Rom 8|2 - The Truth of Our Righteous Walk, Pt. 2 (12/29/2019)

Park Meadows Church

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Thank you to for bringing us the music today. That was that last one was a Interesting song choice because it's a has a lot to do with sermon today.

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So good job. Holy Spirit Good job listening

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To him whoever picked that one, but that's great. I had the opportunity over Christmas one of my best gifts that I was given by my five grown children was that they went back and found five or ten

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Videos, I'm talking about the tape the kind of videos of them them when they were children and then all the way up through Matt and Ben when they were kids and they had it turned into digital and then bought a new

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Apple TV I had an Apple TV, but not a new one because the new one will actually play those on my

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TV set So now I can watch the old videos. So we sat and watched quite a few of our family when they were these guys were little and So it's really amazing watching them when they're little because so many similarities to the grandbabies now that are about that But one of the things that was that happened was there was an old sermon in there a video of me preaching

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Mother's Day right before brother Otis came when you say maybe a Few because Ed Kline was still here and some of them so it was and he ran some of them off.

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So So it was just before Brother Otis came might not have been long before So, when did when do you think when do you think he came

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You guys were pretty soon so 90s 90s 98

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So I was five years before they came Wow, that's frightening. Well, that makes a little bit of sense But I remember this a couple of things from watching myself preach.

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I had beautiful Dark hair Darker than Katie's about that same color though and Thin and I had this little cockiness to me that I didn't realize

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I had Which one could call pride? But I had it and I didn't know

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I had it, but I'm watching me and I'm going you needed some work And the first thing

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I said Paul was sitting next to me first thing I said when they turn that when we went to switch Something else.

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I said It's amazing to me. God didn't kill me Paul just busted out laughing he just laughed and laughed but I'm in it and So, let's see.

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So the other thing a Couple of things I was thinking about that one was the hair.

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It sure was nice to have hair and I Get another thing.

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I thought was what? You know, what does the Lord go through to create a preacher and then

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I think well What does the church go through to let him create a preacher? It was awful. This is a terrible sermon.

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All right, but then I pictured this When brother Otis first came my dad was still with us and he he was the most his life

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He was what you call a baby Christian He just didn't he had an interest in everything in the world except the

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Bible pretty much I mean he had vast interests and was good at a lot of things and knew a lot of things

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But for some reason the Bible wasn't one of them until brother Otis came We had prayed that God would bring somebody my dad would respect a man that he would respect because he didn't respect very many men

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Actually for whatever reason but brother Otis showed up and my dad started growing So for the last decade of his life

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He grew in the world and grew in the Lord, but he got the point where he loved to be the greeter so if you were new man, he would catch you coming in that door and Shake hands and be nice and find a perfect pew, you know

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So he put Otis right where Bill is right there and miss be right next to him right there And they stayed there for 13 years and the third

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Sunday they sat there They came and joined the church and about the fourth Sunday they brought you guys and y 'all pretty much a couple of more

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Sundays, but maybe join the church and then Bill and their whole family and then and then because of that I think

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Marianne Right in there at that same time and they were all disciples of brother Otis.

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So that's how we met and I Remember about the fourth

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Sunday after he it was after he joined He Came here because he got kicked out of the largest church in town because the people loved him more than the pastor and the pastor got jealous and From the church in an interesting way but a mutual friend of Otis and mine

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Told him you should go down to that little bitty church down there on country Club Road and check that out because you'll probably like That preacher it was a female

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Who had been here many times she was in the ministry and did puppet ministry all over the state

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But she loved coming here every year because she liked my preaching so she told Otis you might like his preaching so that's why they visited and they never left from the first time they visited but So we ended up getting the person who was the man who taught

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The largest church in town at that time was Northside. It may still be it's huge He was the man who taught all the

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Sunday school teachers how to teach and he ended up here and So for 13 years, he was with us and so many the rest of you ended up here, too with him and that was awesome and the church

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Since since that point has never had any dissension or any problems of disagreement of any kind And I always felt like brother

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Otis brought that Austere face that people were afraid because they knew he loved me So they did not mess with me while he was here.

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In fact one or two of them didn't they were gone within a week From this place and it turned out to be good probably and I still

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Love care for those people that left still friends with some of them some of them not so much but will be in heaven

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It's that kind of thing, you know But I'll never forget brother Otis about the fourth

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Sunday Charlotte and myself and he and miss B were the last four left or one had gone

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We're walking down that sidewalk. We already locked up the door and everything We're walking out and miss

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B. Miss Otis walking behind us and Otis got his arm up around me like this And we're walking like this down down the sidewalk.

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His face is like right there Okay, and I'm one of the few people that ever saw him smile I know some of the rest of you did a little bit

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Especially Kenner probably one of the only she and I she and I are the only two that saw that very often

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They've got to see it a few times Because he would let down at coffee sometimes not all the time though, but sometimes

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And you never wanted to be late to his class because you walk in late to his class he'd do this

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And then he'd do this As Soon as he could hear

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I guess by the time you got seated And then he'd just start teaching wouldn't say a word, but you knew what he meant, right?

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So it was great. But anyway, so he's got his arm around me his face is right here and he says

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Brother David and I had figured out who he was by that time, by the way The first day he was here on the way home.

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I told Charlotte said you remember that dude we heard about Maybe 15 years ago this old man It was teaching

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Bible studies and had four or five of them a week from with people from different cities and all different denominations coming

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I actually wanted to go meet him, but I procrastinate and everyone to meet him I said I bet it's him and I didn't know what just he just looked godly

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So I said I bet it's him sure enough. It was him. That's who it was. But Anyway, so I knew all that by this fourth

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Sunday. So here he's got me. We're walking down He says you're a good preacher he says you you understand the word

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And you understand God is sovereign But I want you to understand it better And he took his arm down and I just smiled said thank you brother

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Otis and he got in his car I got mine. I looked at Charlotte I said You don't know what he just said and I told her the whole story and I said he just doesn't know what

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I know So So when

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I watched that tape I figured out exactly what I knew when I met Otis, that's where I was I'm not playing it for the rest of you that they love me.

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All right, so I'm not playing it for the rest of you But I will tell you something brother

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Otis saw something. I didn't know he saw a little bit of pride He saw a little bit of lack of knowledge and he saw a great study someone he could mess with for 13 years

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And thank God for it But he messed with all of us and the rest of you too because a lot of stuff you hear me say it comes

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From things that we learned at coffee together. So now that he taught me so I Don't know that thing

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I got from that, you know And I looked at our little family and where we were at the time and how we got where we are

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One thing I learned you you will never him for the young people. You'll never As you get older, there's things you don't like like for example hair at this age is

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Kinky it's way more like body hair than head hair. That's all I'll say about that but it's like it's kinky and yucky and You like your knees don't always work great and stuff and a lot of that stuff, you know, you don't like it

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Okay, but you know, what is the truth? You will never wish you could go back Because you don't want to have to relearn the lessons you've learned again.

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You've already learned them You don't need to relearn them and you'd never want to go back now There's some days you would love to go back in and live

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He was running I wonder why I know but why was he running I guess everything's okay Oh, I bet someone may be trying to get in the front door or something.

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Yeah But anyway, yeah, you know you'll you'll wish you could go back live specific days

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With those little kids like you should have seen Katie in her little dress She looks so gorgeous

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But I'd love to go back and live a day but you wouldn't want to go back and have it like it was because Lord has taught us some things and And it's some of it through hard lessons, correct so Anyway, that's kind of the big highlight of my

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Christmas was that gift and it was really neat really super I don't know how many hours and hours it took for those guys to do that for me

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Turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 8 verse 3 and I don't know.

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It's like you Chris and nothing about Christmas to me is there's a lot of stuff. I mean it's

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You look at the world at large and you're happy that they I love John King's sermon about how even though Christmas is kind of We know he wasn't born in December 25th, that's like that's the winter solstice.

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That's when the pagans do all their stuff So why in the world do we have it and I never had anyone stand up and say well

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It's because God's sovereign and that's how he made it be and I thought whoa, okay I won't mess with that much anymore.

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That's true. I never thought about that. He God put it there for a reason It was no accident

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Didn't slip past God that it ended up being December 25th for Christmas did it I love so that idea that he made

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Great idea and what's so funny? I went home and Charlotte was reading Spurgeon to me like she always does every day almost and you want to hear what

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Spurgeon said About Christmas and guess what? He said this was like the night after John preached here that sermon she said she starts reading it to me

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He says, you know a lot of people in the world don't like Christmas because they think it's worldly And we know

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Jesus wasn't born, you know this time of year. He's born in October probably October 4th. No, he didn't say that But He said but he said but I'm glad God and his sovereignty

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Put a time for us to talk about Christmas and for our families to be able to be at home

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And spend time with their families and I wish they had more time I sounded just like his sermon, you know, and and then he mentioned how you know

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People in the whole world are talking about Jesus now and that's a good thing. It sounded just like John King's sermons

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I thought he must have cheated and got that from Spurgeon So I texted him and I said you ever read what Spurgeon said about Christmas and he kind of X's.

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No, I said well You should read it because it sounded like you Anyway, it was great.

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Well, we're off the sermon now of Christmas and we're back into verse by verse so let's look at chapter 8 verse 3 and And The whole discussion in verses 2 through 12 at least is trying to answer verse 1 and why it says what it says

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There's there for now. No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk

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Not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. All right now it begins to tell us why

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That premise is even true because I Think you may remember we had a message on verse 4 where the last phrase in verse 4 is

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Identical to the last phrase in verse 1 and some people say that's a mistake and an error in the Bible Duh, you you want to make a mistake?

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Let me tell you how to make it say there's a mistake in the Bible You just made a mistake when you said that because there won't be one, right?

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So but it was put there for a reason and we even use some mathematics if you remember math and logic allow you to say that if a is equal

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B then B is equal to C then that then the Conclusion is a is also equal to C. So what it turns out is verse 4 ends up Pretty much

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Having a whole lot of a lot more light on it I think if you understand that than if you didn't understand it So we'll get back to that verse 4 in a second

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But once we did all that we went back to verse 2 and came on down through and looked at the fact that in The following verses after verse 1 there are a whole lot of verses that begin with the word for For and it's like God is telling us.

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Here's why that's true. And here's the second reason why that's true And here's the third reason and here's the fourth reason and he's saying

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I really really want you to understand how true this is and what's interesting is as I looked at my

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Myself preaching Five years for brother. Oh this came and for a lot of you guys showed up here

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And I saw how terrible it was and I said and I realized the fact well I was in God's hand at that time too, and it made me think wonder how bad

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I am now You know, it's like when I look at myself Lord willing I live to be my mom's age and I'm 90 and I'm looking myself preach at 60 30 years earlier

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How bad will that look and it's you that are the guinea pigs now? Because it takes

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God a long time to build a preacher and and servant

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All of us to be who we're supposed to be it takes a long time So a lot of people have put up a lot of stuff to get us there

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But that's part of God's plan to it helps them doesn't it helps them growing in character to put up with us

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So He's telling us, you know when we when we really take a good look at ourselves like that.

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It's humbling It's very very humbling and and that's a very good thing because God says he sort of cradles those who are humble

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And he pushes away the prideful. So it's good to be in a humble position but You you can start asking yourself the question, you know, golly, you know why

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How bad am I really have you ever thought about that like how bad am I really You know, how why does

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God love me? Why did he love me when I used to preach like that? How could he love anyone who would preach it was legalistic if you want to know the bottom line on the sermon it was just Fundamental independent

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Baptist legalistic wasn't any scripture in it If you can believe that now you can at least I use scripture, right?

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I didn't hear one verse in it It was a Mother's Day sermon. So it was a topical which I don't like But anyway, why does he like why does he love us like we are and this whole passage in Romans?

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Chapter 8 verse 1 through 12 is all about that So it's it's good that God took me through that as he brings me back to where we were before the holidays here

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So look at verse 3 For what the law could not do you might as well say? for what being perfect For trying to be a perfect human couldn't accomplish

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In that it was weak through the flesh. All right, so God tells you right there. He made us this way on purpose

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He loves us but we're fleshly and So what the law couldn't do because we're fleshly

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God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh Which is what Sunday school is all about here the last few times

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Jesus being born into this world what all that was about So God sent his son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin and Through that he condemned sin in the flesh in other words in his physical body

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So God in his physical body, that's who Jesus was God with us, right

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God in his physical body First of all died for sin So he died in our place to settle the justice part the law part the to to propitiate a righteous

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God and Secondly, he condemned sin in the flesh. So in his body when he died he killed sin

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Now if you remember we ended the last sermon by telling you about a wonderful book that was written

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In the 1600s by a man named John Owen in the type back then they didn't know how to do brother

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Myron titles They were more like David Mitchell titles really long and then my staff has to shorten stuff up For me, but they didn't he didn't have staff.

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So here was the title the death of the death. I'm sorry start over It's hard to even read the death of death in the death of Christ Colon a treatise in which the whole controversy about universal redemption is fully discussed.

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That's the title So they have shortened they reprinted the book

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Back in 1959, I think and they shortened the title from his original title

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But think about this the death of death in the death of Christ. He was talking about verse 3

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Romans 8 verse 3 it was the death of death. It was the death of condemnation so so on the cross

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Jesus destroyed the very thing that would have destroyed us And he had to do that because the law was insufficient

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To do it because of our flesh not because of the law But because we are fleshly and we can't keep the law and so it would have only killed us

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So Jesus had to come in a human body God with us and He had to die in our place.

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That's what the Phrase here for sin. He came in sinful flesh for sin. He died for us in our place and Secondly, he had to destroy sin and death which he did so we we talked about that verse last time now the law of Walking in Christ has accomplished what the law of Moses could not

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It couldn't do it because of our flesh it was impossible for the law to deal with us in a saving fashion therefore

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God sent his son Jesus into the world as a man as the God -man because because of sin and as a substitute of sin for sin and To condemn sin in his physical body and Then last time we read

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Isaiah 53 4 through 6, which I won't do again But it's so beautiful where it talks about he died for us.

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He died for the sins of his people. It says it's interesting It doesn't say died for everyone in Isaiah 53 says he died for the sins of his people

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Which is exactly what Calvin taught and it was correct as it ends up All right, but then that brings us to verse 4

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Romans chapter 8 verse 4 that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit and we use the transitive law of logic in math and we take that together with verse 1 and we can we can

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Correctly say that verse 4 could also be said this way So look at verse 4 and I'm going to read it how you could say it if you apply the laws of logic

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And I'm applying it to the fact that verse 1 Has that same phrase who walked not after the flesh but after the spirit and in verse 1

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It says the person who does that is the person who is in Christ So that equals that a person who's in Christ equals the same person who walks not after the flesh

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But that's spirit. In other words, it's not a condition of salvation It is the result of it.

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It is something that always a conflict accompanies it It is the tail while being in Christ is the heads of the same coin

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It never can be apart. It's always together. It's not that one is the cause of the other.

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They both go together They just are it's just how it is. It's how God made it that when you're born again

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You you're placed into Christ by the Holy Spirit And once that is accomplished you are a person who walks not according to the flesh but after the spirit

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Does that mean you're perfect? No, it does not as we just discussed from my having examined myself over the

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Christmas holidays and found myself wanting Doesn't mean we're perfect It means we're in Christ And so therefore there's no condemnation and we will walk according to the spirit predominantly not according to the flesh

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Predominantly, that's exactly what it means. But all these verses through verse 12 prove that I'm right about that I mean,

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I I can be a little more cocky now because I'm at least using scripture Okay All right, so So I we could read verse 4 this way that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who are in Christ Because that's the same group who walked not according to flesh but according to spirit same.

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It's the same person So you can say it either way. It's equally true. That was the point of that little mathematical study.

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So Chapter 8 verse 1 says there's therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Imagine that that is such good news who walk not after the flesh

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But after the spirit because those who are in Christ are that person And in Romans 8 2 says 4 now notice it starts with the word for and then there are a lot of verses after that to Start with the word for so that tells me that God did a lot of explaining to explain why verse 1 is true

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Why is it true? That if you're in Christ you predominantly change your walk instead of walking according to flesh like you used to you change that walk to a walk of Spiritual walk where you care more about spiritual stuff than you do the carnal stuff and you think about spiritual stuff

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More and more and more and you think about the carnal stuff less and less and less Why is that true? Well for it starts a because remember for can mean because so Verse 2 says well because the law of the

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Spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the free from the law So one reason it works is because I don't

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I'm not having to live by the law anymore That's not my that's my focus is not on the law.

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My focus is on Christ I'm in Christ. My focus is holding his hand walking with him

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My focus is not I'm trying to be perfect anymore because that doesn't work So that's the first reason the second one is in verse 3 for What the law could not do

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His own son condemned sin in the flesh. So the second reason it works is because when Jesus died he destroyed

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The condemnation that comes to us by not being perfect. So the fact that we're not perfect is not the guiding

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Almost important thing. The most important thing is that Jesus died for us in our place and took the sin away

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That's what becomes important So the whole focus shifts away from keeping the law To being thankful to Jesus for what he did and that'll make you a better servant

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I mean a servant who serves out of love is a way better servant that serves because he's got to do it He's gonna get beaten that pictures the law, right?

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All right, you do it or you get beaten and when you do good Sometimes I'll throw you a bone right that you're not a happy camper there as you are

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If the person you serve is your dad and you're his son and he says I love you.

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So go serve me Right and I've given you everything I have so go serve me I've given you even my son.

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He died in your place. So go serve me and He's shown you how to walk. So walk with him and go serve me

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You'll be a lot happier better servant. God knows it and that's why we have a New Testament And we're no longer under the law

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To back that up I'd like to Go out and do some scripture and let some scripture shed light on this look at Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 for a moment

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Go ahead and turn there. Guess what? The Lord has shown me we need to do I think of course we'll let you vote but because I think you'll agree though.

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I Went to it We'll figure out a way but I went to visited a little church out in California, you know week before last

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And they had I think it was kind of right over here. They had four large screen

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TVs Next to each other and they had a Software that would turn that into one huge TV.

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So when they were singing they could put the words up there I want to get we don't need four in this little place, but Colin tells me they now make a huge like a huge one where you don't need to put four together

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Or get any size you want. I want to put one somewhere. Maybe maybe over there, which is I guess We have to put it over here because that's a baptistry.

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I Don't know how we do it in here without covering up a window. I know what we do We get rid of this

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And we put it right there and then we put a little smaller here

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Because I want to be able to put scripture up there Like I do when

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I do trade way stuff, you know, that's always just got the scripture and I'm just standing over there explaining it I like that better than this system.

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So Pray about that. I'd like our church to invest in something like that I think it'd be great.

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Plus we could put the words to the music up there. We could put pretty pictures Do a little rah -rah and build a big crowd

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Be awesome Okay, so Anyway, if you can look at this look at Galatians 5 1 on your phone or in your old -fashioned

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Bible or something Look what it says now This is you see this this I'm following up on verse 3 and verse 2 and verse 3 and where it says, you know

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What the law couldn't do? God sending his own son in a human body who died for us in our place condemned sin so that now

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Now we find ourselves in situation where we're still not perfect But we're not always holding ourselves up against the law in in reality.

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What we're doing is always looking In the eyes of Christ with love coming back at us and love going to him and walking that walk

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It's completely different. And so does scripture indicate that that perhaps that is correct that chapter 8 verse 1 of Romans That is what it means that when when

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John Calvin wrote what he wrote about Romans chapter 8 verse 1 and he said basically all this is talking about is the death of Christ on the cross that's basically what he said and Is that true we'll look at Galatians 5 1

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With regard to whether the law could have saved us or not stand fast Therefore in the

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Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. How did he make us free because when he died he condemned sin

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He killed it. He killed Satan. He destroyed Satan. I don't mean he doesn't exist, but he destroyed his power over God's people

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His ultimate power let's put it that way and he still has power when we allow it right, but we don't have to allow it

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So Satan say Jesus did this for sure. He destroyed Satan's sovereignty over us

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Which he had there's scripture that says before we were saved that Satan moved us about at his will

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Alright, so Jesus destroyed that sovereignty of Satan over us and then he destroyed death and he destroyed the very condemnation

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That the law brought us and so look at that God caused that standing fast in Liberty God set us free from all that he set us free from Satan set us free from the flesh from the world system from the law itself and He gives us this

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Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage

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That means don't go back to the law. Don't let any preacher or Jewish believer often They'll do it bring you in here and say well you really need to be worshipping on Saturday Why well because the law says that's the

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Sabbath well, but I'm not under law. Well, yeah, we're really Jesus died Yeah, but he just died so we'd be better at keeping the law now

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That's the angle they'll take the whole rest of your lives You'll hear that people will bring that to you It sounds like a logical good argument and if you're weak minded and weak in the word

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You'll follow and then you'll be a slave again You'll go right back and be entangled in the yoke of bondage again

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We're now it's all about living better than the next person and then you'll end up preaching like I did at that sermon So many years ago where I'm a legalist

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I'm better. I know this stuff about Blah blah blah better than you do. Yeah, well

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Not yet. Not really, right? So you don't want to go back to that verse to behold

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I Paul saying to you that if you be circumcised Christ will profit you nothing He who was his always want to ask when you study the

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Bible ask who's being spoken to? Who was his audience here at the Church of Galatia? Predominantly Gentiles, but there were all he always preached to the

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Jew first and then Gentile So there were some saved some saved Jews in the audience and maybe some

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Jews just out of curiosity who aren't saved yet in the audience and some lost Gentiles So you had a mix of every kind of human there is you had lost sheep saved sheep and lost goats in the room

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And he's preaching this sermon or writing this letter to this church filled with these kinds of people and he says if You be circumcised

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Christ profits you nothing now, I believe he's telling the

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Galatian people to When they get up and preach preach like me say this say this stuff.

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Well, we now know this was inspired scripture So yeah, they're supposed to be saying this stuff and what they're supposed to be saying is that if you think

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If you're gonna tell me, okay, I believe in Jesus But you also need to circumcise the male children at the only eighth day

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Because Moses said to do that if you're gonna be a good Christian you need to do that He said well if you're gonna teach that and you're gonna teach that you have to add that to his death

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You have to add that any one thing to his blood then His blood profits you nothing which means you're going to hell because you're not gonna keep the law perfect That's what it means.

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You're going to hell if you add Something to the blood of Jesus, that's why we love to remind people around the country

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It's the blood of Jesus plus nothing and I didn't make that up the Reformers did You know, they made that up and it was beautiful.

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They used to say it everywhere. They went It's the blood of Jesus plus nothing because the Pope didn't agree with that.

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Did he? but Jesus did Behold I Paul saying to you that if you think you've got to be circumcised to be saved then

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Christ profits you nothing for I Testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law

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In other words if he got circumcised to be saved to please God now He's got to keep all the rest of the law to Imperfection or he's not gonna make it

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Christ is become of no effect to you if you believe that Whosoever of you are justified by the law.

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You're actually the ones that are fallen from grace You can't be saved And that's something so Obviously Romans chapter 8 verse 1 does not mean that the second phrase is a condition in other words

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Those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit those are the ones who you know

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Be saved and not be condemned. That's not what it means because that wouldn't agree with this. This is now

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It's the other way around this says in Galatians 5 1 3 4 it says no, it's the in Christ part.

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That's important Right the in Christ part is what saves you not the second part

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In fact, the second part has been done away with if you think you get there by keeping rules, right?

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Now look at verse 5 for we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

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In other words, it's not by works We wait for the hope. What is the hope hope is we get saved.

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We'll be in heaven together that hope we wait for that Hope by faith that God has told us we are saved and therefore we just believing we don't have proof of it

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We kind of have kind of have a little bit though because if you know that you're in dwelt by the Spirit There's the earnest of your salvation

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So you have the down payments there, right the down payments already there but we have this hope that we will be saved because what

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Jesus did for us and It's By the righteousness of faith in other words

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We believe that what God tells us is true verse 6 says for in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision in other words works living by law all this stuff that doesn't avail anything

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Nor does not doing it avail anything It doesn't matter if you do it or don't do it as far as salvation goes and here's what does matter faith which works by love

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Wasn't that what we've been talking about? I mean the thing that makes the better servant It's not keeping a bunch of rules and you're gonna get whooped if you don't it's like the one you're serving is your dad

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And he loves you and it's already given you everything and then he just says I love you So go let's do this together.

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So you do it because of what he's done for you. That's the way it works Galatian bears it out and helps us to understand we have interpreted

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Romans chapter 8 verse 1 correctly Look at verse 8 there in chapter 5 This persuasion and now this is

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I love this Okay, so Verse 6 says for in Christ neither if you're in Christ and that's the first phrase in Romans chapter 8 verse 1 those who are in Christ there's no condemnation, right?

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So it's the same phrase those people who are in Christ to them Keeping the law it neither helps nor doesn't help circumcision availeth

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Neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. It doesn't matter if you do it or you don't do it doesn't help

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It's not helping your salvation. You see very very clear It's being in Christ for in Christ, then that stuff doesn't help.

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So the in Christ is the main thing It's faith that works in us by the love of God working in us.

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That's what matters now Look at verse 8 this persuasion what persuasion the one that you've got to worship on Saturday Oh, but you've got to follow the laws of Moses and get circumcised.

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Oh, you got to keep the law Yeah, keep the two commandments. You got to do this. You got to do that. You got a dress, right? You got to eat, right? You got

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I can't do that. You can't do this. You got to be better than me I got to be better than you all of that stuff this persuasion cometh not of him that called us

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Who who called us? So who did come from then if it didn't come from him? Satan right

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This persuasion this idea of following rules did not come from him who called us

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So it did not come from Jesus. It came from Satan and Then verse 9 says a little leaven leavens the whole lump

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If you let a little bit of legalism slip into your church You're gonna it will permeate the whole church in another two or three four years

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You can't let it in now drop down to verse 13 For Brethren, you have been called unto

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Liberty Now you're I swear you're gonna read books you're in there And especially if they're written by Jewish believers and as brilliant as they are

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They're gonna make you feel like you need to keep the law And they'll even say things will

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Jesus died So you can keep the law or and I've preached said this in my sermons because I heard an old cool preacher say it

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It wasn't even in the Bible, you know, I don't say it anymore He said oh Well, where it doesn't mean you're free to live like you want to it means you're free to serve

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God or free to keep the law It does that's not what it means. If you read the context, it just means you're free.

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It doesn't say What it's just talking about total freedom of life To live your life in Christ and know that God is pleased with your life and that also the fact that you're in Christ is going to call you down that road away from Fleshliness and more towards spirituality.

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That's what it's all about. And that's what why God did it and that's what happens But brethren you have been called into Liberty only use not

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Liberty for an occasion to the flesh Now see there's where we get criticized those who believe like I do about this

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It's all grace and I mean go live like you want to then you can live a carnal fleshly life

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But the Lord the same Lord who said that we're called to live a life of Liberty turns around and says don't use that Freedom as an occasion for the flesh now think about that Translate that into practicality

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Don't tell me for a minute that the devil doesn't understand what we believe in this church right here

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We we're pretty good. We pretty well got it down. It ain't law, you know, it's the walk with Jesus I'm free.

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If I want to smoke a cigar, I'll smoke one But what did Paul say about it, but I won't let any of it become a master over me

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But then if I think that the surgeon general is correct and says that that will give me throat cancer

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Then I won't smoke one, you know, why because the Lord says this body's not mine It belongs to the Lord and I need to take care of it.

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So now I'm in a mode where no I won't smoke one Right But what called me what brought me to that conclusion?

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Was it because someone told me you what if you're Christian, you're not supposed to smoke No, because I'm free.

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I All Paul said all things are lawful to me and people will try to mess with that and say that's not what he meant

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It is exactly what he said But then he said but think all things are not expedient It's not expedient to get throat cancer

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Is it if you're a preacher and you need your voice to preach to people and get throat cancer and then you die

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That's not expedient. So why would I do it logic would tell me stop doing that? It's not that I can't do it

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I just it's not good for me to do that And who told me that the

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Lord said David you don't need to drink beer anymore And you don't need to smoke anymore, and I haven't done it since all right

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So other he said you can still eat too much for a while, but I'm gonna work on that, too That's kind of how that went, you know,

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I'll let you do that a while, but you but I am gonna work on that, too so When you start looking at the this legalism stuff the

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Bible makes it so so clear Yes, it's true that we're free, but it's also true.

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We should true that We shouldn't use that Liberty as an occasion to the flesh So I warn our church not so much other churches because most churches are too legalistic

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Anyway, ours is all is so free that where Satan would come at us would be well

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You can cut you can do that if you want to Just do it you can do that. I mean all things are lawful you can do that just do it

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Right, so be careful with that too because what if it's true that you could do it But what if the Holy Spirit didn't want you to do it?

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well, don't you think you would feel a little tinge of like I Know I'm not supposed to do this.

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Don't you think you would feel that so live with that? Live that way You know treat you like a kid right like I'm not gonna give you a list of music not to listen to I'm gonna say

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Just ask the Holy Spirit. Do you want to listen to this with me? That works for all these other adult grown -up sins to like Holy Spirit.

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Do you want me to do this right now? Think about this listen to this go there do this and if he says no shut it, right?

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That's all this whole passage is talking about this For all the laws fulfilled in one word even this thou shalt love your neighbor as yourself

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Let me ask you a question gentlemen. If you love your brothers in this room, could you commit adultery with his wife?

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You could not do it no matter how attractive she was Even if she was inappropriately drawn toward you you still couldn't do it because your love for the her husband who's your brother, right?

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So tell me this isn't true all the laws fulfilled in one word Love your brother as yourself and you'll keep the law

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So so this whole new arrangement is not about the law We take our focus off of the rules and we look at the love that God's put in our hearts for him and for our brothers and sisters and and It drives the whole thing and it proves that the proper interpretation of Romans 8 1 and following is is right down these same lines

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It's all about being in Christ Verse 16 this I say then walk in the

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Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Doesn't that sound like it came right out of Romans chapter 8, but this is

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Galatians chapter 5 It just matches it and that's why we say that there's no standalone truths

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The Word of God will shed light on the rest of the Word of God. It'll make things make perfect sense

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So Galatians 5 16 helps us know exactly what Romans 8 1 and following mean

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It means that We are going to walk after the

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Spirit if we're in Christ We're not gonna be perfect at it But we're gonna predominantly move that direction not towards the flesh because look at verse 16

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Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So You know, you can't do both at the same time.

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So Focus on following Jesus verse 18 says but if you be led by the

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Spirit, you're not under the law You see I mean, it's clear, isn't it if you're led by the

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Spirit, but you don't need to mess with the law Don't worry about it. You're not under the law. Don't let these people come Oh, well, that's just so you can keep the law better.

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That's not what this says. This says I'm not under the law Oh, well, but but Jesus came so that you could

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Fulfill the law. Well actually says he fulfilled it, but they'll say not what he did that so you can fulfill it

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It doesn't say that it says you're not under it You see so always keep the scripture clear in your mind when people start talking about stuff that rings a weird

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Bell It probably is a weird Bell Galatians 525 says if we live in the

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Spirit Let us also walk in the Spirit now look doesn't that tie in with Romans 8 1? If you're in Christ Then you're the person who walks not after the flesh but after the

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Spirit and this one says if you live in the Spirit Which we do if we live in the

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Spirit let us therefore walk in the Spirit now I'm going to switch you over to Galatians chapter 2 look at this one verse 16

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One of the greatest verses and if it's not then verse 20 there in Galatians chapter 2

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Maybe one of the greatest all -time verses in all the Holy Scripture It's the one we're on is always the greatest one right look at this though to 16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law

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We're not saved by doing anything that has anything to do with the law But rather by the faith of Jesus Christ not in Jesus Christ But by the faith of Christ that the

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Holy Spirit put in us. He gave us that as a gift He gave us Jesus's faith That is what justifies us

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The fact that we have the faith of Christ is what justifies us not the works of the law

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Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the worst the law shall no human being

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Ever be justified now the jot down to verse 20 It shows the mechanism for how we work and it fits perfectly with what

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Romans 8 1 is saying I am crucified with Christ why because when I got saved the

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Holy Spirit Connected me and attached me to Jesus and he's outside of time. So that means I've been I've been with Jesus all times

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I was with Christ before Foundation of the world. I was his I belonged to him before the foundation of the world

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And so when Jesus was dying on the cross, I was in him. So I was crucified with Christ Nevertheless, I'm not dead

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You think crucifixion kills you right? I was crucifying Christ, but nevertheless, I'm not dead.

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I Live yet. Not I in other words not the old fleshly person that was born of my human parents that one doesn't live in fact that one was crucified, but Christ lives in me and The life that I now live the real me is this new life.

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I live in this body I live by the faith of the

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Son of God Who loves me and gave himself for me, isn't that what

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Romans 8 talks about? One of the fours how come this works because he gave his son who came in the flesh

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And he died and he died for me and he condemned sin That's why that's the four.

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That's the because So, let me read again. I am crucified with Christ never though yet Nevertheless, I live yet not

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I but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in this body I live by the faith of the

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Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Don't go too far down as far as getting down on how bad you really are

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You you need to look at that from time to time But you don't want to stay there because you can't serve him in that mode.

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You can't serve as a rejected dejected Down in the mouth

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Christian you you've got to look back at this Look, he loved me while I was yet in my sins.

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He died for me while I was yet in my sins He loves me now while I'm still in a sinful body

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He put me in this body on purpose to reveal himself in my life.

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Isn't that something? It's the whole purpose But don't let that thought cause you to say well

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Then I can go do that if I feel like it see see how he kind of covers all these things Where Satan can hit us from all these different sides.

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I do not frustrate the grace of God But if righteousness come by the law

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Then Christ died in vain So if any keeping of good stuff or not doing bad stuff can save you then

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Jesus died for nothing I don't think that's gonna happen, right? So that clears it makes it pretty clear

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So we got all the time in the world. Let's go back to Rome chapter 8 verse 5 now Notice it starts with the verse 4

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For they that are after the Spirit Think about the things of the

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Spirit. That's what the word mind that means there It means it's the

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Greek word from a oh, it means to exercise the mind They that are after the

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Spirit those who are saved They're after the Spirit think about the things of the Spirit Whereas when you were lost you never thought about anything but carnal worldly stuff and we see people all around us that that's where their thoughts

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Are even during Christmas, right? Think about that sad, but we were there in other words they that are about the

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Spirit think about the and are Interested in the things of the Spirit as opposed to the things of the flesh.

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Look at verse 6 for all of these things There's no condemnation of those who are in Christ those who walk not according to flesh

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But after spirit is a truth why because look at verse 6 for to be spiritually minded is life and peace so look at the

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Look at the logic the line of logic here number one if you're in Christ You begin to walk according to the

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Spirit not according to flesh and in verse 6 says you begin to think

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I'm sorry verse 5 says Romans 8 5 says you begin to think about the things of the

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Spirit more than you think about the carnal things So it changes how we think the

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Holy Spirit living in us changes How we think the Word of God changes how we think and we begin to think about spiritual things more than carnal stuff

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And in verse 6 says well that very spiritual mindedness Brings us to a life

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That's living rather than walking dead man. I'm now alive and I have peace in my life

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Romans 8 1 says there's therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ who walk not after the flesh

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But after the Spirit they are spiritually minded and it leads towards life and towards peace

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And all the rest happens as results They who are in Christ walk after the

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Spirit because of All these fours

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F O R that are found in the whole rest of this passage. We're out of time So we'll pick up on some more of these little fours as we come back next

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Sunday There's a lot of them and it all just shows how salvation By the blood of Jesus plus nothing is the only way it can work

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And tells you a whole bunch of reasons why all right, let's stand and have prayer together and Merry Christmas for the last time next time.

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We'll be talking about a happy new year, right? And We do have we brought food so we can have like a small fellowship today and get time too bad

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We don't have one big round table and I'll sit together Let's pray Lord. Thank you so much for your word and how refreshing it is far better than the things the world can provide and Thank you for how its spiritual meat for us and Lord use it in our lives to encourage us to get ready for the next year the coming years

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Totally sovereignly laid out exactly as it should be in each of our lives. There's no nothing left for chance

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It's perfectly laid out according to your perfect one and only beautiful plan and so help us to receive it as that and Lord to be blessed by it and by your presence throughout the year and Bless our children and raise them up to understand these things so they start out far ahead of we where we did and bless the meal

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We're about to have and those who can't be with us because of illness, please strengthen them today and we ask it in Jesus name

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Amen, we'll see you in a few minutes Hey anybody got anything anything you'd just like to say about over the holidays that you saw or that some effect the

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Lord had on you or something you went through or We got a minute anybody.

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Yeah, I'm not you don't have to say anything But like if there is anything I don't want to just hog the pulpit I Don't think about it.

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You might want to do that at New Year's share some things. All right. We'll see you in a minute