Do Righteousness, Not Sin, Just as He Is Righteous | 1 John 3:6-8

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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All right, welcome back beloved to another Lord's Day here with us

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It's such a joy to be able to Bring God's Word, and I'm really looking forward to this message once again

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We We've been covering a lot of major doctrines these past few weeks through all throughout these verses that in 1st

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John and We previously learned how? Those verses in chapter 3 and chapter 2

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They teach regarding adoption the glorious doctrine of adoption because of the father's adoptive love for us and It's also beautifully summarized in the

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Baptist larger catechism As well and I want us to really

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Keep this in mind always and forever and to never forget that The fact that we are near to God means that we are in God we are in Nearness to God means that we are in there's no there's no.

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Oh, well, you're near but you're not quite there yet That's not that's not what God's Word teaches us Nearness to God is intimacy with God and it means with that we are accepted by him already amen, so that's very important to understand and I also

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I wanted to clarify something from last Sunday because When I said that we should not avoid sin that we should not avoid sin and That if we avoid sin we avoid the gospel

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It Might sound a little off if you don't if you don't follow what I'm saying What I meant was that we must not avoid the subject of sin

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Okay, we must not avoid dealing with sin the subject Obviously we have to avoid sin

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Right 1st John even in 1st John chapter 2 tells us below, you know, I write these things to you so that you may not

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Sin, right we abstain and avoid the appearance of evil. That's very clear in God's Word.

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So that's not what I meant Just wanted to make sure that was properly understood We cannot avoid sin because the

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Bible is all about the problem of sin That's what it's all about how to resolve it how to deal with it

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The the consequences of sin all of it so That's not to say that we can sin as we please and still have remission right like that parody goes this is actually a

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Big part of what the sermon will be about today as well Obviously then on the one hand we must deal with sin because it is our daily duty to deal with sin and our flesh

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But on the other hand we must also avoid and abstain from sin put it to death

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Mortify it, right? so That's very important to understand because it's a it's every

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It's our Daily struggle. It's a daily struggle so Today's sermon will continue to build

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Off on of the foundation that was laid last the last few messages in 1st

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John chapter 3 starting in verse 6 once again I'll read

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I'll read there and Go ahead and unpack what the

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Apostle is telling us here. No one who abides in him sins

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No one who believes in him and lives accordingly out of loving gratitude sins in other words

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No one who sins Has seen him or has come to know him little children

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This is speaking to all of us Term of endearment let no one deceive you

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Remember these previous warnings about Antichrist the one who does

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Righteousness is righteous Just as he is righteous the one who does sin is

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Of the devil because the devil sins from the beginning The Son of God was manifested for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil

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Amen, so I do need to make a slight adjustment to the sermon title today because we're going to be dealing

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Pretty heavily with sin continue to deal with sin. And so really this is better Titled do righteousness not sin

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Just as he is righteous right, so And if you notice something here

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I really appreciated this how verses 6 through 8 that we just read are sort of parallel From the earlier verses in 4 through 6 if you back up with me to verse 4

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We'll see that John is effectively restating and parallel parallelizing if that's a word the same basic message in Verse 4.

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He says everyone who does sin Also does lawlessness and sin is lawlessness

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And you know that he? was manifested the one one is one was manifested in order to take away sins and In him there is no sin past present future ever

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Therefore no one who abides in him sins No one who sins has seen him or has come to know him

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So there's a very clear parallel of How the letter is restating a lot of the same basic truths that we must properly understand very important and Recall to how

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I mentioned The past few weeks that understanding sin

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Understanding sin knowing what sin is in general in our sins in particular and How we relate to and deal with sin?

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Before and after our conversion After we are saved is an integral indispensable part of The very gospel by which we are being saved and to use

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Paul's words in 1st Corinthians That is Foundational and not only that but of our also of our glorific our sanctification as well of our sanctification because It's a twofold process

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To be sanctified right we more and more live on to righteousness

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We do righteousness and more and more die unto sin put it to death so That's and and the

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Bible is so emphatically Overwhelmingly clear about this. I Miss I failed to mention this verse last time but Romans 7 7

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Says very very clearly What shall we say then is the law sin?

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May it never be No, no, no Absolutely not on the contrary

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Rather I would not have come to know sin Except through the law.

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I did not know sin, but by the law capital

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L God's law For I would not have known coveting if the law had not said you shall not covet because the law determines and defines sin for us

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It's very clear. So We are we understand we have we must understand these things and to clarify further

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This does not mean though, I don't want people getting the wrong idea from you know, what

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I said before either This does not mean that we have to confess all of our specific sins

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Kind of like, you know Luther did for hours on end In the confessional with his fellow confessor and When he was still a despairing monk utterly devoid of the true gospel

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Okay, that's not what that's not what this means for us But we must nevertheless

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Understand that we are all sinners We're all sinners born guilty sinners and by nature

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We have a bad record and a bad nature of fallen nature Who stand condemned in the eyes of God?

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all of us Unless and until Unless and until Christ interposes

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Interpo I love that word interposes like the hymn says interposed his precious blood that is to Intervene to mediate right to mediate on our behalf and Puts us on that glorious chain of redemption that Romans 8 describes

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Those who are called were justified those who were justified were Sanctified and glorified and so on, you know

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This reminds me of when I when I first got saved When I became a

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Christian, you know some years ago Well, I forget how long it's been now it's like maybe 13 years or more

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But When I got saved I didn't have a very good understanding of God's law and of my sin

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I was still pretty fuzzy on the implications of God's law and our fallen nature

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Because I kind of thought like well, okay. Yeah, I definitely broke some of the commandments but not all of them and Needless to say

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I suffered from a little self -deception there because I Didn't understand the

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The full weight of the mirror of God's law Because the reality is we're all guilty of all of it of all of it there's no one who can say

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I did not break this law and Besides we understand from James 2 10 that you break one

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Commandment you break all of them Because God is holy He's not gonna let you get away with.

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Oh, well, you know You committed adultery, but you never lied. So you're good.

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No, let God be true. But every man a liar We're all liars we're all sinners

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We've all broken all of it and that's not just because if you break when you break all of them It's because we've literally broken all of them.

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We're all sinners Maybe you haven't murdered somebody physically, but have you hated anybody?

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You're lying to yourself if you haven't Right, and that's what first John tells us later on we'll get to later on but I I had it was funny when

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I realized I freaked out. I was like, oh my gosh I had like I've broken all of them

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And so I kind of had like a second a second repentance and conversion after that Because I was just like it really hit me.

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I was like, oh my gosh I've broken all of it. I'm a wretched sinner and it gives it really

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It gives real meaning when you sing the song that saved the wretch like me

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Because that's that's all we had to offer Like that other hymn that we sang, you know, nothing but sin.

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I Have to offer God Nothing we in our hands we bring can bring so that's

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That's a very simple reality that we all face we all face So last time we also started to unpack verse 6 verse 6 is a very

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It's a very challenging verse It's a very challenging verse that we have to make sure we don't

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Twist twist around and So, how do we make proper sense of it and You know like I touched on last time

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This this verse and I'll reread it here. Let's reread it. No one who abides in him sins

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No one who abides in him sins. No one who sins Has seen him or has come to know him at all.

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It's very black and white either or but this this is specifically referring to Sinning sinning

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Present tense or doing sin like verse 8 later on tells us to do sin living in sin continuing in sin in an ongoing unrepentant lifestyle

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That's what it's referring to without repentance without remorse without sorrow without confession without Mortification of sin without true saving faith in the gospel

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That's what This is referring to It's the pattern.

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It's the lifestyle the peripatel How you walk the general trajectory of where you're going?

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Are you going towards heaven or towards hell? By what you think say believe and do right?

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all of it and You know because faith

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True faith follows with Sanctification God doesn't doesn't just leave you in the mire of your sin.

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He takes you out of it He takes you out of your sin We are we are saved by the whole

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Christ. That's a very Wonderful phrase from the

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Puritans of old the whole Christ We get the whole package Christ gives us the whole package

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We don't receive just some of Christ's benefits, but all of them all of them and You know in the in the end of verse 6 we see that No one

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Wait Let me yeah verse 6 the end of it No one who sins has seen him or has come to know him and we understand

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That this is not referring to physical eyesight per se

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Because to see him means to truly know him It's to know him to understand who he is intellectually and to accept his doctrine as true

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To understand him to believe him doctrinally Intellectually by faith by the knowledge of him like 2nd

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Peter tells us in countless other Passages so This is

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Eternal life. This is the promise of eternal life to know him To know him that is eternal life

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That's straight from the mouth of our Savior Right, so It is to know him truly and It is to believe to understand and accept the words the doctrine of spirit and life

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Of our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by faith alone alone sola fide now

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Turn with well, okay so That being said what shall we say then are we then to continue in sin?

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To live in sin so that grace may abound that grace may increase

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No, no, no May it never be

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Why? Why? How shall we who died to sin still live in it right

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Romans 6 Romans 6 verses 1 through 2 The same thing that the

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Apostle John is telling us Don't you if you do sin, you don't know him.

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You don't you haven't seen him Because how shall we who died to sin who were buried to sin with Christ in our baptism?

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Live continue to live in it. So Yeah, so yes, these these are serious warnings, but notice too

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They are indications They are indicators they are indicatives of the two kinds of people right

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And this passage very simply describes the matter -of -fact nature and reality of those of us who have been saved by God Born of God like 1st

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John says and those who are not Those who belong to the devil like verse 8 says it's very matter -of -factly stated

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If you belong to God these things will follow If you don't belong to God these things will follow

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If you're an unbeliever you will sin you will sin sinners sin

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Surprise surprise right sinner sin and will continue in sin without repentance without godly

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Repentance sorrow and repentance Saving repentance Believers will not

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Believers will not continue in sin Because we have God's means and spirit and truth

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Abiding in us. We won't do it And that's not to say well, you know, well that's on you you better not

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You know fall into some sin because you're you're done after that, right? that's what the early church kind of taught that if you send after your baptism you uh

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You were you were lost you had no chance So many people would wait till their deathbed to get baptized.

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It's like that's not what baptism is for Baptism signifies to us that we are dead to sin

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Because God's Spirit is dwelling in us and because of God's meets God's Spirit and means of grace

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We now no longer continue in sin Amen We do not do sin any longer in a practice as a practice continual practice

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So This is why it is so important it is so critically important and Necessary for us to grasp the big picture

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The big picture the whole counsel of God Like I've been saying over and over The analogies of Scripture and of faith we need to grasp the whole counsel of God you cannot take one verse like verse 6 which many do they and they twist it up and And cause people to despair because well if you if you continue in sin

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If you sin, you're you're lost No, that's not what this verse means

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We have to harmonize Scripture with the whole counsel of God all of Scripture God is not the author of confusion

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Right, but of truth of peace love and self -control Amen now and and not only that but In light of this verse, there are several other doctrines that are actually prerequisite for understanding this verse properly we need a proper understanding of salvation in general of regeneration of the flesh of Sanctification of all of these things because if we don't understand how

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God works providentially in all of these stages in our life in our walk

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We're not gonna Grasp what this verse is telling us Because You know,

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I mentioned before This is a very important truth that even though the gospel deals with and resolves our sin problem in a complete final sense an ultimate

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Eschatological sense it is finished on the cross sense

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Right once and for all since We nevertheless have to understand

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That in a not yet sense Not quite yet finished sense

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We still wage war against sin in our life

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Daily daily every day We can't let up a single day

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It is a daily Struggle so it's probably fitting to ask is

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This what your life looks like Do you?

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Daily struggle and war against sin Do you recognize sin in your life?

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Your sin and do you war against it because that's what? again the pattern of those who belong to God they will wrestle and war and kill sin in their life

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Romans 7 Galatians 5, you know, and I encourage you all to go back to the sermons that I preached on Romans 6 through 8 on the flesh because That's what the

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Bible repeatedly tells us and is and is so prevalent Because that's a very

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It's a it's a daily issue that we all face in our life Because we still sin even after we are saved by God Yeah, you know contrary to you know

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Roman Catholic belief Mary was a sinner She wasn't born sinless, that's that's that's a heresy

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No one is righteous not even one That's a denial of God's Word There's only one righteous

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Jesus Christ the righteous, right? Mary can't call herself the righteous in that sense

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Now by God's grace, we are all reckoned righteous. We are declared righteous, but because of Christ's righteousness that was declared

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Ours on our behalf by faith not by anything that we did Amen, so they again this is

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God this is Christianity Bible 101 we have to understand these most basic truths of Scripture even though verse 6 says no one who abides in him sins no one who sins has

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Seen him or has come to known know him but now as believers

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There is a massive life altering difference With sin in our life, there's a there's a there's a complete change in trajectory

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With respect to sin in our life Not just a righteousness but to sin the difference is that our entire

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Relationship our entire relationship to sin has completely changed totally changed in Every respect

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Because sin no longer has dominion over us The dominion of sin has been broken by virtue of the cross and the blood of Christ applied to our ourselves

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Sin no longer rules over us. Therefore we can break sin and the power of sin in our life because Christ has broken it for us already and The Spirit lives in us so to say that oh, well

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We can't you know, it's never gonna get better That's a denial of God's power

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Are you are you stronger than God to the point where he can't make you holier than you already are?

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That's a that's denying God's power. So we

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We have to get this we have to understand that we no longer now we strive to not sin

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To sin not to not do sin right when we and when we do sin we repent

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Right we repent We mortify we put it to death we crucify it

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We wrestle against it We take hold of the means that God has given us of deliverance from sin

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Fasting fleshed in all of these things that we do that we must do to Crucify sin in our life like Paul says

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I die Daily, not every now and then Not every few weeks every single day

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The Apostle understands that The flesh is an ever -present reality and problem for us

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But that reality doesn't define us any longer Because we are now

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Saints and no longer just sinners. We are saints now

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Regenerated and recreated in the image of his son Amen even though We cannot deny that true believers may still fall into serious sins

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Grievous sins As scripture teaches us in our 1689

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Baptist Confession summarizes for us How well through the temptations of Satan and the world

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Falling to them falling prey to them or the power of the corruption

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Remaining in them remaining in us our flesh right and the neglect of the means for their preservation our preservation and Deliverance remember the means of deliverance the successes that I preached on before and They Meaning true believers may continue in them for a time even for a time

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But be careful be careful with that In this they incur

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God's displeasure Grieve his Holy Spirit have their graces and comforts impaired

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Have their hearts hardened and their consciences wounded and hurt and offend others and bring present chastisement discipline upon themselves yet nevertheless

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They will in time Renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end

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Amen That's an awesome passage from Chapter 17 of the

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Baptist Confession our confession. I encourage you all to study that Because that is you know, look at King David You can't really say that King David wasn't a believer when he committed adultery with Bathsheba He needed but he needed a

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Nathan to confront him and yet that's how you can measure. That's how you can tell his spiritual condition because he

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Repented when Nathan confronted him That's a good sign.

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That's the the difference is not that we're gonna stop sinning even though yes, we will gradually continue to sin less and be more sensitive to sin and grow in holiness but We can still sin

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Let any man heed take heed lest he fall right lest he fall

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This is why once again we we need to balance we must balance all of these book and doctrines because there's a system of doctrinal checks and balances that the

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Word of God Reveals to us so that we don't fall into imbalances or extremes

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With when it comes to understanding and living out these doctrines these truths.

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We must understand this properly So That is the reality of We may even and we all know folks

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We all know folks that are in this there they are in this process right now they have not repented

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They may very well be believers, but they have not repented. They have sinned against us some of us or all of us and yet It can still be the case because we can be stubborn remember remember beloved what happened to Peter When he said

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I will never deny you and yet how many times did he deny him Three times thrice he denied

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His Lord and Savior by a little girl questioning him. We have to be careful

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The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak amen, so That is why

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I mean we must take hold of God's means now Not now let's continue in verse 7

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I'm probably not going to get to verse 8 I don't want to shortchange

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Verse 8 either because it's a very very important verse as well But verse 7 little children all of us believers

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Let no one deceive you let no one deceive you the one who does righteousness

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Who practices righteousness who lives? righteously is

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Righteous is Righteous not because not because we become righteous by our works but because Christ turned us from bad trees that once bore bad fruit and and dead fruit

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Into good trees That now bear good living fruit, right

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Christ makes us good just as he and Who might that he be who might that one?

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Be Who is righteous? It's none other than of course Jesus Christ Jesus Christ the righteous from the antecedent in verse 5

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Who was manifested in order to take away sins? Though the one who does sin is of the devil because the devil sins from the beginning the

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Son of God was Manifested for this for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil he was manifested to Take away sins and also to destroy the works of the devil himself now

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Okay a Very important question that we now need to ask

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What does doing righteousness look like what does that look like what is righteousness

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What is righteousness? You know, it's sad how you'll ask you can ask many

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Believers off the street and a lot of this is because churches are not teaching the deep things of God and they can't even define simple doctrines or Words in the

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Bible. What is righteousness? What is righteousness? but the answer

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Lies in the latter part of verse 7 It's right there just as he is righteous

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Christ the righteous so Okay If we want to understand righteousness, we need to understand who

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Jesus is and what he did right now I love this question from arrow arrow hoses catechism for boys and girls

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Question 35. What is righteousness? It is

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God's goodness God's goodness

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That that that's all righteousness boils down to in plain children's

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Language, it is God's goodness Righteousness in other words comes from where it comes from God God it comes from God himself

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Because God's righteousness alone is righteous God's righteousness alone is righteous.

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Any other righteousness is false is deceived righteousness It's a it's a self -deceived righteousness

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There is no other righteousness apart from the righteousness of God The righteousness of God That Luther uncovered we received by faith alone and erupted

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Opened the floodgates to the gospel and the reformation that turned the world upside down It's this

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Precious truth And incidentally

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That's obviously why we cannot save ourselves because we need his righteousness

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Now I've got a question for the kids You ready?

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What did Christ undertake in the new covenant of grace? and Amen Amen That is the gospel

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That is the gospel What Christ undertook in the new covenant of grace?

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Was to keep the whole law for his people And to suffer the punishment due to their sins

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It's because of his righteousness Applied to us now

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So then we must look where look unto

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Jesus And his word in order to know what righteousness is and does

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To the author and finisher perfecter of our faith Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross

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Despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God thereby revealing his deity his authority

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And the completion of his perfect flawless life death and work of righteous redemption

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Righteous redemption hebrews 12 verse 2 Amen now

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Okay. Okay. This is good. This is really good stuff Really good stuff here.

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Okay. Now if we could summarize doing righteousness In one word just one word

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What would that word be If we could summarize Doing righteousness and righteousness in one word.

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What would it be? Okay Time's up now

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If if it's in a if it's in a person Then you can say obviously it is him

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Amen Capital h. I am Him jesus christ

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The righteous it's jesus That is righteousness summed up perfect righteousness

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But if you summarize it in a word in a concept

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A specific concept. What would that be? That concept would be none other than love

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Love is true love Rightly defined and applied is righteousness

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Right because Love and righteousness go hand in hand.

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They're like blood brothers They go hand in hand Two sides of the same coin

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And if you turn with me to romans chapter 13 verse 8 We will see that It is this very law of love

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That summarizes righteousness romans 13 verse 8 romans 13 verse 8 god's word says

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O nothing to anyone except to love one another For he who loves his neighbor

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Has fulfilled the law of god Has fulfilled it the whole law

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And thus by by by uh by presupposition By presupposition loves god because it is god's law that we're talking about here.

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It's his law For this You shall not commit adultery

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You shall not murder. You shall not steal you shall not covet And if there is any other commandment any other

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It is summed up in this word in this Word you shall love your neighbor as yourself

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Love does not work evil against the neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law

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Love is the fulfillment of the law Fascinating it is fascinating how god's law

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Look look at the the amazing fullness of god's law here How holy how holy just righteous and good it is because Biblical love

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Is a summary and fulfillment of the law of god Which defines and determines?

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Not just what sin is It defines what sin is for us, but it also defines what righteousness is and does

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It's both so This brings me to a very important public service announcement

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If you do not know and accept god's law

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You don't know what righteousness or love is Right, if you don't know and accept god's law, then you don't know

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What love or righteousness is you don't know? You reject it

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Because love is fulfillment of god's law and so is righteousness

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It is perfection according to his law We that's why

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That that's why it almost the entire tradition in the reformed faith just about every catechism

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And confession has a very important section on the law of god And the catechism just about every catechism has a breakdown of every single one of the ten commandments

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Because the ten commandments are a summary of the law of god Further summarized by the two great commandments, right

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Which we will deal with shortly but that is You know, you have movements today more modern movements like even some new covenant theology

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Movements where they say like well, no, no this righteous, you know It's not because christ satisfied some law that we are righteous or it's not that we have to follow

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The law of moses or the ten commandments You know, we follow christ Not the law.

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It's like what are you saying? What are you saying? That's confusion

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That's confusion and we will see i'm gonna i'm gonna wait i'm gonna wait for it. I'm not gonna get ahead of myself so Both righteousness and love

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Cannot be divorced Either from god's law or from obedience to it

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Okay Both righteousness and love Cannot be divorced either from god's law or from obedience to it love and righteousness

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Is obedience to god's law Because he who has my commandments

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Accepts them in other words Receives them by faith christ's commandments

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And keeps them is the one who loves me And he who loves me will be loved by my father

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And I will love him and will disclose myself reveal myself to him

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If anyone Loves me he will keep my word

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And my father will love him and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him

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Abide in him like first john has been telling us He who does not love me does not keep my words my commands my law

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And the word which you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me john 14

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And john 15 and first john and everywhere else Throughout all throughout scripture

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It's black and white This is an inescapable this is not like a confusing or a

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Hard to understand doctrine. It's very plain right if you

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If you claim to love god, you will follow him and obey him even when we sin

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Because when we sin we are commanded to repent and put it to death. Amen It's not that we don't sin anymore.

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Remember that But You know, this reminds me of another incident you might say when

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I was uh When when you know some some years ago When we were evangelizing downtown

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And I was I was uh doing some open -air preaching And I noticed that there were some ladies some older women that were kind of like mocking and Kind of mocking and scoffing and making fun of like almost like giggling little girls uh

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What we were doing they were mocking what we were doing and so I was like, okay.

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Well, let's see what what this is all about. So I went up to them um and you can you can uh assess for yourself if that was a mistake or not, but I went up to them

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And struck up a conversation and say hey, you know, would you all like to uh know more about you know, god's god's uh mercy and forgiveness and stuff and um, and so they uh

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They they were they immediately proceeded to rebuke me and say why are you preaching the law?

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Uh We we're no longer under law, but under grace why do you keep preaching the law like that?

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We're not under the law It's all about god's grace and love and you know

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Eventually they they revealed they disclosed to us that they were from abundant living faith surprise surprise right and It's another shame but These older women who appear to have been attending church there for a number of years

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They don't they didn't understand this the most fun the simple relationship

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Of law and love that that law love and righteousness all have

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Right love and righteousness and the law of god All go hand in hand they all hold hands in an indestructible link and so That is sad because a lot of people think that way well, we're not under law anymore

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We're under grace now And it's like you don't understand. They don't understand what that means What that actually means is that we're no longer condemned by the law

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The now the law no longer condemns us Because christ was condemned on our behalf and therefore we now live in Gratitude toward god in obedience and conformity to his law

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The same law that we were delivered from the penalty from From we now live in accordance with What else are you supposed to live according to?

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And I and I was trying to ask them. Okay. What are you saying? Are you saying?

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So if I were to say I love you and I stole from you does that mean that I actually love you?

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And they said well, no Okay If I if I claim to love you

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Would I kill you? Would I murder you no Okay, if I Truly loved you would

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I bear false witness against you? No, you get where this is going, right? Like it's just so obvious and plain and people get so twisted up Because of these false

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Antichrist these false teachers And they're a dime a dozen they're a dime a dozen they're everywhere

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All over the tv that that's the norm it's the norm sadly but again

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The greatest commandment The greatest most perfect righteousness is in one word to love

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Love god and neighbor That is righteousness perfectly summarized and furthermore

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In the words of our lord and savior in the gospel of matthew 20 chapter 22 if you turn with me there we will uh start to uh

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Wrap up with that Awesome Awesome, uh instruction from our lord the gospel of matthew chapter 22 verse 36

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Where our lord says i'm sorry not uh somebody uh another another uh

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I think it was a pharisee that asked him teacher What is the great commandment in the law?

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And he jesus said to him You shall love the lord

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Your god with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind

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This is the great and foremost commandment foremost That's a powerful word foremost and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself

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Now This is for all the people that think that you can divorce love from the law

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Or from our duty as christians Even after we are saved on these two commandments hang

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The whole law and the prophets all of it the entire law

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All 613 commands from the old testament the old covenant of moses hang on those two words

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Those two words those two commands Love god with all your might and love your neighbor as yourself

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The whole law so obviously there is no there's no disparity in in the law of god and In the new covenant as well the law that we follow now.

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It's the same law It's the same law What in the reformed faith is called the moral law because it never changes.

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It doesn't change. It's always binding no matter what And this law

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Is the foundation for all? covenants All of them and it's the law that we are guilty of breaking in the first covenant that god made with adam

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The moral law Summarized in the 10 in the 10 commandments and in the two great commandments

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Right, that's that's the simple reality now, of course We don't there are covenantal differences in the most the mosaic covenant is obsolete it's done away with now

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We don't have to follow all of the jewish Ordinances and you know rituals and temple practices and all that stuff but the moral equity of the law

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The moral principles behind the law are still binding because it's the same law It's the same law that undergirds all of it

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Love your neighbor. That's from leviticus the book of leviticus Love god uh, deuteronomy 6 4

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Love the lord your god The lord is one the lord who has won Galatians 5 14 for the whole law is fulfilled in one word one word

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One command in this you shall love your neighbor as yourself so if You are fulfilling the royal law of love according to scripture to the scripture

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You are doing well You are doing well james 2 8

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Right bear in mind, however So bear this in mind now love and righteousness are all encompassing all encompassing

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What do I mean by that? Like righteousness Love is not a mere emotion.

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In fact, love is not an emotion That's another That's another twisted, you know perversion of love

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Especially in our modern day and age and even in the modern church in pietistic churches where they emphasize emotionalism and experiences over um truth and sound doctrine

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It's not an emotion, although emotions may follow love true love

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Or even false love But love is not merely action either

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Love is action Love is obedience. Remember? Love is obedience to god and his word but It's not merely an action or doing

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It is also thinking believing and speaking

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It's all encompassing Because you must love god with all your heart all your soul

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All your mind and all your strength Those are all summary that's all restating the same thing

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We love god with all our minds with all our inner man and all our outer man in every thought word indeed

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Thinking believing and speaking what? What exactly? amen the fourth member of this quad

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This quadrinity so to speak is the truth It's the truth

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Is is there is there any wonder? Why jesus said

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I am the way the truth in the life righteousness love law and now truth

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It's all one in the same For doth not love rejoice with the truth

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First corinthians 13 6 right the famous the love chapter You cannot love truly apart from the truth

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You may have some false love of idols or a false religion or whatever

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But that's not true love because it's not in accordance with god's truth and word so um

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Yeah, that's that's really What what all of this really boils down to and on that note

01:00:07

You might have noticed how in just about every sermon that i've preached now Everyone I'm always trying to connect the scriptural and doctrinal dots

01:00:21

We this is what is the most important thing for us to know Always referring to the analogies of scripture and of faith of knowing

01:00:30

Comparing scripture with scripture the whole counsel of god and the doctrines that scripture teaches us and Putting that together into the system of doctrine

01:00:41

That god requires this is what god requires of all of us. Not just pastors. Not just teachers, but all of us to know

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And is what is revealed to us in the scriptures the whole counsel of god The faith once for all delivered to the saints

01:01:00

Which is the system of doctrine that the bible teaches in order to attain spiritual growth and maturity and love

01:01:11

True love All these past few sermons, especially are perfect examples of this how the word of god even in these verses

01:01:21

Has taken us from a justification to adoption To god's love to sanctification to sin

01:01:31

To the law to righteousness to truth and how

01:01:37

All of it connects and relates All of these are related These are all these subjects are all related

01:01:46

They're all related Together like a web. It's like a doctrinal web We need that web in our minds

01:01:55

We need to have the mind that's what it means to have the mind of christ We need to have this doctrinal web and that is why we hold dearly to these confessions historic confessions because they so brilliantly

01:02:08

Beautifully summarize what the word of god teaches in its most important doctrines beloved.

01:02:14

So We need to know these things And with that said beloved let us go ahead and bow our heads with the word of prayer

01:02:28

Our precious heavenly father we thank you so much lord for Your amazing grace and truth.

01:02:35

Thank you so much for your word father god that reveals to us Everything that we need for life and godliness lord for practicing and doing righteousness and abstaining from evil and sin

01:02:47

Thank you so much lord. We ask that you help us and to encourage us To encourage us by your spirit and your means as we also partake in the lord's supper today to encourage us us in your spirit to By your spirit to approach your bold boldly your throne of grace and to be renewed

01:03:11

Confidently knowing that you are More powerful than any and all our sin lord and and our flesh

01:03:18

And any other obstacle obstacle that may get in our way Tribulation persecutions toil snares, whatever they may be lord.

01:03:26

None of them can overcome your love for us your great love by which

01:03:34

You sent your only begotten son To die on the cross for our sins to fulfill the whole law for your people and to Take away

01:03:47

All our sins father to suffer the punishment due to all our sins We thank you for these precious truths lord, and we ask these things in jesus almighty precious name.

01:03:57

Amen Thank you for listening to the sermons of thorn crown covenant baptist church where the bible alone and the bible in its entirety

01:04:11

Has applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical reformed historic confessional

01:04:17

Loving discerning christians who evangelize Stand firm in and earnestly contend for the christian faith

01:04:23

If you're looking for a church in the el paso texas area or for more information about our church Sermons and ministries such as semper reformanda radio and thorn crown network podcasts, please contact us at thorn crown ministries .com