. It comes there in that foundational glorious place where God builds the world.

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Hear my son your father's instruction and forsake not your mother's teaching for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

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My son if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say come with us, let us lie and wait for blood.

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Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and hold like those who go down to the pits.

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We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. There it is again.

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It's the prophet of wickedness. It's promoted, right? It's a feature of sinners. When they get together in groups, it's a feature.

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Like let's profit from this sin. Let's find a way to get gain from all this sin and all this wickedness.

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And that's what they're saying here in the text. Proverbs 10 verse 2 says that that's what they're going to say.

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It says come with us, ambush the innocent without reason, let's swallow them alive. We shall find all precious goods.

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We shall fill our houses with plunder. That's the promise of sin. And groupings of sinners is let's find a way to turn our sin, our hatred, our malice, our evil into actual profit.

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Throw in your lot, verse 14, among us, we will all have one purse. And then what's the instruction from God?

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My son, do not walk in the way with them. Hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to do evil.

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They make haste to shed blood, for in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird.

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But these men lie in wait for their own blood. They set an ambush for their own lives.

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Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain. It takes away the life of its possessors.

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So in chapter 10, we hear righteousness delivers from death, but we've already heard that.

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In a temporary sense, if we don't go go the way of the sinners, if we keep our foot from their path, then we actually have life.

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We're delivered from death in a temporary sense because it says in the text, they set an ambush for their own soul, for their own life.

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They're killing themselves, their choices, their attempt to get this evil gain is going to kill them and destroy them.

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So again, this is thematic. In a temporary sense, I think we all grapple, we can all grapple with this in terms of our own lives.

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You don't have to be on this planet for very long to discover the truth in this principle.

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Righteousness delivers us from death. Whether it's dealing with the harlot that is so prevalent in the early chapters of the book of Proverbs, the whore, the woman who tries to entice men, it could just as easily be the adulterous man, the person who tries to influence and tries to engage and pull the person in to a pit.

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Come into my house, come in, we have so much in here, it'll be amazing, nobody will find out. And scripture says that really she's brought a lot of people to death.

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She has a high body count and there's a pit of death in her house and we all recognize in terms of righteousness delivering us from death, the kind of death and destruction that's brought through these illicit relationships, through the adulterous affair, through the sexual immorality, through the promiscuity that is so prevalent all around us.

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What kind of consequences does righteousness deliver us from? Well, it delivers us from the broken families.

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It delivers us from the broken families, the destroyed marriages, the love that is lost, the children now that have to live in separate homes because of somebody's sin that created those consequences.

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Righteousness delivers us from death, yes, even in a temporal sense. Righteousness in terms of sexuality delivers us from death quite literally.

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We've talked before about all of the STDs today that are prevalent, what were existing in the 70s and the 60s during the time of the sexual revolution aren't even what we have to contend with today.

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We have STDs today that can't even be touched with the strongest antibiotics. Righteousness literally delivers you from death sexually.

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Can I get an amen? That's the truth. Righteousness will deliver you from death. That's a truth.

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It's a principle. It is not something that you hear just coming across the pulpit in this church.

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It's something that you'll hear out there in the public square. Get tested, wear protection, watch out for this, be careful.

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Ask your several partners where have they been? They're actually going to be honest with you.

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Righteousness delivers you from death sexually. It delivers you from death with the family.

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Righteousness delivers you from death temporarily, in a temporal sense today, with the violent men.

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It keeps you in a place of peace and safety. If you hit yourself up with the people who are violent, who are saying let's spread a for people, let's destroy the innocents, well then your life now is in jeopardy.

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Your life is in danger. Do we need to highlight all of the gang violence and all of the evil and all of the destruction that exists with the groupings of men of whatever ethnicity that create groupings to destroy other people's lives?

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Righteousness will deliver you from death if you hook up with the violent. If you hook up with those who aren't peaceable, then you will experience violence and a lack of peace.

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It will ultimately come to your door. And so, we can talk about hooking up with the violent men, whether it's the cartels that are so prevalent, even in Arizona today.

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Hooking up with the violent men that will destroy your life. I was reflecting yesterday on the fact that when

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I first moved to Arizona, I was world champion at the time and national champion, and so I was just teaching at various martial arts schools and a local school, a very large school that had numerous locations asked me to come and to take over the quality of the schools to really make it like a world class martial arts program.

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And so I took the job and I came in, it was a lot of hard work, but I remember this young boy,

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I can remember his face to this day. A young boy, he must have been at the time, maybe 11 years old, and he would follow me around like a little puppy.

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I mean, everywhere I went, he was right behind me, staring at me, and he just thought I was amazing.

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And so, I took him under my wing and for years, I specifically taught him and trained him and he became excellent and I actually have a photograph in my office of me and my master instructor with Chuck Norris and this young kid.

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And years later, after I left that martial arts school, this young kid that was just excellent in every way, he was sharp and confident and disciplined and he was a little leader himself.

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He would try to emulate what it looked like to be a leader because he was around such great leaders as he was growing up.

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He got connected to the local gang that was working for Sammy the

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Bull. You guys know Sammy the Bull, right? Sammy the Bull who was with Gotti and Sammy the

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Bull who turned evidence to get the mafia taken down. Well, Sammy the

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Bull moved to Arizona. I've had two sermons now with Sammy the Bull in it, right? Well, this young boy that I helped to raise up that was just excellent, he got connected with the wrong crew, the people who were working for Sammy the

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Bull, and then his life was destroyed. He started selling ecstasy and working in that drug ring and he ended up in prison.

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This young, promising young man got connected with a group that literally dealt in death and his life was destroyed.

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Not even the same person. It changed the course of his life. Righteousness would deliver you from death.

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Righteousness delivers us from death in our interpersonal relationships, whether it's how we live with wisdom and righteousness and partiality.

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If we show partiality to people, we begin to entertain sins like gossip and slander which leads to division and church splits and bitterness.

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Righteousness delivers you from death in a temporal sense because it keeps you from destroying your life and the lives of others.

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That's the principle. The principle is righteousness equals life and it delivers you from death.

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That's a central principle throughout the scriptures. However, righteousness delivers us from death is actually at the very heart of the gospel itself.

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It's not just in a temporal sense. This particular word from God has everything, everything to do with our relationship with God and the gift of eternal life.

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Righteousness delivers from death. Let me say it bluntly. If you do not have righteousness, then you are still dead.

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If you do not have righteousness, then you will not be saved. I'll say it again.

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If you do not have righteousness, then you will not be saved.

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However, that righteousness that you need for salvation will never come from you.

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It can never be found in you. But the principle in scripture and God's wisdom and throughout the entire

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Bible is that you must have righteousness to have life with God. You must have righteousness.

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So how will you get this righteousness from the very beginning of the Bible? Just consider it for a moment.

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When Genesis opens, the Bible begins with the glorious story of this amazing eternal

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God who creates with His very word. He just speaks and it leaps into existence.

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That God creates and He creates humanity, male and female, men and women.

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He creates our first parents and He says, in the image of God, He created them, man and woman, equally imago

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Dei. Equally imago Dei. And it says in Ecclesiastes 7 .29

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that God created man upright, but He has sought out many devices.

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And so clearly in scripture, we see that God creates Adam and Eve, our first parents, that we all call mom and dad.

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No matter where you're from, we're all one blood. He creates our first parents in the garden and what's to say about them?

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They are created upright. They were not actually perfect yet. They were in a time of testing.

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They weren't in a place of righteousness yet because they were in a place of testing before God.

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It was a very simple time of testing. Just think about what was said. God says this but not that. Simple.

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You can have all this but you cannot have that. The day you do this, you will surely, what's the word, die.

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Righteousness delivers from death. It's at the very beginning of the Bible. So this particular text, righteousness delivers from death, is true for Adam and Eve.

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Would have been true for them. It would have kept them from death. So when I say this is thematic,

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I mean foundational thematic. Righteousness delivers from death. Our first parents created upright, but scripture says in Ecclesiastes 7 .29,

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but they sought out many devices. They were not perfect yet in that time of testing and they fell which led to death.

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No righteousness, death. Again, this is clear from scripture but here's something else.

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Listen to this. Very important. What's amazing in scripture is you also see consistently throughout scripture that salvation and righteousness are connected over and over and over again.

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So when I say to you, apart from righteousness you will not be saved, apart from righteousness you will stay dead, it's because scripture connects salvation and righteousness.

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It does it throughout. But just so you can have some references, let's go just to the right of Proverbs. It's right over to your right.

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Isaiah chapter 45, one of my very favorite sections. Isaiah, favorite book in the

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Old Testament. But Isaiah 45, this particular section, chapters 40 -46 is amazing.

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Not just in terms of what it touches on about how glorious our salvation is in God, but how amazing

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God is and how he's not like the idols of men. He's the true God, the sovereign

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God, the God who rules over all. In Isaiah chapter 45, verse 8, note this, how

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God connects righteousness and salvation. In 45, verse 8, the text says,

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Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness.

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Let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit.

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Let the earth cause them both to sprout. I, Yahweh, have created it.

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So you see the connection there for Isaiah. Salvation and righteousness are linked together.

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Stay in the same chapter and just go to verses 24 -25. It says,

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Only in the Lord it shall be said of me, Our righteousness and strength to him shall come and be ashamed.

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All who were incensed against him in the Lord, all the offspring of Israel, shall be justified and shall glory.

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There it is again. You see salvation and righteousness connected intimately together.

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Salvation, righteousness, justification. Now Isaiah 46, verse 13.

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God says, let's start actually in verse 12. It says, verse 12, Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness.

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Now stop. Now stop. This is really important. You could say this. You could say this on a street corner.

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You could say this out loud as a general call. You could say this in a church that's filled with those who truly profess faith in Jesus.

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They know Jesus. They're saved. They have the gift of eternal life. And you have people in this room who may have a false faith.

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A merely said faith. It's just profession. But they don't really know Jesus. So here's the word from God. The word from God is this.

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Here's what God's saying. Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness.

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I want to know God. I know I need to be righteous in God's eyes for God to save me.

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I need to be righteous in God's eyes to have peace with God. So God says, listen, you who are far from righteousness,

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I bring my righteousness. It is not far off and my salvation will not delay.

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I will put salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory. There it is again.

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Righteousness. Salvation. Intimately connected together. That's how the Bible does it.

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It's at the beginning of the Bible. It flows through the Bible. It's in God's wisdom, literature, salvation, righteousness, intimately connected.

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Last one. Isaiah 51. Isaiah 51.

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Let's start in verse 4 because you need this one. Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation, for a law will go out from me.

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And I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. Apparently God's a theonomist.

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My righteousness draws near. My salvation has gone out and my arms will judge the peoples.

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The coastlands hope for me and from my arm they wait. Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens vanish like smoke and the earth will wear out like a garment and they who dwell in it will die in like manner, but my salvation will be forever and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

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Or the word is abolished. My righteousness will never be abolished. So here's the point. We could do this for a long time.

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Scripture connects God's salvation and righteousness intimately linked together.

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Apart from righteousness, you and I will not be saved. But again, that righteousness will never come from us.

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Without righteousness, there is no salvation. There's only death. I want you to see it with your own eyes.

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Romans chapter 6 verse 23. Where do we see this elsewhere in scripture?

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It's the famous one. Most of you don't even need to go there to read it. But in Romans chapter 6 verse 23.

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Let's start in verse 20 to get the full context here.

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The Apostle Paul is explaining the gospel and here's what he says in verse 20. For when you were slaves of sin, he's talking to Christians here.

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He's talking to those who experienced forgiveness. They know Jesus now. They have eternal life. They have forgiveness. He says, when you were, note the word were.

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When you were slaves of sin, what does that mean about Christians? They were slaves of sin.

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They are no longer slaves of sin. When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to what is the word?

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Righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is what?

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Do you see it? It's everywhere. Salvation. Righteousness. Death.

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Salvation. Righteousness. Death. The fruit of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

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For the wages of sin is what? Death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

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Lord. Again, see, at the beginning of the Bible, what do you have? Man is created upright.

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He seeks out many devices. They're not perfect yet in their testing. What happens? They disobey God. They're not righteous.

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Righteousness will lead to life. Unrighteousness leads to literal death for our first parents.

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And it's the problem that plagues all of humanity now. You're dead in your sins and trespasses. But God made you alive together with him.

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By grace you've been saved. That's the story of knowing Jesus. Is you were dead,

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God makes you alive. How does he do it? It's his righteousness connected with his salvation. You're going to see more of this in Romans chapter 3.

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Move back now so you can see how Paul led up to this point. Romans chapter 3, starting in verse 10.

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The Apostle Paul has now indicted. If you don't know this yet, it's amazing to see how the

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Apostle Paul masterfully, masterfully eviscerates the

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Gentile and the Jew. He says, you're both broken. You're both lost. You both have nothing.

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You both have nothing to boast about. You are all under sin. You're both at level space before the cross itself.

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You're right there in the same place. And what does he do to describe it? Here it is. In verse 10, he says, as it is written, we're going back now to God's revelation from the

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Old Testament. He says, none is righteous, no, not one.

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No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside.

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Together they become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave.

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There's a theme of death again. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of Asp is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. Where's that from? Sound familiar? Proverbs. In their paths are ruin and misery.

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In the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. So Paul is now just saying what

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God has always said. The wages of sin is death. You're not righteous. You're a slave to sin.

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And so the wages of sin is death. This is where you're at. You're dead. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

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And here he says, no one's righteous. And that's a problem. That's a problem for all of humanity because none of us are righteous.

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And it's righteousness that delivers us from death. God's righteousness and his salvation are intimately connected.

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Righteousness delivers us from death. And our problem is that we're dead. Our problem is that we're alienated from God.

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Our problem is that we need resurrection. And so how is the problem solved? Righteousness delivers us from death.

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Romans chapter 3, verse 21, after Paul explains that the law of God could never be used to have you look righteous in God's eyes.

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It was never given for that purpose. The law was given to unrighteous people. It's not like they were righteous in themselves.

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They can't attain a righteousness through law keeping because they're already broken. So keep the whole law,

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James says in James 10, and stumble in one point is guilty of the whole thing.

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You cannot be righteous through your own obedience. It'll never happen. You're already dead.

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You're already failed. It is absolutely hopeless to attempt to obey God's law at any point in your life to be made right with him.

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He is a God of mercy, forgiveness, and salvation. That's how you attain that righteousness, through him and through him alone.

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You can't do it pre -Christ to become reconciled to God. And brothers and sisters, grab hold of this.

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You can't do it as a Christian. You're not going to get right with God through your obedience following through that sanctification process.

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We fall into that, don't we, as believers? Can we admit that? That as believers, sometimes we're betraying ourselves and we deny it.

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We fall into that pattern of thinking that, OK, I belong to God now. He's my father now. I'm saved. I have eternal life.

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But we live practically every day as though my relationship with God, my intimacy with God, is somehow dependent upon my law keeping.

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If I had a really good day today, I didn't yell at my wife. I didn't yell at my kids.

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I wasn't really that bitter today. Maybe twice this morning, but it wasn't as much as last week.

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I'm doing better today, so God really enjoys me now as a child. I'm good with God now because I've done better today.

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We fall back into that law keeping for justification and righteousness. You cannot gain a righteousness in yourself.

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It'll never happen. Only righteousness delivers us from death, but you'll never get it through your obedience.

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You're never going to get it through your own good works. You need a foreign righteousness, which is what he explains here. The law will never do it.

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And so what does it? Here it is. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

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Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

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For there's no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God and are justified.

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That means what? Oh, you guys sounded sad. You should be excited. It happened to you.

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You're a believer. You're saved now. What does justified mean? Declared righteous.

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And are declared righteous by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

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Here it is. This was to show God's righteousness. Because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins.

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It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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So Paul's explaining now, what's the meaning of that cross? Why is it so powerful? Why is it so beautiful?

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Why is it so meaningful? Because only righteousness delivers you from death. And the problem is that we're all dead.

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The problem is that there's none righteous. Just consider that. Put that together. There is none righteous.

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No, not one. Righteousness delivers you from death. That seems impossible.

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It'll never be overcome. God is telling you, righteousness delivers you from death. But what's true is there's none righteous.

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There's none who does good. There's none who seeks for God. And that's what makes this cross so glorious, as Paul is saying, is that God, in the person of Jesus Christ, takes on flesh.

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He's the righteous one. He's the blameless one. He's the Torah -keeping one.

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He's the perfect Adam. He's obedient in every way. He has no malice.

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He has no deceit in his mouth. And he goes to that cross so that God's righteousness and his salvation can be kept together.

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He is saving people at that cross and remaining a righteous God by giving us a righteous substitute so those who are dead can have a righteousness that makes them alive and gives them salvation.

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And it's only through Christ. Paul then goes on to explain in chapter 4 how.

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Because we're not righteous. But the principle in scripture is that righteousness delivers from death.

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So how does it happen? I mean, I get it, right? Like, God is the just judge. He can't simply let people go.

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We're all guilty in his eyes. He's going to be a perfect judge. He's never going to fail in his justice.

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And so how does he do it? Well, Paul explains. Well, he does it by his grace. And he does it without perverting his justice.

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He does it with a cross. Because at that cross, the Father gives to Jesus the penalty that's due to me.

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The penalty that's due to you if you trust in him. And at that cross, Jesus receives the full wrath of the

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Father. And he absorbs it into himself. And God's justice passes over you.

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And it's absorbed into Jesus. So Paul's point is, so God remains just.

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And the one who declares righteous, the one who has faith in Jesus. But that hasn't quite, if you think about it, it hasn't quite sort of like fleshed out the transaction.

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I mean, I get it with Jesus. He's the righteous one. He died for me. God's a just judge. He doesn't overlook my sin.

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But what exactly happens? How does this take place? Paul says this. Chapter four, verse one.

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What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh? His point is, what about Abraham?

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He's our father in the faith. What happened with him? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God. And it was counted to him as righteousness.

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Counted to him, credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted or credited as a gift, but as his due.

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In other words, if you're working for that righteousness, if you're working for that salvation, then what you get for the labor is a paycheck.

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That ain't a gift. And Paul just said that this is a gift gift. It's a gift gift.

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He stutters in a way in the Greek. And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted, credited as righteousness.

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What do you need, brothers and sisters? What do you need to deliver you from death? According to the scriptures, what do you need?

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Say it louder. What do you need? Righteousness. In order to be delivered from death, you need righteousness.

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According to the apostle Paul here, how do you get that righteousness? It says this, verse five, and to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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You want righteousness? You want that salvation that's connected to God's righteousness?

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It is only through faith in this one. It is only through faith in the one who actually is righteous.

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You want that promise salvation? You want the promise eternal life? You must be righteous to be delivered from death, but you are not.

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And so you need the righteousness of the other, which is why Paul says, this is counted to you.

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It is credited to you. It's charged to your account up. It's charged up in your account.

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Righteousness. You are not righteous, and yet the father says to you on the basis of another as a gift,

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I charge to your account my righteousness. I deliver you from death through my work, my righteousness.

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It's because of my love. It's because of my mercy. And what does it lead to? It leads to something incredible that we all need to daily refresh our hearts and souls and minds with.

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Never let your eyes lose sight of this. This is where my heart goes every day.

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This is the hope of the gospel. It says, just as David also speaks to the blessing of the one to whom

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God credits, counts righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. And there you go.

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There's the substance of the gospel all wrapped up in this tidy little verse from God's wisdom in Proverbs 10, verse two.

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Righteousness delivers from death. Okay, God, I got it. Righteousness delivers us from death.

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I get that in here and now, but what about my soul? And the answer is in Jesus Christ. The answer is in the gospel.

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That's the truth of God. That's the glory of the gospel. And so one more verse to show this moving throughout the scriptures, this is glorious.

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I don't know which chapter in Romans is my favorite. I don't know, because every single one of them is awesome.

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But in Romans chapter five, verse 15, go there so you can see this. This is where the Apostle Paul is now explains you're all sinners.

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This is the only way you'll be justified. It's how God justified Abraham. It's how God justified David. If you think you're a child of Abraham, you better have the same faith of Abraham.

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If you don't have that kind of faith in salvation, it ain't from Abraham. That's his whole point. And then he moves through the story of Abraham some more.

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Abraham's descendants would inherit the world. And then Romans five, he explains, you've got two representatives of humanity.

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One is Adam, our first parent, fallen, dead. Dead is the theme there.

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He brings condemnation and death. And we have another representative in humanity and that's

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Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And so Romans five, 15, here's what he says. But the free gift is not like the trespass.

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He's talking about the difference between what Jesus gives versus what Adam gives.

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And it doesn't matter, are you ready? It doesn't matter if you wanted it from Adam. Welcome to it.

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You got it, okay? So the point is, the free gift is not like the trespass for if many, what's the word?

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Died. What's the theme consistently from old to new? What's the theme? No righteousness equals what?

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Death. That's the theme throughout scripture. Righteousness delivers you from death.

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And it says, if many died through one man's trespass, that is his unrighteousness, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man

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Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

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For if, because of one man's trespass, death, there it is again, death reign through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of what?

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Righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Proverbs 10 verse two is the substance of our hope in Jesus Christ.

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Righteousness delivers from death. What did we get from Adam? We got death because of what? Because of his unrighteousness, because of his sin against God.

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But what Jesus gives is this free gift of what? Righteousness.

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God calls out, I'll save. I'll save, I'll save in my son.

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I'll save, I'll bring my salvation near. I'll give you the righteousness that you need but you must come to this place and you must come understanding that this is a free gift.

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You're not gonna attain it yourself. All human religion, all human religion, every human religion, all man -made religion, paganism and idolatry has in substance the same foundational story.

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Something's wrong between you and this God, whatever the God may be, however many arms it has, something's wrong and the way to fix it is to maybe start establishing some good karma, right?

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Live righteously, live good, be a loving, more loving person, you know, pay your cable bill on time, make sure you take your trash away from the street like after they pull the trash out, whatever the reason, whatever the thing is, right?

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Like don't be a Karen. You know, and now think about it, that's a cultural phenomenon, is it, right?

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What do we say? Here is a standard of unrighteousness, Karen. Sorry to every woman named

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Karen forever, right? It's no longer a popular name. Is anyone naming their child

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Karen anymore? It's not fair to Karen, okay, be nice to Karen. But the point is, it's a cultural phenomenon.

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What we say is this is not righteous behavior, don't behave like this so that you can be a good person, you could be a polished person, you could be a righteous person.

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And no matter the religion, it's all the same. If you would just obey enough, do enough, be good enough, whatever the case may be, be wise enough, loving enough, whatever, then you'll finally be right with your

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God. Maybe not in this life, maybe not in the next 10 ,000 lives, but someday you'll go from being an aardvark in the next life to maybe getting into nirvana, whatever the case may be.

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Every religion's the same. You need to be righteous, but it's up to you to do it.

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God says that his salvation and righteousness comes as a gift.

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Yes, righteousness delivers us from death. And do you wanna know the foundational verse that the apostle opens this story up with in Romans chapter one?

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Go to Romans chapter one to see how the apostle Paul lays the foundation down as he explains the gospel.

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He opens the gospel up with this text. You know it's important to him. He's itching to give it to you.

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He wants you to understand Jesus, and so he gives you this text. In Romans chapter one, verse 16, he says, "'For

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I am not ashamed of the gospel, "'for it is the power of God, for salvation.'"

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There's the word. "'To everyone who believes, to the Jew first "'and also to the

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Greek. "'For in it, the righteousness of God "'is revealed from faith for faith.

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"'As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.'"

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The righteous shall live by faith. Now, it's really important. Did you all notice all of the same themes coming across the apostle's pen?

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Righteousness, salvation, coming together in a single section as he opens up the gospel.

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Righteousness and salvation, these are intimately connected by God. And here's what he quotes from Habakkuk 2 .4.

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You don't need to go there. It's already right in front of you. Go read it later. But here's, this is so critical.

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Listen, the text in Proverbs, the principle that God lays down is righteousness delivers you from death.

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And that is what Paul is talking about right here. The righteous shall live by faith.

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The righteous shall be alive by faith. The righteous will not die by faith.

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So I think a lot of times you read a text like this, the righteous shall live by faith. And there's one way people hear it.

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They hear it like this. The righteous shall live by faith. Practically, they'll be faithful.

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They will have faith. They will trust. The righteous, like their daily experience is like daily faith.

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Like I have faith. And so that's how I live. I live by this. Like I live by my motto, like my thing, right?

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My motto is faith. I live by it. That's how I live. That's what you see in me. That's not what the text says.

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The righteous shall live and not die before God by faith.

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What's the problem in humanity? Death. What's the problem in humanity? Unrighteousness.

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If you want salvation and you want righteousness, then you must have faith.

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Because that's the only way that you will live. Because righteousness delivers you from death.

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No righteousness, no salvation. The only way to have that righteousness in eternal life is through Jesus Christ.

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But here's my challenge to you, to us, to humanity. Paul explains that it can't be done by you.

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In chapter 10, just quickly, here's what he says. Verse one, brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.

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Who's he talking about? He's talking about his Hebrew brethren. He's talking about Jewish people who are descended physically from Abraham.

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He's like, I want them to be saved. I want them to know Jesus, their own Messiah. And he says, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

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Here it is. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

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For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

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Righteousness delivers from death. What's wrong? We're not righteous and dead.

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What's wrong with them? Is they're trying to establish their own righteousness, not submitting to God's righteousness.

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Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who, what? What is it?

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Believes. That's the freedom of the gospel. That's the hope of the gospel.

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That is what separates, please hear it, because this is everything. If I had one last message to preach before I died,

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I would want to say this. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we can have a righteousness that is acceptable to God.

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It is only through faith in Jesus, and it is only received as a gift. Clearly, Paul is explaining to his hearers, to his readers, you will never get this righteousness on your own.

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You need salvation and righteousness, and it is only through Jesus, and so you must submit to Christ where that's the end of it all, and it's a free gift.

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But just for hope, just because I want us to have a place to put our feet and our hearts when we are struggling through this life,

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I want you to see what Paul does to explain this all in a snapshot.

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In 2 Corinthians chapter five, many of you already know where I'm going. In 2

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Corinthians chapter five, verses 17 through 21, the apostle

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Paul says this, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

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The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

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That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

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Therefore, we're ambassadors for Christ. God, making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

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For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that in him, we might become, what?

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The righteousness of God. Do you see it? Do you see it?

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Salvation and righteousness intimately connected throughout scripture. It's always the same story.

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And what is it that we need for salvation? Righteousness. And what do we have in Jesus? A God who made him to become sin on our behalf so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God because that is what we need because righteousness delivers us from death.

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So the Apostle Paul here in this section, he says, and I love how he says it, he says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

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God making his appeal through us. You think about that? Is that weighty?

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Just, we're done here. I'm actually finishing, like right now. Believe it or not, we have baptism, so I'm not trying to rush it, but I'm almost done.

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Half an hour, I'm just joking, okay. But the weight of that, because let's be honest, we get jaded.

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You go out to Mill Avenue for like three months in a row, you'll get jaded. We're human.

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We're fallible. We blow it. We miss the significance and the glory of what God is doing.

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We go out to hard places, go to the abortion mill. We start to get just sort of wrapped up in, like,

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I guess I gotta go to the abortion mill. Like, oh, I don't really feel like going today. We do all these ministries, and because we are just these silly creatures, we lose the significance and the glory and the weight, the weight of that moment.

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Paul hasn't lost the weight of it. He says this. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.

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God making his appeal through us. That God is reconciling the world to himself.

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Jews, Gentiles, people of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, the world.

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Salvation goes out to the world now, and it says that you as a believer, you as the ambassador of Christ, God is bringing his righteousness and salvation near to the world, and it said,

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God is using you as the ambassador. He is making the appeal through you. The weight of that, it says, get the sense of that when you sit by somebody's bedside when they're dying and you proclaim the gospel to them.

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When you go out and preach the gospel to the person on the street, when you're outside the abortion mill preaching Christ, that is the eternal

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God making his appeal through you. And sometimes, let's be honest, we feel like dumb.

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We're like, I didn't say the right thing. I didn't do the right thing. I could have said this. Why did I say that? We go back and we dissect everything a million times over.

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Like, I wish I was like that person. I wish I could say it like that person. Man, I wish I was Paul Washer or something like that, right?

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Like, I wish I could do it like them. That's not how this works. Out of the mouth of babes.

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And you as the ambassador of Christ, when you proclaim Christ's excellencies and his glory and you proclaim his gospel, you're the ambassador.

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And it's a God is making the appeal through his ambassador. And what's the appeal?

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Be reconciled to God. You need righteousness. You must be reconciled to God.

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So the call of the gospel comes like that. Be reconciled to God. Be reconciled to God. There's salvation and righteousness in one alone and it's in Jesus and you need that.

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And it's only through faith. So be reconciled to God. How long did it take me to say? 10 seconds, 10 seconds.

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There's the gospel proclamation. Be reconciled to God. Scripture teaches over and over and over again that it is righteousness and only righteousness that will deliver you from death.

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And so my challenge to you is this. Do you have it? Oh, it's gonna matter.

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It is gonna matter. Maybe it'll matter today. No one knows when he's calling you home.

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Maybe it'll matter tomorrow. Maybe it's gonna matter in a month or five years or 10 years, but it's going to matter.

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And let me just say to you, for those of you who are in Christ today, the truths given to you in this message are gonna be glorious and beautiful for all eternity.

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You will rejoice in these truths 10 billion years from now. We'll be rejoicing together over these truths of the righteousness that delivers us from death.

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And for those of you in this room right now that would like to wave the hand at the message, you'd like to say,

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I'll think about that later. Or you're saying right now, because of a hardness of heart and rebellious spirit, you're saying,

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I don't want the righteousness, don't care for it. I don't wanna think about those things. If you die in that state, if you die in that state, then the truths in this message will ring in your ears for all eternity in pain and anguish.

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Because God is a righteous God and he is a righteous judge. And the only way to have peace with him is righteousness.

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Only righteousness delivers from death. And there is only one righteousness that will, and it's Jesus Christ.

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Turn to him and live. Let's pray. God, I pray that you'd blast the message you went out today for your glory and kingdom.

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Lord, I don't know who's under the hearing of my voice and who will hear this message with your truth.

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I just pray that you'd use it by your spirit to bring life to the dead, raise people from death to life, grant to them the gift of righteousness that's only through faith in Jesus.

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Open the eyes of the blind, give hearing to the deaf. Thank you, Lord, for your righteousness in which we stand.

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The righteous shall live by faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.