Law And Gospel (Part 2)

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How do you read the Bible? How do you interpret the Bible?
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After all, it has all kinds of different genres. There's apocalyptic, there's poetry, there's narrative, there are letters.
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How do you read the Bible? It's pretty old. It's at least 2 ,000 years old, written over 1 ,500 years.
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Different culture, different languages. How do you interpret the Bible? How do you read it?
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Some people say, well, just like any other book. But is it like any other book? Certainly there's human authorship.
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Paul wrote Romans, but he was inspired by the Spirit of God, moved by the Holy Spirit to write
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Romans. It's a divine book. And as such, we come to it and we say, Lord, help us to understand what you say, since as we've heard from Charlie, he speaks now only through his word.
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I mentioned last week that if you want to come to the Bible and read it, one of the best things you can do is say, what's the context?
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Tell me. There's a context for this section of Scripture, a close context, a farther context, context in the whole
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Bible. You say, well, how do I understand the Bible? Well, we learned last week. You come to it and you say, is this describing something?
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Paul cast out demons, or is it telling me to do something? Cast out demons. Today, we're going to have part two of the series from last week.
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If you'd like to understand the Bible properly, if you can think in terms of law and gospel, you're on your way.
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And so our study today is going to be Law and Gospel, part two. Theodore Beza, who took over for John Calvin in Geneva, how'd you like that job, by the way?
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You're going to have to replace somebody. You're going to replace Calvin. Calvin Beza said, ignorance of this distinction between law and gospel is one of the principal sources of abuses which corrupt it and still corrupt
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Christianity. Understanding law and understanding gospel, Spurgeon said, there's no place on which men make greater mistakes than on the relations which exist between law and gospel.
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So I want you to understand it. I know you do. I've taught about it many times. But when you hear something over and over and over,
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I believe there's a little slogan. It's called, mother is the what? Repetition is the mother of what?
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That slogan that no one forgets. It just rolls off the tongue. Repetition is the mother of all learning.
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And so we need to hear things over and over and over. And by the way, heaven's going to be sweet for lots of reasons, mainly because Jesus is there.
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But there are other reasons, because I tend to forget what I'm supposed to remember. And I tend to remember what
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I'm supposed to forget. I forget the goodness of God and the grace of God and great is thy faithfulness.
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And then I remember things that, like my sins and things that make me think, oh, they're not covered by the blood and when in fact they are.
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Our outline today is super simple because I want you to understand law and gospel. Two definitions, four passages.
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Two definitions, what's law, what's gospel, and four passages so you can see with your own eyes.
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Oh, I understand law, gospel. Now I can understand these passages better. So two definitions, four passages.
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Definition number one, and this is review from last week, what is the law? When I'm out of town preaching,
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I always say where I come from, I have to ask this question, what is the law? And then everybody knows what
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I'm talking about. So what is law? Law is a commandment. Law is something that God tells us to do.
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He could tell it positively, do this, or he could say negatively, don't do this.
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A law from God is not just externally to be obeyed, but from the heart. Not just mere self -righteous.
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God says in the law, I want you to obey. And he's made it very clear through the conscience, through the commandments of God, that he has strict requirements for people.
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We're not supposed to obey the law to obey the law for the law's sake, but it reflects God's nature and his character and his holiness, and therefore that's why we are to obey the law.
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It comes from God. First Timothy 1 .8, we know that the law is good. Romans chapter 7, so the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
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We're not obeying an abstract law, but something from the hand of God. Law is simply do.
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Gospel we learned last week is something different. As law is do, gospel is it's done.
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Something that's done. God declares good news. He promises good news.
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If the law says you're a sinner, the gospel says Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.
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The gospel says this is what God in Christ has done on behalf of you, dear sinner, and me as well.
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God does not forgive us because of what we've done. It's good news.
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He did everything. Now let's go to some passages, and we didn't look at this one last week, so here's something new.
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Turn to Luke chapter 10. Definition of law is do. Definition of gospel is done.
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Now let's see how that comes into play hermeneutically, or how to interpret the
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Bible. We're going to go to this passage that maybe is one of the most well -known passages in all the Bible, and I will say it's one of the most misunderstood passages in all the
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Bible because people don't understand law of gospel. If you get law of gospel, you get the Good Samaritan parable.
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If you don't get it, you say this, well, I should be good to people that aren't like me. That's true, you should be good to people that aren't like you, but what's going on here in the gospel of Jesus according to Luke?
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We'll pick up where we left off in Luke chapter 2 soon enough, but now the summer series, the law and the gospel, how to interpret the
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Bible, why is it important? Let's find out. I think I can prove it with the Good Samaritan parable.
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If I ask you what's the parable all about, I wonder if you would say law.
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Maybe not. I bet after we look at this, you're going to say, what's this parable about? It's about law.
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Luke 10, 25, and behold, it kind of sounds like last week when the rich young ruler just kind of runs up to Jesus.
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Here it's not a rich young ruler, it's a lawyer, and a lawyer is not someone that we make fun of today, the lawyer jokes.
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This is someone who knows God's law, a lawyer. He knows God's law.
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The first five books of the Bible are called the law books. I mean, there's gospel in there as well, but Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
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This man was an expert in those books. And he stood up to put Jesus to the test.
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By the way, always a very bad idea. Teacher, what shall
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I do to inherit eternal life? He knows Moses, he knows the
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Old Testament law, and he thinks he's on to something and he's going to show Jesus what's going on.
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Verse 26, he said to him, what is written in the law, Mr. Lawyer?
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How do you read it? By the way, he gives a good answer. You shall love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
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Good answer? That's a good answer. Now, it's interesting because Jewish people back in those days, they didn't think neighbor was somebody close to me.
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The word neighbor just means someone near. And so it could be someone in your house as a neighbor, or somebody next door, or a friend at work.
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It just means someone near. For the Jew, they said, oh, it couldn't be for a half -breed, it couldn't be for a
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Samaritan, it couldn't be for a Gentile, it couldn't be for a dog. Not a real dog, but somebody who's a person they would call a dog out of disdain.
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It was a limited neighbor. And so here he says, you love your neighbor as yourself, that's true. And now here comes what?
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Is this law or gospel? Verse 28, and Jesus said to him, you've answered correctly.
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You've answered literally with orthodoxy. Do this and you will live.
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What is the great commandment? Love God, love your neighbor. And if you would like to live, if you'd like to have eternal life, if you'd like to inherit eternal life, simply obey.
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Just obey. Full obedience. What is
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Jesus doing? Remember when Jesus uses the law, or Paul uses the law, or you watch an evangelist on TV who's a good evangelist, and Ray Comfort goes up to someone, he begins to preach to them the law, to show them their sin, because that's what the law does, it's to drive us to the
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Savior to say, if that's in fact true, I need grace, I need mercy,
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I need to run to the Savior because I realize I have not perfectly obeyed the law. I've fallen short in many ways.
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Not just in the past, but certainly now and in the future. Jesus is trying to push him to see his sin so that he will see
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Jesus as the Savior. Verse 29, but he, desiring to justify himself, isn't that true for every unbeliever?
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Isn't that true when we were unbelievers? And sadly, even sometimes now as believers, this is what we do. He said to Jesus, I don't really want the answer.
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He's trying to justify himself. Who is my neighbor? Now here comes the parable.
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A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.
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Now by chance, a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a
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Levite, when he came to that place and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, a half -breed, somebody that's not this man's neighbor in his mind, although he's a real neighbor according to God, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.
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He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
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And the next day he took out two days' wages, two denarii, and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, take care of him.
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Whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. That sounds like loving your neighbor as yourself.
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Verse 36, which of these three, right, who are the three? The priest, the
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Levite, and the Samaritan. Which of these three do you think, Mr. Lawyer, you thought you were putting me on the spot?
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I've got a question for you. By the way, this week I read Job 38 through 40.
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Sometime read that, Job 38 to 40. And Job's got all these questions about God, and what's going on in the world, and is there injustice and everything else?
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And God said, no, no, you don't ask me the questions. I ask you the questions. And it really makes my heart just kind of settle down, because I have sometimes questions for God.
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Why this, and why that, and why the other? And you know what? It's just good to be put in my place. Jesus puts him in his place.
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Verse 37, he said, the lawyer, the one who showed him mercy.
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I can almost imagine, you know, I ask my children a question, and they know it's going to have to give me the answer.
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And the answer is going to condemn them, but they have to tell me anyway, the one who showed him mercy.
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Yes, and Jesus said to him, you go and think law, think commands, think what
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Jesus is trying to do. I'm going to try to show you, you can't measure up to the law of God. Because if you could, why would
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I, Jesus, even come? If you can get to heaven on your own by being good, by being better, by being the best, why would
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Jesus ever come to die? If you ever want to know if you're really sinful or not, you ought to say to yourself, and I can say to myself,
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Jesus came to seek and save sinners, lost people. What does Jesus say? You go and do likewise.
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Why don't you just perfectly go obey, perfectly go do this, and be loving to your neighbor?
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How do you know that you're sinful and that you need the Lord Jesus? Answer is out of the law of God.
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Jesus is not preaching to him good news. He's preaching to him law so that he might say, please give me mercy.
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The Good Samaritan parable is not about necessarily loving neighbor. It's about this. If you can perfectly love your neighbor and never stop, you can get to heaven on your own.
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What is the law? The law says do. Here, Jesus gives the law to unbelievers to show them their need.
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Passage number two. Please turn to Romans chapter one. Law or gospel?
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Well, we saw law for the unbeliever. Now I want you to see gospel. Here's a gospel passage.
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We looked at 1 Corinthians 15 last week, that quintessential gospel passage about Christ dying for our sins and being buried and raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
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Now I want you to see another passage. And this is a gospel passage. There's nothing in here to do. There's something just to be believed and to be thankful for.
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Romans starts off with gospel and ends with gospel. Paul, Romans chapter one, verse one.
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I think in our series today is part two of law and gospel. Two definitions. What does law do?
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What has gospel done? We've seen that Jesus uses law to try to show a young man, a lawyer rather, that he needs the
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Savior. Romans 1 .1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle.
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That means one sent out, set apart for the gospel of God. Back in those days, if you wanted to announce something, you'd send a runner and they'd say,
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I have good news. I have good news. We're winning at the battle. Or good news.
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The emperor has had a child. And it's a boy. But this news isn't from a general.
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This news isn't from an emperor. This is the gospel of God. The good news of God.
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Used over and over and over in Romans. Not 10 times. Not 20. Not 30. Not 40. But almost 60 times.
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The gospel of God. And what is the gospel of God? Be good enough, verse two, so that God can save you.
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Right? Can't you see that right in your text? Of course not. We can't save ourselves.
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We need to be saved. And so what's the gospel? Well, maybe it's just kind of new, by the way, because God sees our plight and He's going to come up with something new.
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Not true at all. Verse two, which He promised beforehand through His prophets.
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Verse two, in the Holy Scriptures. So, this is not something that's brand new.
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It's right in the Old Testament. And specifically, what is the good news? It's concerning His Son.
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One God, three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And here, the gospel is centered on the
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Son. Concerning His Son. And by the way, He's truly human. He's perfectly man.
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Who was descended from David according to the flesh. You need a representative.
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And I need a representative. And so it can't be just God, generally. It has to be the
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God -man. So that He can obey in our place and die for our sins in our place. The Word becomes flesh.
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And was declared to be the Son of God. How do we know He's really the Son of God? Lots of people go around and say it.
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In power according to the Spirit of holiness by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus Christ, our
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Lord. Do you want to know the perfect demonstration that proves Jesus is God?
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Answer, the resurrection. And that word is kind of like a horizon. And you look out of the horizon, you see land, you see sky.
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And there's a demarcating line. There's a distinguishing line. It's called the horizon. And that's the language
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Paul uses here. So everyone knows that the exclamation point of God the Father to show you that He's pleased with the
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Son is that Jesus was raised from the dead. Verse 5, through whom we've received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith.
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That is, we tell people to believe for the sake of His name among all nations. The gospel of God is about Jesus the
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Son. Side note, we hear things today about the social gospel. When you hear that, here's what
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I want you to say. Gospel means good news. Social gospel is have the right quotas, hire the right people.
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You got to have this, that, and the other. By the way, that's all law. The social gospel is all law.
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Did you know that? There's no good news. There's no finality to it. It's all law. Secondly, as a side note, the prosperity gospel on TV isn't law or gospel.
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It's law. You give the seed money. You send the money to me. You send the money to Jesus, but just send it to my post office box.
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You send money. You tithe. You show up. You speak in tongues. You do all these things.
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The prosperity gospel isn't the gospel. It's do, do, do, do. When the gospel is done, done, done.
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Same thing with the social gospel. It's not a gospel. It's keep doing. More requirements.
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More ratios. More discrimination. The gospel is
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Jesus, sent by the Father, perfectly obeys the law.
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When God says do to the Son, He did it and was raised from the dead. The law isn't good news unless you can perfectly obey it.
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Liberalism is all law. Social gospel is all law. The Bible teaches that Jesus is the way.
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Passage three. Passage three. Please turn to Psalm 23. Oh, this is going to be fun.
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Psalm 23. I love to look at passages that we love. I love to look at passages that we think we completely know.
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We rest our shoulders on them and our weary heads. Second, or third passage rather,
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Psalm 23. It's almost like if you go to a wedding, what do they preach?
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First Corinthians 13. And you go to a funeral, they preach Psalm 23. Of course, you can have
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Psalm 23 at a funeral. But it's not only a psalm for those mourning. It's not only a psalm for those who need comfort.
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It's probably the most famous psalm. Spurgeon said it's the pearl of psalms.
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Unbelievers know it. You've probably memorized it. And how do
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I understand Psalm 23? It's actually a poem. It's a song.
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How do I understand it? Well, one of the ways you understand Psalm 23 is understanding what's in the center of it.
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What's in that center theologically? And I'll give you the answer and it's found in verse four. For you are with me.
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Did you know if you'd like to understand Psalm 23, the theological center is you are with me.
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And it pervades every section of this psalm. So much so that I could read the psalm this way.
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The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, for you are with me. He makes me lie down in green pastures, for you're with me.
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He leads me beside still waters, for you are with me. He restores my soul, for you are with me.
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He leads me in paths of righteousness for His namesake, for you are with me. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
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I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me, for you are with me.
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You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, for you are with me. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows, for you're with me.
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Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the
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Lord forever, for you are with me. The theological center, what gives this its punch, if you will, its comfort, its joy and sorrow,
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God is with us. Our dog died a few years ago, and my children keep asking close enough to us so that if I ever travel out of town, you watch the dog.
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So far, they're all still not here. But I think if I were to get another dog,
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I'd probably get two, you know, so they can keep each other company. And I don't think
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Kim would like it, but I want to name one goodness, and I want to name the other mercy. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
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Wouldn't that be good? It's the language of tracking and following. I mean, wherever I go, I just can't outrun
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God's mercy, because He's with me. God is omnipresent, He's everywhere. All of His being is everywhere, all the time.
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What do I need? I need a friend that sticks closer than a brother. No one understands.
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But Jesus can sympathize with us, because He's been tempted in every way. The theological center of this book is, for you're with me.
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The writer of Hebrews knew it, Hebrews 13. I will never leave you,
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God said, nor forsake you. Five negatives piled up in the original language. No way, never, ever, ever.
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I'm never going to leave you. You can be in a hospital bed. You can be on a bicycle. You can be around the world.
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You can be down in the Mariana Trench. You can be up in the moon. God says, I'll never leave you. So we can confidently say, the
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Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do? To understand
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Psalm 23, you need to understand the theological center, and what gives it the gravity. Secondly, you need to understand where it is in the
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Bible. And you say, well, it's in the Psalms. True. But which Psalm is before it, and which
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Psalm is after it? Didn't I not say, it's important to understand context?
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Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24 give different glimpses of Jesus the
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Shepherd. Did you know that? Did you know Psalm 22, Psalm 23, and Psalm 24 gives us glimpses of the
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Shepherd? The good Shepherd Jesus said, I'll lay down my life for the sheep. John 10.
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And that's really the sum of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you, what, forsaken me?
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Psalm 22 is about the good Shepherd. His death for us. Psalm 23 is about the great
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Shepherd. His present care, and His provision, and His protection. In the past,
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He died for me. Now, He's watching me. He's the great Shepherd that Hebrews 13 talks about. The great
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Shepherd of the sheep who equips you with everything good for doing His will. That He may work in us what is pleasing to Him.
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Well, if Psalm 22 is about the death, and Psalm 23 is about His present protection, what's
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Psalm 24 about? Answer, His return. Jesus' return.
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The Chief Shepherd, as 1 Peter 5 calls it. Psalm 22, death, past.
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Psalm 23, protection, present. Psalm 24, exaltation, future.
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If you'd like to understand Psalm 23, you better understand the good Shepherd as followed by the great
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Shepherd and the Chief Shepherd. He dies Psalm 22. He's living
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Psalm 23. He's coming back Psalm 24. The Shepherd is the
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Lord Jesus. You say, what does this have to do with law and gospel? You're saying to me,
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I love Psalm 23. Please talk about it all you want. I'm happy, but what does it have to do with law and gospel? I have a question for you, dear congregation.
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I almost said, dear class. Dear class, you're learning. Can you name for me the law verses in Psalm 23?
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What are the law verses? Can you find a law verse? It's important if we want to understand the
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Bible to understand law and gospel. And we come to this passage and we need to say, does it say to do something or does it say something's done?
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Did you know there's not one law verse in Psalm 23? Now, if you don't think
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I like the law, if you don't think I want holiness and obedience and all that, that's our final passage we're going to get to. But for right now, just let it settle in.
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Why do you love Psalm 23? Because it talks about my Great Shepherd.
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It talks about my Good Shepherd. It talks about the Chief Shepherd. It talks about who He is and what He's done.
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And He's with me. And He's with me. And He's with me. Did you know there's not one law in Psalm 23?
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And by the way, if there was, I'd be happy with it. But knowing
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God is so good as a Great Shepherd, does it make you just think, I'll take advantage of that?
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I don't want to obey. I don't want to honor Him. If anybody would love me like that, I'm just going to try to skate on the thin ice of just taking advantage of grace.
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Now, you could say that, but that would be sinful. What do you do instead, knowing that God's your shepherd and He'll never leave you?
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You say, I don't want to be anxious like I am. God, please help me not to be anxious.
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You say, do you know what? I get my eyes too focused on the world and politics and it's robbing my joy.
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And now I lift my eyes to the hill and where does my help come from? Oh, it comes from the name of the Lord who created the heavens and the earth.
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And you think, why am I so anxious? Psalm 23 solves the problem. Why am I so lacking joy?
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Psalm 23 solves the problem. I need comfort. My friends try, but they don't know what to say. Psalm 23 solves the problem.
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And it solves the problem by not telling you anything to do, but who
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God is. Do you see? That is wonderful. There's nothing wrong with the law.
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I'm just saying, when you read the Bible, you should say to yourself, is this law or is this gospel? And think through these things.
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What's law do? What's gospel done? The law is good to show unbelievers, like the lawyers, so they see their sin.
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If you're a Christian here today, someone had enough courage to tell you that you were a sinner and the wages of sin is death so that you could seek the
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Savior. We see Psalm 23, there's no law there.
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But is law good for the Christian? Final passage today, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Now, the law is always the law, whether we're
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Christians or not. But the law that used to condemn us now guides us.
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We have a different relationship to the Creator. He's now our Father. Instead of condemning us like a mirror would to show us our true self, it guides us because we're already in Christ.
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1 Corinthians chapter 6. I mean, if anybody needs the law, it's the
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Corinthians, don't you think? A bunch of crazy people. I've been to Corinth before and you see the hill.
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And that hill is where the prostitutes were. And they come down on the weekend for worship. Somehow thinking that prostitute, being with a prostitute is worship of some pagan god.
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You say, that's just ridiculous. No, that's America today, sadly, in the West.
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Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. And they are involved in all kinds of sleazy sexual sins and other sins.
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I mean, they're trying to sue each other. They're accepting sin in the camp, chapter 5.
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They're not unified at all. Weird views of spiritual gifts. They don't even know if there was a resurrection even real.
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But here we're going to look at 1 Corinthians 6, 9 to 20. And it's dealing with sexual sin, but I want you to know it could deal with any area of holy living.
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If you're in sexual sin, this will be perfect for you. But if you're not in sexual sin, it's a good way to keep away from it.
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And also, I want you to think, this is God's paradigm for holy living. How does
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God get us to live holy lives? Well, Psalm 23 just says, this is who I am. But he gives us law too.
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And here's a great illustration of that. There's nothing wrong with law as it guides us. Let me show you three laws in this passage.
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Three laws in this passage. They're certainly good and they guide and they help us.
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Law one, found in verse nine, don't be deceived.
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That's the first law, don't be deceived. Verse nine, or do you not know, 1
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Corinthians 6, 9, that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? By the way, should they know that?
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They should know that. Paul says over and over, don't you know, don't you know, don't you know, don't you know?
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I know it will show my age, but when I was a kid, we watched Rocky and Bullwinkle, the cartoon. Like this thing about communism and all that and Boris and Natasha and all that.
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And they had a guy that was so annoying and he was called Mr. Well, there's
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Mr. Peabody, but there's a guy named Mr. Know -it -all. Ever meet anybody like that at school? They think they know everything.
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That was the Corinthian church. We know, we know, we know, we know, I know. Say that to a child, don't do this. I know.
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No, you don't. Don't be deceived.
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It's easy to be deceived. But you don't have to.
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What would I be deceived about? That unrighteous people inherit the kingdom of God.
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Verse nine goes on to say, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, says premarital sex, sex when you're married with a partner that's not your wife, nor men who practice homosexuality.
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It's actually two words in the original there, active and passive. Nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
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Our hearts can deceive us. I thought Disney was bad 20 years ago with this
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Disney theology. Just follow your heart, how much worse it's gotten. But our hearts are desperately wicked, deceitful above all else.
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Who can know it? Be careful. You have a friend and they're nice. And I have a homosexual friend who's nicer than my
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Christian friends. And I have a friend who's committing adultery and they're nicer than... And the list goes on and on and on. And he says, don't be deceived.
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And by the way, dear Corinth, if you think that the gospel of Jesus Christ is going to allow you to just live a licentious life and you take advantage of grace, you've got another thing coming.
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Hebrews 3 says, sin is deceitful. It tricks you. There's another law in here.
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We love the law. It's found in verse 18. And it's dealing again in this whole context with sexual sin, which we'll see.
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Is law good for the Christian? Of course, because it reflects God's nature and it guides us. It helps us to say,
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I want to glorify God. I want to love my neighbor. I want to honor him. Law 2 in this passage is verse 18.
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Flee from sexual immorality. Present tense. Keep on running.
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If there's anyone here, Bethlehem Bible Church, who's in sexual sin with another person or with pixels on a computer down in their basement, the answer is run.
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Flee. You don't have to try to say, I'm strong. I'm courageous. Remember Joseph? Who would have known?
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And what did he do? Well, I can stand up to this because I'm courageous.
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Joseph runs. In a sexually degenerate -based culture, we flee from immorality.
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The society might exalt it, but we have to run. Warren Wiersbe said, sex within marriage can build a relationship that brings joy in the future.
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But sex apart from marriage has a way of weakening future relationships, as every
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Christian marriage counselor will tell you. So it's not only bad for you. It doesn't honor the
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Lord. And it doesn't honor the person that you're with. Is there anything wrong with law to guide Christians?
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The answer is no. Law 3 found in verse 20. Again, in the context of sexual sin.
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1 Corinthians 6 .20. The law tells us what to do. Don't be deceived. Flee immorality.
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And it tells us something else on the positive side. You might think everything's negative so far, but now he turns it to a positive.
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So glorify God in your body. Don't flee sexual sin from fear of venereal disease, or I might get pregnant, or somebody might catch me.
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No, no. It's positive. Dear Christian, you serve a new master. And you want to glorify
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God. You want to make His name look great. Flee sexual immorality and glorify
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God in your body. Dear Christian, are law passages important for us, for you?
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Answer, yes, yes, and yes. But is there something more?
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I want you to see some gospel passages in this section, verses 9 through 20.
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And I want you to know that Jesus died for the sins of Christians too.
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Now, that might not strike you as odd, but Jesus died for the sins of Christians too. Yes, Jesus sought me and bought me with His redeeming love and He saved me.
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And then now am I just left on my own as an unbeliever? His grace was enough and it overcame my sin.
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But now I'm a believer. Am I just left to not be deceived and to run and to glorify
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God in my body? Is there any way I can be motivated to obey? Am I able to obey?
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What am I supposed to do? Just surrender more? What am I holding back from the Lord? What do
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I do as a Christian when I sin? What spurs me to obey out of gratitude and not out of Damocles' sword?
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If I sin one more time, I must not be elect. Well, Paul gives gospel truths.
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And if you go back to chapter 1, let me give you the first one. It's not in our passage, but it's in the passage essentially, because it's the intro to the book.
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I want you to know, dear Christian, here's a gospel truth. You're a saint. God made you a saint.
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1 Corinthians 1 -2, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of the
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Lord Jesus Christ their Lord. The law says do a lot of good things so they'll make you a saint.
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The gospel in the Bible says, did you know what? God calls you a saint. You're a saint. And so what
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God is going to try to implore the people to do is to be who you are. I mean, what if I had to start doing things that I couldn't do?
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What if I had to start becoming someone that I'm not? It's impossible. But what if I can now become more and more like a saint that I am positionally?
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I'm not a saint by my actions. Separated by God. Separated from God and now
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He makes me a saint. You're a saint, dear Christian. He goes on, verse 8.
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Here's another gospel truth. Not only did God make you a saint, and saints shouldn't be running around in the filth and mire of sin.
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Verse 8, Who will confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our
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Lord. Not one law there. Not one command there. It's all God is faithful. Yes, but I've been unfaithful.
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God is faithful. Corinthians have been unfaithful, but God is faithful. Back to 1 Corinthians chapter 6.
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If someone calls you in the middle of the night and says, I need help with a sin. What do you tell them?
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They call you in the middle of the night and say, I'm kicked out of the house because I'm watching pornography.
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I've had that happen here at Bethlehem Bible Church. Somebody knocked on the door. I was in my office and they said,
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Hi Pastor Mike. This is many, many years ago. The person's not here any longer. And they said, I'd like to take a shower.
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Sure. What do you think my next question was going to be? Why? And he said,
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Well, my wife kicked me out of the house. I said,
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Why? He said, Well, I was on the couch watching porn, fell asleep and my 12 year old daughter came over and saw what
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I was doing. What would you tell him?
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Stop it. Flee. Run. Ask for forgiveness. Put an
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X -Block on your phone. Get a flip phone. Have an accountability group. Go to the gym.
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I mean, there could be a thousand things you tell him, but if you only tell him law, you're not helping him like God would help.
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Give the law yes, and everything I said, you could say and should say. But if you only give the law, that's not
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Christianity. That's called moralism, pietism, Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, and every other ism.
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Look what one of the things that Paul says. Here's a gospel truth in verse 11. Such were some of you, but you were, here it is, number three, washed.
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You were washed. You commit a sexual sin, you feel guilt, you feel shame, you feel awful, and no shower or bath can ever undo it all.
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But I want you to know, dear Christian, Paul says to the church of Corinth, to these people who were ex -fornicators, ex -adulterers, ex -thieves, who still sin, you're washed.
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You're clean. God did it all. You're washed. Why go back to the filth and the mire? I run back.
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You're purified. God's rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together in Christ.
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If anyone's in Christ, you're a new creation. Old is past. Behold, new has come. You're cleansed.
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If you've been washed, why disgrace yourself with defilements of sin? So remember, if someone asks you the question, what do
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I need to do to stop sinning? I'm so anxious. Let's just pick that one instead of sexual sin. I just seem to be so anxious all the time.
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And I know the Bible says, be anxious for nothing. And I'm anxious for everything. And I know that's sin. And you think to yourself,
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I'm a dear Christian and I know that I struggle with sin and you're a dear Christian. You struggle with sin.
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What do we do about anxiety? If you only give them law, you haven't given them all the truth.
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Of course, you can tell them, repent. He keeps going.
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Sanctified. You were washed. You were sanctified. What's that mean? It means you're set apart. Don't pollute yourself.
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You're set apart. You've got a different purpose in life. I don't like the book, but Rick Warren's book,
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The Purpose Driven Life, resonated with so many Christians because what is the purpose of my life? And by the way, the purpose of your life is not filth and mire and gross living.
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You're sanctified. You're set apart for something special. Can you imagine?
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I think it was Robert Murray McShane. He said, I'd like to be a sharp sword wielded by God for His glory.
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And I don't want to go make myself dull and rusty by going back to my old sins. You've been justified.
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There's another one. Gospel indicative 5. You've been justified. Do you see it? You're washed. You're sanctified.
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You're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now, what's important here is simply this.
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Justification is a legal term and it means that God in His courtroom has declared me and you, dear
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Christian, righteous. Like we perfectly obey the law. You're righteous if you obey the law.
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And we are determined as righteous, declared righteous rather, because Jesus was righteous in our place.
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He obeyed the law. And our unrighteousness, Jesus takes. So it's this great exchange. His righteousness for my sins.
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That's what justification is. Why do you think Paul says it to these sleazy Corinthians? Because here's what happens.
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When a Christian sins, especially sexual sin, or this list of vices, then you begin to think, you know what?
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I must not be a Christian. I don't know if I can measure up to that. Of course, if you're just going to move in with your girlfriend, live with her for 10 years, and you know, you abandon your wife and all this other stuff.
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Yeah, don't be deceived. You're not a Christian. But Christians struggle with sin, including sexual sin.
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So what do you do? When you feel so guilty, when you're so ashamed, and you think, you know what? I'm just tempted to just go whole hog into sin, because how could
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God ever love me anyway? Paul writes, you're justified, because he wants to remind you that there's nothing you can do to make yourself unrighteous.
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If you're a Christian, you can't out sin grace. If you're serially unrepentant, and you're professing, that's one thing.
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But if you're a Christian, by the way, do Christians still sin? I've heard people say, people that you might listen to on the radio, that if you keep struggling with the same sin as you did when you first were saved, you're not a
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Christian. That's wrong. That's depressing.
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The key to Christianity, when you're thinking about your ongoing sins, and your besetting sins, and sins that you hate after you do, is, is there a struggle?
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That's the key. Struggling with sin shows. And then you go back to the cross, and you say, you know what?
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I in fact stand justified. I'm washed, sanctified, but I'm justified. So I don't say to myself,
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I'm paralyzed with guilt, and self -condemnation, and regret, and therefore, I'm just going to go all in to sin.
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No, Christians have been justified. Christians sin. We sin every day.
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And when your conscience condemns you, you repent, and you ask God for forgiveness, and you remember
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God's verdict. Declared not guilty. One writer said the truth of justification is not a license to justify immoral sin.
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If it were, Paul would hardly use it in a context where he is exhorting believers to a faithful pursuit of holiness and purity.
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Rather, justification is the fountain of all true obedience to God. If someone is struggling with a sin, and we all struggle with it, is it good to give law?
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Yes, but it's not good to only give law. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 14.
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Look at another gospel truth. Laws do. Gospels done. Has God done anything else when it comes to me dealing with sin?
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Any sin, including sexual sin? Verse 14, God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by His power.
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Don't defile your body, because your exact body is going to be raised in the resurrection. Glorified, yes, but your body...
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God has a future claim for your body. Don't take your body lightly. We're not the pagans who are like, soul's good, body's bad.
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No. Furthermore, verses 15 -17, there's more gospel truth.
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You're united with Jesus. Members of Christ. Joined to the Lord. That's what verses 16 -17 say.
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Do you not know? Your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?
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Never. Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? Should know.
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For as it is written, the two shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.
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I'm united with Christ. You are united with Christ. That should motivate me to do the right thing.
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And finally for today, verse 20. We went there, but didn't read the whole verse. Is there more gospel truth that we can remind believers of to help them motivate to obey and keep
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God's law out of gratitude? Answer, verse 20. And I want every
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Christian to know this about themselves here this morning. You're bought with a price. You, Christian, were bought with a price.
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Probably using language of Corinth as they would buy a prostitute with a price.
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This is a different price. To redeem someone, you've got to make a payment.
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There's a slave, and you want to buy the slave, and you have to pay something. And that payment is called a ransom.
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And that ransom is the Lord Jesus and His blood and His death. You were bought with a price.
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How can I go watch pornography, cheat on my wife, fornicate, or anything else?
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I've been bought. I'm to be used for other purposes. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give
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His life a what? A ransom, the purchase price, for many. Did you know if you'd like to be a holy person, and obey
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God, there has to be more than law. There must be law to help us and to guide us.
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There's all kinds of law. Ephesians 4, 5, and 6. Romans 12 through 16. Colossians 3, 6 and following.
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The list goes on and on and on. Proverbs. It's just like raising children.
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Parenting. God parents perfectly. We parent like Him.
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And we just don't tell our children what to do, although that's fine to tell them what to do. We tell them why they should do it, and how much they mean to us, as we talked about last week.
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If you want to obey God's law, it can't just be with law only, because law doesn't motivate.
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Doesn't help our hearts want to do it. Michael Horton writes, most people think that the goal of religion is to get people to become something they're not.
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The scriptures call believers to become more and more what they already are in Christ Jesus. Dear Christian, you need the gospel.
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Jesus died for the sins of Christians too. And when you remember who
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Jesus is, I think I've said it most mornings when I wake up, I read the Bible, I read the passage
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I'm studying. I probably read the proverb of the day. If it's the 18th of the month, I read verse 18.
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And then when I get ready for the day, I turn on the audible Bible, and I always listen to one of the gospels.
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And I'm usually listening to John 5 through 9. And I'm reminded about who Jesus is.
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And I'm reminded what this writer, Walter Marshall says, probably one of the most important books on sanctification ever written, according to John Murray.
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God does not drive you along, dear Christians, with whips and tears by the rod of the schoolmaster of the law.
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Rather, He leads you and draws you to walk in His ways in pleasant attractions.
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The love of Christ, of course, is the greatest and most pleasant attraction to encourage you to godly living.
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You cannot love God if you are under continual secret suspicion that He's really your enemy.
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He knows everything about you. He's set His love on you. He'll never take it off you if you're a
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Christian. Spurgeon When I thought God was hard,
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I found it easy to sin. But when I found God so kind, so good, so overloving, overflowing with compassion,
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I smote upon my breast to think I could ever have rebelled against one who loved me so and sought my good.
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The law says do. The gospel says done. And the key to your growth and holiness, dear
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Christian, is Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for this time. We can get together. I stand convicted along with the congregation.
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And we with Jerry Bridges need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. The truth about Jesus, the resurrected
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Savior, is not just for unbelievers. Thank you, Father, that we can never go beyond who
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Jesus is. He's everything to us. And I pray, Father, that if someone here today has no idea what
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I'm talking about because they don't know you, that they would respond to the gospel call.
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Come everyone who thirsts. Come to the waters. And he who has no money, come buy and eat.
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Come buy milk and wine without price and without money. May they believe on the