Romans 7:21-25

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7. So I will start by reading back through chapter 7 once I find it.
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Here we go. Starting verse 1.
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Do you not know, brothers, for I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law has authority over a man as long as he lives?
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For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives.
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But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.
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But if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress, even if she marries another man.
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Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
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For when we lived according to the flesh, sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
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But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the
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Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. What then shall we say?
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Is the law sin? Certainly not. Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law.
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For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, Do not covet.
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But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.
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For apart from the law, sin is dead. Once I was alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life, and I died.
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So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.
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For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
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So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
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Did that which is good then become death to me? Certainly not. But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
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We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.
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I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do
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I do not do, but what I hate to do I do.
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And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good.
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In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
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I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh.
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For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
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For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep doing the evil
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I do not want to do. And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer
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I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find it to be a law that when
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I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
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Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our
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Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh
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I serve the law of sin. My apologies, I don't know what translation
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I was reading there, but it was off from the ESV. Last week we looked at verses 13 through 20 where Paul is talking about the personal struggle.
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You just read through that again, but he's talking about the dichotomy that a saint deals with between the old man and the new man.
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This week we're looking at verses 21 through 25. This is not the end of Paul's argument.
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It continues into chapter 8. As we've discussed before, the chapter breaks are there for our convenience.
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Originally it was just one run -on sentence, the whole letter, but in verse 21
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Paul says, so I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
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Paul isn't talking about the law here. I want to make that clear.
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Sometimes that's confusing, but he's not talking about the Mosaic law. What he's saying is that he finds it to be a rule.
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He finds it to be a law that when he wants to do something good, when he wants to be obedient, sin is right there waiting every time.
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As I said last week, Paul is describing his sanctification, his current state of sanctification right there as he's dictating
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Romans while it's being written, and for God to be gracious enough to give us that snapshot of Paul is a blessing that you cannot give enough thanks for.
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Everyone in this room, every saint who has ever lived has dealt with assurance.
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They've had issues with it. They've had doubts, but to see
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Paul talking about his own struggle with his sanctification can give us assurance of ourselves that God will continue what he started.
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The struggle will continue until we are called home, until the world is made new.
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We are called to live godly lives in this sinful world. Every time we want to be obedient, sin will be there waiting.
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This is one of the reasons, as we spoke of before, that we have to constantly reinforce ourselves, reinforce our minds with the things of God, reading the
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Word and prayer. For instance, in Matthew 4 .4,
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Christ says, what in response to the devil? Man shall not live by bread alone.
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The psalmist in Psalm 119, verse 105, says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
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Remember that the way is straight and narrow, and we have a map that is the
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Word, and while we might stumble, as Christian did in the
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Pilgrim's Progress, it's always straight and narrow. Can't miss it, and the
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Word will always direct us back to where we ought to be. We fill our minds with what is good, so that what comes out of our minds may be good also.
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It's not going to be every time, but the more good that goes in, the better what comes out will be.
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Think about this for a minute. If temptation is always around us, living in this world, and our flesh is always ready to fall because it is weak, does it not make sense that we would need to constantly reinforce our minds so that we can see that way out and be ready to overpower the flesh and make it do what our spirits will it to do?
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For example, in media now, we are constantly bombarded by suggestive images and programs that are constantly blaspheming
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God. A hundred years ago compared to today, men and women walk down the street.
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They dress more modestly. They talk more modestly. Even 20 years ago, the standards of movies and television and radio were vastly more strict than they are now.
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I'm 36. I remember when you couldn't cuss on television.
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It's not that long ago. Now, those standards are non -existent.
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Any program, anything you listen to, you are constantly bombarded with sin, the culture saying that sin ought to be done, blasphemous language, sexual content, and what else did the culture do with this in mind?
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They put it in your hand. Instant access, instant gratification.
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This is not to say that cell phones are inherently evil. They're not. They are a device. They are no more evil than cash.
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Money is money. A device is a device. It's what you use it for. That's what is good or what is evil.
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I can read my Bible on my phone just as easily as I can look something nasty up. While we have the ability to choose what we do with these devices, now that our wills are bound to sin, that temptation is never going to go away.
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Ever. Not until we are called home. If we do not read the
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Word consistently and sit in prayer consistently, then we might as well be walking on to the battlefield with a wet paper straw.
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If you're a believer that doesn't go to church, that doesn't read, that doesn't pray, you're walking around with a sword.
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You're walking around with what you think is a sword, but what is actually a wet paper straw. Period.
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And honestly, I put wet paper straw because I couldn't think of anything more useless. Paul says in Ephesians 6, while we're on this point,
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I'm sure you're familiar with it. It's verses 11 through 18. He says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.
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Now I will pause for a second and reaffirm that our weapon is the truth.
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The spiritual battle that takes place in this world is a battle of truth versus lies.
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It's not a territory thing. But therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand firm.
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Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
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In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the
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Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication.
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I will point out that Paul is not talking about spiritual clothes here.
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That is an analogy for these,
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I forget the word, attributes. Righteousness, the
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Word of God, truth, readiness. Very often people get hung up on the armor and miss what
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Paul is actually talking about. He's talking about the very same things that we were just talking about.
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Prayer, reading the Word, knowing the truth, all of those things. Fill your minds and your hearts with what is good, and you will be better able not only to escape temptation when it comes, but avoid it altogether.
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That is what you do. You don't tread into temptation stomping, saying,
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I got this. What you do is make sure that you're well enough prepared, that you see temptation off in the distance like a shady gas station, and you keep on driving.
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Paul says that he delights in the law in his inner being. He is giving assent to the new man that is within him, the one that wants the things of God, the one that is wrestling with the old one, with the old man.
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He strengthens him with the Word, with truth, with prayer, with fasting.
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Fasting is not something that we normally practice today, but if there is any question about what we talked about last week, whether Paul is talking about his former self when he's talking about the process of sanctification, if there's any question remaining, whether he's talking about his old self before being justified, or whether he's talking about his new self in the process of sanctification given by the
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Holy Spirit, this verse, verse 22, should cancel out any doubt as to whether or not he's talking about his old self.
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And here's why. Can an unregenerate man delight in the law of God?
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Can an unregenerate man have joy and comfort in it? Scripture answers this question for us in many places.
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One of those places is 1 Corinthians 2 .14. The natural person does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
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Meaning you cannot understand Scripture unless the Holy Spirit causes you to do so.
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You can read it all you want, you will not understand it. John 14 .17
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says, The world cannot receive him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.
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But you do know him, for he abides with you and will be in you.
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1 Corinthians 1, verse 23. But we preach
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Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. Scripture is clear.
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There is no way that natural man can ever, ever incline himself to things of God.
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He can't. Paul is very obviously speaking of his current condition in sanctification.
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Moving on to verse 23. Verse 23 says, But I see in my members another law, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
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The struggle that we all have between that old man and the new man.
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Paul is referring to that battle that takes place in all of us between our flesh and our spirit.
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The old corrupt nature of his mind, body, and soul, and the new regenerate man.
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While we are freed from the yoke of our former master, we are not entirely rid of him.
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This is why we struggle, and will continue to do so, as I said before, until we are glorified the other side of heaven.
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This is why we are called to endure, to fight the good fight, not only without, but within.
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Paul himself, at the end of his second letter to Timothy, speaks of this in verses 7 and 8, and he says,
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For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.
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I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the
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Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.
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The next verse, Paul expresses what we have all felt. He says in verse 24,
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Wretched man that I am, with emphasis, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
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Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then
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I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh
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I serve the law of sin. As I said before, he is lamenting here what we all share in our sanctification, knowing who we truly are in the deepest recesses of our being, having been humbled by the righteous and wonderful power of God and glorious wisdom of his law.
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Ask a true saint whether or not they think they're a good person. Who will deliver us?
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There's only one, only one who will accomplish that work, who has done that work on the cross,
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God. God has promised to deliver us. He promises that when we have been called, we will be justified, that we are being sanctified, and that one day we will be glorified by him because of his righteousness we're saved.
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Because of him we will be glorified, and because he is who he is, we know that we can trust what he says.
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That is where our hope lies in Christ. There's a word that we like to use for trust called confidence, right?
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It's funny as you say faith, like nowadays faith is given a false definition by our culture that it's believing without really knowing, like you know jumping off a cliff, a leap of faith.
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You don't know what's gonna happen, but have faith, right?
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It's given this pagan definition. Another word that people like to use in place of it called it's confidence, right?
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I don't know if you've ever broken that word down. Confidence with faith just means trust, but with confidence, with trust, understand that God cannot lie, and when he says that he will begin and finish a work in you, he will absolutely do it.
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We as Christians affirm the solace, right?
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Scripture alone tells us that we are saved by grace alone, faith alone,
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Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. You cannot be a
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Christian and not affirm all of these. We here also affirm that while once we were totally depraved, we share in the unconditional election of God from time immemorial.
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We are saved by his limited atonement on the cross that is meant for the saints, brought to Christ by God's irresistible grace.
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There's nothing we can do to get away from what God wants us to do. If we could, he wouldn't be
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God. We also affirm that he will persevere us, not just individually, but as a whole, as the whole bride of Christ, the whole church.
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Often we forget the P in tulip.
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I'll leave you with this from Romans 12, which we will get to. When we get to it, verse 2, it says,
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Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
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That you cannot do unless you know what you're looking at, unless you constantly fill your mind with the word and with prayer.