Faith with Legs

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Let's begin.
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Let's pray.
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Father, thank You for this time to get to study together.
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I thank You for these men that are here to listen to the Word of God.
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And I pray that they would hear the Word, that my personality would not overshadow the Word, that my thoughts and intentions and opinions would not cloud the Word, but Lord, that we would have a better understanding of what it says.
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Lord, as we look at the subject today of faith and works and the relationship between the two, I pray that You would first and foremost keep me from error.
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For this is a subject, Lord, that many people have gone either too far to one side or too far to the other.
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And Lord, they have been unwilling to find a balance in the Word.
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And so I pray, Lord, for Your guidance today, Your wisdom.
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And I pray, Lord, all this in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
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If you'll open your Bibles to James chapter 2, we're going to read beginning at verse 14.
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For those of you who have been here, you know that we have been studying James now for several months.
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I guess about five months I've been coming, four or five months.
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And we've only got through the first chapter and a half, so you can see I'm not in a rush.
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But I am going to take a larger group of text today than I have before because beginning at verse 14, the subject is consistent all the way to verse 26.
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The whole subject is there.
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And so if I said, well, we're going to do this this week, next week, and then the week after, then we'd be breaking it up where the Bible doesn't make a natural break.
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So we're going to try to at least read it, make some comments on it, and talk about why it is a passage which has been fairly contentious in the history of the church.
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What's up, bro? Alright, beginning at verse 14.
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What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needful for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
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But someone will say, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
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You believe that God is one, you do well.
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Even the demons believe and shudder.
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Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works, and Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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And he was called the friend of God.
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You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
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And in the same way, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
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Amen.
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And that ends the reading of God's holy and inerrant Word.
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Alright guys, we have come to it.
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This is the passage.
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This is the contentious one.
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This is the section that made Martin Luther, the 16th century Protestant reformer, actually question whether or not this book should even be in the Bible.
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Luther said he felt like James was improperly added.
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Now, he would later recant of that, but there was a time where he called it the epistle of straw, meaning that he didn't feel like it was a true epistle.
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And some of his argument really does resonate because he makes the point it really doesn't seem to be an expression of the gospel.
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It focuses a lot on works.
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And when it focuses on works, it seems to be at odds with other Scripture books, such as Romans and Ephesians, which make the effort to say that we are justified by faith apart from works.
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And that word apart from is very important because Paul uses that language.
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And so this leads to many discussions and many debates.
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And I've been in countless Bible conferences over the years, been a part of preaching in them, and been a part of sitting in them.
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And anytime the subject of justification comes up, someone will raise their hand or write on the card, because sometimes we write questions on the card.
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Someone will say, how do you reconcile Paul and James? How do you reconcile what Paul says with what James says? Which inherent in the question is an assumption.
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It's actually what's called begging the question.
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Begging the question means assuming your answer before you have proven it.
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When you say, how do you reconcile Paul and James, what are you assuming? That they're at odds, right? It'd be like if I came in today and Pastor Mark said, I've got two guys that are not getting along, can you mediate between them? Can you reconcile them? Can you be the go-between? Yeah, I'd be happy to.
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But that's what that's saying.
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Are we to really believe that the Apostle Paul, who seen Jesus on the road to Damascus, who learned the Gospel from Him directly, who was the Apostle born out of season, and yet the Apostle to the Gentiles.
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God's chosen instrument to bring the Gospel to people like y'all.
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Because I don't know how many Jews there are in the room, but it looks like most of us are Gentiles.
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Right? So, Paul was that guy.
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He was the Apostle to the Gentiles.
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So having said that, are we to believe that he and the pastor at the church of Jerusalem, the half-brother of Jesus Christ, the man who stood up and gave the pronouncement at the first church council of the judgment of the council, James, are at odds with one another? I mean, that's what we have to ask, right? We have to say, is it really that these two men did not agree on the Gospel, or is it that we just haven't understood what these two men wrote? Yes, sir.
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And you know, if you say they were at odds, I mean, you have to look back when Paul, the first pastor of Jerusalem, met with him and said, yes, we believe you saw Jesus.
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So they do agree with one another.
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They do agree with Paul.
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Yes, absolutely.
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To say otherwise can't be true.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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And you're right.
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The affirmation of Paul's ministry comes from the mouth of James and Peter and the other apostles.
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So certainly that is true.
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Now, I want to take a step back because I want to point out something that I mentioned early in the course.
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But like I said, we have so many new faces, and also I'm sure you probably don't remember everything that we've talked about in the last several months.
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I want to talk about the dating of James.
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The dating of James.
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Because you remember we talked about Jesus is born sometime, there is no year zero, so sometime around the beginning of the new understanding of how we understand years, you know, calendar years.
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So we'd say Jesus probably was born around 4 B.C.
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That's when Quirinius was governor of Syria, and that's when Jesus was born, according to the Gospel of Luke.
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About 33 years later, Jesus dies on the cross.
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Now that's an estimated time, based on the time described in the Scriptures, based on...
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the Bible says He was 30 years old when His ministry began.
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We believe His ministry is about 3 years long.
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So there we have 33 years, right? So you have the cross here.
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That's it.
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So you have Jesus lives between 30 and 33, you know, somewhere around in there.
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When is the last apostle die? When does the last apostle die? Yeah, he's John, but when does he die? Around 95, I believe.
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If I remember correctly, it would be about 95.
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So it's in the 90s for certain.
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Right? So the period of time that we would call the apostolic age, right, lasts about 60 years.
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Right? I'm doing math, right? I'm not good at math.
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But is that right? From 30 to 90 is around 60, 65 years, right? Like I said, I'm not being exact.
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In this time period is when the whole New Testament is written.
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Okay? What's the other major world event that is dated in that time period? Major world event.
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Not including the starting of the church and Pentecost and all that, because of course those are major world events.
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But what other major world event happened between 30 and 90? Yes? The fall of the Roman Empire? Wasn't the Roman Empire? Jerusalem.
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You're thinking the right thing.
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Yeah, it was the fall of Jerusalem, right? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking.
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Is fall of Jerusalem was in AD 70.
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Right? Emperor Titus comes in, destroys it, wipes it out, takes all the gold, everything, just destroys the temple.
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Right now, today, there are Jews standing against a wall in Jerusalem, praying.
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What's it called? The Wailing Wall.
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It's the only thing left.
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Yeah, the Western Wall.
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They call it the Wailing Wall because they cry there about the restoration of the temple.
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It's the only thing left of that 2,000 years ago when that temple was destroyed.
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Right? So AD 70 is a major landmark moment in the history of the church.
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I am of the persuasion, and I'm not here to debate this subject, but I am of the persuasion that the entire New Testament was actually written before this moment.
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Why? I'm glad you asked.
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Okay.
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I'm of the persuasion because none of the New Testament books mention it.
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And so it seems to me, based on just pure understanding of the nature of how we describe things, that that would have been a fulfillment of Jesus when He referred to the temple not being one stone, not being left on another.
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That they would have written and said, yeah, and see? It happened.
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Jesus said this and it happened.
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But nobody does that.
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And so to me, and again, this is purely my opinion.
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Many people believe Revelation was written in 90.
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Right? Or somewhere around 90.
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I would say no.
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But again, not here to argue that point.
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Just saying.
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If I'm right, and I like to be.
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If I'm right, then we're looking at a 40-year period of Scripture writing.
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You see that? We drop it down to now it's a period of 40 years.
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How many books in the New Testament? 27 books in the New Testament, right? What's interesting, the Gospels were not the first books written.
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That's where I'm headed.
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What are the first books written of the New Testament? Most likely, the first books written of the New Testament start being written around 40 to 50.
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That 10-year period, we start seeing books like James coming into existence.
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Probably somewhere between 45 and 50.
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That's one of the first New Testament books.
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So just the point of all this is to say, James is writing very early in the time period where the books were written.
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Because we can date Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts.
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Well, Acts is later obviously because it's things that are happening, right? And then on and on and on.
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We can date those in the 50s to the 60s.
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Right? Or maybe even 60 to 70.
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Right? So we're looking at James as likely being one of the first books that are written in the New Testament.
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Why does that matter? It matters for this.
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Some have argued that Paul is writing to correct...
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I'm sorry, that James is writing to correct the writings of Paul.
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Paul wrote, man is justified by faith alone.
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Well, the word is actually...
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I'm thinking Ephesians 2.8.
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It's my favorite verse.
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It just ran out of my mind.
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By grace art thou saved through faith, and that not of yourself.
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It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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Right? So Paul writes this.
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He writes in Romans that we are justified by faith and not by the works of the law.
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And he talks about Abraham who is the model of justification by faith.
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And he looks back and he says he was justified by faith.
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And he points to Genesis 15.6 which says that Abraham believed God and was justified.
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And so we look at Paul.
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And he's clearly teaching justification by faith.
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And people say, well, that's why James wrote.
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Because Paul's influence had gotten so wide.
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Because Paul's influence had become so pervasive.
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And because Paul's influence was so bad, James had to come along as the corrector and solve the problem of the Pauline misunderstanding.
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In fact, some people even believe Paul was an apostle.
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They believe Paul hijacked the Christian faith.
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They call those conspiracy theorists.
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You've heard that term? Conspiracy theorists? They say that the conspiracy is this.
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Jesus had a religion which was basically just a new version of Judaism or an updated version of Judaism.
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And Paul didn't want that.
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He wanted a different religion.
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But he saw that Jesus had followers, and so he created a different religion and he hijacked Jesus' followers and turned them into him.
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And so there are people who say that if you believe the books of Paul, you're following the cult of the Pauline teachings or the Pauline cult.
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There's a Greek word for that.
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What is it? Baloney.
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That's what it is.
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There's a Greek word.
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The word is baloney.
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That is garbage.
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Again, I appeal back to you, my brother, who said, we have testimony from not Paul, but from others, that Paul met with the disciples and apostles and that they affirmed one another as having been called by God as apostles.
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You look like you want to say something.
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It just seems like me that it's common sense that James would be teaching that because right around the time of Pentecost and all that, they're trying to get the message of Jesus Christ to cross.
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And so part of that would be faith without works is dead because you have to put action to your faith or it's useless.
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And that is something that we have to keep in mind.
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Paul never teaches against what you just said.
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Paul never teaches that faith won't have legs.
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You understand what that means? Yeah, absolutely.
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I strive.
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I buffet my body.
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Guys like me think that's buffet.
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Buffet.
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Haha, bad joke.
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Yeah.
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But he did.
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He talks about disciplining.
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That's what that word buffet means.
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Disciplining.
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Discipline himself so that having preached to others, I myself might not be a castaway, right? He doesn't want to fail.
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He wants to strive.
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He wants to persevere which is a gift of God, the Bible says, that work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to do is good pleasure.
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So yes, you participate by striving, but God is actually the one in you giving you the ability to strive.
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And so it's God working through you, God working in you.
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Those things are definitely true.
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So why is this such a big deal? Why is this even an issue? Well, it's an issue because you have two sides.
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You have those who would say that our works actually justify us before God, meaning what we do justifies us before God and saves us.
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And then you have those on the other side who would say, no matter what I do, it doesn't matter.
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I have no responsibilities because it's all done by God.
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And so you remember a few weeks ago I talked about legalism and licentiousness? For those of you who were here, there was two far reaching, and I said both of them are wrong.
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Legalism says you must do this to be justified.
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And licentiousness says because I'm justified, I have no responsibilities whatsoever and I can do as my flesh desires.
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Right? So you have two wide divergent.
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Yes sir? Absolutely.
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Yeah, and it's not an earned thing.
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One thing, and it's kind of jumping ahead, but I want...
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Yeah, when we do anything, right? Even feeding a hungry person, we're doing that as unto the Lord.
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When a wife obeys her husband, how is she told to do it? As unto the Lord.
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When a child obeys his parents, as unto the Lord.
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It's everything we do is in that sense an act of worship.
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It's because of the Lord.
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So yes, absolutely.
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And having said that, it kind of jumps ahead a little bit, but it's good.
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When we talk about the reason for our works, the reason for our works is because it's as unto the Lord.
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Where the danger comes in is...
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I ought to be careful.
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I don't want to say anything about it.
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I'll be careful about how I say this, but there are those who believe...
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I won't identify who.
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I don't want to cause a fight.
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There are those who believe that...
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Oh, gosh.
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Whose is this? Is this...
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Oh.
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No, it ain't got nothing in it.
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That's fine.
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I thought I spilled something.
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They believe that...
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Let's say this scale...
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Right? Let's say these bars...
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This is like a bar graph.
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This bar represents righteousness.
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Okay? And they'll say, okay, when I became a Christian, God saved me.
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I had no righteousness.
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Right? So I was here.
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Right? And as I became a Christian, I got a little better.
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So maybe my first few years, I got to here.
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Right? Maybe as I began to study the Bible, maybe I got up to here.
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Maybe as I...
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Oh, I don't know.
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Began to really get involved in church.
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Maybe even became a deacon.
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Whoo! Boy, my righteousness.
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You know how deacons are.
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They are very righteous.
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At least they believe so.
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Just kidding.
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I love my deacons.
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That was a joke.
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So you got this.
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And then maybe I...
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Maybe I...
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Oh, man.
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I took on a foster child.
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That's pretty righteous.
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Right? So there we go.
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I got these things.
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And I've lived a whole life dedicated to Christ.
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My righteousness is pretty good.
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Okay, but the standards here.
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Right? And there's a gap.
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If you look at the thing I just drew, you see that little gap right there? Some people say, Okay, Jesus, He gets to fill that gap.
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But the goal is actually...
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The goal is to do it myself.
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I'm not teaching this.
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I'm saying this is the bad.
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Okay? Just understand what I'm saying.
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This is how people think of this.
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Jesus fills the gap.
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But my real goal is to not need Jesus.
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Fill the gap myself.
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Right? Here's what it really looks like.
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This is, by the way, not right.
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Here's what it really looks like.
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Here's your righteousness.
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Here's you now.
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Here's you when you die.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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There's you now.
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There's you when you die.
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And all the rest of the righteousness belongs to Jesus.
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And you receive it as a gift.
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If you're going to ask me about sanctification, I'm almost there.
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But go ahead.
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Is that Romans 3.10? Well, yeah.
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You said Romans 3.10 through 23, you mean? Yeah, yeah.
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There is none righteous, no not one.
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And it's also Isaiah who tells us all our righteousnesses are filthy rags.
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It's like this.
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Let's say God is there and we have to provide Him something whereby to enter into heaven.
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The very best thing we have is a bag full of dirty rags.
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Is that going to merit entrance? No.
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In fact, I would take a step back and say this.
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If you think of one of the parables that talks about the wedding feast and the king provides garments for all of the people and the one guy comes in and doesn't have the garment provided by the king because he wanted to wear his own garment, what did the king do? Why are you laughing? It's just something I thought of.
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I remember when I first read it, it made me laugh too.
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He was the oddball basically.
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He came in, but he would not wear what the king provided.
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And people say, does that mean you've got to wear a suit to church? Nothing to do with wearing a suit to church.
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It's got everything to do with putting on the righteousness of Christ.
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If you want to be righteous, it is not by your works.
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It is by the righteousness of Christ.
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And that is what we mean when we say that we are justified by faith alone.
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Justification by faith alone simply means justification by the works of Christ alone.
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It's just shorthand.
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We are trusting in Christ, not in ourselves.
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When the man was hanging on the cross next to Jesus, and he looked to Jesus, he said, Lord, remember me when You go into Your kingdom.
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And he said, today Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.
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That man didn't have time to do nothing.
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He was dying.
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They were about to come and break his legs.
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And you know why they broke his legs? Because death on the cross is death by asphyxiation.
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Your body weight pulls down on your lungs.
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Everything begins to fill with fluid and you basically die of drowning.
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You're in your own fluids.
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Which makes it kind of interesting how Jesus made seven statements from the cross while He was drowning in His own fluid.
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Amazing thought.
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So what do they do when they wanted those guys to go ahead and die? They break their legs.
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Because that's how you get out.
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You have the nail through your feet.
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You push up on the nail to take a breath.
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And then you can't do that long because it hurts so bad and you collapse back down.
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Eventually, you run out of the ability to do that and you just die.
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And if they want to stop you from doing that, they just come and break your legs.
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Now you can't stand up at all.
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Take a club, hit you around the shins, break your shins.
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Now you ain't standing up.
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You'll die pretty quick.
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Do you have something? Okay.
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So again, I like to just point this out.
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Now, I mentioned about the sanctification thing.
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Somebody said, well, don't we grow in sanctification? Yes, we do.
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As you get closer to Christ in your walk, you will see a change in your life in regard to how you walk.
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Oh, come on.
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I couldn't get amen.
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I know it ain't a Baptist church, but we can get better than that.
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As you get closer to Christ in your walk, your walk will change.
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I know mine has.
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I've been a Christian since I was 19.
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It's 2019.
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It's 20 years for me.
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So I'm 20 years in the Lord.
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And I know I'm not the same person I was when I got saved.
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Been a lot of rough times.
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That's what people always say.
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Sanctification starts here and you move up.
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I say, no, sanctification starts here and you sort of do like that.
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It's an upward path, but it certainly is not an always upward trajectory.
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Yes, sir.
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Sanctification is just being who you were made to be.
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It's not a reward for keeping yourself because you were supposed to be that way in the first place.
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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Sanctification is not our justification.
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Understanding the difference between justification and sanctification is essential to understanding the Gospel.
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You are justified.
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What does justified mean? It means to be declared righteous.
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Be careful when you say you're made righteous.
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You are declared righteous.
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The King makes a declaration over you.
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You are righteous.
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Why? Because He gives you Christ, not yours.
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See, the difference in Roman Catholic theology and the theology of the Reformers is Roman Catholic theology did teach that you were made righteous.
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That by the process of justification, you would be made righteous.
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That's why they believe in purgatory.
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Because if you die not fully righteous, you've got to go to purgatory to keep being made righteous.
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And you might be there for a million years, but eventually you'll be made righteous and get to go to heaven.
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Again, that's below me.
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But that's the doctrine.
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We are declared righteous.
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Justification is the statement of declaration.
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God declares someone righteous.
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Sanctification is the process by which we are conformed to the image of Christ.
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In fact, that's what the Bible says in Romans 8.
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Predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.
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So, yes, if you're a believer in 20 years, if you're a believer in 5 years, if you're a believer in whatever, your belief should change you.
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You should be conforming to the image of Christ.
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That should happen.
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But that doesn't make you more justified than the day you were saved.
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That's the point of all this.
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You were justified when you got saved.
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You're justified today.
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You're going to be justified when you die.
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Will you be more like Christ when you die? Hopefully that's the goal.
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That's what you want.
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But that doesn't make you more saved.
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Having said all that, now that we understand a little bit better about justification, let's go back to say, well, what's James talking about then? And we've sort of already talked about it.
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Because just because we are justified by faith doesn't mean that faith is simply an exercise of the mind.
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Faith is not just an exercise of the mind.
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Faith is a change.
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And it is a whole life change.
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Let me try to give it to you like this.
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And I may have given this illustration.
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I don't think I've ever given it here.
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My favorite illustration.
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And it actually comes out, well, the illustration doesn't come out of the Reformation, but the words come out of the Reformation.
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I'm going to give you three words.
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And I'm only writing them in Latin because the Reformers used these words.
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But I'll tell you what they mean.
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The Reformers said there was three understandings of what belief, or the Greek word, pistouho, faith.
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What does that mean? Well, you have the word gnosis.
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You have the word, do you all know this? Have you all heard this? Okay.
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Assensus.
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And then you have the word fiducia or fiducia, depending on how you pronounce the C.
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Fiducia is, I think, is how it normally is.
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You have gnosis, assensus, fiducia.
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Now, I think, actually, I may be wrong.
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Gnosis may be a different word in Latin.
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That's the Greek.
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But these three ideas.
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This is knowing, believing, and trusting.
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And here's the illustration.
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I know that a parachute is designed to stop the human body from plummeting to the earth at terminal velocity and flattening out like a pancake.
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I know exactly how it is designed to work.
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I know that when you jump out of the plane, it is designed to come out of a backpack, spread, catch the air, and use that pressure difference to slow you down to where you can hit the ground without it causing severe bodily damage.
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I know how a parachute works.
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I also believe that parachutes do work because I've seen the movies.
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I've actually seen people jump out of airplanes and the parachute worked and they were guided to the ground.
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I know they work and I believe they work.
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But I ain't jumping out of no plane.
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You understand where belief becomes trust when you step out of the plane.
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Belief becomes trust when that's what you put all your life into.
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I'm putting my life into the hands of this parachute.
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That's the difference between believing in Jesus and trusting in Jesus.
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A lot of people believe in Jesus, but they have not put their life in His hands.
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And when somebody puts their life in the hands of Jesus, their life changes.
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By definition, your life will change when you put it in the hands of Christ.
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Your life will change when it becomes His.
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Just like stepping out of that plane.
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That's where a lot of people stay.
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A lot of people stay right there with their hands.
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Have you ever seen the movie Congo? Remember that was back in the 90's about a monkey that could do sign language? In the movie, they're flying in a plane.
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I don't know if you know who Tim Curry is.
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Tim Curry is kind of a big name actor, but he's like the second tier big name guy.
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Very funny guy.
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And he's the doctor and they're on a plane.
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The plane gets hit by a missile and it's going down.
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So everybody's putting their parachutes on and he walks up to the door and he puts his hand on the door and he tells the guy behind him, he goes, push me.
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And the guy pushing him, he goes, harder.
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I don't want to go.
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Push me harder.
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I don't want to do this.
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You got to push.
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And that's where a lot of people stay when it comes to faith.
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They know Jesus is the Son of God.
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They know He came to die for their sins and they believe it.
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To a point.
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But they won't take the leap of trusting in Him and Him changing their life.
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A life that hasn't been changed by Christ has not met the true Christ.
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A life that hasn't been changed by Christ has not been truly saved.
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This is why you have something called false conversion.
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You ever heard that phrase? False conversion is talked about in Scripture.
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Simon, Acts chapter 8, he was baptized.
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I have to go back and look at the text.
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It was there.
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Philip preaches to him.
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He's baptized.
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He's all excited.
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Then Peter comes and Peter says to him, he does a miracle and he says, oh, I want to buy that miracle.
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What do I got to pay you so that you can give me the Holy Spirit and I can do the miracles like you? And Peter chews him out and says, you do not know what you're talking about.
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You cannot buy the gift of God with money.
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How dare you? And they have this moment.
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And we never hear from him again.
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Except in church history.
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And you know what happened to Simon in church history? He left the church and he became an apostate and he actually became a leader among the Gnostics, which was a first century cult.
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Because he wasn't interested in having Jesus.
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He was interested in the benefits.
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Everybody wants the benefits of God.
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Nobody wants the responsibilities of trusting in God.
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Nobody wants God.
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They just want the blessings.
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Because the Bible says no one seeks for God.
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And people say, no man, people seek for God all the time.
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No they don't.
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They seek for blessings.
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That's not the same.
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Seeking the blessings of God and seeking God are not the same thing.
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Because the object of the seeking is different.
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If I seek the blessings, who's the real focus? I seek God.
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I must seek God.
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That's faith.
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That's trust.
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That's fiducia.
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That's putting everything in His hands.
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Seeking Him.
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Alright, so having said all that, now let's talk about James.
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We've got five minutes.
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I can now get to the text.
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Because James makes the point that if we say we have faith, and that faith doesn't produce itself in action, if it doesn't produce itself in stepping out of the plane, it's not faith.
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He doesn't say it's a different kind of faith.
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That's a point.
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And by the way, I've taught on this many, many times.
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Because it's such an important passage, I've taught on it in different contexts, and I've pointed to the fact that you'll notice he doesn't say that there's multiple types of faith, but he does say this.
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Look at verse 14.
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He says, Can that faith save him? That faith.
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And if you have a King James, it just says, Can faith save him? But the word hapistos, there is an article there.
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The article is that.
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The word that.
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That faith.
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So he's saying there is a type of faith that's not genuine.
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And I would say the faith that's not genuine breaks about right here.
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The faith that's not genuine knows Jesus is Lord, believes He's Lord, but does not trust Him.
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That's the faith that's not genuine.
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Because that's the kind of faith that'll get you to go to church, but still look at porn on Sunday night.
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That's the kind of faith that'll get you to give a tithe, but then spend the rest of your money on alcohol.
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That's the kind of faith that'll get you to become a deacon and cheat on your wife.
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Because it's just enough to believe, but not enough to change your heart.
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Now I'm not saying a believer has never done all those things that I just said and still been a believer, but not failed in an instance.
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But I am saying this.
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The way that we look at our life is does our life conform to Christ? And if it doesn't conform to Christ, that may be an indication that we're not in Christ.
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Or it may be an indication that at that moment we are rebelling against where we are.
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I'm not saying you're not saved if you're struggling, because everybody struggles, right? We all struggle with something different.
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I just don't want to be misunderstood.
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But I don't understand.
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I see these ministers who preach the Gospel and then find out he's twenty years sleeping with a secretary.
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You know what I mean? Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And see, how do we know that we're saved? How do we know? Well, it is by faith.
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I think the question though does come down to this.
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It comes down to the question of who am I trusting? If at the end of the day I'm trusting in what I have done and trusting in my merit and trusting in the things that I see in myself, one, I'm always going to be worried because I'm trusting in the wrong thing.
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And I'm always going to feel like I'm not enough because I'm not.
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So that immediately.
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So I think, first thing, somebody comes to me and they say, I don't know if I'm saved.
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One thing I never do, and I just said to you just in case you ever come ask me.
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One thing I'm never going to do is I'm never going to say, go back to when you first believed in Jesus and that's when you got saved and let's trust in that.
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Because that's what a lot of people do, right? They'll say write your spiritual birth in the front of your Bible and any time you doubt your salvation, open up your Bible and go back to that date.
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I'm not going to say that.
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I will ask you this.
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How has Christ changed your life? That's when somebody says to me, I want to join your church, Pastor.
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I'm going to say, great.
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How has Christ changed your life? How has Christ changed your life? Because that tells me whether or not you're a believer.
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Not when you went with your spiritual birth certificate.
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A lot of people can't answer that question.
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I started going to church.
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Is that all? And I don't mean that that's not something, but if all that changed in your life was you got a weekly appointment to go hear a guy yell at you for being a sinner, you took up a weekly appointment to go give 10% of your money away.
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And you say, what are you hoping the person says? I now want Jesus more than anything in the world.
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I now want Jesus more than anything in the world.
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I fail Him every day, but He is my reward.
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That's really what I would hope to hear.
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Not I quit drinking, or I quit smoking, or I quit carousing.
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All those things is the byproduct of loving Jesus.
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Wanting Jesus more than anything.
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And wanting what He wants for me.
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That's what matters.
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And everything else is a byproduct of that.
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And everything in James, everything we read, like I said, we go through it verse by verse, line by line.
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Somebody comes to you and they have a need, and you look at them and say, I'll pray for you brother, but you don't really care.
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That shows a heart that hasn't been touched by Christ, because Christ touched the leper.
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Christ loved the prostitute.
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Christ is our reward and the model for our life.
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Therefore, when somebody has a need, we can't be indifferent to their need.
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Now we might not be able to fill it.
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We have a lot of people come to church and need money.
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We don't always have the ability to fill every monetary need, but we want to love and help them.
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And so we have avenues to point them to and directions and food banks and things to say, we want to help you.
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It's not that we don't want to, it's that we have to know how and the best way.
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And not everybody, and you guys probably know this maybe better than anybody, not everybody needs to be given everything they want at the moment, because it may just be enabling them to continue in a bad way.
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Right? So this isn't saying don't just give without regard.
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It's saying love someone and love them enough to care.
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Walk the extra mile.
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If they ask for the shirt, give them the coat.
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Do everything you can to love that person and so fulfill the law of Christ.
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Remember what we talked about last week.
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The royal law is to do unto others and to love them as you love yourself.
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Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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Alright guys, we're going to close there.
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I'll probably pick back up on this next week because I want to talk about where he says here that the demons believe and shudder because there is something where people will say, well, I believe in Jesus, but they have the same type of a belief as a demon.
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So we'll probably pick that up next week.
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Alright, let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for this time to study.
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I hope that it's been fruitful for these men.
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And I pray that You'll just help them take that step out of the plane, Lord.
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If they're still standing there with their hands against the door frame, Lord, give them the push that they might trust in Christ and it's in His name.
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Amen.