My Former Life

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Well, good morning.
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Open up your Bibles and turn to Galatians 1, please.
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We're going to start at verse 11 and we're going to read down to verse 17.
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The title of today's lesson is My Former Life.
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My Former Life.
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Verse 11, For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel.
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For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
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For you have heard of my former life in Judaism.
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How I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
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And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.
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So extremely zealous was I for the tradition of my fathers.
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But when He who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son to me in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.
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But I went away into Arabia and returned again to Damascus.
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Let's pray.
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Father, as we come around Your Word, I pray first and foremost, Lord, that You would keep me from error, that You would fill me with the Spirit of God, that You would use the words that are going to be said to speak to the hearts of these men.
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And Lord, for those who know You as Savior, that they would be ever more confirmed, ever more convicted, ever more drawn to conformity to Christ.
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And Lord, for those who don't know You, maybe they are deceived, maybe they are rebellious, maybe they simply don't care.
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Lord, may it be today that they see in Christ one who is wonderful, one who is glorious, and one who is worthy of our adoration, affection, and worship.
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Lord, may we bow the knee to Jesus Christ, and may we do so before it's too late.
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In Christ's name, Amen.
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Well, good morning again, guys.
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We have been going through Galatians one verse at a time, looking at what the Apostle Paul had to say to the church at Galatia.
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Many of you have been here since we began, and I don't want to reiterate everything that I've said before, but for those of you who may be new or maybe just simply don't remember, I know you all have multiple Bible studies every day, so it's hard to keep up with everything that's going on.
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Just by way of reminder, I would remind you that the Galatian churches are the churches that are the ones that Paul had planted when he had been moving through the area of Galatia during his missionary journeys.
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After Paul planted the churches in Galatia, men came in and brought false teachings.
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Paul had taught a very simple gospel, that a person is saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
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That is the simple gospel message.
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Men came after Paul, preaching what we have defined as Judaism.
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Judaism is the idea that before you can become a Christian, you must first become a Jew.
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You must get circumcised.
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You must submit to the laws of the Jews.
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You must submit to the traditions of the Jews.
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You have to do that before you can become a Christian.
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That was what was being taught.
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So Paul is responding to that, and he's saying that that is a different gospel.
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That is not the gospel that he preached.
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That is not the gospel of God.
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That is not the gospel that is to be followed.
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In fact, he says, I am astonished that you have abandoned the gospel, and that you have turned to another gospel, but it is not a true gospel.
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It is a false gospel.
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And he says that in verses 6-9, which we've looked at several weeks ago.
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Well, in verses 11 and following, Paul is giving a defense of his apostleship, because these people have come in and challenged him.
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They've said, this man has a false teaching.
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He's not giving you the whole truth.
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Paul is wrong.
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Now, modern Christians, we can't imagine somebody saying, well, Paul is wrong.
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Because we're so familiar with Paul.
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If we said Paul can't be trusted, we'd have to take away half the New Testament.
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Paul wrote half of the books of the New Testament.
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So if somebody came in and said, well, Paul can't be trusted, we'd have half our Bible we'd have to throw away.
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But at this point in time, Paul is not understood the way he is now because we have the benefit of hindsight.
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We're looking back.
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They were in a church where Paul had just been a persecutor of the church.
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He was one who had attacked the church.
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He was one who was known as a hater of Christians.
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So it's easy to imagine that someone would come in and say, this guy is all wrong.
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You know what this guy was like.
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You know what this guy's life was like.
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Why are you going to listen to him? We're from Jerusalem.
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We have been taught by Peter and by John and by James.
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We have the pedigree.
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We have the knowledge.
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Paul is an ignoramus.
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We are the intelligentsia.
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We know what we're talking about.
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You see how different it would have been to have somebody challenge Paul? So Paul's responding to that.
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And so we looked at verse 11 last week.
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I would have you know, brothers, that the Gospel that was preached by me is not man's Gospel.
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That was our lesson last week.
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We said the Gospel Paul preached is from God, not from men.
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How do we know Paul's Gospel is from God? Because it exalts God.
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Men who create Gospels exalt men.
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Man's Gospel exalts man.
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God's Gospel exalts God.
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And that's how we know Paul's Gospel is God's Gospel because it exalts God and not man.
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And then we go to verse 12.
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And this is the beginning of Paul's defense.
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He says, for I did not receive it...
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that is the Gospel...
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from any man.
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Nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
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We'll stop right there.
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Paul says, I didn't receive it from any man.
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You have to think about this.
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How many people during the time of Jesus followed after Him during His earthly ministry? Well, you have the original disciples who were twelve.
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You have several women who the Bible says actually took care of Jesus during His ministry.
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They supported Him, which is an interesting reality that Jesus was supported by women that had money and were able to take care of Him and His needs.
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But there were also many other people who followed after Jesus Christ.
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However, it wasn't until the day of Pentecost that the church really exploded with the thousands upon thousands who became real, genuine converts.
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How many people were saved on the day of Pentecost? 3,000 people saved on the day of Pentecost.
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And the people that were saved on the day of Pentecost had not walked with Christ...
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well, at least we say probably most of them.
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There may have been a few who saw Christ in real life, but most of them didn't see Christ.
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Most of them didn't know Christ.
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So their knowledge of Christ was what we would call a second-hand knowledge.
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They had come to Christ by virtue of hearing of Him by people who did see Him.
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Do you understand what I'm saying? Their knowledge was a taught knowledge.
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They had received it just like we all have.
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Nobody here that I know of has received a direct revelation from Jesus Christ where He appeared to you and you saw Him physically and He said, I am Jesus Christ, believe in Me, and you received that.
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I don't think any of you have.
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I know I didn't.
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I came to Christ by virtue of hearing somebody tell me about Jesus.
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In fact, I grew up in church.
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I didn't get saved in the church I grew up in, but I grew up with people telling me about Jesus.
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I had a mom who went to church.
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I had a stepmom who also went to church.
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My dad didn't go to church when I was younger.
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He does now, praise the Lord, but he didn't then.
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But I did grow up with friends who told me about Jesus.
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I grew up with all these people who knew Jesus.
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I didn't until I was 19 years old.
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God saved me when I was 19 years old.
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And then when He saved me, my new desire was to go and tell other people about Jesus.
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I went from being somebody who didn't know to somebody who knew, and now I want to tell others so that they'll be people who go from not knowing to knowing.
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That's the whole, right? We get birthed and then we give birth, right? We get born again and we want to see other people get born again.
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And the point is that we all are the product of someone else's faith.
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Somebody else believed and they told you and you believed.
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But Paul says that's not the way it was for me.
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I didn't receive this from a man.
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I didn't go to Billy Graham's crusade and get saved.
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I didn't go to the Apostle Peter's crusade and get saved.
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Not that there was such a thing, but you understand what I'm saying.
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Paul says I didn't receive this from a man.
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Neither was I taught it.
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And this is an interesting thing.
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You say, well, how do you learn something without being taught? Well, the very next statement.
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He says I wasn't taught it, but I received it through a revelation.
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A revelation.
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Now, go ahead.
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The word revelation there means to have something uncovered or have something exposed.
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I believe it's the word apocalypsis, which is where we get the word apocalypse.
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We often think of apocalypse as the end of the world.
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But apocalypse simply means to disclose something or to reveal something or to show something.
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The idea of the apocalypse is at the end, God's going to reveal Himself and He's going to bring judgment.
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That's what we usually equate the word apocalypse with the end of the world.
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But the idea of apocalypsis is it's opening your eyes to something.
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Sort of like you've seen those things where they've got something behind the curtain and they say, look at this! And they pull the curtain back and there's a revelation of a new product or a new vehicle or something that you didn't see because it was held behind a curtain and now you can see it.
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Paul says, I wasn't taught it.
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It was revealed to me.
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It was shown to me.
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You say, well, when did that happen? Turn with me to Acts chapter 9 and we'll see when this happened.
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I love this story because in Acts chapter 9, we see a beautiful picture of a revelation from God.
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And we're going to read this, not quickly, but we're going to read it because I do want to get back to Galatians.
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But I want us to hear, this is what he's talking about.
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He says, it wasn't given to me by any man and it wasn't taught to me, but it was revealed to me.
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And here's the revelation.
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It happens in chapter 9 of the book of Acts.
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And in this point, Paul is going by his Hebrew name Saul.
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Remember, he had two names.
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Saul was his Hebrew name.
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Paul was his Roman name.
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He was a Roman citizen by birth, but he was a Hebrew by his faith and by his family line.
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He had a Jewish name and he had a Roman name.
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So here, this is still the same person.
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But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
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Now just stop right there.
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Again, I don't want to spend all day on this, but this is important.
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Paul was a man who was a religious zealot.
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That word zealot means that he was on fire.
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He was excited.
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He was very passionate about his religion.
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And his religion was Judaism.
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He was a Pharisee.
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Remember the people Jesus fought with? The Pharisees? He called them hypocrites.
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Well, Paul was very high up among the Pharisees.
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In fact, he had been trained by Gamaliel who was one of the greatest teachers at that time in history.
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And Paul had learned from the great teacher Gamaliel.
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So he was a Pharisee.
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And when he heard about these people, these Christians, these followers of what was called the way...
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Why was it called the way? Jesus is the way, right? And so they said we're followers of Jesus because He's the way.
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Therefore, the early Christians were called followers of the way.
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And when he heard about these people who were essentially...
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He saw them as defecting from Judaism.
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He saw them as abandoning Judaism for the way.
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He went and he got approval to go and arrest them and to drag them in chains back to Jerusalem where they would be punished for their faith.
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Now just a few verses earlier, we see that the Apostle Paul was actually present at the stoning of Stephen.
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Stephen was the first Christian martyr.
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And he held the coats of the people who picked up stones.
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You know, they took their coats off so they could really wind those arms up.
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He held their coats while they took stones and they pelted Stephen to death.
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And Paul gave hearty approval to what they had done.
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Now he's got a taste for blood.
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Now he's got a taste for vengeance.
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Now he feels very empowered in his hatred.
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He's seen a Christian die and now he wants to see them all be punished.
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So he goes and gets approval to go punish the church.
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It goes on.
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Now as he was on his way, he approached Damascus and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
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And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Stop right there.
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I always like to point this out.
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Jesus identifies with His people.
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Notice He didn't say, why are you persecuting my people? He says, why are you persecuting me? Because when Paul was persecuting the church, that's Christ's body.
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So Jesus identifies with His people.
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Why are you persecuting me? And he goes on.
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In verse 5, Saul answers.
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He says, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
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But rise and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do.
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The men who were traveling with him stood speechless hearing the voice but seeing no one.
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Saul rose from the ground and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
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So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
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And for three days he was without sight and he neither ate nor drank.
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Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias.
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And the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, here I am, Lord.
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And the Lord said, rise and go to the street called Straight.
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And at the house of Judas looked for a man of Tarsus named Saul.
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For behold, he is praying and he has seen a vision.
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A man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.
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But Ananias said, Lord, I have heard for many about this man.
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How much evil he has done to Your saints at Jerusalem.
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And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.
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But the Lord said to him, go, for He is a chosen instrument of Mine to carry My name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
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For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name.
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Just stop right there.
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This is an explanation of the revelation that Paul says that he received.
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Paul saw Jesus and then was struck blind.
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Why was he struck blind? Well, it doesn't say why.
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But think about the value of Jesus being the last thing you see before you see nothing for three days.
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That you see Christ and then you see nothing for three days.
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That was Paul's revelation.
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That was Paul's understanding.
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I have been persecuting this man.
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Imagine it's you.
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You have been persecuting Jesus and then He shows Himself.
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You think this guy is a liar.
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You think he is a fool.
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You think that he has usurped authority he didn't have.
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You think that he has taken people away from the true faith.
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You think this man Jesus is a false teacher.
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And then He appears to you in a bright light.
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And He says, why are you persecuting Me? That's life changing.
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In fact, I would say this.
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The life change of the Apostle Paul is one of the greatest testimonies to the authenticity of the Christian faith.
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You say, why? Because there was no reason in the world that Saul of Tarsus would have changed his behavior if he did not truly have a personal experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Yes? Is that the last person Jesus appeared to in the New Testament of Saul? Was there anybody after that? I'll have to think through that.
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I can't think in the Acts if there was an appearing later.
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I'll have to look.
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Right off the top of my head, I'd say yes, but I don't remember.
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I don't want to be wrong.
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But I can't think of anything after that.
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But like I said, this change...
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I mean, it's one thing somebody could say, well, Peter and John and James, they followed Jesus while He was alive.
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Paul didn't.
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Paul hated Christians.
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Paul hated Jesus.
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Paul hated the whole system.
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And yet in a day, in a moment, in an instant, his whole life changed.
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That's a testimony to the revelation that he received.
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That's a testimony to what has happened in his life.
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And as I said, I think it's one of the best testimonies to the authenticity of the Christian faith.
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We have several things that we hold to about the authenticity of our faith.
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Number one, we have a risen Savior.
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There's an empty tomb.
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If He didn't rise, they could have went and produced His body.
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They never went and produced His body.
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That's testimony to the fact that He did rise.
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The 500 people said they saw Him alive after He rose from the dead.
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That's 1 Corinthians 15.
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It says He saw over 500 people.
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Many of them who went to their death because they saw Him.
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But again, for me, if somebody says what's one of the things that confirms to you that the Gospel message is true? The conversion of Saul of Tarsus.
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A man who hated Christians became the greatest evangelist in the history of the church in an instant.
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He goes from being a hater of Christ to a proclaimer of Christ in one moment.
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His life has changed.
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His eyes are blinded.
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You know, a lot of people say, I once was blind, but now I see.
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That's the amazing grace, right? Well, Paul's was the other way.
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I once could see, but now I'm blind.
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But it was a different way.
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His blindness was a moment of reflection on his whole life.
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He went from seeing to not seeing, and after that, the scales fell off and now he could see better than he ever could ever before.
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Not physically, because actually we read later in the Scriptures that he did have eye problems, but he could see with his spiritual eyes better than he could ever see before.
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Because he had been given a revelation of Jesus Christ.
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Not taught, but shown.
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You know, you've heard the old expression, if you tell me, I might understand.
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If you show me, I will understand.
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And if you involve me, I must understand.
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You know, that's the old how do you teach somebody? You involve them.
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Well, this is Paul.
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He wasn't just taught.
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He was shown.
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And then he was given a purpose.
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He was brought into the ministry.
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He was given a purpose.
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He was brought into the fold.
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And for what reason? He tells us later.
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To be a preacher.
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Paul was called to preach the Gospel.
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Let's go back to Galatians.
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We've seen what I wanted to show you in Acts.
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Let's go back here because we're going to read through a few more verses.
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Verse 12, he says, I received it through a revelation.
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Well, we've just seen that in Acts 9.
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But now we go to verse 13.
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And this is really what I wanted to get to today.
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Paul says, For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.
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So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
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You don't have to do this, but if you underline your Bible or if you're taking notes, the words, my former life.
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My former life.
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If you have a different translation, it might say it a little differently.
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But that is the key to this section.
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Because Paul is saying, you have heard about my former life.
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Remember in Acts 9 when God told Ananias to go to Him? What did Ananias say? That guy is crazy.
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I can't go preach to that guy.
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That guy is persecuting people.
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He hates the church.
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He hates us.
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What do you mean go preach to that guy? So Paul had a reputation that preceded him.
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Do you guys know anyone that has a reputation that precedes them? Maybe you're one of those guys.
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Maybe you have people in your life that when they see you coming, they go the other way.
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What's that? Opinions vary.
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Well, I was thinking about this this morning when I was getting ready to come up here and preach.
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The one thing that a Christian must have is a former life.
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Paul says in a different book in a different place that when we come to Christ, old things pass away and all things become new.
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If any man be in Christ, He is a new creation.
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The old has passed away.
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The new has come.
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Now I imagine if I were to take a few minutes, and I'm not going to because there's so many of you, but I imagine if I were to go around this room and say, tell me about your former life, that I'd probably hear some amazing stories.
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And I could tell you about my life.
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I've shared my testimony here before.
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I was saved when I was 19 years old.
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When I was a teenager, I had a foul mouth.
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I had a foul mind.
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I thought I was funny and so I would say inappropriate things and act in inappropriate ways.
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I could look real good for the teachers and for the parents, but when I was with my friends, I was a pretty awful guy.
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I said things that just were awful and thought things that were worse.
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As I've said before, if you could take just my thoughts and put them on a screen and put them in front of people, I'd never have another friend for the rest of my life.
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No one would ever want to have anything to do with me.
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If people knew half of what I've done, they wouldn't want to ever have anything to do with me.
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And yet, God is gracious.
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And I can say that was my former life.
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Now that doesn't mean, and I want to quickly say this, that doesn't mean that my life is rainbows and butterflies now and that I'm perfect.
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I certainly am not.
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I fight a battle every day with sin just like you do.
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But I have a former life.
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A life I don't want to go back to.
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A life I wouldn't want for anybody.
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A life I don't want for my children.
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You know what I want my children to have more than anything? A boring testimony.
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I tell you, I want my kids to have a boring testimony.
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I grew up in church and I got saved.
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And even though I was a wretched sinner from birth, God kept me from the evils of this world.
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I would love that that be the testimony of my children.
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And I know you can't protect your children from everything and it's not good that you do.
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You have to let them live and you have to let them have experiences, but at the same time, you have to stand as a wall of defense as much as you can.
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My wife and I try to do, but I pray for a boring testimony.
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Because I know ultimately it can be really rough.
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And I've heard men's testimonies where God has saved them from the brink of death and suicide and drunkenness and prison and hatred and murderous behavior.
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In fact, I want to show you just a quick passage.
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Turn to 1 Corinthians 9.
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I love this passage.
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It's very important.
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Well, I didn't have it written down.
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Forgive me.
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Yeah.
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He says, where he says, such were some of you.
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I just don't have it marked in my Bible here.
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Excuse me.
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Where he says, I'm sorry, I'm embarrassed.
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Where he says, some of you were thieves and murderers and homosexuals and all those things.
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And he lists the sins and he says, in such were some of you.
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I thought it was right there.
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Now we're doing a Bible sword drill.
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We're trying to find the passage.
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6.
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Thank you.
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6-9.
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I have to go to 9-6.
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Thank you, brother.
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You are my Savior this morning.
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You saved me.
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Because I would have been in chapter 9 all day looking for it.
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Alright.
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Chapter 6, verse 9.
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Thank you.
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Paul says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived.
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Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality nor thieves nor greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
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And such were some of you.
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But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
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Notice the things that are in that list.
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And that list is not all-encompassing.
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But that list contains within it many sins.
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He talks about the sin of sexual immorality and the sin of idolatry, the sin of adultery, the sin of homosexuality, the sin of thievery and greediness and drunkenness and reviling.
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That means somebody who's violent and they're hateful.
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Swindlers.
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That's somebody who's a liar and a thief.
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And he says these people are not going to inherit the kingdom of God.
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And such were some of you.
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He's talking to the church.
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He's talking to the Corinthians.
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He says some of you were that.
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Some of you were drunkards.
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Some of you were adulterers.
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Some of you were homosexuals.
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Some of you were thieves.
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Some of you were idolaters.
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Some of you were swindlers.
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But God washed you.
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He sanctified you.
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And He justified you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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This is what bothers me so much.
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People who say, well, I'm a Christian, but I am this or that or the other.
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I say no, that's what you were.
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Such were some of you.
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Not such are some of you.
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Because God can save you.
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He can change you.
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You do not have to stay what you were.
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You can be new in Christ.
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Paul did not continue persecuting Christians and say he was a Christian.
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No, he says that's what I was.
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But God saved me.
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Go back to Galatians.
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He says that.
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He says, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people.
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This is verse 14.
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So extremely zealous for the tradition of my father.
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I was a Jew of Jews.
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I was a practicing, strong Jew.
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But when He who had set me apart before I was born...
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Who is that? That's God.
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God had chosen Paul before he was even born.
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He said, but He who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by His grace was pleased to reveal His Son to me in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.
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I did not immediately consult with anyone.
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Why? Why didn't Paul go and consult with anyone? He didn't need to.
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He had seen Jesus face to face.
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And he knew that he was a sinner and he knew he had a Savior.
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His life was changed like that because of a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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His life was saved in a moment because of a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He was changed.
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And why? He tells us right here.
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Because God had grace on Him.
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Paul was not saved by works.
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And I want to say something else.
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I don't want to argue about it.
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I'm going to say it.
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You don't like it? That's fine.
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Paul was also not saved by his free will.
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Think about it.
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Paul wasn't on the way to Damascus going, I hope I get to receive Jesus.
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Jesus knocked him down and blinded him.
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Jesus didn't give him an option.
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Think about that.
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It wasn't optional.
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And Paul wasn't asking for it.
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He was a recipient of grace because God chose him before the foundation of the world.
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He was the object of God's sovereign choice.
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It wasn't about his free will.
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It was about God's freedom to choose.
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That tells you something about who's more powerful in salvation.
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You might have heard it said in the past, well, God voted for you and the devil voted against you and you break the tie.
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That's garbage.
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God is sovereign.
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And He's sovereign over your dead soul.
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And if He wants to breathe life into your dead soul, He does not need your permission.
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Paul didn't give Him permission.
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Paul did not give Him an option.
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Paul was a recipient, not a participant.
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He said, when He who chose me before I was born made it His purpose to give His grace to me, I got it.
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Let me tell you something.
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If you're saved today, it's not because you were smarter than the guy next to you.
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It's not because you were more spiritually sensitive than the guy next to you.
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It's not because you were more willing than the guy next to you.
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It was because God opened up your dead heart.
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He took out that dead heart and He gave you a living one.
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The Bible says you had a heart of stone and He gave you a heart of flesh.
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This is why the Bible says salvation is of the Lord.
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Salvation is a work of God.
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This is why in John 3, when Nicodemus asked Jesus how can a man be born again? And Jesus said, the Spirit blows where He wills.
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And no man knows where He comes from or where He goes.
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The Spirit of God comes upon a man and He changes his heart.
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If you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ today, you need to get down on your knees and you need to thank God for the grace that saved you.
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You are not saved because you were smarter.
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You are saved because of God's grace in your heart.
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And me too.
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The only reason why I'm saved is the grace of God.
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I didn't bring anything to my salvation except the sin that made it necessary.
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I didn't contribute anything to my salvation except for the sin that made me need a Savior.
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And that's what Paul's saying here.
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He's saying, I was a good Jew.
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I was a Jew of Jews.
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He says later in a different book, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews.
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I was outdoing every man in my age.
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In fact, I was outdoing men who were older than me.
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I was advancing in Judaism beyond any of my peers.
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But when He who chose me before I was born and called me by His grace and was pleased to reveal His Son to me.
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Just think about that.
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That's grace.
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If you know Jesus today, God was pleased to reveal Him to you.
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Whether it was through a teacher, whether it was through a preacher, whether it was through reading the Word or a Gospel tract, or maybe you heard about it on the radio or maybe on the television, but God was pleased to reveal His Son to you.
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Think about that word, pleased.
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It pleased God to reveal Jesus to Paul.
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And it pleases God to reveal Jesus to us.
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It pleases God to do that.
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If you're a Christian, if you are a believer today, God was pleased to reveal His Son to you.
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What's the response to that? Thankfulness.
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Worship.
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Obedience.
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Appreciation.
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Service.
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A life changed.
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That's the response to God's grace.
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And that's why when people say, oh, we're saved by what we do.
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No.
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Because you got saved before you did anything.
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Do you know that everything you did before you got saved was only sin? You say, I don't believe that.
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Well, let me tell you why I say that.
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The Bible says that which is not of faith is sin.
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Romans 14.
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So before you got saved, you didn't have faith.
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Follow the deductive logic.
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If that which is not of faith is sin, and you didn't have faith before you got saved, everything you did before you got saved was sin.
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You were not worthy of salvation.
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And if you're not saved, you're not worthy today.
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You are not worthy of the grace of God.
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That's what makes it grace.
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You know what grace is? Unmerited favor.
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Unmerited means you're unworthy.
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I'm unworthy of the grace of God.
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And yet He gives it.
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That's what makes God so great.
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That's why we sing amazing grace.
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I know that song is so cliched anymore.
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Do you ever think about what the writer wrote? Amazing grace.
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How sweet the sound that saved a good person like me.
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Isn't that what it says? He said, a wretch! A wretch! John Newton.
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John Newton understood his sin.
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That's the guy who wrote Amazing Grace.
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He understood his sin.
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He understood that he deserved the punishment of Almighty God.
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He understood that he deserved to be under the wrath of God forever.
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And God saved him.
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And so he wrote about it by saying this, Amazing Grace.
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How sweet the sound that saved a wretch.
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Not a good old boy.
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Not a good person.
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Not a righteous man.
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But a wretch like me.
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I was lost.
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And now I'm found.
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I was blind.
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But now I see.
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T'was grace that taught my heart to fear.
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And grace my fears relieved.
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Because you know why he said that? Because if you really understand grace, that will strike your heart with fear because you'll understand you can't do anything to earn your salvation.
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It's only by grace.
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But then you understand you've received that grace and that takes the fear away.
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Was grace that caused my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved? How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed? And the psalm goes on, singing about the grace of God.
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But just know this, that first verse, the wretch is me.
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I don't deserve the grace of God.
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Paul would say later, I am the chief of sinners.
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In 1 Corinthians 15, he says I'm not even worthy to be counted among the apostles.
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But by the grace of God, I am what I am.
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It's grace.
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Grace is what gives us a former life.
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And if you're here this morning and you have a former life, and you have a new life in Christ, you thank God for His grace.
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You get down on your knees and you bless God and say thank You for Your grace.
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But if you're here this morning and you don't have a former life, I want to appeal to you this morning to repent and trust in Christ.
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And I pray that He would give you the grace to do that because it takes grace even to want to turn to Him.
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So right now, let me pray for you.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for Your truth.
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And I pray grace upon these men.
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For those who do not know Christ, Lord, I pray the grace of conversion would strike their soul, that they would see the Lord Jesus Christ high and lifted up and beautiful, and that they would trust in Him with all their heart and soul, and that they would be changed and they would be saved, and they would say, today is the day of my new life.
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Today I have been changed.
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All things have become new.
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And I have a former life.
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And Father, for those who already know Christ, who have come to know Him, who have been saved by grace, Lord, I pray that they would see their former life not as something they want to go back to, but as a testimony of Your grace in bringing them forward.
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And Lord, that we would not be like dogs who return to our vomit, but we would be like those who are like the Apostle Paul, who are running the race, who are looking forward to the prize, who are looking upward towards that upward call and that final day when we will see You and we will hear our Savior say, well done, my good and faithful servant.
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Lord, may it be in Jesus' name.
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Amen.