March 26, 2023 - Sunday Service

Ascension Presbyterian Church Longwood iconAscension Presbyterian Church Longwood

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and sisters in Christ and welcome to the corporate worship of our God. Please stand and hear
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God call you to worship through his word. The Lord is my strength.
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I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely but he has not given me over to death.
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Open to me the gates of righteousness and I will go through them and I will praise the
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Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous shall enter.
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I will praise you for you have answered me and have become my salvation.
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The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the
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Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made.
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We will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I pray, O Lord.
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O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
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Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. God is the
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Lord and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
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You are my God and I will praise you. You are my God and I will exalt you.
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O give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his mercy endures forever.
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Let us pray. You are the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise
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God. You are the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in an unapproachable light, who no name has seen or can see.
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To you be honor and eternal dominion. We bless the God and Father of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
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We praise the glory of your grace that chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
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We thank you that in love you predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.
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We rejoice that we have been sealed in Christ with the
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Holy Spirit of promise, who has given us a pledge of our inheritance. We worship and adore you,
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Open the eyes of our hearts that we may know the hope of your calling, the riches of the glory of our inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of your power toward us in Christ Jesus.
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All this you have brought about in Christ when you raised him from the dead and seated him at your right hand in the heavenly places.
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Receive our worship and our praise to the glory of your grace. We ask this in your name,
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Lord Jesus, amen. Please kneel as you are able for the corporate confession of sin.
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Let us join together in confessing our sins. Almighty Father, God of gods and Lord of lords,
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Father to the fatherless, Husband to the widow, Defender of the helpless,
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Judge of all the earth, have mercy on us. We have not bound up the broken, even though you healed us.
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We have not forgiven others, even though you forgave us. We withhold kindness from the needy, even though you freely gave us your own son.
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We are without excuse, but not without hope. By your power and grace, account our sins to Jesus' death, and amend our ways by the power of his glorious resurrection.
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Amen. Please stand for the assurance of pardon. As we have just read, that we are without excuse, but not without hope.
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Hear now this assurance of pardon. This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the
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Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.
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Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.
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Oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. Our sins not in part, but the whole. We're nailed to the cross, and we bear them no more.
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My brothers and sisters, rejoice. Your sins are forgiven. Amen. Please take up the hymnal and turn to hymn number 235.
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All glory, laud, and honor, hymn 235. Oh, sacred head now wounded,
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Psalm 14, in many ways does so very, very explicitly.
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It is probably the second most Christological book in the Bible next to the
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Gospel of John, and we will look forward to going through the book of Hebrews in the coming weeks.
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Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews 1, the word of the
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Lord. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in his
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Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. And he is the radiance of his glory, and the exact representation of his nature, and upholds all things by the word of his power.
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When he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name than they.
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For which of the angels did he ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you, and again,
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I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. And when he again brings the firstborn into the world, he says, and let all the angels of God worship him.
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And of the angels, he says, who makes his angels a winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.
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But of the son, he says, your throne of God is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is a scepter of his kingdom.
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You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions, and you,
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Lord, in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain, and they will all become old like a garment, and like a mantle, you will roll them up, and like a garment, they will also be changed.
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But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end. But to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?
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Are they not all ministering spirits? Send out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation.
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The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let us now join our voices together and confess our common
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Christian faith in the singing of the Apostles' Creed. The mountain of the
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Lord, hymn 292. We say goodbye to each
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Lord's day coming up, closing the entire piece of St.
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Patrick's blessing. St. Patrick's breastplate, I bind unto myself today. From the beginning of ours, from the dangers and uncertainties, these mercies we bless and magnify, humbly beseeching you to accept this, our morning sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
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For his sake we lay down and pray our Savior Jesus Christ.
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Fulfill now this meeting just for us, granting us in this world knowledge of thy truth, and in the world to come a life everlasting.
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I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world, for our denomination, for this church, and for all ministers and missionaries.
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Pray for the church. Lord, hear our prayers. Our great
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God, Father of mercies, we beseech you this morning in Christ's name.
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Thank you, Lord, for what you have given us. We ask, Lord, that you would preserve your church, Lord, and in this life continue to mold her in the image of Christ.
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I ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the bereaved, the burdened, and for the widows, orphans, and prisoners.
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Pray for those in any need or trouble. Lord, hear our prayers.
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Father, we lift up to you today those who are suffering around us,
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Lord God, those who are mourning the loss of a loved one, Lord God, those who are afflicted with various diseases and sicknesses.
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Lord God, we lift these people up to you. Father, we pray that your mercy would be with them, that they would feel your presence,
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Lord God, and that we know that you are the great healer, the great physician. Father, it is your will to heal these people that you would do so.
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Father, I pray that you would be with those who are widowed, Lord God, who have lost their husband or wife.
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Father, I pray that you would be their comfort and be their guide. Lord, I pray that you would be with those who have lost parents,
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Father, that those who are orphaned among us would see you as their true heavenly Father and find comfort and rest in you.
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Father, we lift all of these up and more also in Christ's name. I ask your prayers for those who do not know
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Christ and for those who seek a deeper knowledge of him. Pray that they may find and be found by him.
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Lord, hear our prayers. I ask your prayers for our children and future generations which will be born to them.
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Pray that the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth through them. Lord, hear our prayers.
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Lord, we also pray for the children of the faithful.
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May you encourage the work of God.
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May you protect them and keep them safe and raise them in the faith, granting them all these things.
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Every spiritual blessing in Christ. And Lord, may we see it in your kingdom and be expanded in the knowledge of you throughout the earth and in all families worldwide.
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We pray in your glorious name. In Christ's name. Pray that we may have grace to glorify
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Christ in our own day. Lord, hear our prayers. Lord, we also pray that we may have grace to glorify
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Christ. Whether we're going through trial or frustration, that we would be given the grace to continue to glorify
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Christ no matter what we do. May his name be on our lips. Being in agreement with all these things, we join our voices together and say, amen.
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Please stand and take up one more time the answer. Also for the last time, our psalm of the month,
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Psalm 34 is listed as 155. How lovely, Lord, opposes to me
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Psalm 84. For scarcely for a righteous man will a good man.
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We were still sinners. Christ died much more than having now been justified by his blood.
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We shall be saved from wrath through him. When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.
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Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
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And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
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Now the focus of our attention this morning. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned.
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For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
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Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned, according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of him who was to come.
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But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man,
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Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.
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For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification.
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For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one,
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Jesus Christ. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.
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For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous.
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Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.
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So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our
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Lord. Brethren, this is God's holy and infallible word.
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Please pray with me. O Lord, we are a thankful people.
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We are weary from the travails of life. We have illness in our church.
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We've had hard weeks, many of us. We are tired and we ask that you would refresh us and encourage us and strengthen us by your word.
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Ask also, O Lord, you know the frailty of my mind and my strength today, and I ask that you would abundantly supply the powerful working of the
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Holy Spirit that Christ might be exalted and your people edified.
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Ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Please be seated. The title of the message today is one man's obedience.
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And we will be chiefly concerned with three verses out of the end of chapter five.
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We will consider primarily verse 12 and verses 18 and 19.
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As you know, there is a large section that would be considered a parenthetical statement that's very much connected to our text.
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And I will make some reference to that section. But that is largely worked out in chapter six and chapter seven.
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So if we were preaching through the book of Romans right now, I would probably do four or five messages in chapter five before going into six.
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But this is a little series of only three messages. So I hope to get the very simple point across of this section that Paul intends for us.
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One man's obedience. This is the third installment of the mini series in Romans five.
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We have learned that we have dramatically so peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ, that God is at peace with us. And last week we learned of our powerlessness to save ourselves, but that the gospel of Jesus is the power of God unto salvation.
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And that we have been reconciled to God through the death of Christ. Our text today.
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Is. Really focused on the obedience of Christ. As the basis of our salvation.
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For those of you who need an outline. Or to take notes. First. Write down the word
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Adam. And a colon. One man's disobedience.
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The first point is. One man's disobedience. The second. Write down Christ.
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And a colon and write down one man's obedience. Everything that I'll be talking about will fall into those two headings.
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And as I said, we're striving for a simple message today.
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There are two things I'd like us to consider. As we enter into this. We may have.
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A deficiency in our. Homardiology. Our doctrine of sin.
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You say, well, what is what could be our deficiency in our homardiology? What could we be lacking in the doctrine of sin?
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Well. The first thing that comes to mind is the comprehensiveness of our sinful condition.
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The fall in Adam is dramatic. It is comprehensive. It is all encompassing.
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In fact. I think if we were. And who had the ability to do so. If we took a sample of Adam's DNA.
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Pre -fall. And we examined it under the strongest. Possible microscope available to us.
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We would find that not only had Adam spiritually. But there had been a change.
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A change in his physicality. The stain of sin.
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Is probably identifiable on the human genome. Because the corruption is so pervasive in the heart and life and the bodies.
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Of humanity. Adam was created to be the king.
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The dominionist over all creation. And. He failed.
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So I think we might have a deficiency in our homardiology. And that is the doctrine of sin.
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We may not see really the comprehensive effect of sin. In our lives and the lives of others.
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Because let's face it. Everybody's doing it. How bad could it be?
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We're all sinners. And that kind of minimizes and diminishes our own perception of sin.
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Because everybody's a sinner. We sometimes just say, oh, we're just sinners. And we kind of leave it at that.
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We have to dive down into the depths of it a little bit. That we might see the majestic nature of grace that's found in the salvation of Christ.
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There may be another deficiency. I know you guys are very well schooled. Very theologically sophisticated.
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Here. But there may be a deficiency in our soteriology as well. We may lack a comprehensive view of Christ's salvation.
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We may not fully appreciate that his obedience, his sacrifice, is enough to save us.
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We may still think about the reality of sin's corruption. But we may forget the perfection of the one man's righteousness overtakes it.
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And surpasses it. It's even revealed there in that parenthetical section. Whatever Adam failed to do,
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Christ has done. Adam was set up and created to be this leader of the nations.
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And he fails. But we have Christ. He comes and fulfills all that Adam fails to perform.
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One man's disobedience. And one man's obedience.
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Let's look again at our text. These words are beautiful.
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They are powerful. But there is a simplicity to it. A clarity of speech that Paul gives to us is very helpful.
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And very soul satisfying to us as the people of God. Therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world.
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Parents, this is a great question. Like a little catechism question to ask your children. How did sin enter the world?
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How did this good world that God made, how did sin come in? The text here says that through one man,
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Adam, sin entered the world. And it gets worse.
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And death through sin. Not only was the world corrupted by sin and Adam.
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But its corruption goes so far that it leads to the death of humanity.
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It leads to the death spiritually and physically of man. Because sin has entered into the world, there is death.
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I want to give a combination of things here. I want to give a summary of the doctrine that is being taught in our section.
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And I also want to show you the value and the great riches of our catechism.
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Please turn in the back of the Trinity Hymnal to page 870.
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If you took my class at RBC on the doctrine of man, you would have been required to learn, memorize questions 10 -20 in our class.
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And if you know questions 10 -20, you will have a fully developed doctrine of man.
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And it will serve you all of your days. It will give you an answer to the questions that come up in evangelism and apologetics and the matters of life.
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So I would encourage you today, if you don't know questions 10 -20 yet, memorize them with your family that you might be better equipped to understand the condition of man.
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I'm going to look at these very quickly. Question 10. How did
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God create man? And the answer is, God created man, male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
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What a tremendous answer to give to a confused generation. How did
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God create man? He created them male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures.
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Question 11. What are God's works of providence? God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all of his creatures and all their actions.
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And that sets the stage for question 12. And the problem of sin is answered, not only by our text, not only by Genesis 3, but by the catechism.
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The catechism summarizes the doctrine of Scripture for us. What special act of providence did
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God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
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When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him upon condition of perfect obedience.
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How does sin enter into the world? Adam broke covenant with God in his disobedience.
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The condition was perfect obedience. The stipulation was he forbade him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death.
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How does sin enter the world? Through one man. How does the one man allow sin to enter into the world?
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He transgressed the covenant of life, and he ate the forbidden fruit.
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Question 13. Did our first parents continue in the estate wherein they were created?
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The answer. Our first parents, being left to the freedom of their own will, fell from the estate wherein they were created by sinning against God.
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This is a desperate situation.
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You see, what we're going to learn in Romans 5, and I'm sure all of you are well acquainted with, that we are put under a head in our lives.
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And Adam was the first man. He's the first representative of this kind.
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And Adam, I don't know how long it took him to fall, but sometime very shortly after he is given a bride and given dominion over the creatures, at some point,
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Adam fell. And sin enters the world.
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And I've said this dozens of times here and in Sunday school and in person.
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What I can't for the life of me figure out is why the world doesn't recognize that every trouble, every problem, everything that we face, we can give an accounting for because of sin.
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The problems of the world are not socioeconomic. They're not class -based.
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They're not race -based or gender -based. The problems of the world are because of sin.
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And in fact, all of us are going to die, the exception being if the
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Lord returned. The only way that we leave this world is because we die.
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And that's a consequence of sin. Sin is the greatest force of bad and evil in the world.
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It's the problem that confronts all of us. It's the obstacle to our marriage flourishing, our children being raised right, our productivity in the marketplace, and the wickedness of our magistrates.
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All of it revolves and swirls around sin, but nobody ever talks about sin in the culture.
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This is how sin entered into the world.
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Question 14. What is sin? Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God.
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No one wants to talk about the law of God anymore either. Sin is being redefined.
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What was the sin? Question 15, whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created.
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The sin whereby our first parents fell from the estate wherein they were created was their eating the forbidden fruit.
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And now the most probably most important question that summarizes the doctrine that Paul has articulated in Romans chapter 5 is question 16.
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Did all mankind fall in Adam's first transgression? The covenant being made with Adam not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary generation sinned in him and fell with him in his first transgression.
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Paul is not giving us an analogy to help us illustrate and understand how salvation is.
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He's speaking about the reality of the world. Mankind has fallen in Adam.
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The scripture teaches it. The confession reinforces it. The catechism illuminates it for us and teaches us and instructs us.
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And if that's not enough, your own life and eyes and experience tells you that we're sinners.
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And everyone that we come in contact with is a sinner. So comprehensive is the fall of Adam that every human coming through an ordinary generation finds themselves under the weight and corruption of sin.
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In this covenantal headship, we buck against and we say this isn't fair.
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But this is the reality of the world that God has made. It's his world. It's his rules.
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It's his covenant. He decides. Question 17.
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Into what a state did the fall bring mankind? The fall has brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
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All the troubles, social, economic. There's a way to attribute it to sin.
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Question 18. Wherein consists the sinfulness of that estate wherein to man fell?
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The sinfulness of that estate where into man fell consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin.
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The want of original righteousness and the corruption of his whole nature.
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Which is called commonly original sin. Together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it.
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Now, this is something that's been repeated. Apparently, today is a day of basics and fundamentals for us.
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Our transgressions, our failures don't make us sinners.
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We are essentially sinners. Therefore, we sin.
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You see, the corruption of Adam's nature has stretched for six or seven thousand years or however many years it is.
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It's come all the way to you. And that corruption is resident in you and me and everyone we come in contact with.
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This fall is comprehensive. Every human being with the exception of one coming through these ordinary means.
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The normal ways that men and women come together and have children. Every resulting posterity from those unions has this curse resident in them.
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Without exception. Maybe the greatest calamity of man's fall is found in verse 19.
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This is expounding upon the question of the fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery in question 17.
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Says all mankind by their fall lost communion with God and are under his wrath and curse.
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And so made liable to all the miseries of this life to death itself into the pains of hell forever.
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This is what has happened when one man through his disobedience allows sin to enter the world.
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Death comes in. Misery comes in strife and hatred and murder and adultery and stealing and lying and cheating, hating one another.
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All of this comes because sin has entered the world through Adam.
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We have to understand the comprehensive character of the fall.
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That we might properly understand the salvation that is found in Christ.
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Question 20. Probably one of the greatest questions, particularly after going through that.
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Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery?
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The answer is no. But the fuller answer is God having out of his mere good pleasure from all eternity elected some to everlasting life.
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Did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a redeemer.
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This is going to be a little bit of a side part and you could say it's connected to the parenthetical statement.
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I'm going to be careful how I say this because it could be misunderstood but I feel that I should say it. The average person and maybe the average
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Christian thinks they stand and fall on the basis of their own merits.
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In other words, when
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I said that sin is the cause of death for every person. They generally personalize it and say my transgressions are the reasons that I die.
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And you can commit a sin unto death. You can do wicked things that could cost you your life.
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But the reason we die, you have to understand this theologically, scripturally, the reason we die is because of Adam's sin.
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That's how death enters the world. This is very important because if we miss this, we'll end up having a quasi -Arminian doctrine on the soteriological side.
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Because there are people professing the name of Christ. What they really believe is that they do something to contribute to their salvation.
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They take the Lord's Supper. They baptize their children. They go to church.
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That's not how we're saved. My transgressions can lead to death but my death will come because sin has entered the world through a covenant head.
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It's entered the world through Adam. Thanks be to God.
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Out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, he's elected some to everlasting life.
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He's entered into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery.
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And to bring them into an estate of salvation by a redeemer.
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I'll use 21 and I'll come back to transition to our text here.
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To transition. Who is the redeemer of God's elect? The only redeemer of God's elect is the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Who being the eternal Son of God became man.
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And so was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever.
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Hallelujah. Amen. Now let's go back to our text in Romans 5.
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We have to go from verse 12. We're going to skip over the parenthetical section.
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I think this is actually an appropriate parenthesis put in the scripture by the translators to help us continue the thought.
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Because when you read verse 18, it completely is parallel to verse 12. If we were preaching through Romans, we'd have a lot of time.
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We could parse out a lull. There's some thorny theological things in that section. We don't have the time to do that today.
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So go down to verse 18. This is the reality of God's world.
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This isn't an illustration. This is the reality of the physical and spiritual world over which our
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God reigns. Therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation.
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Paul has already, and last week we talked about a little bit, he's confined the whole of humanity under the penalties due for sin.
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All mankind is guilty before God and they should be condemned to hell and punished eternally.
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This is the condemnation.
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But Paul says, even so, there's another man.
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And this is the righteous man. Think now of the incarnation in our
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Athanasius study with Brother Mark. See, Adam's not just any man.
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He's the first man. He's the kingly man. He's the man that has been saddled with this covenant responsibility.
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But a second man has come, a righteous man, and his his qualifications are, as we learned from question 21.
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Not only is he a man, but when we dig back into that section of the catechism, he's a man who has not been born according to the ordinary generation of things.
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He was conceived in the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. So we have now the the man of the dust, the man of the dirt,
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Adam. Now we have the heavenly man. And God is pleased to to take this covenant obligation of obedience and representation and allow it to fall on another who is
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God himself. As we sang today, the one who holds the worlds together, the one who upholds all things by his power.
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He's hanging on a cross between heaven and earth. To provide salvation.
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For us, the capital M man performs a righteous act.
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And his atoning work. But it's important to understand he had to be a capital
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R righteous man in order to perform an acceptable and righteous act which would atone for the sins of horrible, treacherous sinners like us.
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And this results in a justification of life.
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Look at verse 19 for as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners.
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So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous.
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We have to be hyper covenantalists. I don't know if that's a word, but it concerns this.
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See, it's very clear in Paul's articulation throughout Romans.
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Salvation is found and resides in Christ alone. Who do not bring anything to this table?
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It's found in Christ alone. The comprehensiveness of Adam's fall serves as instructive to us to see an even superior representation by Christ.
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His representation is so perfect. It transforms people who are dead.
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And makes them alive. People who were doomed to an eternal torment to an eternal blessing.
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I think there is a deficiency. Maybe not yours individually. I think there's a deficiency both in our doctrine of sin.
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And in our doctrine of salvation. The same condition is worse than you fathom.
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And the salvation is more glorious than you can imagine. We're in the middle and we need to go to the poles.
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We need to go to the ends. We need to see the horrors and the depths of sin. And we need to see the glories of new life in Christ.
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Now, by way of application, I hope to remind you of something you're probably familiar with.
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From the church fathers to people like Thomas Boston. Most famously with Augustine and probably
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Boston. Certainly pops up in Calvin in a couple of different ways. There's this idea of the fourfold state of man.
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I want you to write this down if you're a note taker. This is going to be helpful to you. Because it helps us understand what
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Paul is driving at in Romans 5. I'm going to use
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Augustine. Then I'm going to use Boston. Then I'm going to try to merge them together and make a more fuller picture of it.
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First, this is Augustine. The first state of man.
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This is referring to Adam. Write, able to sin.
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These are little short, pithy Latin phrases that are used by Augustine to articulate this.
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Able to sin. That's the first one. And what's happened?
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Paul says, Genesis 3 says, the testimony of scripture says, our own eyes say, that Adam fell.
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That brings us to the second one. This is mankind.
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First one is Adam, able to sin. The second is mankind, comma, fallen in Adam.
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That's my addition. The words basically from Augustine, not able to not sin.
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Not able not to sin. So the fallen man doesn't have the capacity to pursue righteousness or avoid sin.
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He's a slave of his sin. Testimony of scripture, all of it, our own experience proven to be true.
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Augustine translated, able to not sin. Now who is that?
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Able to not sin. This is where our soteriology, particularly as it progresses on to sanctification, is weak in the life of the church today.
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We don't believe that the Christian has the capacity on some level, though imperfectly, to not sin.
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The redeemed and Christ are new in him. They've been transformed. So you have been telling yourself and giving yourself excuses.
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I'm just an Adam. It's a sinful world. We all sin.
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We all fall short of the glory of God. But you don't progress on to the second Adam.
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He's now made it possible for you to flee sin and to walk in righteousness. And this should be exciting to us.
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Because if we are holy people and we love holy things, the thing that we want most is to be freed from this body of sin.
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Fourth, our glorified state.
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The mankind glorified in Christ is unable to sin.
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That's basically Augustine's fourfold state. Now, Boston's is a little different.
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And they're not at odds with each other, but kind of a different flavor. And I like Boston's first two better, but I like Augustine's last two better.
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But I'll explain that here in a second. This is Boston's first primitive integrity.
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This is the state of Adam in a state of primitive integrity, which means prior to his fall, he was upright, was righteous.
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Second, and that's pretty beautiful to think about that blessed condition that Adam was in.
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Second, entire depravity. Fall brought mankind into a state of sin and misery.
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A comprehensive entire depravity. His third is begun recovery.
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It should be pointed out that this book probably was third ranked in Scotland for about 50 to 100 years in most.
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Every house in the country had one, and maybe bolstered their theology and doctrine.
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It was like the Bible in Thomas Boston, the fourfold state of man in Scotland.
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He's begun a recovery. He's able not to sin. He's able, as the redeemed in Christ, not to sin.
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And his fourth is consummate happiness or misery.
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The fourth state is a consummate, continuous happiness or misery.
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I think that the lost man lives and dies and spends eternity in the second state of Augustine.
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He continues to sin. He's only sinning. That's all he does.
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Death does not even set him free from it. But what about us?
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Do we believe that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation?
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We believe that Adam, we're good Calvinists, we believe that we are united to Adam.
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But how much do we believe that we are united to Christ and transformed to walk in newness of life?
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I want to conclude by going over quickly to chapter 6. A very simple message today.
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There's one man who's been disobedient, and it's had extensive and far -reaching implications.
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And there's another man who's been obedient who happens to be Christ Jesus, our Lord, the second person of the
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Trinity. I'm going to start reading in a portion of 6 and just follow the train of thought as a conclusion and maybe as an application of these things.
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It's very challenging to us today. Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
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Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death. That just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father.
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I want to pause here. This is our weakness. Soteriologically. We think about, oh, yes, one day
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I'm going to be resurrected. It's true. One day I'm going to enter into that glorified straight state.
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I'm going to pass through death. I'm going to enter into the presence of God. I'm going to be glorified. And one day he's going to raise my my my foul, rotting bones out of the ground and clothe me in righteous, glorified garments in the righteousness of Christ.
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We make it all futurist. What does it say here? What does it say?
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Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Do we really believe that?
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This is a present reality for the
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Christian. You now have the capacity to pursue righteousness, to walk in holiness, imperfect, but some glorious capacity.
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To be obedient to God, to walk in this newness of life, to to be more Christlike.
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Listen to the argumentation of Paul. For if we've been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
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And again, I think the Christian thinks it's great. Final salvation, the future. It is glorious.
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Verse six, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him.
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That the body of sin might be done away with. Sure.
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Surely this is future, right? No, it's present. That we should no longer be slaves of sin.
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For he who has died has been freed from sin. Paul says that you and I, we feel this is unfair, but we died with Adam.
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When Adam failed, you and I failed. That's how strong his covenant representation was.
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The argument is now flipped to the positive, and it's even much more dramatic.
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For he who has died has been freed from sin. If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
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The comprehensiveness of our fall in Adam is eclipsed by the comprehensiveness of our new life in Christ.
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Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.
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Death no longer has dominion over him. Listen how the imperative follows this indicative.
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This glorious truth being posited by Paul about what Christ has done.
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But there's a responsibility on our part. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all.
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But the life that he lives, he lives to God. Jesus Christ is alive.
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He's alive in the flesh right now. Likewise, verse 11, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our
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Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it and its lusts.
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Do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead.
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And your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
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Today, I'm asking that you deepen your understanding of the doctrine of sin.
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It's worse than you can imagine. I want you to think that not only do you commit actual transgressions which make you disqualified.
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Your very existence, because you proceed from Adam, makes you disqualified.
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He has been a very capable representative. Look around.
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It's proven to be true. The scripture says that the Holy Spirit testifies to our heart and our eyes see it.
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We live in a depraved world. Good Calvinists believe that.
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But how good is our Calvinism? If we don't believe in the exclusivity of salvation in Christ alone.
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When we're presenting the gospel to people, we're presenting not theological ideas.
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We're presenting Christ and Him crucified. Risen, reigning.
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Shore up your soteriology to include a transformed life.
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Justification flows very neatly into sanctification. You are now with some capacity to walk in righteousness, and I urge you to do so.
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A quick word of application, and we'll close here. For every
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Christian here, I urge you again, not questioning your salvation, but I urge you to believe on the
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Lord Jesus Christ again. Do you know that it's only because of His active and passive obedience that we have salvation?
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See, one man had to perform, and you and I are not that man.
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But Christ is, and He did. This is glorious. This is the good news.
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This is the greatest news. And maybe with a surprise here today in light of Chapter five, because it's
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I believe the foundation of this application of 678 is found here in Romans five.
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You're no longer a slave of sin. You need to reckon yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God.
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Christ Jesus, our Lord, and you need to present your members as slaves of righteousness for the sake of holiness.
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And finally, actively seek and pursue righteousness.
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You have a perfect representative. You see, the kingly man, both
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Adam and Christ have been representatives, exemplars of their people.
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I have one scripture I'd like to quote on the way out, and I think this will help seal it for us.
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This is the underserved portion of our salvation as well. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we begin reading in verse 42.
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And I think one of the mistakes that we could make is saying that this section, though very focused on the resurrection, is limited to the resurrection.
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That there's more things in view than just the future resurrection. It's prominent. It's big in this chapter.
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It's very important. Let's see if you agree with my conclusion and our little doctrine of man study here today.
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Starting at 1 Corinthians 15, 42b, the body is sown in corruption.
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It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor.
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It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.
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It is sown. A natural body is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
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Pay close attention, children. And so it is written, the first man,
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Adam, became a living being. Think about the creation account. The last
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Adam, Christ, the obedient man in our outline, he's become a life -giving spirit.
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I want you to pay close attention now. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward, the spiritual.
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The first man was of the earth, made of dust. And I love this sentence, this second part of the sentence so much.
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The second man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust.
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Are you in Adam, or are you in Christ? Adam and his people,
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I said this before, I don't think Adam is even in Adam, but set that aside. The people of dust, they are attached to the man of dust.
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But what about the redeemed in Christ? Oh, brethren, we scream louder for football teams than we do this.
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This is better than anything you've got. This is the greatest stuff in all the world.
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We've been in Adam, we're redeemed in Christ. There's a heavenly man, and he brings his people with him because they're united to him.
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They're in one flesh union with him. They are in Christ. And here it is. This is
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Paul's doctrine, capstone phrase, thesis of what we've been talking about.
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It has implications for both the life that we live now and the life to come. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we have been fallen in Adam.
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We shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. I am here today to say,
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I don't believe this only is future. I think it has implications now as the redeemed.
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Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, I thank you that you are the righteous man who performs the righteous act that pays the price for our redemption.
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And oh Lord, I thank you for the simplicity of this doctrine and the beautiful depth and all the layers that could be explored in it.
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Oh Lord, I thank you for this salvation that is not only final in future, but it's a present reality.
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Oh Lord, I pray that because we have been united to you in the likeness of your death, burial and resurrection and ascension and glorification, that we would display signs of a family resemblance to the risen and reigning
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Christ. That we would be increasingly bearing the image of the heavenly man.
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Oh Lord, forgive us for thinking that Adam's representation was stronger than yours.
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We often do that, Lord, forgive us for that. We also ask forgiveness, Lord, for neglecting to see the comprehensiveness and transformative power of the salvation that we enjoy.
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And we have been content to not make progress in this faith. I pray that cheerfully and lovingly you would, the power of your spirit, move us to greater heights of faith and obedience.
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I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's continue our worship with the presentation of the tithe and offerings.
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Please stand and let's pray together.
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Oh Lord, we thank you for the provision of labor and work, stewardship.
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And ask that these tithes and offerings would be used to advance your kingdom.
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We ask these things in Jesus' name. We are few in number here today and we've heard some very good news.
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And I think it would be appropriate for us to fill our lungs with air and sing heartily to the
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Lord this Gloria Patri. I'm going to say this, which
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I've said a thousand times, or I don't know, more than that. Many thousands of times, probably hundreds of times.
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I want you to pay close attention to the words that I give in this section today.
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It is right and a good and joyful thing that we should at all times and in all places give thanks to you.
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Oh Holy Lord, Father almighty, everlasting God. Because you sent your beloved son to redeem us from sin and death and to make us heirs in him of everlasting life.
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Then we shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world. We may, without shame or fear, rejoice to behold his appearing.
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Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we praise and magnify your glorious name.
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Evermore praising you and singing. You to be and you have performed an efficacious act of atonement.
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And the crucifixion you have because of that representation allowed us to die with you.
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And as you've been raised from the dead and ascended to the throne of God, you have carried us along with you.
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We thank you for these creaturely things, this bread and this wine, which you have set apart for this purpose.
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That we would taste and see that you are good, that we would see your body broken and your blood shed for us and our salvation.
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That you would take us into yourself and give yourself to us and unite yourself to us.
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Lord, I pray that these would nourish us, strengthen us and encourage us in the faith.
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I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Our Lord Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
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When he had blessed and broke it, he gave it to his five disciples saying, take, eat, this is my body.
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Likewise, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, drink from it all of you.
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For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
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Therefore, we proclaim the faith. Christ has died, Christ is risen,
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Christ will come again. Let's approach the table now by praying together in unison.
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We do not presume to come to this your table, O merciful
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Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your manifold and great mercies.
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We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your table.
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But you are the same Lord who always shows mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of your dear
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Son, Jesus Christ, and to drink of his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him and be in us.
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Amen. Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feasts, the gifts of God, for the people of God.
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Thanks be to the Lord. Jesus Christ, and born to you, you're in need of him.
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This he gives, is the Spirit's rising beam.
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Printed on our fingers daily in the faith which is at work, you never send us out to do the work you have given us to do.
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To love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord. To him, to you, and to the
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Holy Spirit. Be honest in glory now and forever. The Lord Jesus Christ.
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The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance and grant you his peace.