Sermon: 3 Essential Christian Truths - Part 3

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Cultish: Looking Into YWAM (Youth With A Mission) - Part 4

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If you want to open your Bibles to Romans, chapter 5,

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Romans chapter 5, Paul to the church of Rome.

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As you get there, he wrote this letter with this grand opening. The first sentence, seven verses long.

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He can't wait, he longs to go to the church in Rome to bless them.

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He says their faith is being proclaimed throughout the entire world and Romans, every word of God is pure and lovely and wonderful and important.

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Every part of scripture is the word of God. But Romans is unique in that Romans is his systematic explanation of the good news.

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If you want to know what the gospel is unpacked and in detail from bottom to top,

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Romans. Paul is systematically explaining the Christian message and so if you want to know what the

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Christian message is in detail explained, look at Romans. Look at Romans.

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In Romans chapter 5, verse 1, hear now the word of the living and the true

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God, therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

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Through our Lord Jesus Christ, through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

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Not only that, but we rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the

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Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time,

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Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

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But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,

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Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

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For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

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More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation.

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together as a church. Lord, we love you.

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Thank you for this promise. Thank you for this truth. I pray, Lord, that you'd bless us as a church to be committed to the gospel of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

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And not only to be committed to it for ourselves and in this room with this community of believers, but let us be committed to this message in the public square.

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Give us boldness and strength and humility to be able to go out with love and sacrifice into the world around us to proclaim your excellencies, your supremacy, and your glorious gospel.

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I pray, Lord, that you would use us to bring glory to your name. Not for our sake,

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O Lord, but for the sake of your name. Lord, use us to expand and grow your kingdom and proclaim the gospel of the kingdom around the world.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Did you hear all that? I was just wondering why there was no shouts and like praise going on like during,

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I mean, I don't want to show respect to the word of God, but did you capture the essence of that? You see, that is not offered to you in man -made religion.

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One thing I've been saying over the last couple of weeks is that man -made religion does not bring peace. Even the religions that ape

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Christianity and co -opt our language, they cannot because they distort the nature of the gospel and distort grace, they cannot offer you peace with God.

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So name the religion and I'll show you where they glory in their own attempts to essentially build a righteousness that is acceptable to their

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God or their gods and goddesses. Man -made religion, Romans 1 Paul says, everyone knows the true

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God, they suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness, and the sin of mankind, Paul says in Romans 1, is that we know the true

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God, we hold down this truth, we are in the active duty of suppression and we don't want

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God in our knowledge, we don't want to know him, we don't want to think about him, and so the sin of mankind is to switch the true

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God for something that looks really like us, to worship instead the creature rather than the creator.

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Why are there so many different worldwide religions, so many expressions of religious faith and so many different gods? Answer, we're idolaters, because man, kind, men and women, all of us are made in the image of the same

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God and the central problem of humanity is rebellion, it's hostility against the true

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God. And so all man -made religion builds a God that looks very much like them, have you noticed that?

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All gods, man -made gods look so much like them, even religions that try to co -opt

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Christian language and ape the Christian faith, they'll borrow our language, redefine it and turn the

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God into something mortal, with gods before them, or they look a lot like us, they have the same failures, they're unjust, they're inconsistent, they change, they lie.

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That's the nature of human religion, is exactly that, and all human religion will attempt to solve the problem that every image -bearer of God feels the weight of, it's in all of our hearts and all of our minds all the time, we know that there is a righteous standard that we fall short of, all humans know that.

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And the way back, the way to peace is to somehow make up for the unrighteousness and to sort of build enough righteousness where you can be acceptable to your

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God. Even look at the hardest atheists today. Look at the atheists that we've dialogued with on our channel, we go on the streets, into the public square, preaching the gospel, we do debates, and you listen to the atheist who says that all of us come from the goo to you, right, we all came from bacteria to eventually down a line it formed into human beings, they follow all kinds of mythology to get to that place of speciation from one thing to the next, human beings are no more valuable in the universal thing of scheme of things than snails or rocks or dogs or horses, they say that, and yet every atheist that you talk to has a sense of what is just and unjust, they have a sense of what you ought to do to others, this is right and that is wrong, they want to be quote unquote good people, good human beings, they want to be loving to other people, where does that come from?

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How do you build something like that with a world view that says that human beings are cosmic accidents, that we are just African apes in a world that doesn't matter, and in this cosmically indifferent universe, you live, you die, and you're gone, you're absolutely gone when you die,

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Dr. Will Provine, professor at Cornell University, who died. And yet every atheist knows that something's wrong and there's this standard that we fall short of, fairly recently

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I had an atheist that wanted to talk to me on Apologia Radio, I had this girl on, and what's interesting here is when she came on, she's an atheist that said that there's ultimately no meaning and there's no purpose, and she told me personally, nothing is right or wrong ultimately, there is no real right or wrong, and yet this young woman actually has a very strong sense of hatred for the unjust, things that are injustices perpetrated upon others, where do you get that when your fundamental assertion is that nothing matters and nothing is ultimately right or wrong?

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You see, you can't escape the image of God, you can say there is no God, you can say there's ultimately no meaning, you can say that nothing is right or nothing is wrong, but brothers and sisters, you can't live that way in God's world, and you won't.

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And so what do atheists do? They try to somehow make up for their own unrighteousness or injustices by trying to be good people, better people, and then you move over to religious people who essentially express that religion differently than the atheists, with some version of a

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God, or some version of righteousness and how to attain this righteousness, and yet all man -made religion cannot deliver to you what

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Paul does right here in this small section of Romans chapter 5. Do you understand the glory of the gospel?

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Because you just heard it. We've been reconciled to God. You've been declared righteous, justified, you've been declared righteous in God's court because of Christ, because of His work on your behalf, because of the grace of God and faith in Him, God has already given the declaration of righteousness.

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I declare you righteous on behalf of my Son and His work, you have peace with God, there's nothing left.

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Did you notice the past tense -ness of everything that occurred here? Go back to Romans 5 and see this.

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Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have presently peace with God.

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Do you notice that? We've been declared righteous, you currently have peace with God.

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Look again, look again in verse 9. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved from Him, from the wrath of God.

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For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled, we are reconciled, we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life?

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More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received, what?

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Reconciliation. And man -made religion can't get a hold of this and really understand it.

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You mean it's all done? You mean there's nothing left for me to grab for or to try to polish up before I can be acceptable to God?

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It's an amazing thing when you go out to do evangelism with people who are part of different cults and religions and you express this gospel, what's left for me to do?

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You need to repent and believe the gospel. You need to turn to Christ and trust in Him, look to Him for salvation and for life, and you receive the gift of eternal life, peace with God, reconciliation.

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You start to see a short circuit in the wiring of the religious person. It can't be that easy.

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And the answer is, it is just that easy, and of course it wasn't easy for God to become a man, to take on flesh, and to live the righteous and sinless life that you and I have failed, and it certainly wasn't easy for the

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Son of Man to go to that tree, to go to that cross, and to die for me. It wasn't easy to take a beating for me.

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It wasn't easy to bleed and suffocate and die for me. And of course, it certainly isn't easy for any human being to conquer death and to have victory over death.

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So yes, it's easy in terms of the grace of God, it's a free gift, it's unmerited, you can't earn it, not kind of, it is a free gift you receive with empty hands.

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And so that's, of course, easy in a sense in terms of it's not you doing it, it's all to the glory of God, but this gospel contains something that was massively, powerfully hard to attain in terms of how is

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God going to reconcile sinners to himself? How does it happen? And I want to just emphasize this one thing.

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This is the most important thing. This is the most important thing. When you talk about having the right

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God, of course, that has to be there, you have to be worshipping and coming to the right God, but this question of the gospel itself, how will you have peace with God?

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Jesus says in John 14, 6, you know the verse, I hope you know the verse, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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No man comes to the Father but by me. That's the message of Jesus, take it or leave it. Jesus is not one mediator amongst a bunch of other mediators.

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He is the sole way to peace with God. There is no other salvation, no other way to peace with God, and all of us are made in the image of the same

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God. He is the only way. And here's what you have to get about the Christian message.

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The gospel can be known, it can be understood, it can be defended.

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One of the things I was pointing out last week was that in Galatians chapter 1, a very short letter from the apostle

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Paul, he is freaking out. Admit it, he opens the letter up with very short greetings to the church, it's read before the church, and it's immediate beat down.

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It's an immediate freak out moment for an inspired apostle, not long after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, where he has to defend the gospel against something even that would appear to disrupt the glory of the gospel.

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If you read the first two chapters of Galatians, you'll see actually a pretty interesting record of the apostle

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Paul giving you some insider information about a conflict he had with Peter.

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Peter wasn't denying the gospel, Peter knew the gospel. He preached the same gospel as Paul, and Paul has to emphasize,

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I'm going to take down this false gospel, he explains that through Galatians, we're going to touch a bit on that, but he actually tells you the inside story of how he had to confront

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Peter to his face publicly because Peter was engaging in just the appearance of denying the gospel.

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He just looked like he might be on the edges of denying the gospel.

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Not that Peter was, he knew Christ, he knew the gospel, but just even his behavior could have given the wrong impression, and the apostle

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Paul goes to another apostle in his face in public and confronts him over the behavior that might distort the gospel.

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Can the gospel be understood? Can it be defined? We live in a day where everyone wants to mix words and blend words, everything is malleable.

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Every word, it can have your own meaning, boy, man, malleable.

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It could be anything, girl, woman, malleable. It could be anything, marriage, malleable.

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It could be anything. We live in a day where words don't have ultimate meanings at all, and we live in a day religiously in a nation that has abandoned

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Christ as Lord, abandoned the word of God as the supreme revelation of God, as the ultimate over our nation.

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And so we live in a world, of course, in this nation, and of course it's happening around the world all over the

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West where the Christianity had so much victory, but now apostasy. We live in a world where we have so many different religions that say things like, well, you know, have it to yourself between you and God, right?

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I mean, if that's how they want to worship Jesus, if that's how they want to view Jesus, you know, can we really define who

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Jesus is? I mean, can we really do that? And how do you know what the gospel is? Can it be defined and understood?

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You have people trying to blur the lines of distinction today between Rome and Christianity saying it doesn't really matter,

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Rome is Trinitarian, I mean, at least they have a respect and a reverence for the word of God and they're

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Trinitarian, I mean, does it really matter that they've added all these other things and obstacles in terms of reconciliation and peace with God?

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I mean, they still say they have faith in Jesus, right? They use our language like grace and faith and salvation, they say all that too.

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Or how about the other religions that ate Christianity? They say they believe in a version of Jesus, they say the word gospel.

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I mean, if Jehovah's Witnesses come knocking on your door or the Mormons come knocking on your door, they're using your vocabulary.

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They're saying gospel, they're saying Jesus died, Jesus rose again, yes, you need to trust in Jesus and then you get into the system and discover they're adding more and more and more and there is no peace, that's the ultimate thing.

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There is no peace in these religions that distort the gospel and the gospel can be understood.

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Paul demonstrates it by explaining it systematically in Romans and then defending it in Galatians.

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Very short letter, very short letter, get to know it, get to love it and understand it because it is not very long, but you see the apostle

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Paul in a very short letter defending the gospel itself, saying, if you do this to the message, then go to hell.

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Hell. That is what anathema is, when he says, if an angel, if we or an angel from heaven preaches any other gospel than the one you received, let him be anathema.

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The word anathema is one of the strongest words you can use to describe eternal separation and condemnation.

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That is Paul saying, if that angel comes and distorts this gospel message by adding even this one thing to the gospel to disrupt it, to disrupt our peace with God, to disrupt the message of grace, he says, then let the angel go to hell.

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Let me go to hell and be condemned forever. It can be defined and I mentioned to you, of course, that throughout the

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New Testament you see so much grace. There is so much grace filling the New Testament for one another.

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You see the interesting scenario of now God accomplished what he said he always would.

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The Messiah would come into the world and the nations would stream up to God's mountain. He would draw the peoples to himself.

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You would have Jew and Gentile in one body. And listen, I think before Jesus came and it actually started to happen, people must have just been living in this sort of la -la land of utopia, like, oh, it's going to be glorious,

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Mashiach's going to come, salvation, forgiveness, all the nations to God's mountain and he's going to draw all the peoples to himself.

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Every tribe, people, tongue, and nation. It's going to be great. And then Jesus comes and does it,

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Pentecost, blows up the gospel around the empire and now they got to live together, right?

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Now you go, oh, now we have the tough work of putting people together who are very different from one another.

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You know why I love this room right now? I do this a lot. Some of you guys are probably bothered, but I'm not going to tell you to turn to your neighbors and say squat.

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I hate that, okay? Don't do that. But truly, just for a moment, don't feel weird about this because I think it just highlights my point here.

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Look around this room for a second. Just consider, look at the different colors, look at the different backgrounds, look at a room full of people that are not all descended physically from Abraham.

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It's a room right now that expresses what the promise was about the kingdom of the Messiah, that the Messiah would bring together

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Jews and Gentiles, all these different people into one body. And you see throughout the New Testament, the apostles are having to engage in the church in Corinth and other church issues where now you've got to deal with the issue of like, how do you have different colored people come together in a body loving

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Jesus together? How do you have people that have different food traditions and cultural traditions come together in one body and love

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Jesus with unity and passion and peace and outdoing one another with honor?

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How do you accomplish that sort of a thing? And the apostles are very clear. All the instances are like, look, one person wants to view this day as important.

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One person doesn't. Look, do it. Do it for the glory of God. Have it to yourself between you and God. You don't disrupt the unity of the church over all of these side issues.

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If this person wants to eat that meat offered to idols, let them have the steak. Shut up.

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Right? If this person doesn't want to eat it because it violates their conscience, like, oh no, that meat was offered to the false

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God. Paul's like, look, if they don't, if they feel like I can't do that, then don't do it. Right?

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There's so much grace given to one another, except for when you see the nature of God or the gospel itself disrupted in a new

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Testament. This is where you see the apostles taking their gloves off and going to war all the time, all the time.

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Even over things that, let's admit, in the 21st century evangelical West, we might say, eh, is that really a big deal?

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And to them, they would say, deny this about Christ and his nature and you lose Christ. Don't even let a person like that into your church.

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Don't let them disrupt your fellowship. If you add, pack this one thing onto the gospel, if you say that it's something other than trusting in Jesus, other than trusting in what he's accomplished alone, and it's just this one thing packed onto the edges of the gospel,

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Paul says, you've now given up grace. It's over. The gospel's gone now.

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Galatians chapter five, you need to choose between grace or law. Which one? And you got to imagine now for a moment, as we talk about reconciliation that we have and peace with God that we have, the people in Galatia who were denying the gospel, the ones that Paul said, a curse on you, go to hell.

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Those people, we don't have any evidence, they denied anything essential about the

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Trinity, the deity of Christ, that the word of God was authoritative, that this was the inspired revelation of God.

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We don't have any evidence, because he doesn't address anything about them denying some crazy other essential things.

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All we have in Galatians is they were saying, this covenant symbol, this thing about circumcision from the law of God, let's at least have everyone trust in Jesus and do this one thing.

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At least keep that sign. You got to at least be circumcised. You got to bring this over into this new covenant with Jesus.

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At least this aspect of the law, we got to maintain this Jewish identity, keep that part, and we're good to go.

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Paul says, you've become severed from Christ. Christ has become of no benefit to you.

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Whosoever of you attempts to be justified by law, you've fallen from grace.

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That's the issue. What brings you into a place where you have peace with God? What brings you into a place where you're reconciled with God?

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The answer? Grace. It's the grace of God. And that is an overflowing, incomprehensible, and massive grace, agreed.

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And that's how you know this has the prince of the divine all over it. This is the gracious God.

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This is the God who has mercy that is new every morning. This is the God who loves sinners. Now, I want to emphasize this as we unpack this from Romans.

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Very key thing. Are you ready for this? You want to know where you'll find it? I'll tell you right now. Here's where you're going to find it.

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When you talk about man -made religion that can't bring peace, that doesn't reconcile you to God, you're always in an in -and -out relationship with God.

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Think about your week for a second. Pause. Let's break away from the message for one second. Think about your week for a second. Wives, did you love your husbands this week perfectly in a way that glorifies

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God? Don't answer that out loud. Okay. Husbands, did you love your wives? Were you angry?

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Were you bitter? Were you not forgiving? Did you fight? Kids, did you honor your father and your mother?

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Did you have hatred in your heart this week for somebody? Maybe somebody political, okay?

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Was it there? Did you covet? Did you lie?

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Did you, were you consumed with lust this week? Now, if you know the answer to that question, then here's, here's, here's what you have to be brought into.

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This says you have peace with God. This says you're justified, declared righteous.

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This says you're reconciled to God. How do you have that when you know your own hearts?

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When you know what happened last night and this morning and Friday, you know how you sinned.

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You know how you failed as a follower of Jesus Christ. How can you say that you've been justified?

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You have peace with God. You have received reconciliation. How? Because man -made religion says it's in and out.

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It's in and out. I'm okay with God. I've gone to confession. I've done this thing in a temple ceremony. I did these good deeds.

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I gave this money. I did this. And then all of a sudden, Tuesday, face plant, sin, no longer at peace, right?

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It's in and out of a ceasefire with God and man -made religion. Ceasefire, we're okay.

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I'm obedient enough. I'm trusting enough. All of a sudden, sin, take up arms against God again.

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No peace. No reconciliation. None of that. How do you have it?

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How do you have it? And not only how do you have it, ready? How do you have it forever? Because it's one thing to say you have it now.

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You come to church. You hear a pastor telling you God says you're reconciled. You have peace with God. You've received this reconciliation.

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How do you have it now and forever? And the answer is the grace of God.

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The answer is the work of Christ. The answer is grace and faith and peace with God. It's all God's work. But did you notice something?

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All religion says ultimately that God has to look into my life and my heart and my mind and he has to find in there some degree of acceptable righteousness so that God and I are okay.

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Now pause and think. I want to show you two contrasting positions.

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All man -made religion will say somehow there needs to be enough righteousness, commitment, obedience in myself so that God can look at me and say, okay, we're good.

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God looks down into humanity, into human hearts and he says, is this person righteous enough?

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Have they obeyed enough? Are they loving enough? Have they had enough victory over sins in their life?

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Are they in a good place? Okay, on the basis of what I see in them, their righteousness, I'm going to make it happen.

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But this says something entirely different. Verse six, while we were still weak, at the right time

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Christ died for the ungodly. The older translations

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I think are better to get across the point. Christ died for the wicked, the wicked, Christ died for the wicked.

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That's what you are. That's what I am before a holy

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God. And that is why the gospel itself delivers a severely crushing blow because it comes right against the pride of man that says, no,

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I'm acceptable. I can do it. I can be good enough. I'll be disciplined. I'll be obedient. I'll do all the things.

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And the gospel comes in and says, you're lost. You're wicked. You're ungodly. You're a

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God hater. You're hostile to God. You're an enemy of God. You have no hope. You can accomplish nothing.

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Everything you're doing outside of Jesus is a filthy rag before a holy God. You only have

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Christ. It's only him and it is only to his glory. Is that the gospel you believe in?

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That it's all Christ? That you have nothing? That you're a worm and a maggot and you're wicked and you're evil and you're not righteous and you're a non -God seeker?

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Because this says Christ dies for the ungodly, not the righteous. And that is the glory of the gospel and the hope of the gospel.

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Now, in Romans chapter 5, that's this glorious summary of what he's been saying all along.

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Romans 1, 2, 3, 4 come before 5, obviously the chapter divisions are in, you know, modern innovation.

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Those weren't there when Paul wasn't like, chapter 5, verse 1, right? He wasn't doing that. But this is a long letter where he's explaining the gospel as an inspired apostle and we see the word,

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I said it last time, chapter 5, verse 1, therefore, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

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That's because he said something before that is so grand. I mentioned to you last week, if you take

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Romans 1 through 3, it's an indictment upon all humanity. It's everybody, Jew and Gentile, same spots.

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Not righteous, not good, non -God seeking, poisonous asps under your lips, feet, swift to shed blood.

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That's everybody, Jew and Gentile. That's me. That's you. And I talked about the fact that in Romans 3,

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Paul makes a point to say that the law wasn't given to justify anybody. It can't declare you righteous.

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All the law can do is shut your mouth before God because what do you see in the law?

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If you look into it, what do you see? You see yourself. That's me. I'm the liar.

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I'm the covetous person. I'm the adulterer. I'm the murderer. I'm the thief.

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You see that you're the person who doesn't love neighbor as God calls you to. So the law just acts as this condemning force when it comes to how do

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I have peace with God. The law is good. The law is good. And we are called to love

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God and love His law and be light to the world with His truth and His law. Yes.

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But the law is no means of justification. And Paul says in Romans 3, 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

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That's the message of the apostles. That is the message of the apostles. Now if you don't believe that, that you are justified by faith apart from the works of the law, faith by itself, faith alone.

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If you don't believe that, then you're not part of the we of Romans 3. We conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

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If you want to find yourself standing in the ancient church with the apostles themselves, then you need to believe that message.

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It's faith apart from the works of the law, faith alone. And so Romans 4,

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I'm going to read through some of this so you know it and you can articulate it and unpack it yourselves, not just for being on the street or being with family preaching the gospel to friends and family, but you can know it for yourself.

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What then shall we say was gained by Abraham? Verse 1, our forefather according to the flesh, for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Ready?

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Important point as a Christian, when you think about defending the gospel, when you think about the supremacy of faith, faith alone in Christ for salvation, here's

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Paul's point. Let's go back to the beginning and to the forefather of where this came from.

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God made promises to Abraham to bring a seed that would save and bless the world.

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All the nations, descendants as numerous as the stars and like the sand on the seashore. So Paul's point is this,

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I'm telling you, you're all sinners. It's not by law. It is by faith and faith apart from the works of the law, faith by itself.

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And then he says, what? Let's discover Abraham. How was father Abraham justified? What'd he do?

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What'd he do? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. It was charged to his account as righteousness.

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But what did he do? Well he offered his son Isaac on the altar. Nope. That happened about 20 years after that verse.

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So he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. But what did he do? Well, he obeyed the

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Mosaic law. No, this happened hundreds of years before the law was given through Moses.

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So what did he do? Well you see, he made a covenant with God and he and God walked through the parted animals by themselves, by together.

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No, when God made the covenant with Abraham and they did this special covenant where they divided animals to like, it was, it was a serious thing in that day to make a covenant.

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They didn't have paper like us and you know, legal documents and paralegal .com or whatever it was or record stuff, you know, you want, you had to make a big showing for making a covenant.

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So they would take animals, they would divide them in half. You would be walking together with the person you made a deal with and a promise to with witnesses.

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You'd walk through the divided animals through the blood and through the guts to basically say, if I break your, my promise, let it be done to me what's done here.

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That's serious business and when they're going to, when God's going to do this to show Abraham how committed he is, the animals are divided and instead of Abraham and God walking through together, a deep sleep falls on Abraham.

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What's he doing? He's out, he's passive, he's got no contribution and who goes through the parted animals?

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God, he's going to keep the promise. He'll keep the commitment.

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There's nothing for you to do, Abraham. I'm going to do all of this. It's a one way covenant.

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It's what I'm doing. This isn't about you. And so what Abraham do, he believed, he believed, and if you want to be a son and daughter of Abraham and you do and err according to this promise, then you need to be of the same faith of Abraham.

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Is that how you're justified? Is that how you're justified in Rome? Is that how you're justified in Mormonism?

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Is that how you're justified in all of these different religions that ape Christianity that say it's faith plus this faith and faith also this thing over here?

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The answer is this. That's not the faith of Abraham. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

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What'd he do? He came to God with empty hands. He had nothing. He didn't have books by Bovink and Bonson.

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He didn't have like this rich Christian tradition of theology. What does Abraham even know? Honestly, very little about the whole redemptive story of what

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God's going to do. He's got limited information and he just believes and God credits to him righteousness.

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And Paul's point is this, if this faith of Abraham is not the same as yours, then it's not the gospel because Abraham believed

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God and it was credited to him as righteousness. And then it says this, for if Abraham is justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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I talked about this last week, but quick pause on this. Don't miss this. When you want to be able to defend these truths, you got to get this in context.

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We don't have the right to go running to the Bible and just grabbing out proof texts, yanking them out of context and trying to impose our traditions onto them.

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That is forbidden. Amen. Yes. I want the word of God to speak. Now this isn't the first time that he has said gift here.

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He just said it. He just said it. Look for me.

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Look with me so you can see it with your own eyes. In Romans chapter three, right above what he says here in four, he says in verse 23 of three, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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So he's already, he's already defined. How are you declared righteous? It's by his grace as a gift in the original language.

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It's like he's stuttering. He's saying this is a gift gift. It's a gift gift.

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And in Romans chapter four, he clearly says verse four. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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But wait, pause. What did he say? Redemption's about. It's a gift gift. What kind of gift is it?

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Oh, it's a gift gift. It's a real gift. And his point here is this. Abraham believed

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God. Nothing was offered. It's just Abraham trusting in God. It's before the law. It's before circumcision.

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It's before he offers his son Isaac on the altar. Long before. And he says this to the one who works, to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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Get it? Christian faith, the gospel message is about faith, trusting in Jesus and you're counted righteous on the basis of the righteousness of another.

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And if you are working for this righteousness and if you're working for this salvation, then what you're working for, you get a wage.

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And there's a contrast between biblical faith and true religion and a wage.

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This is grace and this is work. So on the one hand, this is grace receiving gifts and doing nothing, no labor, no work.

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And this is, I expect to be paid. It's a wage and the

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Christian faith isn't like that. That's not what the gospel is about. So Paul says to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the wicked, the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.

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Now let's be honest. Let's be real for a second. That doesn't make a lot of human sense because none of us is that gracious.

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None of us is that loving and none of us is that merciful. And yet this gospel is so divine, it's so obviously divine and from God, that this is a gospel that says, if you're working for it, it isn't a gift.

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That's not the gospel. What God does is he takes people that aren't working for it, people that are actually wicked, and he declares them righteous.

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How? If he's holy, how does he look at you guys and me and say,

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I declare you righteous? Here's why. Because he's not declaring you and yourself righteous because of your works, because of your labor, because of the wage due to you.

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He's declaring you righteous because you're hiding in Jesus. He's declaring you righteous because you've been united to Jesus by faith and you are covered in the righteousness of another.

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Who is really righteous here? Jesus. Who is righteous? Jesus. You see, that's the difference between the people who have

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God, which is the substance of the gospel, by the way, who have God for all eternity and those who don't, is the people who know

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God and are declared righteous and have peace with God, they come before God's throne already having eternal life, already having peace with God.

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You know the whole thing, like, you know, get to the pearly gates and you get there and like someone's standing there with a book and like, let's look at all your good deeds and your bad deeds and there's sort of like a moment where there's like, let me look at your life and see if I'll let you into the pearly gates.

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So not Christian and weird, okay? You enter into God's presence when you die as somebody who has already been reconciled to God or not.

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You die in peace with God or not. Do you see that?

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You go to him already in Christ. And if there were a conversation, if there is ever a conversation of like, why would

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I let you into my presence if that was ever really a thing because you already know between you and God because you're already justified, you already have peace with God, that conversation isn't happening.

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But if it were to happen, it would look something like this. Why should I let you into my presence? And the answer is, you shouldn't.

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You should not. The only reason I am right with you is because of him.

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That's it. Don't look at my life. Don't look at my deeds and my righteousnesses, which are filthy rags.

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Don't look at my unrighteousness. Look to Christ. Look to the one who says it is finished.

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That is the glory of the gospel. And it's what brings peace with God and reconciliation. So Paul goes on.

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He gives the two heavy hitters, Abraham and David. If you're going to be a child of Abraham, you better have a faith like him.

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It was faith in God and it was bare and it was alone and it was without law and circumcision and Isaac.

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It was just trusting God. His second point is David, King David, hero and sinner, big time.

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Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. We call that double imputation, double imputation, double crediting.

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God credits to you righteousness apart from works. And he does not count against you your sin.

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He forgives your lawless deeds. He forgives your sins. Do you know this gospel? Do you know it?

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It's the most important thing. Are you trusting in Christ? And now pause for a moment before I get to Romans five and explain the glory of union with Christ.

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Let me challenge you with something. I don't care if you have a mere profession of faith.

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I don't care because that won't save you. One thing that's clear from James chapter two, a very abused text by Rome and the cults.

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One of the things that's clear from James chapter two is that the only thing that does save is living faith, that is real faith, not mere said faith, not mere professions of faith.

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So you could be in this room right now, ready, children too, you could be in this room right now hearing this gospel and this way to peace with God and you're still lost.

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And you could be professing it, yeah, I believe that. It's one of the dangers.

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It's one of the dangers of the tent revival movements that happened on this continent where they started working on manipulating people through music and emotional appeals.

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They manipulate people and pull the strings and say, every head bowed, every eye closed.

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If you want to trust in Christ to pray this prayer for salvation, would you raise your hand? Every head bowed, every eye closed.

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Do you ever notice that when they do that, everyone's really going, who do

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I need to like nudge to go to the front, right? And what happens is, I'm not against people, challenging people of where are you really at.

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That's not what this is about. But the manipulation of saying, okay, now I've got you where I want you.

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Now I want you to come here and pray this prayer with me. Say these words.

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And if you would just simply say these words, once you've said the words, you're saved.

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You're saved because you said the words. And how many people have you met that are truly false converts?

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They've had no love for God, no love for Christ, no longing for his word, no sanctification, no desire to be in worship, no desire to love and be with the church who said, oh yeah, when

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I was six, I prayed that prayer. I said those words.

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That doesn't save you. Professions of faith don't save you.

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Professions of faith happen because people hopefully have legitimate real living faith and they're of course professing it, it's coming out of their mouths, but it is only real faith, living faith, true faith in Christ that saves.

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So the challenge to you is this, do you have a mere profession or do you have a possession of faith?

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Do you know him and trust him? Have you come to Christ recognizing that you're totally broken? You're lost, you have nothing to offer him and you deserve condemnation.

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Have you come to Christ to trust in him and what he's done? Have you looked to him alone for forgiveness and salvation?

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Or are you here in a community you're very comfortable in with a mere said faith?

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I say I believe, but I don't. Where are you at? Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith.

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Next, we're going to skip some, but I want you to know this story so you can defend it, the supremacy of faith.

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We were in Romans 5 at the beginning, but I want you to see how Paul continues to describe how this takes place.

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In verse 12 it says, therefore just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin and so death spread to all men because all sinned, there's original sin, for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

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But the, what's it say? Let's try that again. But the what?

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Is that your gospel? Because that's the gospel? The free gift.

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By the way, isn't that also a bit of stuttering, don't you think, right? Isn't the definition already laid down that a gift is something that you don't work for because something you work for is a wage?

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So what's this free gift stuff, right? Isn't that a bit stuttering? Like it's a free gift.

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Well, that's what a gift is. That's the point. Paul's making the point. It's a gift gift. It's a free gift. Is it clear?

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Not to religion. They'll find some way to distort it. They'll find some way to destroy this message and to take away the giftedness of it, the grace of it.

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But the free gift is not like the trespass for if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God.

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And the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many.

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And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

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For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man,

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Jesus Christ. Free gift, peace, reconciliation.

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Free gift of righteousness. What's the problem? I'm not righteous.

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God is. How do I have peace with him? If I'm unrighteous and he is righteous,

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I'm not like him. He's God and I'm his enemy. How do

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I get this free gift of righteousness? It's the grace of God and it's only through Jesus Christ.

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Therefore, 18, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification in life for all men.

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For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

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Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

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So that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our

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Lord. So what's the point? Paul makes the point. Here's the nuts and bolts. Here's the nitty gritty of the gospel.

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It can't be through law. The law only condemns you. Here's how God does it with Abraham.

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Here's how God does it with David. This is the same faith. Christianity doesn't represent, by the way, this is key.

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Christianity does not represent a new faith. It represents a new covenant.

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It represents the same God, same story of redemption. It's a new covenant. People were saved in the old covenant in exactly the same way they're saved in a new covenant.

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That's Paul's whole argument there. Abraham was saved this way. You got to be saved in the same way. It's always only been through Christ.

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Are you of this same faith? And Paul's point, as he moves along, is you're in either one of two humanities.

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Who are you in? There is Adam, and that is sin and trespass and condemnation.

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That is all fallen humanity. Or you're in Jesus. Where there is this free gift of righteousness.

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There is the gift of eternal life. So who are you in? Who are you in?

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The only way into Christ, into union with him, is through faith.

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It's a free gift. It's a free gift of reconciliation, which leads, of course, to the question, now what?

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If my own obedience, to any degree, is not counted as righteousness for me, if I'm actually counted as righteous on the basis of the righteousness of another, if it's all

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Christ, if it's free gift, if it's gift gift, if it's only faith, if it's not working, if it's justifying the ungodly, if it leads to peace and reconciliation, then what's the point of obedience?

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Is there a point to it? Well, Paul answers that, because he knows he's got the objector in the background.

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That religious person who's always trying to find a way to put a foot in the door for righteousness or make accusations against grace of unrighteousness.

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Because he, watch this. Have you ever heard this before? You ever told somebody that they need to trust in Christ, they need to be saved, they need to receive the gift of eternal life, it's all of God's grace, it's through faith in Christ alone?

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And they'll always say, wait, so you're saying I don't do anything to receive this? Right, that's what

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Paul says, by the way. So you're saying it's all a free gift? Right, that's what Paul says.

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Also that. You're saying he's just not going to count my sins against me? Right, because that's what

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Paul says. Oh, I know what you're saying. You're saying that you can just say you're saved and you can just do whatever you want.

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Right? Paul anticipates the objection. That's why

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Romans 6 is there, because he anticipates the objection. What's the objection? Here it is, verse 1, chapter 6.

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What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?

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By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

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Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

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We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

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For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

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We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him.

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For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

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Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness. It's really do not go on presenting your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace.

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There's the picture. There's the story. There it is. Saved by grace, not by works.

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This is all God's work in you. It's a free gift of eternal life. It's a free gift of righteousness. It's all to God's glory.

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It's God counting you righteous apart from works. It's God not counting your sins against you. And here's the deal, because you're in Jesus and not in Adam, it means that you've been joined together with Jesus in His death and His resurrection.

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You should be able to say, if you know Jesus, you have an old self crucified with Christ and that you are a new creation, that you are alive from the dead.

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And some people, I know, I know the objection. I know. Sometimes, Pastor Jeff, I don't feel so alive from the dead.

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You ever feel that? I have these strong moments and these deep moments with God. You should have seen me during the

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Bible challenge. I was hot, right? And now I just had a week where I've been a mess and I hate it.

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I hate my inconsistencies. I hate my failures. I hate my lack of love for God. I hate my lack of love for His word.

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I hate my lack of love for others. And I would say to you, ah, good, sounds like you're alive from the dead, right?

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Right? Because people who are dead, dead, still dead and not alive, are people who don't hate their sin.

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They still live in it. They let it reign. See, Christians, right, isn't this true?

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You read a text like this where it says, don't let it reign in your mortal bodies and you feel the weight of that. You're like, yes,

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I hate my sin. Why am I still failing in this way? Why am

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I so undisciplined? Why am I such a horrible man? Why am

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I such a horrible woman? Why am I so selfish and prideful? Oh God, I want to be set free from this.

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It sounds like you're alive from the dead. Good. Let's keep going. Because people who are dead in their sins love their sin more than they love

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God. Do you get it? Saved by grace, raised from the dead, and people who are alive from the dead, they tend to act like living people, right?

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Now I want to point to one more text in Galatians because I want you to be able to reason through this.

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Let's go to Galatians because I want you to see the Apostle Paul defending. I've already explained a bit of chapter 1 and chapter 2 and the conflict that Paul gives you insider information about.

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Now when he's talking about his confrontation with Peter at Antioch, he talks about how he opposed him to his face.

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He challenged him. But in verse 15, here's what he summarizes about the conflict, about what

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Peter was doing. They gave the appearance of denying the gospel. And in Galatians chapter 2, verse 15, he says this, we ourselves are

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Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners. This is what he's saying to Peter.

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We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ.

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So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified.

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That's the essence of the story of reconciliation with God. It's not going to be through law.

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You already know what Paul teaches about the law. When he says that we declare that, or we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law, he then says, do we then void this law through faith?

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He says, no, we actually establish the law. You know what's hard about the law is he loves the law of God. The apostle

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Paul would have sang Psalm 119, would have taken him a while, it's a long one. It's all about the law of God.

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It's all about the abiding validity of the law of God. The law of God is good, but Paul's point here is how does

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God save Jews and Gentiles? One humanity actually in Adam, how does he do it?

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And his point is not by the law. It's never been by the law.

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Look at Abraham, look at David. It's not through the law. It's through faith in Jesus Christ. And then he keeps repeating himself.

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In verse 21, here's what he says about the mixture of a work of the law with faith in Christ for justification.

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In verse 21, he says, I do not nullify the grace of God. What's that mean?

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Void, void, cancel it out. Here's what

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Paul says about his gospel. You void the grace of God, you cancel out the gospel.

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If it's through the law, Paul says I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness were through the law, then

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Christ died for no purpose. So when you talk about all the religions that ape

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Christianity even, they take our language, they say I've got a Jesus too, I've got a gospel too,

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I've talked about grace too. When they're adding works, even this is just one work.

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Keep the sign, keep the Jewish sign of circumcision. Just put that over in. Paul says this, nullified the grace of God.

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Now it is all void. That is not the gospel and if righteousness were through the law, then

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Jesus didn't need to die. So my point is here, when you think about the religions that ape

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Christianity and they talk about gospel and grace, they talk about all these things and yes, Jesus died for sinners and they say here's how you make it right.

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You obey this, you obey that, you do this, you promise to keep these commitments, you be disciplined, you stay righteous in yourself.

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The point is all that talk about Jesus dying in that religion means that it was worthless. I don't want a worthless cross.

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I don't want a worthless cross. If that cross has meaning at all, it's going to be because of grace and not because of law and your obedience.

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That's the substance of Paul's message. Do you believe it? Do you know it? He goes on and here's where I want you to see because he's,

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Paul always goes for the jugular. Have you noticed that? I love reading Paul and learning from how he argues.

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He goes for the jugular every time. He says this, chapter three, verse one, oh foolish

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Galatians. I wonder, am I not a good pastor? Sometimes because there are times where I've been tempted but I don't say, oh foolish

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Apologians. But he's more courageous than me. He says, oh foolish

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Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

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Let me ask you only this. Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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Jugular, show me your religion. And they're all going to say to some degree, somehow, ah, how'd you get the spirit?

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They'll answer Paul differently than the Galatians knew how to answer him. That's the point of the argument.

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You understand that? It's the point. It's you're supposed to know this. You know better. How are you falling into this? Foolish Galatians, how did you receive the spirits?

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Was it through your obedience? Was it? How did you? Or was it hearing and then faith?

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No, that's too simple. That's too easy. You can't get the spirit of God simply by hearing with faith.

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Paul's assumption is you're supposed to know this. This is how salvation comes.

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You heard and you believed. And so he says, having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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Did you suffer so many things in vain? If indeed it was in vain, does he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

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Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. There it is again.

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He did it again. He did it in Romans. He's doing it here. That's the heart of the argument for Paul. Don't lose it.

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In your dispute with those who ape Christianity and distort the gospel, don't lose the heart of Paul's argument.

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That's it. How'd you do it? Works of the law or hearing with faith? What about Abraham? Abraham believed

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God and it was counted to him as what? Righteousness. That's the heart of his argument.

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If you don't look like Abraham, you don't know the gospel. If you don't look like Abraham, you're not a child of Abraham.

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That's for sure. How was he justified? He believed God. That's too easy. He believed

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God. That sounds too free. That's what the Bible says. It's a gift of righteousness.

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It's a gift of eternal life. Are you a child of Abraham? One of the ways to test it is do you have the faith of Abraham?

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Are you clinging only to God, trusting in his promises, or are you trying to climb your way to God through your obedience? That's not how

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Abraham did it. And if you're doing it, repent and trust in Christ. Call on him now.

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Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the

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Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all the nations be blessed.

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So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

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I did a lot of reading today, didn't I? I did a lot of reading today because I don't want to simply give you the supremacy of faith, and we could do this for weeks and weeks and weeks and answer all the objections, but I wanted to give you the supremacy of faith and let you see it for yourselves.

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Let the text speak. Let the inspired apostles tell you the story. Let the words have the meaning of the original author.

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Let them speak. Don't put your own man -made traditions into it. And if you believe something about how you're reconciled to God that contradicts what you just heard from God in his word, call on the

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Lord now. Trust in Christ. You see, as I've said, you can be under the hearing of the gospel your entire life.

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You can be under the hearing of the law, word of God, your entire life. You could be in this Christian community your entire life and still miss

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Christ. No one wants to think that they're in that position. No one wants to believe that.

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I'm not saying to you as a pastor to fix yourself and make yourself better so that God can accept you one day.

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What did I just share with you? You hear and believe. But the challenge is this.

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In terms of coming against a false profession, is what you have or have had a mere profession, a said faith?

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Is it just, listen, here's what I want to disrupt. This is what, and we're ending on this, truly, I really am, don't laugh, okay.

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Because this is so key. Biblical living faith is not a mere acquiescence, like I acquiesce to that.

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In other words, that's true. Do you know who believes all of this? Satan.

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The demons believe. They all believe. They know it. They're better theologians than all of us.

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They've been around longer, and they know God, and they know this truth.

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And they've warred against the church, still fighting against the truth. And they're losing.

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They will lose. Christ is the victor. However, you understand this, that the demons are very, very good theologians.

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And they could probably pass any seminary exam that's out there. They're great theologians.

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And they would affirm in terms of, yeah, that's true, all of these essential things.

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They would say, yeah, that's true. I affirm that. I believe it. In other words, that's a true thing.

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But these demons and these spiritual forces of wickedness, they don't have faith in Christ.

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They don't believe in him and trust in him. They know it up here. It's true.

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But they do not come to Christ to die and trust in him. So where are you at?

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Where are you at? There's apostasy all around us. There always has been.

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It's in the Old Testament. It's in the Bible. You've got Judas, who also heard the sermons of Jesus, was in the ministry of Jesus.

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He walked with Jesus, and he betrayed Jesus. He did not know

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Jesus. He did not come to Jesus for life. Yes, that was predestined. Yes, God was sovereign over that.

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Yes, son of perdition. I get it. But when you look at his life, he walked with Jesus, ate with Jesus, saw the miracles, and he did not trust in Christ.

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He wasn't coming to him for life. In the New Testament itself, the apostle

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John says, they went out from us in order to show they were never really of us.

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There's no such thing as somebody who's truly saved, has living faith, has joined to Christ, and all of a sudden gets lost.

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Jesus says in John chapter 6 and John chapter 10, I've come down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him who sent me, that of all that he has given to me,

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I should lose nothing. Jesus will not lose those who are truly his, and he says in John 10, he knows his sheep, and they know me.

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I give them eternal life, and he says, they're in my hands, and nothing could snatch them from my hands.

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And yet we see in the New Testament warnings against apostasy, because there are people in the community of faith who have professions of faith, but not true possessions.

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They don't really know him. They never really turn to Christ to trust in him. It's possible to be under the hearing of all this truth, and then finally one day there'll be a testing and a revelation of who you really are, and whether you really know

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Jesus. So do you know him? That's the challenge I have to you as your brother and a pastor. Do you know him? Have you truly trusted in Jesus, especially the children sitting here in the pews?

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You're listening, you're hearing, you're under the hearing for your whole life. Do you know him? That's what you need to count today, is look at your heart, look at your mind.

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Have I truly trusted in Jesus, or am I just playing? It was amazing when

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Pastor Luke and I, early on in the history of Apology at Church, it was like a lot of rough and tumble.

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It was interesting because we had this new church of, I said we were done, didn't I? Sorry. I've got to finish this experience, because this is so powerful to view this.

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Because when you go into ministry, you're giving everybody everything, you're loving people, you assume what they're saying is true.

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You're trying to pour into them and just give them Christ. So you do get shocked along the way as a pastor, as the people who were in front of you before that you gave everything to, that you assumed were truly believers, and you find out later they fall into apostasy.

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Early on in the church, it was such a rough crowd, brand new baby believers. It was like day and night, day and night, day and night.

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You'd see someone in this place of just strength and victory, and then I get a call, and like one in the morning

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I'm going to scoop them up off a sidewalk, because they were just shooting heroin. Or I'd see someone one week, they were doing so well, they were in fellowship with everyone, all of a sudden now

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I'm searching for them all over Scottsdale, because I know they're going to kill themselves using, and I'm literally just driving around aimlessly in Scottsdale trying to find this girl who

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I knew was going to kill herself. It was just back and forth and struggle, but it was also just moments of powerful victory.

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You'd see lives totally transformed. There were instances of church discipline we had to do early on, because we wanted to glorify

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God and obey Him, and it was hard to do. But it was really interesting, because even early on, there was one person that was with us from the very beginning, and this is a person that came out of homosexuality, just a really difficult life, an ugly life.

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This is a person that actually was dying, well, had HIV, and from that lifestyle, and had a profession of faith, and some of you guys know exactly who

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I'm talking about, looked like a believer, was with us, was serving, was doing sound for us, and was at all the events that we were at, the evangelism, all of that.

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And then we started not seeing him come to church. We started like, you know, where's he at?

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He's not coming to worship, and he's not coming to Bible studies, he's not coming to the fellowship we're having, all night prayer nights we were doing, crazy.

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And then we start calling, like, hey, where you at? Like, why, you haven't seen him? We miss you. We love you. What's going on?

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And then he said he needed to talk to us. And so we didn't know what to expect, and so I sat down in the office one night.

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He comes in, and he just looks like a different person. I mean, it looked like the life was out of him.

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You know, before, it looked like there was some life, and some hope, and some joy, and he comes into the office, and he just looked dead.

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He did. He looked dead. I knew something was wrong, because his countenance was completely different. He wasn't afraid of me.

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He just looked dead. And he explained to me that he doesn't believe in Jesus.

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And he explained to me that he was going back to his lifestyle with a boyfriend, and he was going back to that life again, and he was abandoning

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Christ. This is a shock, because here's somebody that you were sure was truly a believer.

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He knows Jesus. He's going to evangelism, and he's going to our events, and he's helping in church worship service, and he's with us since the beginning of this church.

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He was loved by all of us, and now he looks dead. He's going back to his old life of sin and depravity.

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And he told us that night, he said, I never really believed in Christ. I liked how it all sounded.

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I liked this. I love all of you, but I never turned to Christ. I never, he said,

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I want my boyfriend more than I want Christ. He said, I want my old life back.

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I don't want Christ. And here's someone who looked just like you, just like me.

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Same profession. Went to church, helped in worship, did the evangelism, went to church events.

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He even, get this, he even did all night prayer on his face with the people of God.

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And as time went on, and as stuff was revealed in his life, he finally got to the point where he said, I can't fake it anymore.

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I don't really trust in Jesus. I've had people tell me who were part of this church body to my face,

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I really love you guys, I like you guys. And I heard this exactly. But I prefer sex with my girlfriend over Jesus.

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And then they abandoned the faith. You see, after time in this world and testing and trials, time, the true nature of your faith will be revealed.

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Are you dead or are you alive? Are you in Christ or not?

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And so my challenge to you right now is salvation is only through faith apart from any work of law, but it's through true faith, it's through living faith.

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Do you know him? Have you turned to Christ in faith? Turn to Christ and live.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you, Lord, for your word and your glorious gospel. I thank you for the grace that you've given to your people and this free gift of salvation.

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I pray, Lord, for us as a church that we'd proclaim this gospel with boldness and love and humility in the world.

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And I pray, Lord, for anyone in this room right now who's under the hearing of this beautiful gospel of grace and hope,

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I pray, Lord, that you'd open the eyes of the blind, give hearing to the deaf, raise the dead to life.

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I do pray even in this moment, Lord, with no attempt to manipulate anyone in this room,

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I pray that you by your spirit would challenge those in this room who have a mere profession of faith. I pray,

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Lord God, that you'd grant true faith and repentance today to those who are under the hearing of this gospel.

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And I pray, Lord, that you would be glorified in doing that for your people.

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In Jesus' name, amen. And now we come to the table. So a moment ago