10-04-2020

Park Meadows Church

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Okay, I think we're in the right place at the right time now. All right, well we've been going through the book of Romans verse by verse, and we've made our way to Romans 8, verse 30 today.

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Been talking about this for a few Sundays, but let me read it. It says, moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and who he called he also justified.

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And we know this is in two or three verses, right in this little area where it really talks about all of salvation in two or three verses.

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Not all the details, but it gives the major points of all of salvation, past, present, and future.

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Because you know, salvation's a big word. It has many parts, many components. Jesus, Christ, and the

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Father, and the Holy Spirit did all of the work required to save us. We don't do any of the work. We receive a free gift.

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And this passage describes this as well as anything, but he went up one more verse before this one.

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It says, whom he foreknew, and of course we know, we've studied this, do a word study on that. That's talking about intimate knowledge, or actually it's talking about an intimate relationship.

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It doesn't talk about mental knowledge. It's talking about an intimate relationship.

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So the Father knew us with an intimate love before he created anything, and that's what foreknowledge is.

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It's always what it is. Foreknowledge is never about actions. Check it out if you don't believe me. In scripture, it's never about actions.

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It's about people. God foreknows people, not actions. It's not like he looks out and sees what you're doing. He can do that, but that's called omniscience.

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Foreknowledge is about people. So when it says he foreknew you, it means he knew you were his child already before you knew it, before you even were born, and even before the world was created by God, he knew you personally as his own child.

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Now think about that. How special does that make you? Does that make you prideful? No, because you didn't do anything to earn it, but does it make you happy?

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Absolutely. It makes you happy that you were born, and you wake up, and hey, I'm in God's family.

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That's why Jesus said it's like being born again. Physical birth, the child has nothing to do with its own birth.

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The child just shows up in the world, and he's part of that family. He did nothing to be part of the family. He has all the benefits of it, though, and as he grows and matures, he knows more and more about what that means to be part of that family, the same way spiritually.

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We have nothing to do with our salvation other than receiving it as a gift. We're born into God's family, but God knew you before the foundation of the world.

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Then it says, those who he foreknew, he also predestinated. It's like I said yesterday, we had an event at Tradeway with a whole lots of people across the country on there, and I was going over a verse and having to do a stock market somehow.

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How'd that happen? And it was talking about this fact, and I pointed out that across the country, many times over the past,

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I don't know, 15, almost pushing more than that now, 20 years maybe, people would come up to me at a break and say, you don't believe in predestination, do you?

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Like that. That's how they always look. It's like exactly like that. And I go, and I look just like this.

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I go, nah, and I don't believe in John 3, 16 either. And they look at me like, and they're just speechless.

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They go, you don't believe in John 3, 16? And then I smile and I say, look,

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I believe in everything that's in the Bible. John 3, 16 is in the Bible. I believe in that. Predestination is all through the

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Bible. So, I believe in that too. Of course, I believe in it. Why wouldn't I? And if they want to know more,

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I'll say, have lunch with me, and we'll talk about it over lunch at these meetings. We've done this for years and years and years. So, I don't know how many people

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Tradeway has introduced to the predestination concept in the Bible that they never learned in their church, which is ridiculous, because you're supposed to teach the whole

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Bible, not just the parts you like, not just the part that fits your denominational preferences, right?

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Preach the whole Bible. That's why we took Baptist off the sign out there. We're just like Bible. We're biblianarians, okay?

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Sometimes we, on the sign, we'll put temporary, it says we're Augustinians, and then no one wants to come.

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So, we're Pauline, and they don't want to come. But I mean, you know, if you put Calvinist, boy, they would never come.

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But Calvin didn't invent Calvinism. Augustine did that 1 ,400 years before him. But guess what?

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He didn't invent it because he learned it from Paul, the apostle, who learned it from Jesus. So, it's Christianity. You've heard me say it a million times, but I don't need new jokes.

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I just need new congregations, more people, and I'll tell the same stories again and again, but they work.

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Because think about it, who he foreknew, he predestinated, all right, and who he predestinated now.

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All of that happened before time began, didn't it? So, it's not in time, therefore, it's not in sequence.

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He didn't foreknow first and then predestinate. He didn't foreknow and then say, well, I'll choose them. It didn't work like that because he's now.

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He's in the present tense, and they're both in aorist. So, actually, it's just like they just happened.

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So, they just exist as God exists. Foreknowledge, predestination exists as God exists. And guess what?

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You were there too. You were there too because he knew you. And, you know, at the end of time, when people think they're saved by works, they're going to come up to Jesus and say, well,

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I did many wonderful things in your name, and he's going to say, depart from me, I never what? Knew you, that's foreknowledge.

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I never knew you with a loving relationship. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity.

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So, he counts their good works as sinful works. Isn't that amazing? Because compared to holy God, our works are like that.

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They're like filthy rags, are they not? So, this whole idea of salvation by works or thinking that works help you stay saved is totally unbiblical, front end to the back page of the

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Bible, totally unbiblical, and it's only believed because pastors teach it. And that's sad.

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There's nothing wrong with America except what's wrong in the pulpit. That's all. There's where the blame is.

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Anyway, so, before time, foreknowledge happened, predestination happened, and then time began, right?

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He created. Genesis 1 -1, he created. Dave, would you shut that for me?

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He created everything that is. And then from our viewpoint, many years went by, maybe 8 ,000 years or so, six to 8 ,000 years go by, and we find ourselves born into our physical families.

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Did we have anything to do with that? No, but we enjoy it, and we enjoy all the benefits.

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Spiritual birth is the same way. So, now, here we are. And you know what Jesus said? It's kind of interesting. I'm rabbit trail here.

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But he said, whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

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Now, think about that. So, now, there's two requirements for salvation. One is you got to live, which means you had to have a physical birth, which you had nothing to do with.

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And believing in me, you think you had to do with that, but I will promise you, you didn't believe in Jesus one second before your regeneration because you didn't want him.

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And when the Holy Spirit came to you while you were still in your sins and quickened you, that's regeneration. That happened before you did anything.

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That's the cause of your salvation. Everything else is an effect, and an effect can never be the cause of a cause.

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So, you believed as a result of your regeneration. It did not cause it. And yet, the modern gospel today says what you have to do to get saved is believe.

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Now, I understand why they say it because you read some verses in the Bible where it sounds like that's what

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God is saying, but that's not what God is meaning, and that's what's important. You have to read the whole

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Bible to understand and certainly the context that every verse is found in to understand what God means by what he says.

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So, belief, human belief, is a result of your regeneration. And the

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Holy Spirit gives you some 33 different things at the moment he regenerates you, and one of them is called the faith of Jesus, not faith in Jesus, the faith of Jesus.

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He gives you his faith. He gives you his presence. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you. All of these things happen at your spiritual birth.

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Then you can believe. Then you can repent. Then you can go to church. Then you can do all the things that all these denominations say you have to do to get saved, and that's why they fight because they're all fighting over the effects.

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And everyone in their congregations got saved by the same cause. The Holy Spirit called them. He called them.

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And look what it says. It says, those who he predestinated, them he called.

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So, the calling has to happen or a person is not saved. A person cannot be saved without the

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Holy Spirit calling him to Jesus and opening his blind eyes, his deaf ears, his mind, bringing the change of mind that, oh,

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I'm not God. He's God. Oh, I can't feed myself. He's the shepherd. I'm the sheep. He's got the food.

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I want him. And he changes your want to. All of that happens at regeneration. It's all a work of God. And today, we're going right back to the dark ages.

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And I don't want to go too much into detail about what I'm talking about, so I'm just going to hit around it.

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But we're going right back in the dark ages of people not understanding the word of God. Back then, they didn't have the word of God because it wasn't allowed for them to read it.

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In fact, people were burned to death for reading it by a certain group, the largest group.

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And yet today, you're just mocked if you read it. You'd like, you believe in predestination.

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Well, it's because a person who asked me that has not studied their Bible. And I'm wrong for believing it.

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You see, that's the world we live in today. So it's too bad, isn't it? But you know what? We have to live by the word.

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It's the only authority we have. And the Holy Spirit is our teacher. Jesus said it requires two things to be saved.

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The water and the spirit. And the water, if you study the New Testament, it relates to the water, the washing of the water of the word.

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It's the word of God. It's the written word. You have to have the gospel, which is the written word, and you have to have the

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Holy Spirit, which is the calling, see it right up here. And look what it says to those who are called.

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They are justified, and that's what we're studying right now. What does it mean to be justified, to be rendered righteous?

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We hit it in Sunday school again, didn't we, Bill? It's interesting because it's in the passive voice, and a lot of times you find it in the perfect participle, which means it's already happened in the past and it's finished.

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It's a done thing. It happened in the past, it's finished, and the fact that it's passive means you didn't do it to yourself, someone bigger than you did it to you, and that's

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God. So, you see, those who are called are made righteous or rendered righteous by God.

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It's not like you did a bunch of good stuff, so he saved you. No, he saved you and gave you Jesus's righteousness, just like he gave you his faith.

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It's all of God. We just receive a gift. And so, there are about seven things you have to understand to even understand justification.

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We've been studying those things, and we're only down to the second one. And the second one was you have to... Here, the first one was you got to understand the depravity of man.

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Otherwise, you think you can save yourself. But if you understand that throughout the Bible, you'll know you can't. There's none that seeketh

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God, not one. None that understands, et cetera. So, the second one is you have to understand the meaning of grace, and that's where we are now, studying that one.

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So, as we look at the... understand the definition of grace, it helps us understand how we got justified.

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Because grace, if you look at the definition, by definition, is impossible to add works of man to grace, either with regard to salvation or with regard to eternal security.

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In other words, your works don't get you saved, and they don't keep you saved. But so many denominations and groups are off on that.

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And they'll bring up certain little passages out of context and say, well, it says right here, you got to work out your own salvation or whatever.

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Yeah, it says that, but what does it mean? You have to read the whole chapter to understand that one. But if you read it, it will not contradict this one.

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Because guess what? God does not contradict himself. So, it's impossible to add works with grace in order to get saved or stay saved.

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That's one thing we found out. In Galatians 1, 6 through 9, we found this out. When you move away from the idea of grace towards works, you actually move away from Jesus.

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Not a concept, a person. Paul said this, if you get circumcised because you think you have to do that to get saved, he says, then

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Jesus Christ availeth you nothing. Well, where are you going to go when you die if Jesus doesn't help you? You're going to get there and say, well,

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I got circumcised, so you got to let me in heaven. Think that'll work? Works aren't going to get you there.

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So, you have to understand as a person is taught by a false teacher that you got to add works back in.

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Yeah, we believe in Jesus, but you got to worship on Saturday, not Sunday. But you got to get circumcised. But you got to go to church, have church attendance.

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You have to tithe. You have to do all these things. Some of our Church of Christ friends here in the Texas and southern part of the country believe you got to do five things to get saved.

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And they don't understand all five of those things are effects. None of them are the cause. So, I'll agree with them, you need to do those things.

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But they're effects. They don't cause the salvation and they think they do. So, they don't want to come to church here, right?

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And I sure don't want to go to church there. And that's sad how Satan has done that, isn't it? Charles Spurgeon, over 150 years ago, saw this.

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He said, look guys, to a congregation, he said, an effect can never be the cause of the cause. So true, but he was so clear in his thinking.

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So, when we move away from grace, we're removed from him. Number two, there is no other gospel than the gospel of grace.

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There's no other real gospel. Number three, destiny of those who preach works salvation.

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This is the destiny of the false teachers who teach it that way. The Bible said in the book of Jude that they will go to the blackness of darkness forever.

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Where does that sound like? I didn't write the book of Jude.

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I don't even like reading it that much, but that's what it says. I will tell you that in other parts of scripture, it lists a second kind of false prophet though.

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The first kind of false prophet is sent to the earth with the purpose. He was foreordained to come and teach false doctrine.

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You say, why would God do that? You'll have to ask him, but the Bible says he did. And I think he delegates it to Satan, of course, to turn the mind of this person.

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But this person was ordained to go to hell before he was even born on the earth. Book of Jude says it, go read it if you don't believe it.

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And that kind of false prophet comes into the church unawares, secretly, and begins to try to take your freedom away, your freedom in Christ.

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He tries to remove that by saying, no, you got to do all this stuff to stay saved, and it puts a burden on you. That type of person is not going to be in heaven, and yet they look like marvelous.

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The Bible says they look like angels of light, so you'll listen to them. The second kind is a person who's just young and hadn't studied enough, and he teaches something wrong.

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Later, he finds out it was wrong. He corrects it, repents of it, apologizes, and moves on, and he is saved.

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He just made a mistake, and that's all of us. We're all that way. But some are ordained to hell, and they're teaching false doctrine, and Satan sneaks them into churches secretly, the

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Bible says. We talked about that a little bit. Then in Galatians 2, verses 4 through 21, how do these false prophets work?

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What do they do? How should we respond to them? It says you don't listen to them for even one hour. You get them out of the church.

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Number four, how are we not made righteous? And then number five, how are we really made righteous?

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Not by works, but by grace is the answer to that. And number six, how should we live then, knowing these things?

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And number seven, legalism attempts to make Christ's life and death vanity. Legalism tries to make

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Jesus' blood not worth what it's worth. So it's filthy. It's a filthy doctrine.

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So we've talked about all that. What causes people to believe? Look at this, Galatians 3, 3, 1.

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Oh, foolish Galatians who has bewitched, sorry, I'm trying to go fast, bewitched you. You have to be bewitched to believe this stuff.

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Now, think about what that means, all right? There's the definition right there, but it has to do with witchcraft or demonology.

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Paul talks of doctrines of demons. You have to be persuaded by the dark side to believe this stuff.

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So like when you have friends that are so close friends to you and to me who believe, yeah, I believe in Jesus, but also

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I believe in the sacraments, I got to do all this. I have wonderful friends that believe that stuff, but they've been bewitched.

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And I know it because God told me they have. And you will argue with them for hours with good logical argument and you can't change their thinking until what?

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Till God changes their thinking. And we studied that too right here.

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If you want a beautiful, beautiful passage, go to 2 Timothy 2, 24 through 3, 1. We studied it in detail last time.

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It is amazing. It shows you how to deal with people that don't understand these truths in meekness and not arguing with them, but rather instructing them.

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What does that mean? You give them the truth. You don't have to debate them, you just give them the truth. Tell them what the Bible actually says.

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And then it says, if God perventure might change their mind, which means

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God might not choose to, so he's in control, he's sovereign. If he chooses to, then they have to decide, well, they set themselves free from Satan who controls them every day, is what the verse says.

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So you ask yourself, do people really have free will or are they moved around by either the Lord or the Holy Spirit or Satan?

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We do have a will, but it's not free. It's not sovereign. We're influenced by something. All humans are.

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And the Bible says, lost people are influenced by Satan at his will. And a miracle has to happen for them to agree with your position if you're teaching truth.

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So don't feel so bad when you can't change their mind. I'm preaching to me, right?

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Charlotte knew it and that's why she shared that with me about two years ago or a year and a half ago. And I have thought about it every day since she did because she knows

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I'm in debates all the time across the country and she wanted me to deal with it meekly because that's not my nature.

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Some of us do that way too. But anyway, not you, Barbara. But are you, Dave? Picking on your kids,

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I'm sorry, but they're kind of my kids too now. So Charlotte shares this with me because she wanted me to see the meekness part was part of it, but also how it works.

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And it helps me so much. So check that one out. And then we talked about the total illogic of salvation by works.

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It's impossible for the natural man to be saved. All right. So Galatians 3 .10

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teaches that. Now, this is actually new material. We were laughing about this last night because we had this big meeting in Tradeway and everybody was busy all week.

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And I think it was Paul, my son Paul last night said, Dad, you got a sermon ready? And I said, I think so.

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And he said, well, if you don't, just review. Well, that's what I just did.

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And we're out of time because we didn't start till noon. Isn't that funny? I didn't know we'd be starting at noon. I thought we'd start about 1130.

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But he said, just review. No one will know the difference because it's kind of true because anytime

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I review, which we just finished the review, see, that's the last review one. This is today's stuff.

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Anytime I review, I see more stuff in it than what we didn't talk about last week. So it's a new sermon. So you know what I mean?

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So that can work. But we got to take a little minute here. We got just a hair of time. So let's look at a little bit of new material.

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This is what we're talking about today is the total illogic of salvation by works. All right.

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It is impossible for the natural man to save himself by doing good stuff.

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And that's what this topic is about. Now, we've already talked about two little points down there. See, number one, it says the only way to believe in works salvation is to be bewitched.

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You have to be taught that by demonic teachers. Number two, the method of regeneration.

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We talked about this last time. It takes two things, the water and the spirit, the word of God and the spirit.

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That's God's method of saving us. So not only did he predetermine who would be saved, he predetermined the means of it, which is the water, the

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Bible, and the Holy Spirit. We already talked about that. So now let's look at something new.

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Galatians 3 .10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.

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So now, if you are a person who believes part of or all of your salvation is by doing good works, you know, by keeping commandments or doing works of the law, then you are under the curse.

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For it is written, cursed is everyone that continue is not in all things, all parts that are written in the book of the law to do them.

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And how many human beings do you know that have kept every jot and every tittle of the law?

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I only know one, and he's seated at the right hand of God now. His name is

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Jesus Christ. I don't know any others. Do you? I've never read of any other. I've never read of any person who has not broken

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God's laws. And so the scripture says in many places, several places, that if you're going to be saved by keeping the law, you have to keep it all.

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There's a problem, and Jesus used that a lot when he was preaching, because he's preaching predominantly to the Jew first and then the

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Gentile. And as he spoke to groups of Jews who thought they were self -righteous because of their law and their little rules they had added to it, they're keeping them the best they can, better than the next guy.

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And they thought they were saved that way, and Jesus would just say, okay, well, here's the problem. If you look at a woman in lust, you've committed adultery.

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And he was telling this to the Pharisees, basically, people who believed they were saved by being good.

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But if you just look and in your mind, then you've already done it, Jesus said. And he said, you know what? It would be better then in that case for you to pluck your eye out and throw it away and go to heaven than to go to hell with two good eyes.

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And they're going, you know what they should have been thinking? Maybe I can't get saved by works.

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You see, that's what he was teaching in a subtle way. Very interesting to look at how

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Jesus taught that. He said it, he taught it subtly, not just out front. He didn't say, you don't get saved by works.

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He said, well, okay, I know what you guys think. And so if you've ever looked at a woman in lust, and you've now committed adultery, you've broken the law.

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So you should pluck your eye out physically, literally pluck it out, or you're going to hell. What do you think those guys were thinking?

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Do you remember when they brought the woman in adultery to him? All these

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Pharisee -ish type men brought this woman who they called adultery. Why didn't they bring the man who's probably a

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Pharisee? I don't know. They didn't bring the man. They brought the woman to Jesus and asked him, what will you do with her?

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And he said, well, I'll tell you what. Let's let the first man, the man who has done no sin to cast the first stone.

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And they walked away. And guess what order they walked away in? The eldest to the youngest.

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The older men had way more sin in their life, and they knew it, and they left the scene quickly. Now you think about that.

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What is he really teaching? He's teaching you can't get saved by keeping the rules, right?

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And if you try, you're under the curse because you didn't keep all of them. Wow, what a warning that is.

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We need to tell our friends this, because we all have friends who are Roman Catholics. Who are Church of Christ, who are Pentecostal.

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And now you say, well, don't name names. Well, yeah, I know what they don't all believe the same, but I know what a lot of them believe.

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They believe you have to add works. And then if you don't, you can lose your salvation. And sad, sadly, sadly, they're so wrong.

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And they've been taught that by false teachers. It's not even their fault, except it is your fault because you got a Bible. You should be reading the

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Bible. Let the Holy Spirit have many. I mean, I've had times when I believe something a certain way because the teacher taught me.

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And every time I try to teach it, the Holy Spirit went, doesn't mean that. And I finally get where I don't teach it because I don't understand it.

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Of course, this was many years ago. But I would just stop teaching it because I didn't understand it like last week.

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But anyway, so why doesn't the Holy Spirit do that to them when they do that, right?

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Well, it's because some of them are ordained to the blackness of darkness forever. That's why those teachers that are preachers that are teaching that stuff.

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And I said that nicely. So anyway, it doesn't work for any of them.

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And I'm here to equip you. That is my job, to equip you to go talk to your friends and tell them, hey, let me put a little warning light up.

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Just read that verse to them. There's thousands of them you could read to them. In a meek way, I get to be not meek preaching because preaching, you get to get with it a little bit.

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But you know, one -on -one, you don't talk that way. But in a meek way, you let them know, you know what? There's a lot of contradictions to your beliefs.

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Now, you don't tell them that because it won't open their mind. I should get Barbara to come up and tell you how to open a person's mind.

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But I think she would agree with me on this. It helps to ask them questions and get them talking.

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Because if they hear themselves say it, they believe it. And if they hear you say you're wrong, you're done, right?

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So, boy, you have to pray and ask the Holy Spirit. Because the bottom line is that passage in 1

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Timothy says, unless God for adventure changes their mind, which uses the word repentance, that means change their mind, they're not going to change their mind.

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So, we have to know that. But is it our job to change their mind? Or is it our job just to read that verse to them?

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Yeah, we can't change their mind and they can't do it. Great point. They're incapable and we're incapable.

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So, it's all of God. Now, you know what's neat, though? God started the first family business.

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He loves to work with his kids and for his kids to work with him. I love that. All five of my grown kids and some of your kids work with me.

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And it is awesome. All right. And it's just a little picture of how God loves that.

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Fatherly instinct to me just loves that. I get to see the grandbabies every week. I get to see the kids every week.

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God did it first. Jesus said, I don't do anything or say anything that the father that I haven't heard my father say.

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They were in a family business together. Now, when Jesus was dying and going off the scene, going back to heaven, and he gives us a commission, he says, as God sent me, so send

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I you. So, now we're in the family business. So, yeah, we're not able to change their mind.

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They're not able, but we're supposed to try. Because God, that's God, maybe one step in it.

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You know, maybe that's just something they needed to hear and 20 years later, they changed their mind. But we were important, too, because God put us there with them, right?

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So, always remember that, too. It's not a mark of unsuccess if they don't change their mind.

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I mean, our job was to tell them the gospel, the true gospel, though, not the modern gospel, the true gospel.

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All right? So, there's that. But that no man is justified, and this is what we're talking about, is how do we understand what the word justified means?

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About seven things you got to understand. One is the depravity of man. Number two is you've got to understand grace, and that's what we're on now.

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What does justified mean again? It means to be rendered righteous. And the root

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Greek word for righteous and justified is the same root word. So, it's like God renders us righteous, so he makes us just.

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Just and righteous, the same root word. But it's something he does to us. When he justifies us, it means he just made us righteous.

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He gave us Jesus's righteousness, not our own, but Jesus's. So, no man is justified by the law or by works, because he just talked about works above that, in the sight of God.

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Now, men think so all over the world. Every great religion in the world is based on works. Judaism is,

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Muhammadism is, Buddhism is, you name them. The only one that's not is biblical

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Christianity, and many of the churches in Christianity are based on works, too, because they're taught by false teachers, false preachers.

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Right now, today, Sunday, this morning, they're done eating lunch, and we're still preaching, but they taught it wrong, and the people bought into it.

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But no man is justified by the law in God's sight. Maybe in some preacher's sight, maybe in some friend of yours sight, but not

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God's sight. It just doesn't happen. He just doesn't see it that way. I think it's important to look at God's viewpoint.

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It's more important than man's viewpoint. It is evident that no man is justified by the law, for the just shall live by faith.

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And faith is a gift. I'm spraying it this morning. Faith is a gift from God. It is a miraculous gift

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God gives you when he calls you. So you didn't do the faith, either. You do have human belief, but it has to come alongside that faith that God just gave you, and it starts ringing at the same vibrations, like a tuning fork next to another one.

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It's how that works. So clear in Scripture, especially in the King James Version, because it captures the true

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Greek, where it says the faith of Jesus, rather than the faith in Jesus. All the new versions say in, and it's of in many places.

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So anyway, you've heard that before from here, or in your Bible, if you've got one that's faithful to the

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Greek. So no man is justified by the law in the sight of God. It is evident, for the just shall live by faith.

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Let me say this to our friends listening from around the country. You guys know this. I believe the

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King James Version is the only accurate English version, other than maybe the Geneva Bible. It's good.

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But you don't find those. But some of you don't like the archaic

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English, and I can't blame you for that. So there is a book you can get, but you have to buy it at a used bookstore.

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It's no longer under print because it's not popular, because the seminaries of the world have said, we don't want the true

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Bible. We want the one that comes from Westcott and Hort, which that's a whole other story.

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But I spent two years studying manuscript evidence. When you understand Westcott and Hort, you understand where all the modern

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English Bibles came from. They were unbelievers. We know that from letters they wrote each other that we have.

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They were merry worshipers, and they took all of the New Testament from only two manuscripts, and we have over five, probably by now 7 ,000.

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Five to 7 ,000. They took it from just two. One was found in the Vatican library, and the other was in a wastebasket in the

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Sinai Peninsula in an old monastery. And they used them because they said, well, they're the oldest, so they must be closest to the truth.

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Well, what if they were Jehovah's Witnesses Bibles, though? You know what I'm saying. Like the Jehovah's Witnesses rewrote the

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Bible to fit what they want to believe. What if that person in that monastery did the same thing? And you know what's interesting? If you study who was in that monastery, they were people who did not understand the

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Trinity at all and didn't want to believe in it. So it's interesting that that Bible removes 1

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John chapter 5, and I forget exactly which verse it is, but it's the only verse in the Bible that has names.

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All three persons of the Trinity, they removed it. It's not in that Greek. That's the ones West Cotton Horde uses. There's over 2 ,000 places where their versions disagree with each other.

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So how can they be the word of God and be perfect if they're in that much disagreeing? Anyway, that's a whole other story.

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But what you can do if you don't like the archaic English is go find one that's called exactly this. You got to jot it down just like this.

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The new, it has to have the word new, the new Schofield Study Bible KJV. Now be careful or you'll get one that's

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NIV and you don't want that. That's West Cotton Horde. New American Standard is West Cotton Horde. And the Lord just verified that I'm telling the truth right there.

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He blew the trumpet. All right, train just went by. But so you don't want that.

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What you want is the new Schofield Study Bible KJV. And what it'll do is where the archaic

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English is, they'll put two little bars around it, put a modern English word, and then over in the margin, it'll put the original

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King James. So they're not trying to trick you, but it reads really easily and it's from the correct

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Greek. Isn't that awesome? So there you go. There's a free rabbit trail for you. And the law is not of faith.

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Now let's think, stop right there a minute. Okay, if you're saved by faith, this says, the word of God says the law is not of faith, but the man that does them got to live by him.

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So if you're going to get saved by the law, you got to live by every one of them. You can't break it in one point or you go to hell.

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That's what that says. It's another way of saying it's already said it once, but now it says it again there at the end of verse 12. But the first part of verse 12 tells us that by definition, if you add law to grace, you just defied the very definition of grace, which we've already studied several

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Sundays ago. It's free. It means free undeserved favor, a free undeserved gift.

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So if you say, yeah, but you got to add works, you just denied the very definition of the word grace, but you also, and that's what this one is saying.

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You also deny the definition of works because works has no part in grace.

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Works is just you doing right. God doesn't give you grace. He just expects you to do right, right?

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In that scenario. So you got to be perfect. And that's why the apostle Paul through the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit saying it doesn't work that way in the sight of God. Because God sees everything you thought, not just the good righteous stuff you do on Sunday.

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He sees everything you thought last week, let alone everything you did and you think you're going to be saved by works.

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But do you think that a thousand good works undoes one sin when heaven is holy and there's no sin?

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So you do a thousand good things and you think a thousand good thoughts, you had three bad ones and you did three bad things last week.

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You're going to make it to heaven. What about the three? You won't go, you won't get there with those.

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And in the sight of God, that is impossible. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse in the sight of God.

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So there you go. He says it again in 12a, the law is not faith. You can't mix them.

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It's like oil and water. They don't mix together. It's one or the other. People don't get it.

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It's one or the other. It's either pure grace or it's pure works. It can't be a mix of both. Lord says it in so many places, and this is just one of them.

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So now we see a third point. If you're saved by works, then all the law must be kept in order to remain saved by works.

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And you are not going to be able to do that. The fourth point is you're cursed if you teach works and you're cursed if you believe in works.

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It says it right up there. You're under the curse of the law in God's eyes. And number five, no man is able to be saved this way.

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Not one man or woman, boy or girl. And then number six, faith plus works is a contradiction in terms.

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It's illogical. Number seven, a man that believes in works salvation must live in the law perfectly, which is impossible.

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So all those things are taught in this passage. Look at verse 13. Another point, and I know we're tired and we're out of time.

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So I'm just going to make the point. We won't cover it. But the second point here found in this same passage in Galatians 3 is contrary.

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The idea of salvation by works is totally contrary to the concept of being saved under the

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Abrahamic covenant. Why? Because the Abrahamic covenant is unconditional, which means there's not anything you have to do.

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God does it all. So if we are saved, which the whole book of Galatians says we are and all through scripture.

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Says we are saved through the Abrahamic covenant. Then how does works have any part in that?

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Because it's an unconditional covenant. So we'll cover that next time. I'll just read it today. It says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, not with it, but from it.

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Being made a curse in our place, he died on the cross with our sins on himself.

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For it is written, cursed is everyone that hangs on the tree. So we're saved through the redemption of Jesus giving his blood in our place and buying us away from the slave market of Satan, the world, and the flesh.

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We're not saved by doing good stuff. And I think we're out of time. So let's have a word of prayer.

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Lord, we just thank you so much for your word. We thank you for these little ones who are baptized today, for following Jesus, and may you empower them to be lights and salt in this world and use them mightily in these last days.

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And Lord, go with all of us now as we head our ways home and going about the things we are called to do by you.

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And give us these thoughts and remembrances as we need them with our friends and acquaintances in the world that need to hear these truths.

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Give us boldness and yet meekness, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. You are dismissed.