Romans Chapter 5

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Romans Chapter 6

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Alright guys, good morning.
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Take out your Bibles and turn to Romans 5.
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We've been going through Romans 1 chapter in a class.
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Each class has been one chapter.
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And Romans chapters 1, 2 and 3, at least up to 3.21.
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Paul is explaining that all men are sinful.
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Whether they have the law or don't have the law, they're all guilty before God.
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Because all men at least know that God exists.
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That's what Romans 1 says.
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And Romans 2 says, even people who don't have the law, when they do what the law requires, the work of the law is written on their hearts.
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So there's that.
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So from 1, 2 to 3, he's building the case against mankind and describing the universal nature of sin.
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And then at the end of chapter 3, he begins to talk about what God has done to address that problem.
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And of course, that is that He has provided justification through Jesus Christ.
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We're guilty of sin, but we have justification by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And in chapter 4, he takes an aside and uses Abraham as his example.
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He says, look, here's Abraham who was justified before he did anything righteous.
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He was called just before he was circumcised.
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He was called just before he offered Isaac on the altar.
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He was called just by God apart from his works.
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And so Abraham becomes the model of justification by faith apart from works.
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Then we get to chapter 5.
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And Paul has what I would consider to be one of the most important phrases in the whole Bible, not just in the book of Romans.
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And that is Romans 5, verse 1.
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I'm often asked if you had to preach at a church.
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Let's say I went and visited a church.
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And they said, oh, you're a pastor.
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Would you like to preach? And that never happens, but let's just say for argument's sake that somebody just said, stand up and preach.
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And I had no time to prepare.
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This would be the verse that I would preach.
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I would just say, everybody open to Romans 5, verse 1.
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And I would spend the next 45 minutes explaining this verse.
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So I do think that this verse is not the most important verse in the Bible, but it sits among some of the most important verses in Scripture.
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So we're going to look at Romans 5.
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We're going to read verse 1.
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We're actually going to read all of Romans 5.
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It's only 21 verses.
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And then we're going to pray.
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But I'll spend the majority of my time today looking at verse 1, even though we will talk about the flow of chapter 5 and what it's about.
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So let's begin reading at verse 1.
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Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
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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 our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
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And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
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For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
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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 has shown His love for us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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Since therefore we've been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.
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For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
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Much more now that we have been 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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Now, I'm just going to stop right here.
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We're going to read the rest, but Paul does now begin a different topic.
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This chapter really could be taught in two parts, even though I'm taking it one chapter at a time.
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He's going to now describe the relationship between Adam and Christ, both being representative heads.
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Adam heads the human race and Christ heads the redeemed race, the redeemed in Him.
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And so, I just want to make mention as we're reading, that's what he's going to describe is you're either in Adam or you're in Christ.
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In Adam, all die, and in Christ, all are made alive.
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And so that's what this part's going to deal with.
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He 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 sin for sin was indeed in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
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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 free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by that grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
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And the free gift is not like the result of the 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 Jesus Christ.
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Therefore, 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 one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by 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, so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Let's pray.
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Our Father and our God, we are so grateful for your word, especially a word which is so powerful as what we are going to look at today, Lord, the word of our reconciliation and our peace with God that comes through faith in Christ.
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I pray, Lord, that you'll keep me from error.
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I pray that you'll open up the hearts of these men to the truth, not just their ears, Lord, but that it would pierce the ear, penetrate the mind, and reach the heart.
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And Lord, if there be those today who do not have peace with God, I pray that by the hearing of the Gospel that Jesus Christ died for sinners and that every man who trusts in Him will have life forever.
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I pray, Lord, that by hearing the Gospel they would trust, and Lord, that they would have peace with You.
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I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
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Romans 5, verse 1 begins with the word, therefore.
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Anytime you are confronted in Scripture with the word, therefore, it's important to take note of the fact that that word is a connecting word, which means what you've just read is now about to be given its understanding and application.
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So what did we read right before this? Well, if we go back up to verse 24 in the previous chapter, it says...
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well, actually, go to verse 23.
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It says, But the words that were counted to Him were not written for His sake alone, but for ours also.
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It will be counted to us who believe in Him, who raised the dead, Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
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So that last verse of chapter 4, it ends Paul's argument about justification.
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He's made this argument that because Christ has come and because He has taken upon Himself our sin, God is now just because He's punished Christ in our place, and He's the justifier because He punished Christ in our place.
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It was for us.
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And so God remains righteous while at the same time gracious.
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And God can be both just and justifier.
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Both wrathful and gracious.
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And it's amazing that God has this balancing act where He remains completely holy and yet at the same time utterly gracious.
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And so the last verse is, Christ was delivered up for our trespasses.
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What does that mean? That means He was crucified for our sins.
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He was delivered up.
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It means He was taken to the cross.
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For our trespasses.
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Trespass is another word for sin or transgression.
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He was delivered up for our trespasses and He was raised for our justification.
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Now, I need to help you understand this.
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You may understand it already.
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I don't want to assume that you don't, but I'm sure some get confused because we talk about justification as an act that happened when Christ died on the cross.
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He took our sins and we were made righteous by His righteousness.
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And so people say, okay, we're justified by His blood, right? That's what we often think.
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His death.
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But this says He was raised for our justification.
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And so people get a little confused.
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Okay, well, did we, were we justified when He died or were we justified when He raised? And I think that sometimes it's, we don't need to separate everything like that and understand that the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ all work together in the redemption because in His death, He dies for our sins, but in His resurrection, He vindicates His own word.
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He shows that He was who He said He was.
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If Christ was still in the ground, we would have no reason to have any hope.
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Paul tells us that in 1 Corinthians 6.
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It says, If Christ has not been risen, then you of all men are most to be pitied because you have believed a lie.
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You believe in a raised Savior, but if you can go to a grave and pull out His bones, then guess what? Everything you believed is a lie.
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So in that sense, He has been raised for our justification because in His resurrection, it was vindicating that everything He said was absolutely true.
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You know, it's often been said that that's the difference in all world religions is that Muhammad is still in his casket and Joseph Smith is still in his casket and all of these men are still in their casket, but there's one empty tomb.
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There's one who rose from the dead.
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And so that distinguishes Christ from all other so-called faith leaders.
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And so that's how Paul ends his argument.
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He was delivered up for our trespasses.
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That means He died for our sins.
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He was raised, and sometimes I'll even say He was raised for our vindication.
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He was raised for our justification.
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Now, we go into chapter 5.
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Therefore, which means based upon what I just said.
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And I would even conjecture to say not just based on verse 25, but based on everything I've just said.
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Because he started this argument in chapter 1, verse 18 when he says that the wrath of God has been revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
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That's Romans 1.18.
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That's when the argument started.
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And the argument continues now to Romans 4.25 where he goes from sinner to justified.
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And now we get to chapter 5.
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And in chapter 5, verse 1, it's therefore, based upon everything I've said, therefore, and the ESV says, since we have been justified by faith.
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I think that's fine.
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I tend to prefer a different translation at this point because I like the phrase, therefore, having been justified.
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Because the idea, and it's the same in the ESV, since we have been, I mean, it's the same.
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I'm just saying the way I like to say it and the way I've memorized it, is therefore, having been justified.
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When I say, when I write, having been, what part of speech, is this in the future, the present, or the past? This is in the past tense, right? So this indicates by the tense of the use of the language that this is something that has already occurred.
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Like if you and I were talking about your life and you say, I remember having been sitting in my father's house and him telling me a story.
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Or I remember having been on a football field and catching a touchdown.
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That term indicates something that has happened.
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And if we were talking in normal speech and we said, having been, that means this is something that already took place.
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That is key because of what he indicates has already taken place.
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He says, therefore, having been justified.
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Remember I told you, I was going to spend most of the time on this verse because I do think this verse is so important.
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He says, having been justified.
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Let me tell you this.
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Sometimes you'll ask somebody, hey, have you been saved? And somebody will say, yeah, I was saved when I was in high school or I was saved when I was a young person or whatever.
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The Bible uses the word saved in very different ways.
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The Bible talks about having been saved.
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It talks about saved as being saved.
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And it talks about saved but will be saved.
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In fact, in this very chapter, he talks about they'll be saved from the wrath of God.
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That's future tense, right? So salvation in that sense has a more full-orbed idea because as we often have said, you have been saved, you're being saved, and you will be saved.
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If you're in Christ, you're in that all three.
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But justification is more specific.
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So oftentimes, rather than asking someone, are you saved? It might be good as, are you justified? Have you been justified? Because that's a moment in time.
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Our justification happened when we trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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That's the moment where God applied into our lives the work of Christ where we went from being a child of wrath to a child of God.
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Think about Ephesians 2.
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Remember what Ephesians 2? You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the prince of the power of air and all that.
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And then it says, but God being rich in mercy.
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Right? That's that moment.
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You were one thing.
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If you're in Christ, now you're a new thing.
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You were guilty, now you're justified.
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You were a child of wrath, now you're a child of God.
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And so justified, having been, this is something that for the believer has already occurred.
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And by the way, this is the major distinction between Protestants and Catholics.
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Now if you have a Catholic background, I'm not going to sit here and kick you in the teeth or tell you how bad it is, but there are many false teachings that unfortunately developed in the Roman system.
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Many of them which came up during the Middle Ages period, what we call the Medieval period.
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And a lot of them were based on superstition and false understanding of scriptures.
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But one of the things that I think is most difficult in Roman Catholicism and the thing that I think is most dangerous is their view of justification, is that justification is something that you're moving toward.
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This is why they believe in purgatory.
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Because they believe if you die and you still have unresolved sin, you've got to go somewhere to have that sin purged.
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That's where the word purgatory comes from.
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And you're just going to keep being purged until you're justified.
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And so for them, justification is a future.
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But the Scripture says if you believe in Christ, you have been justified.
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And it's a past tense reality.
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It's already taken place.
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Having been justified.
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Not you will be, but you have been.
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I think that's very, very important.
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And it's based on everything Paul has said.
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Because of what Christ has done.
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Because of His death on the cross.
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Because of His substitutionary atonement.
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Because of the sin that you had being placed upon Him and His righteousness being given to you.
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Therefore, having been justified.
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It's an already done deal if you are in Christ.
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And notice the next thing he gives the qualifying statement.
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He says, having been justified by faith.
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Again, I said I was going to spend most time on this verse.
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I think every word.
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Because I think every word of this passage matters.
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He says, therefore, having been justified by faith.
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Paul's whole argument is wrapped around the idea that you are not justified by works of the law.
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That you are not justified by keeping Moses' legislation.
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But you are justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Now let me ask you a question.
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And you are, I know I talk a lot.
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But if you want to answer this question, you raise your hand.
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How would you describe faith? Somebody want to take a shot? Go ahead brother.
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Believing.
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Okay.
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That God died for our sins and rose from the dead.
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Believing that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead.
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Okay.
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Go ahead.
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To me, it's the faith that God has actually given me.
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Okay.
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It's a gift from God.
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Faith is a gift from God.
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Okay.
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I agree with both of you.
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But we are going to talk about maybe a little more than that.
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But yes.
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Okay.
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Blind belief.
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Okay.
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See, I disagree in the sense that when people say faith it's blind belief.
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Because that's what you just said.
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Right? Blind belief.
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Not necessarily.
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Because I have faith in my father.
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My earthly father.
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I can see him.
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Right? So I think that when we automatically assume it's blind, I think that's taking it further than what I think the intention of the word faith.
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You have faith in the chair you're sitting in.
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Right? Because if you didn't, you wouldn't have sat down.
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You know what I mean? So it's not always blind.
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But I get where you're coming from.
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Because it does say in the Bible that faith is the evidence of things unseen.
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So there is a sense in which you're trusting in something you can't see when we talk about God.
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But it doesn't mean blind in the sense of stupidly blind.
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I don't think that's what you meant.
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But there are people who would say blind faith is stupid.
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That's...
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I would be careful going there.
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Right? There are blatants.
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That's how I've built my faith.
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Yeah.
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It's just creation.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And we look out and see those things.
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Yes, sir.
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Well, I have a lot of...
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By me believing in Christ, I have a lot of knowing that something will happen in my life if I just believe in Christ.
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Okay.
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So faith to you is...
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And when I say faith to you, I mean what you're describing faith as is knowing He's going to help you.
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Yes.
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Okay.
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And that's kind of like what I saw with my dad.
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I have faith in my dad because we have a good relationship.
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He's always been there for me.
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And I assume he's going to continue to be there for me because the past predicts the future.
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Right? That's all I got.
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And he's always been there for me.
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And until he goes to be with the Lord, he's hopefully going to continue to be there for me.
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There you go.
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Well, let me just...
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Unless somebody else has anything, I want to give you a thought.
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During the time of the Reformation, so 16th century Protestant Reformation began with Martin Luther and Euler, Zwingli and some others.
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They were arguing that we were justified by faith and they added this word.
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They added the word alone.
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Maybe some of you have seen the phrase sola fide.
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It's a Latin phrase which means faith alone or justification by faith alone.
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So sola fide.
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So the word alone isn't in the Bible.
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It says having been justified by faith.
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But they came along and said yes, but it's by faith alone because it's not faith plus works.
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Right? And so it became faith alone.
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And so then the charge of Roman Catholicism was well, you're teaching men that they can believe in Jesus without any responsibility.
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You're teaching men that they can believe in Jesus without a life change.
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And they said no, that we're not.
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Because when we say faith, we believe faith is accompanied by a life change.
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We believe faith is accompanied by a trust.
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Genuine.
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So the way they began to talk about faith was three ways.
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It was three Latin phrases.
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Notitia, ascensus, and fiducia.
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And those three words simply mean the first, it says to have faith you have to know something.
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So like I have to know who Jesus is.
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I have to know what he claimed to do, claimed to be, right? So to have faith, you can't have faith in something you don't know.
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So you have to know something.
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That's notitia.
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The second is ascensus.
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So we get the English word ascent.
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That means I agree to something.
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Like if you say, let's go to the store.
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I ascent to that, I agree, let's go.
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That's an ascensus.
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That means I agree with it.
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So I can know Jesus said he was the son of God, but not agree.
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So the second step is agreement.
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So I know what he said, and I agree with what he said.
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And a lot of people think that's faith.
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But the reformers said no, that's actually not faith.
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Because that's what the demons do.
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The demons believe that Jesus is who he is.
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They know he is.
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So they have notitia and ascensus.
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But what they lack is fiducia.
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And that, the word where we get the word fiducia, or we get the word fidelity.
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Faithfulness, trust.
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And here's the only way I can, I have to give you the picture.
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If I say to you, parachutes will catch you if you jump out of an airplane.
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Now you know what a parachute is.
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I know you already knew, but I'm saying that's notitia.
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And if you say I believe that a parachute would catch me if I jumped out of an airplane, that's ascensus.
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But I ain't jumping out of a plane.
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I am new.
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I ain't jumping out of a plane because I don't have trust.
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I tell you what, unless that plane was already going down, I'm going to stay in my happy hiding right where I'm at.
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I'm not jumping out of a plane just because the parachute promises to save me.
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And that's faith.
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Faith is trust.
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It's saying to the Lord, I bring nothing to this except my sin and my need for salvation, and I'm throwing myself at You and trusting that You will save me.
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That You have saved me, that You have justified me.
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That's faith.
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It's stepping out of the plane and saying I don't have anything else between the ground and me but Jesus Christ.
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And so when He says having been justified by faith, it doesn't just mean that I know who Jesus is or even that I believe what He said is true, but that I have trusted in Him.
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There's no one else who can save me but Him.
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So having been justified by faith, now we come to the second half.
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I'm going to erase this because this next part is going to get a little different.
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Because I don't want to get confusing at this point, but I do have to let you know the latter half of this verse, there are two different ways that it can be translated.
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And the reason why is because there is something called a textual variation.
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There is a single letter in the manuscripts that is either this letter or this letter.
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And this is what's called an omicron.
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And this is called an...
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I'm sorry, this is called an omega and this is called an omicron.
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And you notice they're very similar, right? And you say, well, they don't look too similar.
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One looks like a W, one looks like an O.
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Well, the original way they were drawn was like this and like this.
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So the difference is literally one line, okay? And you say, well, what's the difference? Well, the difference is, and I'll read it both ways.
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Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
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That's this one.
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That is in what is called the indicative case.
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So it says, we have peace.
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That's indicative, all right? The other way to read it, the other way to translate it would be, therefore, having been justified by faith, let us have peace with God.
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And that is in the subjunctive.
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And it's this.
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You say, well, which is it? I tend to believe that it's in the indicative.
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And I think the evidence bears that out.
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This is why most of your translations say it that way.
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They say what? Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God, right? That's this one.
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And some Bible teachers wouldn't even show you this.
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Because they would say, oh, you don't need to know that because the overwhelming evidence is for this.
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However, my reason for showing you this is I do think that even if it's in the subjunctive, it can have value because this would be what it would be saying if it is in the subjunctive.
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It would be saying, having been justified by faith, live out your peace with God.
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You see? Live it out.
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Have that peace because some people are saved and justified, but they don't understand that they're now at peace with God and they're not living in that peace.
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So it becomes more of a command rather than something that's recognized.
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And I do know of people who don't recognize that they have peace with God.
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You know what I mean? But don't you know people who trust in God and they trust in Christ, and yet they're always in some form of static doubt? And if Paul did write this in the subjunctive, which I doubt, but if it is, that is the case, then what he is saying is live out your peace.
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Live in peace with God.
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Because why? You have that peace.
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And we know we have that peace because of verse 2.
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Look at verse 2.
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It says, Through him, we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
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We have it.
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It's ours.
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And that's why, again, I do think it's the indicative because I think it all fits together better if it's in the indicative.
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He's saying we have peace.
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We're standing in that peace.
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Let us now for live in that peace.
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So, gentlemen, I can tell you, if you are in Christ, you have peace with God.
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And here's what's interesting about that.
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If you're not in Christ, you are at war with God.
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You might say, well, I don't think I'm at war with God.
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The Bible says that those who are not in Christ are at enmity with Him.
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The word enmity means to be embattled or at war.
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Sometimes I'll be talking to unbelievers out sharing the Gospel or something, and somebody will say, well, I'm fine with God.
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I don't need Jesus.
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I'm fine with God.
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And I say, well, let's consider this for a moment.
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According to the Bible, you have sinned against a holy God.
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And not just once, but let's say you sinned only once.
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Let's say you only sinned once a day for the last year.
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That's 365 sins.
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Let's say you sinned once a day for your life.
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How old are you, sir? 64.
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Times 365.
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That's a lot of sins.
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If you only sin once a day.
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That's a lot.
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And the Bible says even one's sins can separate us from Him because God is holy.
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We don't recognize the holiness of God because we don't want to recognize the sinfulness of man.
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We want God to be here and man to be somewhere around here.
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When the Bible creates a distinction between God and man that is vast, and it's vast because of our sin.
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The Bible says our sin has separated us from Him.
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So, when somebody says, well, I'm good with God or God's good with me, I say, no, you are at war with God.
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And God is at war with you.
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And you say, well, I don't like that.
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The Bible says God loves.
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Yes, God loves His enemies.
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In fact, it says in this very verse, go down with me just for a moment in this chapter and notice what it says in verse 7.
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For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare to die.
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But God showed His love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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See, Christ died for us not because we were righteous, but because we weren't.
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He died for us not because we were good enough, but because we weren't good enough.
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God's love for us extends to us.
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Notice verse 10.
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While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God.
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What does that call us? Enemies.
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The unbeliever has to recognize that he is God's enemy even if he doesn't want to see it.
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And that's the point that makes chapter 5, verse 1 so powerful because he says we have peace.
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You know what? Peace doesn't matter if you've never experienced war.
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And many of us, I can say, I don't know, maybe you were in the military, but many of us here have probably never experienced the real trenches of war where you were down in a foxhole and bullets were flying.
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The closest many of us get is seeing things like Saving Private Ryan or something in a movie to get to the reality of what that feels like.
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But I tell you this, if you've ever been in war, the thing you want most in that moment is peace.
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You want the bullets to stop flying.
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You want the blood to stop flowing.
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You want the battle to end.
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And that's what happened when Jesus Christ died on the cross.
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He died on the cross to bring reconciliation.
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That important biblical word between man and God.
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Man and God were at war with one another.
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Man was steady shooting his impotent arrows towards the king.
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And Christ comes and He brings peace.
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This is why the angels, when Jesus was born, one of the angels, they came and they said to the shepherds, for unto you is born this day in the city of David, the Savior.
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And they said, peace on earth with whom He is pleased.
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Some translations say goodwill toward men, but the actual better translation is peace among those with whom God is pleased.
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He sent His Son to be at peace.
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This is why the Old Testament says He would be the Prince of Peace.
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Not because He brings peace to our families or peace to our lives.
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Because let me tell you something, if you become a Christian, sometimes your life is less peaceful.
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I have family members that don't believe in Jesus who honestly would rather we not come around.
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The Bible says, Christ even said, He says, do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth.
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I came to bring a sword for I will set father against son and mother against daughter and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law.
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Why? Because the Gospel divides people.
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Because people are at war with God and when people can't strike God, people will strike the one who represents God.
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When people can't attack Him, their arrows will aim at His representatives.
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So this word peace, as I said, we're going to look at every word, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace.
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Peace is what the Old Testament word was, shalom.
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You probably heard that.
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The Hebrew word, shalom.
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And here's the thing about shalom.
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Shalom is not a temporary ceasefire.
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Shalom is not something that we have it today and don't have it tomorrow.
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Shalom is abiding peace.
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And Paul is saying if we've been justified by faith, we have an abiding peace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Isn't this great? Isn't this the best thing? And that's why I love this verse.
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Having been justified, having had my sins paid for, I can have peace with God, but only through Christ.
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If you're trying to have peace with God through anything else, let me tell you something.
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You can have peace with God through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved.
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In the name of Jesus Christ.
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And with that, I want to jump down to verse 12.
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And just for the last five minutes or so, maybe we've got about eight minutes left, I want to just explain the second half of this chapter.
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Because what Paul does in the second half, now that he's expressed the peace that we have through Jesus Christ, and now that he talks about the fact that we were enemies and now we've been made God's friends, we've been taken out of darkness into light.
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Now that he's shown this, he goes, beginning at verse 12, he begins to express the two categories that men find themselves in.
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And that's right.
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That's right.
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That's why I believe it's a different section.
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In all honesty, the chapter breaks and divisions of verses was much later.
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This could be its own chapter.
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Because chapter 5, beginning at verse 12, he begins to describe the two categories of mankind.
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And the two categories are Adam and Christ.
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Now when you were born, you were born a son of Adam.
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By the way, this is why I do believe that we have to take Genesis 1, 2, and 3 at face value.
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Because if we start to believe that it's all allegorical and that Adam wasn't real and the garden wasn't real and those things, we don't realize it, but what we're doing is we're creating a problem for later theology because according to Paul, Adam was real.
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According to the New Testament writers, Adam is the reason why we're in the mess that we're in.
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We're in the mess that we're in because Adam was, and I'm going to use a word, Adam was our federal head.
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Now, the word federal is common to us because we talk about the federal government.
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But most people don't know what the word means.
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If I went down to the square of Uly and I was just standing there on the corner walking people by, what does federal mean? Most people would say it means government or something like that.
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The word federal means representative.
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It means representative.
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We have a federal government because we elect, supposedly, we elect representatives whose job it is to stand in our place and act on our behalf.
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That's why we vote for local representatives, state representatives, and federal representatives, which is the whole, all 50 states together are in a federal union, right? But it's still supposed to represent the people.
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This is why everybody gets to vote because everybody's voting for the person to represent them.
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The idea of federal representation did not begin with America.
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The idea of federal representation goes back into the ancient world.
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Fathers represented their households.
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And when a father did something, it could affect his whole household.
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Think about when Achan stole during the time when they were supposed to go in and destroy everything.
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Remember, this is in the book of Joshua.
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Achan goes in, he steals, and he hides things in his tent.
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And the next time they go out to war, they lose.
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Joshua goes before the Lord.
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And what happened? Well, it was because there's sin in the camp.
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They find out who sinned.
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And what happens to Achan? He and his whole family are punished because he was acting on behalf of his family.
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And therefore, they all receive punishment.
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That is called federal representation.
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When Abraham received his covenant from God, what was the covenant? To you and to your children, right? To you and your offspring.
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This promise is not just for you.
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It's to your offspring.
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That's federal representation.
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Now, that being said, the first federal head and the only one who has represented all mankind is Adam.
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Adam is the federal head of the human race.
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He was, in a sense, acting on our behalf.
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You say, I don't know how...
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Read this and hear it.
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Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man...
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Who's that? Adam.
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And death through sin.
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And so death spread to all men because all sinned.
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For sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
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Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even though those who sinned was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
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You say, what does that mean? Here's what it means.
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Hold on, let me finish my thought and I'll answer your question.
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When Adam sinned, he brought with that sin a condemnation on all mankind.
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He was acting in our place.
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And you say, I don't think that's fair.
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It doesn't make sense to me why Adam's sin can affect me.
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Let me ask you a question.
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If the government today said we're going to go to war with Russia or China or the Ukraine or whatever, are you at war or are you not? You are because the government has taken us to war and by being our representative, what they do affects all of us.
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And what Adam did affected all of us.
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Yes, sir, you had a question? Go ahead and ask your question.
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I can't remember when it was that Adam was the one to whom sin really did exist.
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In what way did sin exist? They were saying that sin didn't exist at all until Adam and Eve came through.
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Okay, and you're saying it did exist prior to that? Yeah, it just answers my question.
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It did exist, but there was no law to say that it was.
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No, what that's saying is that there was sin between Adam and Moses, not before Adam.
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So I would say this, though.
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I would agree in this sense.
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Transgression did exist before Adam because Satan transgressed.
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So there was sin before Adam, but Satan doesn't represent us.
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Adam does.
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That's important.
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Yes, there was transgression before Adam.
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Satan transgressed and was kicked out of heaven.
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I mean, I can't get into all that, but that's what we believe.
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That Satan was an angel, he transgressed, and he was condemned.
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So yes, there was transgression before Adam, but Satan doesn't represent us.
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Adam does.
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And so Adam's sin affects everybody behind him.
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And so from Adam to Moses, there's no law because who brought the law? Moses, right? The law came through Moses.
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So people say, well, how did anybody transgress? They transgressed because of Adam.
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Their condemnation was from the condemnation of Adam.
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Understand this.
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Every one of us is born a fallen son or daughter.
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We're all men, but fallen son or daughter of Adam.
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We're all born under the banner DOA.
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Dead on arrival.
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We are dead in sin.
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I've got little babies.
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People say, oh, little babies are perfect.
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No, they are not.
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They are vipers in a diaper.
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They will lie.
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They will hide stuff.
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I tell you what, if you took the body of a 20-year-old man and you put the brain of a 2-year-old in that body, that would be the most dangerous person in the world.
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It would be the most selfish, the most easily angered, the least mature.
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So you don't tell me little children don't sin.
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Now do I believe God has a special grace for children? Yeah, but that's different.
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I'm not saying that little children are by nature condemned, but I am saying they're sinners.
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Because they're sinners in Adam.
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You come into this world as a sinner.
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Viper in a diaper.
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I've got number six is coming.
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So I feel like I've made the pro level.
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They're like amateur levels.
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When you get to number six, I mean, they made a TV show called The Brady Bunch.
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He had three girls and three boys.
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When my wife has this one, I'm going to have three girls and three boys.
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Pro level.
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I feel like I can talk about it.
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So I love my children, but they're sinners.
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I'm a sinner.
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So if you are in Adam and that's where you stay, you will die in your sins.
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Now, Christ also is a federal head.
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Where do you get that? Well, just look with me.
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Notice what it says.
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Let's go down and begin at verse 15.
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It says, But the free gift, that's what comes through Christ, is not like the trespass, that which came through Adam.
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For if many died through the one man's trespass, much more had the grace of God and the free gift by that grace of the one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
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And the free gift is not like the result of the one man's sin.
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For the judgment followed the one trespass and it brought condemnation.
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So Adam brought judgment and condemnation.
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But the free gift brings justification.
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So you've got a choice.
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If you stay in Adam, you've got judgment and condemnation.
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If you receive Christ, you get justification in life.
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And then he goes on to say, beginning at verse 18, I'm going to jump down.
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He says, Therefore 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 one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience the many were made righteous.
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Notice that he's comparing Christ and Adam.
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That's the point.
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There's only two.
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And this is why Jesus is called in 1 Corinthians, the last Adam.
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Because there was the first Adam and then there's the last Adam.
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And there ain't no more.
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You don't get another shot.
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You've got to choose whether I'm going to be represented by the one that I came into this world represented by, which is Adam.
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He said I don't get to choose that, but you're there.
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You've got to choose to stay there or come under the representation of Christ.
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Trust in Christ.
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Now do I believe that God does the work, opens your heart, all that? Yes.
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But it still comes down to a point where you are going to have to choose this day whom you will serve.
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But as for me and my house, I will serve the Lord.
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Right? So that's the two.
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And that's Paul's point as he ends this chapter.
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There are only two types of people.
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And it ain't got nothing to do with what color you are or where you were born or what language you speak.
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There's only two types of people in the world.
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And that's those who are still in Adam and those who are in Christ.
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And if you're in Christ, you are justified, you're being sanctified, and you will be glorified.
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Amen.
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Let's pray.
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Thank You for Your Word, O Father.
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I thank You for the truth.
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I pray that this has been helpful and useful for these men.
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And I pray that You will glorify Yourself by applying this text to their hearts.
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In Jesus' name.
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Amen.