Sunday School - Living In God's Kingdom Part 2

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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Sunday School - Back To Basics Part 3

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that are good that has come from that good and bountiful hand we pray Lord that your blessing would be on us as we study your word this morning as we are led into worship later on and as we enjoy sweet fellowship as brothers and sisters in Christ Lord watch over those who are on their way here and in the weather we pray

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God their blessing over all the arrangements today in Jesus name amen all right well last week we started a kind of a new teaching series in a sense called living in God's kingdom and we talked last week some of you weren't here but we talked about the essentially the domain of God we talked about what does it mean to live in God's kingdom and when we think of God's kingdom where are some words that may pop into our head when we think of God's kingdom what may pop into our head like what image just immediately draws into your mind what's that he said what heaven is that what you like you know

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I think of sometimes yeah there's there's a movie called a little older movie Constantine with what's his name

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Keanu Reeves and there's a scene where he's like hoisted to heaven and it's like really beautiful and he gets that go back down to hell it's like really interesting dynamic there but I always think

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I was like yeah somewhere beautiful I think of heaven I think of the sky I think of buildings even

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I think of like a cat like a heavenly castle if you could even imagine that and those are all not bad descriptions right

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I mean God's kingdom is a heavenly kingdom but it's more than that and what we discovered last week is that God's kingdom is the rule of God right and so wherever God rules that's where his kingdom is and so where is

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God's kingdom today is it only in the heavens where is it it's it's here

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Jesus said the kingdom of God is in your midst really interesting saying that he would say that the kingdom of God is in your midst so again the kingdom of God is is

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God's is where God rules and God's rule is happening right now in the church now this is why some folks are very convinced of what's called theonomy or the doctrine of the church essentially dominating the world and that the whole all the nations will one day be ruled by God's Word or God's law and I agree with that sentiment right

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I mean ultimately God the all the nations of the earth will will be subdued and all the nations of the earth will serve the

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Lord but not in the particular way in which the theonomist thinks that we get there which is by process process like proselytizing the nations but also taking over the nations politically

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I don't think that's the way that God's kingdom is going to rule the nations rather I think it's going to be it's going to culminate that the second coming of our

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Lord Jesus Christ where he finally subdues his enemies and in that way all nations will serve and know the Lord it'll be the promise of Isaiah chapter 2 where it says all the nations will stream to the mountain of the

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Lord well they'll stream to Mount Zion and all the nation and it says in Isaiah chapter 2 that that the knowledge of the

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Lord will cover the land just like the waters cover the sea and so another way of thinking of God's kingdom is to think of dominion so wherever wherever God rules wherever God's wherever wherever God God's rule is that's where his dominion is and really his dominion is everything right we believe in a sovereign

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God he's almighty he's omnipresent he's omniscient and he is you know everywhere at all times so essentially everywhere is his domain but the scripture gives us something of interest in Psalm 110 and then we see it also in 1st

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Corinthians chapter 15 quoting from Psalm 110 anyone know what Psalm 110 says?

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It's actually the most quoted text of the Old Testament in the New Testament the

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Lord said unto my Lord sit at my right hand to make your enemies your footstool and there goes the decree from Zion go and rule in the midst of your enemies this is a messianic verse

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Jesus in Matthew chapter 22 takes that verse from Psalm 110 he then says how can

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David call him Lord referencing the Messiah you know because if he's the son of David then why is he

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David's Lord the answer is that he's both the Davidic King that is going to come from David's line he is the

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Messiah he is the promised one he's the son of David but he's also David's Lord and and it's quoted in the first Corinthians chapter chapter 15 where essentially it says in 1st

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Corinthians 15 we do not yet see all things under his feet now the Bible says in Psalm 145 that the

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Lord reigns that the Lord is king over everything that there's nothing that's outside of his sovereign rule yet not everything is under his feet currently so you have this tension in scripture where God rules obviously he's he's control of everything but not everything is yet under his dominion in a sense it is and it isn't and so that's the tension of the now but not yet that some theologians talk about eschatologically but today

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I want to focus on the aspect of God's kingdom that's called law and grace we talked last week again how

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God's dominion God's rule is wherever God rules or wherever God's dominion is that's his rule that's his kingdom and so his kingdom is now right through the church through the

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Holy Spirit the Lord is ascended he's at the right hand of the Father he's he has dominion let me print a couple more of these real quick and today's focus is going to be mostly on the concept the tension that exists between law and grace and so if you're following along in the first page that I gave you well probably

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I want you to save these and if you can't bring them to church next week too because it's all part of a collection so if you didn't get last week's see me after class and I'll print them for you but I want you to keep these it's kind of a collection of teachings and now what does law mean we talked about this last week and it's here as well what does the law mean what is the word for law in the

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Hebrew what is it so the

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Torah is God's law it's his rule and really it's it's it's when you look at the basic fundamental meaning of the word it actually means teaching or instruction teaching or instruction and then there's another word that's used in the

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Hebrew we talked about this last week as well it's called mitzvah did I get that right mitzvah and mazal tov no

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I'm just kidding mitzvah is a word which means commandment now these are kind of two different words

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Torah and mitzvah both have similar connotations but they're actually quite different as well where is more of an instructional teaching mitzvah is a commandment it's a law okay so sometimes we we get mixed up and we think of the

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Torah as the law but the Torah is actually the instruction the mitzvah it's a commandment of the

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Lord this an example of that would be for instance in the garden the instruction the

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Torah that Jehovah God gave to his to Adam and Eve in the garden was to be fruitful multiply to till the soil the care for the garden that was the instruction okay but then the commandment was don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil now what distinguishes instruction from a mitzvah a law what distinguishes the two what makes some difference it's a good question isn't it yes consequences the consequences instruction doesn't carry the same consequences as a law because when a law is given there's always consequences associated with that law think of our government as dysfunctional as it is when there's laws made there's usually a penalty associated with such law so it could be a thousand dollar fine up to five years in prison you ever see like those littering signs you know or even the speed the the signs that say don't speed minimum of $357 which is outrageous and and so they give you the consequence so you know that's a law you know if it was instruction it would say please don't go as they would say don't go fast please that's a that's a that's an instruction but a law there's a penalty associated with it and so just like in the garden

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God's gave instruction do this but then the commandment was don't eat or you will surely die consequences you see the difference law and consequences are always connected

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Torah instruction is not always so and so we're gonna yeah yeah it's true and there is a so the question that I guess we should ask is is the

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Torah it's is instruction or teaching optional the answer is no it's not optional there's a difference though it's similar to when a father gives an instruction to his children and no penalty is given for disobeying right is it optional

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I don't know about you but in my house I tell my kids do something it's not optional I mean

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I give them a consequence but if they continue to disobey consequences will arise and I will let them know of the boundary and the law at that point right so they're very hand -in -hand

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I'll give you just one to actually so these are very closely associated and I think in the garden obviously under the perfection to Adam and Eve were in they wouldn't have this obeyed instructions but but it's very similar today like if we give instructions they're not typically optional they're still binding but the consequences are not necessarily the same as law that kind of make sense and I'll explain a little bit more as we look at the grace aspect of this because that may shed some light into the distinction between the instruction the commandment an example of this too is is as Christians in New Testament theology what we observe is is the same thing

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Jesus says if you love me you will what you will obey or keep my commandments ok now do we always keep the commandments do we you know do we always do a good job of living up to God's standard no do we love

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Jesus though so that shows you the picture of the dynamic that's at play here the dynamic being instruction ought to be motivated by love just like a father gives instruction to his children where law is not always motivated by love it's motivated by consequences and duty and so law means you have to obey there's no option there's consequences associated with it and so you have to do it instruction there's a relational aspect to this that that is really important and so so when we think of Torah we think of God's instruction we think of it from a relational perspective not just from a faraway king or faraway

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Congress it's it it's different dynamic does that help make sense of this a little bit how about you

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Pastor does that help now let's turn to grace now there's a this is a controversial statement here and I'm gonna explain it because you may not understand in its totality but grace turns the law or the commandments into instruction or optional rules now that that part right there is the trigger word optional rules what do

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I mean by optional rules when we look at the New Testament teaching Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 says for it is by grace you have been saved by faith this is not doing to works so that no man may boast it's not it is the gift of God so so we we look at the

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New Testament teaching is very clear you're not saved by works Galatians chapter 2 you know let's turn to real quick let's turn to Galatians chapter 2 and let's look at verse 16 we'd like to read that text for us this morning okay go for it we ourselves are

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Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners here's verse 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ so we also believe in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law so he had a very clear text from the

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Apostle Paul justification is not by the works of the law to be justified is to be declared righteous is to be made righteous it's the process of which we are becoming synced it's justification is close to knit it together with sanctification which we are becoming more like Christ and being brought into his image but justification has more so the implication of us legally before God having our standing before him corrected rectified so that he may dismiss our charges of sin due to the obedience of Jesus Christ and so Jesus purchases for us an eternal salvation we're not justified we're not saved by works of the law it's really important there's no amount of works there's no amount of obedience that you can accumulate so that you earn yourself salvation or justification okay so then what does that do of the law go to Romans chapter 6

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Paul asks the question that everyone asked you know what am

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I one of the biggest hang -ups my mother has she's a Jehovah's Witness and one of the biggest hang -ups she has about Christian theology or her perception of Christian theology if she can't fathom a system where you're not working for your salvation because you're she says the first thing she says is what do you mean you can just say you love

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Jesus and then you can go sinning and you'll still go to heaven like she can't process not having to earn it not having to work for it and she thinks that that grace is a license for doing whatever you want to do so at the end of day you can live however you want to live and you're still go to heaven so what's the point of the laws of the

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Bible and in Paul preemptively answers that question in Romans chapter 6 after he has this great discourse in chapter 5 of justification by faith in verse 1 of chapter 5 verse 1 he says since therefore we've been justified by faith we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ so justification again by faith very consistent teaching by the Apostle Paul 6 1 says what shall we say then are we to continue in sin that grace may abound now that's a totally reasonable question because if Paul if what he's saying is we're not saved by works we're not justified by works we're saved by grace through faith there's nothing you can do to earn it so then does that mean that we don't have to worry about obedience that we can just live however we want to live and it's okay we can just the more we've sinned the more grace abounds is that is that the right mentality and he goes on to say he goes on in verse 2 by no means how can we who died to sin still live in it so the answer the proper understanding of the relationship between grace and sin is that through the cross of Jesus we too were crucified with Christ we died to sin and we live were raised together with Christ to live in righteousness so though we are not under the obligation of the law of the mitzvah in terms of our sanctification in terms of our salvation in terms of our justification we are still under God's law

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God's rule God's reign for our edification and sanctification so we're not under the law in terms of trying to like win salvation we can't earn it but we obey it in a manner that is consistent with the new person that Christ has made us so we obey not out of obligation okay but of love that's the difference remember obligation is what makes something a law versus an instruction instructions are relational laws are obligatory by mandate and by consequences right laws is the law has consequences correct therefore following you since Jesus Christ paid all the consequence of our discipline that's right that's right no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus now right and so the the obligatory condemnation that was explicit in the law is no longer binding to us in Christ because he paid it so it says in Colossians go to Colossians chapter 2 this is a fantastic verse in chapter 2 starting in verse 13

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Colossians chapter 2 starting verse 13 it says and you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh

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God made alive together with him having forgiven us our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands this he set aside nailing it to the cross he disarmed the rulers the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him or on the cross and so there you see that Paul says that our debt the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands have been canceled so that's a difference that's what

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I mean when it says grace turns the law or the commandments into instruction or optional rules not optional in the sense that you either can do it or not do it but optional the sense that they are no longer binding in ways of condemnation right so should we fall short the

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Bible says in which we will you will fall short let me tell you that you're gonna fall short there's no anus or buts about it we will fall short of God's perfect standard so what happens when that happens is we turn to Jesus Bible says if we sin we have a righteous advocate with the father and he can forgive us our sins and so we turn to mercy we turn to the blood of Jesus to cover us and so the obligation the record of debt however is no longer over us

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Romans 8 one says therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus well not only did he know he predestined it it's the doctrine of election yeah in a sense right well even in eternity past God chose his elect right so so before the foundation of the world

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God chose us that we should be found in him blameless and blameless in love it says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 and so he chose us in the beginning for the foundation of the world now there's a moment in time which that salvation is applied to you and so you have it's the moment of conversion where God regenerates you he gives you a regenerate heart and you make a confession of faith in Jesus Christ and and and at that moment you are saved you're born again but the

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Bible puts salvation in three different tenses you are saved past tense are saved or are being saved so so you have this present tense past tense and a future tense of salvation and so we were saved in eternity past in a sense right

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God chose us those who are his elect they're not not one will be lost but then we are saved in a moment in time when we believed on Christ and then we're also saved at the resurrection which is the redemption of our bodies and that's the culmination of our salvation and so yeah we were we were we were all chosen well before we were born and that's that's that's the beauty of the doctrine of election that help now grace or command the command and the law so a person has no choice in the matter as to whether a law applies to him this is really important remember when we went through our evangelism teaching and one of the tactics that we are to use is to help people understand their need for a savior by pointing them to what to the law now let me tell you something the law is still binding the law is still good the law is still righteous and should and the reason why the gospel is such good news is actually because the law is still binding and so what

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I mean by that is the commandment says thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not do all these things those are all still very much binding the problem is no one can keep it all no one not one when you look at James chapter 2

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I believe it is says if we break one commandment we're guilty of breaking them all and so we are we are we are just so guilty and what grace does is grace alleviates the penalty of the law alleviates the penalty of the law and so in a regular system right in the mosaic system a person has no choice in the matter as to whether law applies to him same is true in our country you can't pick or choose what laws apply to you in a court of law right you said you know if you go to you know there's a group of people called sovereign citizens and so they drive around they don't have a license they don't have license plates they don't have you know anything that the government tells you you should have they don't have it and they say well those don't apply to me yeah and if you ever see these interactions some of them turn pretty deadly actually but but if you see some interactions on YouTube with police and sovereign citizens these are people who think they're absolutely immune they found this in a supposed loophole in the law and they said oh no it doesn't apply to me and I'm I don't you know

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I'm not under law now that could be said of a Christian a

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Christian is a sovereign citizen in a sense right because we are not under the penalty of the law and so there's a funny meme if you're young enough to know what a meme is that's that shows like a woman pulled over and the police is talking to her and she says

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Auster it's okay I'm under grace and so what a great picture though of kind of ignorance but also the bliss that is to be under grace to be under God's law to be under the the arrangement the

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New Testament arrangement that God has given us through Jesus Christ that we are indeed under grace but is grace a opportunity to sin or is it an opportunity to learn and to obey

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I would say the latter right grace has no penalty so the penalty of our debt has been alleviated but you should still obey okay so don't get it twisted

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I'm not saying pastors not reckon recommending you know Romans 6 1 to be yeah keep sinning so grace may abound oh don't don't worry about the law right that's not what

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I mean when I say it's optional okay maybe optional isn't the best word to be used here in that regard anyways but it's to make the point that you should still obey but out of a different motive not so that you can be saved but because you are saying not so that you can earn your way to heaven but because you're having bound and because you're having bound you want to obey you know the psalmist says that we are to love to obey his commands love to obey his commands and that love is the key there love should motivate us to obey his commands which is what

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Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments you shall keep it now law forces a person to obey under penalty but grace allows a person the freedom to choose to obey or not and there is a beauty there there is a much more relational aspect there and so I don't mean choose in any way that would negate

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Calvinism of course but Calvinism itself teaches that we are we do have a will and that will has true volition and it has a true capability as our confession says to make serious and important decisions and choices and so these are not two things that are opposing against each other really there's a there's a there's a harmony there but grace allows the person the freedom to choose you this day whom you shall serve to make that conscious decision every single day that I'm going to serve the

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Lord I'm going to serve Christ I'm going to honor my family I'm going to honor my marriage all these things that we ought to be pursuing right it's the it's the power of being in power to to choose to obey okay any questions so far yeah go ahead oh good question yeah where do you put church discipline in all this well the says that love covers a multitude of sins and I've been a pastor for seven years seven or eight years now and I've been part of church discipline discipline cases and so I can speak from experience that the motive ought to always be as the scripture says to restore so every action of church discipline should be restorative so that that person is is in a right standing before Christ in the church and so I think that grace very much applies in that realm now where law comes in is where there's unrepentant sin right and when unrepentant sin comes into the equation where you give the person ample opportunity to repent to demonstrate repentance to bear fruit in keeping with repentance as the scripture says that's when you introduce the law of the church and the law of the church is is excommunication is to is to remove the person from the fellowship of in the life of the church and so is that satisfy or is there another is there something deeper to that but so so there's yeah yeah that's a unrepentant heart yeah so first first Corinthians 5 when we turn there for a moment answers this question beautifully starting in verse 4 first Corinthians 5 for says when you are assembled in the name of the

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Lord Jesus so this is very important because it's showing the power of the priesthood of the believer it's showing the authority of the church belongs is invested in the members when they assemble so this is good baptist ecclesiology here when you're assembled in the name of the

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Lord Jesus and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man this particular man under church discipline to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the

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Lord well there you go so here's my conviction here's my belief you know

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I believe that he who began a good work you bring it to completion but also the fact that that so that the

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Christian even the true Christian has the volition for terrible backsliding and for making terrible decisions so much so that his salvation may be in question but I think what

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Paul saying here is that such a person is it's not that he's not saved we're gonna hand him over to Satan which is to say we're gonna we're gonna excommunicate from the church we're gonna hand him over to the world and his flesh may he may die destruction of his flesh and basically saying he might even die out there you know natural consequence that maybe someone has a loose life and they decide to live a loose life and they get into drugs and you get into drugs you might die but the spirit may be saved on the day of the

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Lord that's a really interesting statement from Paul which in my view is

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Paul saying such a person is still a Christian or can still be a Christian yet you know he's gonna there will be consequences to his choices he may be destroyed but his spirit will still be saved on the day of the

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Lord and that's what says he finishes up with verse 9 and 10 he says

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I wrote to you not to associate with sexually immoral people not all not all meaning the sexually immoral this world or the greed of swindlers idolaters since then you would need to go out of the world he says but I'm writing you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual morality or greed or his idolater or violent drunkard swindler not see not even to eat with such a one for what have

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I to do with judging outsiders it is not those it is it not those inside the church whom you were to judge

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God judges those outside purge the evil person from among you and so those are clear text for church discipline but the the the impetus in verse 5 is still the same that person may be excommunicated and even destroyed yet there is a means by which he may be preserved in his spirit on the day of the

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Lord is that gonna help a little bit yeah I remember

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Jimmy I remember Jimmy and now under grace according to Pastor Brian Garcia who has been around for a thousand years, it's optional.

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I know you explain optional, you mean you can choose, pick and choose, but how would you answer that given the parameters that you just set?

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I'd say Christ paid the penalty, there is no penalty, there's no condemnation, I'm in Christ, what right have you to discipline me at all if the penalty has been paid and the law is now in this optional mode?

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I think I just wrote what I just quoted which is when you're assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus there's authority vested in the church and the authority that's vested in the church, the keys of the kingdom essentially, like as Pastor Conley teaches it is in our confession, that when we're assembled we have the right to judge within the church, it's what the scripture says, we just read that, we're to judge those who are inside, not outside, which

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I think is the problem a lot of times in our churches is that we look outside at the world and we judge them more than we're judging inside the house and the

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Bible says in 1 Peter that judgment starts in the house of God, and so yes it's true that there's no condemnation, and again it confirms to me what the scripture says here, that you hand such a person over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that their spirit may be saved in the day of the

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Lord, you may still be a Christian, you may still be saved, you may not be an apostate, but you are in disobedience and grace allows you to be in that disobedience, but it doesn't give you the right to be in the church in that state of disobedience

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Just stick with Jimmy for a second, I hope you don't think

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I'm being combative, stick with Jimmy for a second, he comes back and says well on what basis are you saying

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I've done anything wrong, what's the sin, and we would point to the law, and we'd pull probably some

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Deuteronomy quote, Torah, the first 5 books, we'd say here's instruction, here's commandment, you violated this, and again

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I'm having a hard time taking that which would be the basis for the church saying this is the objective rule slash commandment slash whatever you call it that you have violated, objectively we've established it in Matthew 18, 15, 22, every manner established, and yet in the works you hear it in your, and I largely agree with you, so I'm not taking issue, but then

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Jesus paid that penalty, I'm still having a hard time but the basis is to take that law, the penalty of which is to pay, and say that's what you violated and we're going to penalize you maybe it's because I've already reconciled this in my mind a long time ago, but yeah, that's right, it's instruction, that's right, so when we say the penalty,

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I want to, let's frame it a little better, we're talking about a salvific framing here, so when

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I say that the law is now instruction, this isn't relating to our salvation, and so you can't earn your salvation, you're not justified by works, does that mean that we don't do works?

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Should we not do works? Exactly, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, we have to continue in good works in which

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God has prepared us beforehand that we should walk in them, and so how do you reconcile that?

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In one verse Paul says you're saved by faith through grace not of works, but then he says you've got to walk in works, so which one is it?

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The answer is both, the answer is both, the basis of our salvation is not works, so the way

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I would frame it is this way, works is the fruit of salvation not the root of salvation, so it's the fruit not the root, the root is grace, the cross of Jesus Christ, that is what leads us to salvation, but the fruit that that bears is indeed works, so the same is true in cases of church discipline, we are to examine people by their root, and so now of course when we talk about matters of church discipline, there is law, there is, but there's grace as well, and the law of the church as Paul lays out in 1

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Corinthians chapter 5 is that we purge the evildoer from among us, and so yeah

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I don't see the conundry that maybe you do, but I've already settled this a long time ago, yeah,

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I think that's a good way of looking at it, it really is in a sense a last resort, like I'm suspicious of churches who are very quick to just excommunicate, because that's the easy way out, it really is the easy way out, the harder and I think more noble way is to work with a person, do all that you can within your power to restore such a person, which is what the scripture says, and church discipline resulting excommunication really is the last step, or the last straw so to speak, if the person does not progress or the person has not shown demonstrated repentance, but it shouldn't be,

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I don't think it's wise for that to be the first reflex, you know I'll give you an example because you don't know this person, you'll never know this person, but my first church in Edmonton we had a gentleman, beautiful couple in the church, and the husband just one day didn't show up, didn't come home, and we're like worried, trying to find out what's happening, and we find out that he ran off with another woman, and I tracked him down, and I found him,

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I found where he was staying, and I went to him, and I confronted him, being an elder, and we begged him to come to his senses, so our first reflex wasn't like alright we found you, here's your excommunication papers, but our first reflex was what are you doing, like come back, come back to your senses, we can try to sort this out, we can try to work things out, and he was already too far gone by then, but that's just the reality of life, and of church discipline, and dealing in a sinful world with sinful people, so yes, yeah, sometimes it takes time, that's right, and that's true, yes

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I am being judgy, so for instance I'll give you a couple of examples here, there's no law that requires you to treat your spouse with kindness and love, but you should, right, so remember law and saying there's a penalty associated with it, now it does say in Ephesians, right, husbands love your wives, that's instruction, there's no penalty given in that sense, there's no law that requires you to be courteous and friendly to others, but you should, there's no law that requires you to have a job, but you should, so there's no law that says you can't smoke or look at pornography, but you shouldn't, for your own happiness, for your own sanctification, for the glory of God, grace does not require us to obey, but allows us to obey, grace allows us to obey, does that make sense?

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For such freedom Christ has set us free, Galatians 5, 1, for such freedom

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Christ has set us free, that's in the context of the yoke of slavery that was under the bondage of the old covenant system, but Christ has now delivered us so that we can be not under a yoke of slavery, but a yoke of freedom, freedom meaning there's a freedom volition to choose whom you shall serve, obviously we want to serve the

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Lord, and if you're a Christian you have no, you're under obligation, holy obligation to serve the

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Lord, it's not optional in that sense where oh today I feel like serving the Lord or tomorrow I don't feel like serving the

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Lord, remember the optional language is in regard to salvation, it's salvific language, you're not saved by the law, okay, you're only saved by grace through faith, but now that you're saved by grace through faith, you have the freedom to obey without penalty, freedom to obey without penalty, it's very important, now

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I know this has been maybe a little bit confusing because some of the language that was used, and this is an older teaching, and hindsight

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I think I should change some of the language, but I think the fundamentals are still the same and are pretty solid in that Christ has set us free from the penalty of the law so that we ought to obey him out of love, love for him, for who he is and what he's done for us, and so that's the motivation for us, it's not penalty, but love, and that's the whole point, does that help?

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Any other questions or thoughts? Yes? The Old Testament laws is like us going, grace has given us grace,

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I guess we don't have to stop, now we have the ability to stop. Yeah, I think so, anyone else have any thoughts?

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So what you're saying is very much like Ezekiel 36, where God takes out the heart of stone and gives his heart of flesh and writes his law upon our hearts, which again is

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Jeremiah 31, so if I'm understanding optionally, and I think

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I did, it's because the penalty, the fear of condemnation is taken away, and because God gave me a heart that wants to please him,

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I can look upon the law as a means of sanctification insofar as these are the things

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I should be doing, this is the way I should be behaving, but if I foul up I need to repent because you're commanding me to repent, but I'm not doing this in terror for my eternal soul.

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That's right, that's right, and again that's the whole point of 1 Corinthians 5, church discipline is so that that person may still be saved on the day of the

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Lord, so it still ends up in their salvation, but there's consequences.

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Yeah, but I set a pretty high bar for what apostasy is, I don't think apostasy is just, you know, committing one of these sins and not repenting of it,

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I think apostasy, especially in the New Testament sense, is far more grave than that, and I would put apostasy as the unpardonable sin that Jesus spoke of in Matthew chapter 12 when he says, blaspheming of the

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Holy Ghost, to me that's, the one who sets the perfect model for that is Judas, Judas is the original apostate of the

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Christian church, and what did he do, he negated the work of Christ having been a partaker of Hebrews 6, having tasted and seen the word of God and the powers of the ages to come, and he turned his back on it and crucified

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Jesus Christ, which is the same language we see in Hebrews chapter 6, that we recrucify

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Jesus, which is essentially we're acting as Judas, right, so I would set a pretty high bar for apostasy, and I don't think that, you know, backsliding is akin to apostasy, yeah, so I think the

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Christian can backslide, gravely even, maybe even to his grave, and yet, you know, be saved on the day of the

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Lord, which is why in 1 Corinthians chapter, is it chapter 3 or 2, chapter, yeah, chapter 3, it says something, and this will be the last verse

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I'll share with you guys, it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 12, now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done, this is talking about the judgment of the

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Christian, the Christian will be judged, you will be judged, but not unto condemnation, but there's a judgment of your works, of the quality of life you've lived as a

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Christian, if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, so the foundation being

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Christ, he will receive a reward, if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire, okay, so there are

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Christians who are born again, they're heaven bound, but they're not gonna get as nice of a reward, okay, they're gonna be judged, and they're gonna suffer loss, so to speak, but they're still gonna be in heaven, they're still gonna be there on the resurrection, but their glory will be, you know, nowhere near as nice as it could have been, does that make sense, yeah, okay, alright, let me pray,

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God, thank you that you've given us your word, that we can study, that we can sink our teeth into it,

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Lord, I pray God that you'd help us to see the heart behind this teaching, which is, Lord, that you've set us free, and you've set us free, not so that we may obey, but so that we may obey, so that we may be found in you approved, but Lord, not due to any works that we can do in righteousness, but through the washing of regeneration that you've given us through the renewal of the

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Holy Spirit, and so Father, may you cleanse our hearts, may you work in us that which is pleasing in your sight, help us, Lord, to love to obey thy commands, in Jesus' name, amen.