Just and the Justifier

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All right.
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Well, Andy could not make it tonight.
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He, um, he text yesterday morning and said he would not be able to make it.
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So I said I would come on and fill in.
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And then about that time I said I would fill in for anybody that's ever preached.
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You know, you start getting, what's called the sermon pixies in your brain saying, what am I going to preach on? Um, so I had a bunch of stuff.
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I wanted to start Habakkuk, which I didn't start on Sunday, but then the people that would come on Sunday would be halfway through the middle of what I was trying to accomplish.
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And then I wanted to go back to the city of God passage that we were in and Isaiah, I mean, in, um, in Psalm 46 and elaborate more on the city of God.
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And I was like, well, the, I may run out of time with that too.
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So what I am going to do is I'm going to just go to Romans chapter three and, um, I'm going to rest assure you, I'm not going to say anything novel tonight.
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I'm not going to say anything new, but I will promise you, we will say something relevant and something that should encourage our souls.
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So before we, um, read God's word, let's, uh, let's pray together.
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Most gracious heavenly father, thank you again for this opportunity to open your word father, that, um, once again, being able to stand in front of your people and once again, to declare your truth and father, I pray that as I opened my mouth, that you would be honored, that, um, the focus would not be on me, but it would be focused on your word and the truth of it.
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And that father Christ would be put on display as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and the savior that came to take away the sins of his people.
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Lord, we love you.
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We thank you for what you're going to do.
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We pray for those who are not here tonight.
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Some who are traveling on vacation.
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We pray.
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I pray specifically for the wards.
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Is there a way that God, you would keep them safe.
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Pray that Holly and Mike would use this as a time of rest and recuperation that father, that they would come back, uh, ready to be back in the body and to serve.
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And father, I thank you for what they do here and serving the young people.
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And father, for those who are sick, father, I pray that you would be with them.
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Father, that you would strengthen them in their infirmities, that God you would help them in this time of affliction.
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And father, for all this, we pray in Christ's name.
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Amen.
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All right.
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Romans chapter three.
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And I'm going to focus on, um, verses 21 through 26.
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And those of you that know me, um, my favorite book in the whole Bible is the book of Hebrews.
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And if I had any, if I was stranded on an Island somewhere and they say, Hey, if you could have one book of the Bible, no hands down, Hebrews would be the book.
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But if they said you could have one paragraph and all of the Bible, that's the only piece you could have.
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This would be the one that I would have.
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And as I read through it, um, we'll walk through it and then you'll understand hopefully why.
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And in verse 21, it says, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifest being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
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Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Jesus Christ, whom God publicly displayed as a propitiation in his blood through faith.
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This was a demonstration of his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed for the demonstration.
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I say of his righteousness at this present time so that he would be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ.
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That is the all of redemptive revelation in one paragraph.
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Paul, the beginning of Romans, he began through telling you what the gospel was going to be and notice he doesn't begin with, it begins with love.
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It actually begins with the wrath of God being revealed against all ungodliness and against all that is vile to God.
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And he begins with wrath and then he goes on and he says, and because of that I am not ashamed of the gospel.
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And he goes on to, to tell you about the wickedness and how men are going to be given over to their own desires and their own lust and, and how God's going to condemn them.
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And then he goes on into chapter two and he speaks to the Jew and he, one, he, he goes on to, and he speaks to the unconverted because he says, who are you old man to not repent? Do you not know it's the loving kindness of God that's leading you to repentance? And he says, do you not know you are storing up wrath for the day of wrath when the righteous judgment of God will be revealed? Then he goes on and he shows that the, that the Jews are condemned as well.
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But then when you get into chapter three, he starts at the beginning and he says, then what advantage does the Jew have? Remember the, the, the, the church at Rome, what had taken place in Claudius with the, the emperor Claudius, that is that the edict of 49, he ran out all the Jews from Rome.
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He's like, look, we got this schism about some guy that raised from the dead, some Christus and whatever they're arguing about it.
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So you know what? Why don't all you Jews just get out of Rome and he sent them all out.
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Well, when he died in 54, all the Jews started coming back to the church at Rome.
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So now you had Gentile and Jew in the same, under the same roof with conflict, wanting, thinking they were better than the other.
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Look, we were Jew.
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We were the ones that had actual oracles of God and the Romans were saying, no, we're all saved by faith.
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So that was some of the conflict, but it says, what advantage did the Jew have? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? And he says in verse two, well, it was great in every respect.
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And so, well, first of all, the, here's the reason why is they were in trust of the oracles of God.
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Who was given the oracles of God? Was it the Jew or the Gentile? It was the Jew.
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They were giving actual revelation from God.
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They were given a special revelation.
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Not only could any person walk outside and see what's outside, whether it be in trees, the sun, the moon, and see that there's a creator, but the Jews actually got special revelation.
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Some of it we go now it is somewhat difficult because you go, wow, that special revelation actually showed them how offensive to God they were.
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We'll just take for instance, look at the 10 commandments.
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What do they point out? What do they point out? Error law.
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I look, do you shall do this? And then what do we do? We don't do it.
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So now that special revelation pointed to the fact that they were actually insufficient for the good that God required.
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So it says, uh, what then if some did not believe that their unbelief, will that not nullify the faithfulness of God? And then one of the strongest terms used in all of Romans says, may it never be.
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And it's an, in the Greek, it's mega Noita.
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May it never be.
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Look, God's faithfulness is not in jeopardy because of man's unbelief.
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Every person that dies and goes to hell.
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I want you to understand it wasn't because they weren't the elect of God.
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It's because they died in unbelief.
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Now, if you don't understand that and you want to talk to me about that and how I can bring those two together, we can talk afterwards.
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But people are not judged on the base of being elect or non elect.
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They're based on what did you do with the faith of Jesus Christ? That's how a person is judged.
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And that's what he's saying.
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Look, just because people don't believe, does that make the faithfulness of God of no effect? No, because God's always faithful.
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And then he goes on and he says, let God, let this be known that God is true.
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And every man is a liar.
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And then he goes on and he, he quotes a, a, a verse from Psalm 51, which is actually a Psalm of repentance.
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When part of it says that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.
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And then what it is saying is that when God judges, he's going to judge righteously.
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And he's the only one that has the words and the right to condemn.
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And then he goes on.
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But if our righteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, then what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is, is, is not unrighteous.
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Is he? Well, of course not.
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Is God unrighteous in anything that he does? Look, if God condemns a man to hell, is he right in doing so? Yes.
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If God saves someone, is God in any way impugned his nature? No, because God has to work with his rational creatures and only two ways, either injustice or in mercy.
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And that's the only way God can, because those are the only two ways in which God can work in righteousness.
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All of God's rational creatures, meaning human beings, those who are given wills and a desire to worship either him or worship everything else.
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They are the only ones will be held accountable for their decisions on that day, the final day.
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So then we goes on, it says in verse nine, he was talking about, are they, you know, Jew better, Jude, what advantage when he says, well, what then are, are we better than they? And then he says, well, you know, not at all.
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Really? There was no difference between the Jew and the Greek was there.
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They were all condemned.
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And here's what he says.
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And he goes on through the famous, uh, saying that there is none righteous.
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No, not even one.
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There is none who understands.
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There is none who seeks after God.
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Look, we have, there was a time when there was a seeker sensitive movement of how we want all this people seeking God to come to our church.
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Look, no man seeks God.
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They might seek the benefit of God.
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They might want the benefit of being saved on that day, but they don't want God.
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They want the benefits of God.
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That's all that they want.
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They don't want a relationship of worshiping a true and holy God.
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They just want to get all the benefits that they can get from God.
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Hey, and a lot of the Jews are, they want the benefit of being God's covenant people, but they didn't want to worship God the way that he commanded.
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And then it goes on to say that, uh, that all have turned aside together.
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They have become useless.
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There is none who does good.
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No, not even one.
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Hey, there's none righteous.
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And Paul goes on.
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He's put this string of, of, of Psalm together from Psalm 14 to, to Psalm five to Psalm one 40 to Psalm 10.
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And then he squeezes in Isaiah 59 right here.
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This is a verse 15 and 16 and 17, where he says, uh, their feet are swift to shed blood.
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Destruction and misery are in their path and all the path of peace.
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They have not known.
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And then he caps it off with this Psalm 36 passage.
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What? There is no fear of God before their eyes.
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You understand that the, the evidence of a person who is not converted is no fear of God.
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Now we can say, are we talking about a reverential disposition towards God? Yes, I, that there is part of that, but let me tell you something, the God of all creation, and I've said it a hundred times.
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If you don't have a knee knocking fear of the God of all creation, who can just speak the word and you cease to exist, not, not your soul, but your body, that that should cause you to tremble when it, like with this passage that we, we, we went through this Sunday when it says the Lord speaks and the earth shakes, that should cause you to tremble to go, wow, that is the God of all creation.
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Well, the unconverted man doesn't care.
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And how do we know that? Because he goes on living his life as if there is no God.
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So then you get to verse 19 and 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 closed or shut, depending on what translation you have.
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Every mouth may be shut and all the world may become accountable to God because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight for through the law, comes the knowledge of sin at Mount Sinai.
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When Moses went up and he got the law, the covenant, the 613 commands and prohibitions, did they have the ability to save anyone? Did they? No.
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All they could do was bring death.
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All it could do was every time there was an infraction mean there had to be a sacrifice made because you had violated God's holy law.
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That's what it meant.
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And that goes from whether it was do not commit adultery, do not commit murder, do not steal is it goes to even though we would say minuscule as do not weave two fabrics in two types of different fabrics together.
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You understand that all of the law of God, not just the 10 commandments, all of the law of God is moral.
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The tripartite distinction of the law is a man made distinction.
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Whether we, you hear the moral law, the ceremonial and the civil, that is a way for us to understand.
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But the Bible does not make those distinction.
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If you sowed two seeds of two different kinds in the same field, God said you had violated his law.
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That is guilty.
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You have now violated a moral infraction against God.
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You say, well, how can that be a moral infraction against God? Because all of what God's law pointed to his perfect nature.
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Why did they not weave two different types of fabrics together? Why did they not put two different types seeds in the ground to grow up together? Why? Because then it's not pure.
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Why did they not eat shellfish? And I'm glad that we weren't part of that because I like crab and I like shrimp and lobster and all that.
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But why? Because those things ate off death.
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They ate off the stuff off the bottom of the ocean or off the bottom of the river.
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That's why they fed off death.
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Why did they not eat swine? What does swine eat? Trash.
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You know, you, you throw a, you can throw old dirty pair of pants out there with a hobble chew on it.
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That's why.
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So when we look at the law of God, we have to understand that all of God's law is morally binding under the old covenant.
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And any violation demanded with, with, except he made concessions, judgment and death, every bit of it.
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Now we get to verse 21 and it says, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed.
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Now it says apart from the law, my understanding of that would be based on what he has said in verse 20.
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I think it would be better sounding this way for understanding, but now apart from the works of the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed.
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What he's saying is because he's already said by the works of the law, no flesh would be justified.
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So he's saying now apart from the works of the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
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What did the law reveal about the condition of man? What did it reveal? Wicked, insufficient.
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Every time that they thought they could do something, what did it re what did it reveal that they could not when God says, do not commit adultery.
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They said, we can, we can not commit adultery.
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And then he says, well, hang on a second.
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Don't covet after your neighbor's wife.
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Oh man.
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Now then Jesus comes along and says, Hey, you've heard it said, do not commit adultery.
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I'm telling you, if you've ever looked at another one with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery already.
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So you're guilty.
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So every one of those continually showed their guilt and it, and the, the law continually pointed that out.
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Then it says, and the, and the prophets, well, what did the prophets point out? What were the prophets job? There were the covenant prosecutors.
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The covenant was the mosaic legislation.
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They were in a covenant with God to do what he said, do the prophets came along and the message of the prophets was doom and gloom.
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And it was constantly condemning and it was turn or burn because why they continually violated the law.
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And he's saying, look, the law manifested, even though it was righteous, that the law manifested that you were guilty and the prophets manifested that you were guilty.
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And it says now in verse 22, that even the righteousness of God through faith, which is in Christ for all who believe.
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So now that the law pointed to the insufficience of what they could do and the prophets continually pointing to them to quit trusting in this religious ceremonial really religiosity that you have created.
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All of that was supposed to point you to God and to worship.
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He says now through the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus, to all who believe, for there's no distinction.
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Look, the law could not save.
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The prophets could not save faith in Jesus.
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Christ is the only thing that can save.
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That's what Paul is saying.
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He's saying here, and there's no distinction.
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It doesn't matter if you were a Jew, doesn't matter if you were Greek, didn't matter if you were yellow, black, white, purple, green, polka dotted.
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It doesn't matter.
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All who believe will be justified by Christ.
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And he goes on to say in verse 22, for all have sinned and everyone has fallen short of the glory of God.
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Now, when we think of falling short of God's glory or missing the mark, it's not as if, there is a bullseye in the back by Steven.
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Okay.
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I'm not going to shoot you.
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And we have an arrow and we aim for it.
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And Oh man, I just came short.
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You understand that we're not aimed.
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We don't come into this world aiming to God.
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Now I can say, I would be like, that's the goal.
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We go, okay, we go the other way.
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So it's not like we're trying to serve God.
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When we come into this world, we're trying to do the best that we can.
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And then we're just missing the mark of hair.
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That's not it.
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God's demands perfection and either you're perfect or not perfect, right? There's no in between.
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And that's what he's saying.
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You've missed the goal of glorifying God.
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Either you glorify God or you do not.
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And in verse 24, it says, and being justified by free gift by grace through the redemption, which is in Jesus Christ.
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All have sinned.
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All have fallen short.
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And if a person's going to be made right with a Holy God, the only way to do that is through faith in Christ.
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It says it right there.
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And how is the, and what was the, the conduit by which a person is justified by grace? It said, you're, you're, you're justified by the gift of God by grace, through the redemption that was found in Jesus Christ.
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We, we think about the word redemption.
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And a lot of times we just think of, Oh, you know, it just, just Jesus paying, um, ourselves in debt.
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Well, that's true, but you understand that we were in bondage.
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You are bound to your nature and your nature was sinful and you were bound to the slave market of sin.
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Redemption has a purchasing part of it.
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Yeah.
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When you went and you redeemed something, you buy it back.
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Well, what did Christ do on the cross? He bought back those in which the Lord had given him who had fallen in condemnation in the loins of our forefather, Adam.
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And then it goes on to say whom God publicly displayed as a propitiation.
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Look, Jesus was not executed in a back room somewhere.
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Jesus did not pay and redeem his people in a cave somewhere.
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Jesus was placarded, put on display in front of a, an overwhelming full of Jews city Israelites everywhere at the height of the feast.
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Jesus is then publicly displayed as a criminal, treated as a criminal, treated as someone who actually had done all of these wrong things and had absolutely done nothing and was done publicly for all to see.
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People, the people walking by could walk by and see Jesus outside the Dabascus gate stuck up on a stipe, hands and ankles nailed to a tree and they could walk by and see what was taking place.
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And it's interesting.
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We often think of on a hill far away stood an old rugged cross.
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It wasn't on a hill.
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It was on the main road.
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Look, Jesus didn't hike up Mount Everest and put his cross.
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It was on the main road as you came into the city.
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And the reason why the Romans did it was so that if you and me in that day were walking into the city to go through that gate, we would see, Oh wow, this is what Rome does to people who don't obey.
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Well, Jesus was treated as a criminal and he was done publicly.
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And it says, because in the forbearance of God, he passed over those sins previously committed.
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Now in times past, you look through the Bible.
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Sometimes it seems like God was slack on sin.
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How many people would see that? Did God wipe everybody out every time they sent? No.
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Should have he? Yeah, he should have.
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They should have killed everybody every time.
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So then when actually, when God actually does what he says he was going to do instead of showing mercy, when he drowned the whole earth, some of us as children hearing that for the first time go, wow, God was very angry.
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God's very angry at sin and he should have done that every time.
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But God being in forbearance, being long suffering, being patient did not.
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And you say, well, what about those saints in the times past that committed sins? That we're not atoned for.
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Well, that's what he's talking about.
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It looks like God was slack on sin in times past.
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And Paul says, let me tell you why.
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Because now that Christ has come now at this present time, he is now going to bear the sins, not only for the sins of the people that place faith in him today, but all of those in that we're looking forward to Christ coming.
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He's going to pay for those too.
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And the cross being the center point.
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Then he's going to pay for all those sins or every person that would ever believe to.
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So God was not slack on sin.
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He was long suffering and patient with sin.
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Just because God doesn't enact judgment every time does not in any way, shape or form impugn his nature.
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God's God.
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And he's going to judge men according to his nature, not according to our liking.
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And it says here in verse 26, for the demonstration, I say that his righteousness at this present time so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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God has to be just.
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What does it mean to be just? What does it mean to be just? I like I'm just standing here.
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What does it mean to be just? It means to be righteous.
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It means to be holy.
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It means that God had to be just so that then he could be the justifier.
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Often use this when we go out doing evangelism or even open air preaching to show how God is just and he must punish sin is take a man who rapes or murders another man's wife and kills their children.
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That person goes to jail.
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He gets arrested.
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He stands before the judge and he says, judge, I know I have broken the law and I know that what I did was wrong and I don't think I was in my right mind at the particular time.
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And um, I just, I just want to ask the family and for you judge, you'll just, you know, you just, I'm sorry.
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What did that judge let that dude go? Good judge or bad judge? Good judge or bad judge? That's right question.
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Bad.
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Why is it bad? Because the judges jobs to punish the crime, punish the criminal for what he's done and God being just is now going to use his perfect son to punish sinners in their place.
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That's the penal substitution.
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Who's the only one that can satisfy God's wrath? God.
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God's the only one.
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God is self satisfying.
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He can only find satisfaction with it himself.
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So the only way for sinners to have their sins atoned for was for God to send the second person of the Trinity into the world, clothed in human flesh to live as a man, carry out the law as a man, then go to the cross as perfect man filled with the power of the spirit, bearing the sins of his people.
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So it would be the acceptable sacrifice.
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That's how God was just and punishing someone else in their sin.
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You go, well, man, it just doesn't seem right.
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Well then you all, you must not, I'm saying you, that's the question.
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Okay.
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Well, that just doesn't seem right.
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Well then you wouldn't think it would write that God would save you on account of someone else.
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That's great.
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That is great that Jesus bore the propitiatory sacrifice that we should have paid.
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Jesus did that in our place.
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The atonement since the time I was converted, I have been fascinated with the atonement that God would actually die for a wicked sinner.
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You go, well, God can't die.
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Okay.
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But God coming in human flesh, dying as a man can divine death cannot occur.
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But the death of a man who was the God man dying in his humanity, bearing the sins of his people, bearing in his own body and in his own soul, the sins of every person that would ever believe that is not something that men can make up that is in the mind of God.
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And we should be thankful for that.
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And if you're, you're obviously here today because you love the Lord that you should never get over that.
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You should never get over the fact that you're, you are on, on the executioner's block and God being the judge and executioner said guilty.
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He pulls out that sword and he is about to strike you dead.
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And Jesus intervenes and says, no, no, no, no, no.
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I paid that.
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I paid that.
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And you know what the good Lord does that see if it goes back in, he pops off that robe of judgment and he embraces you as his son or daughter.
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That is amazing that God would do that.
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Now what it says here that be just and a justifier of the one who has sinned.
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He has faith in Christ.
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Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the law.
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Jesus Christ was the object to which all the law pointed to.
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Jesus Christ said it himself.
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I did not come into this world to do away with the law or make it nullify.
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I came to fulfill it.
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And then Paul goes on to say in Romans chapter 10 verse four, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the law.
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Boom done.
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The mosaic law, all 613 commands and prohibitions fulfilled in Christ.
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That law is no longer a covenant.
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Understand that that it is that the mosaic legislation is done away with.
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It has no binding power and I don't think anybody in here is even a Jew anyway.
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It wouldn't have been on us anyhow.
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But it has no binding power.
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Why? Because Jesus Christ came and was the fulfillment of the old, the embodiment of the new, so that he would reign in a new and better covenant with a new administration, with a new covenant that was based on faith and faith only, just like in the Old Testament.
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But it was no longer, like a Caesarean covenant where you do this and I'll do that.
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No, the new covenant is God did it all for you.
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Every bit of it.
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Let me ask you something.
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How did you believe? How did you believe? What caused you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ the day that you believed that you didn't hundreds of days before? Seriously, think about it.
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What made Jesus Christ more appealing that day than any other day? I mean, I can think in my own situation and we don't always interpret everything in light of our experience, but I'm sure this part of it would be applicable to us all.
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I was walking a track and in a split second felt the guilt and weight of God's judgment on me.
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I knew that, hey, God, whatever, I just want to be right with you.
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What I just, I don't know.
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I just got whatever you do with me.
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I'll be fine with whatever.
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Just save me.
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Sort of like when Peter was walking on the water, Lord, just save me.
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I don't care now.
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Did I know that that was the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit that came and awakened to my heart and gave me the gift of repentance? I didn't know that then, but I knew from the time that that happened, I want to know what God did in me.
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I was a God hater.
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I was a hater.
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I was rebellious.
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I was violent.
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What did God do on that day that made it more appealing that day? He opened up my eyes and he did it through the power of the spirit.
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Now, your experience may not be exactly that way, but I promise you this.
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God opened your eyes to believe he opened your, he, he, he opened your heart to where the regenerating power came in and that, which you did not care about any times past you cared about.
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He took out that heart of stone and he replaced it with a heart of flesh that caused you to obey and walk in his ways.
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And he went, Oh, wow, Jesus Christ is the savior.
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He's the only, my only way of salvation.
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If I'm going to be saved, I've got to throw it all on him.
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And that's what you did.
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So there is some similarities in how that happens, but I want you to know this.
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You should never, ever, ever get over the fact that God has saved you.
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Ever.
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You wake up in the morning, you take your breath and you just go, wow.
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I mean, maybe I'm strange.
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I don't know.
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Right? Then my truck, my, and just, man, God saved me.
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God saved me.
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I think of men like Paul Turner.
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I think of men, Jack Bunning.
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These men been saved longer than I am old and they've never gotten over it.
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They're always thankful how God saved them.
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And when you talk to those men, yeah, I can't tell you how many times you, I have talked to them just about things, you know, about life.
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You know, Mike, just trust the Lord.
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I'm like, it's just that easy, eh? You know, you go to the struggle in life and they go, I just trusted the Lord.
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I go, man, that's how envious I am of those men who have walked with the Lord all of those years, have never forgotten how gracious God was, how he saved them, and that their faith is so strong in their old age.
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You go, Mike, you just trust the Lord.
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That's what you do.
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So, like I said, I didn't come here tonight to try to tell you anything new, say anything novel, but I tell you what, Jesus Christ being your propitiation is something you should shout for joy every day.
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Jesus Christ appeased the wrath of God in your place.
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You understand that we do talk about the wrath of God a lot about here.
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It seems like as I'm going through these little prophets, that's all they talk about.
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God's wrath.
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You know, the old Testament, 580 times the wrath of God.
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I think if God says it 580 times in the old Testament, then it's good enough for us to say it every Sunday.
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You know how many different words he uses for the word of wrath in the old Testament over 20 words like burning anger, consuming fire, wrathful indignation, just words that God just trying to convey to you how angry he was towards sinners.
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And then Jesus comes and in a time on Calvary, he satisfies with thousands and thousands of the bloods of bulls and goats could never do because they were never intended to take away sin.
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The book of Hebrew says that could the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin.
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All it did was God in the law of Moses incorporated a concession, an act of grace that if a sinner sinned, he would make a way for their sin, for their sin to be put off.
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Just like Paul said until the appointed time, till the appointed time.
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And they did what the law required, putting faith that, you know, this is what God's required of me.
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I've sinned.
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God forgive me.
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But man, there should have a continual reminder that every time they cut one of them next to them bulls or them lambs, or they took one of them pigeons and they popped its head off.
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They should have a reminder, man, this ain't getting no better.
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And the book of Hebrews says that they could never cleanse the conscience.
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There was a conscious reminder of wickedness.
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Well, now that Jesus has come, he has set the center free.
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He has propitiated the sins of his people.
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We can say in a clear conscience that God has forgiven our sins and he remembers them no more.
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Not that God's going to forget, but I can promise you this on the day of judgment, you've placed faith in Christ and him alone for forgiveness, trusting in nothing of your own on that day.
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Those sins, God will not hold you accountable because they've been paid and he cast them for as far as an area of contention, as far as the east is from the west.
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Thanks for coming.
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I'm going to pray and y'all can do whatever you want.
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Father God, once again, thank you for this opportunity to speak about the precious gift of your son.
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God, I just, I never ceases to amaze me that you sent your perfect son into this world to die for sinners.
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I just speak of my own self.
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Father, my heart is corrupt.
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I'm wicked.
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You, you took out that heart of stone and you gave me a heart of flesh and, and father, we, we still struggle with sin.
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We struggle with unclean thoughts and impure motives, wrong deeds and actions were men and women of unclean lips and, and father, you have still saved us.
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And father, we do long for the day when there will be no more unclean thought, no impure deed, no impure motive, no wrong speech and father will be forever in the presence of the lamb of God who has taken away our sins.
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Father, once again, thank you for the Holy Spirit, which is what our sign and seal until our day of redemption.
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And father, we pray all of this in your son's name.