Do vs Done

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Ebendroth, just back from vacation.

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Mario, good to see you. I've gotten emails about you. What about Mario? Because I see your name so often.

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So now you're just part of the group, part of the clan. I hate when pastors say the tribe.

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We've got different tribes. Anyway, my name is Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio. Don't forget, we are not just on YouTube, but Spotify and iTunes and all these other things.

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The new book, King, is out, How the Sovereignty of God Changes Everything. You can order that at Amazon.

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And if you wanna get bulk orders, let me know. You can email me about that or anything else, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

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Back from California, was there this summer. It was good to preach for my son,

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Luke Ebenroth, and he's been on the show before. He's the pastor of Redemption Church, North County in Carlsbad, California.

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I also preach for my friend, Steve Meister. Should I admit that Steve's my friend? I'm not exactly sure.

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Up at Emmanuel Baptist. And I also preach for my friend, Drew Cunningham at Santa Cruz Baptist Church.

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Just a little deviation before we get into the program information today. I also went to a dude ranch this summer to ride horses and fly fish.

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My wife and I went, and it was a ministry deal where they basically subsidized pastors.

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And when there were six other pastors there, there was a Reformed Presbyterian, there was a Southern Baptist, and a few others.

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And so that was really a lot of fun. Maybe I do,

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I need to get a horse. Do we need to start donations, Mario, so we can buy a horse around here? Today, I'd like to talk about something that I've talked about regularly, and that is law and gospel.

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There's lots of things that go on when it comes to law gospel, and I just like to talk about it so much. Today, we're gonna talk about law and gospel, again, through the lens of what we call a primer.

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When you see the word P -R -I -M -E -R, you could say primer or primer.

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I looked up what primer is, a cap tube or wafer containing percussion powder or compound used to ignite an explosive charge, a primer.

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Or you think about priming the proverbial pump, where you put a little water in before you pump it. That's called a primer.

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But the word primer, P -R -I -M -E -R, could also be pronounced primer.

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And a primer is a small book for children that they could learn a subject, or it's an introductory book on a subject.

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So that's what we wanna talk about today, law gospel, a primer, an introductory reminder of what law gospel is.

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Of course, you know the book that's out that I published, Law Gospel, a Primer. You can get that on Amazon.

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It just sounds so dumb, like self -promotion, but I guess that's just what the world has come to, right?

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You can get my book at Amazon. That's true. The primer helps us with introductory concepts on a topic.

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The most famous primer, by the way, printed in North America, the New England Primer.

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It's the Prima. It's not the primer, but the... I can't even say it myself, the

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Prima. Mario, I got an email the other day. Thanks for your stuff that you're putting out on No Compromise Radio.

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We appreciate the YouTubes. Keep laughing. So, okay, this one's for you.

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The New England Primer was used to teach children, not just to read, but also understand theological concepts.

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And you probably know things from that primer, like, now I lay me down to sleep.

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I pray the Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord, my soul to take.

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That's from the Primer. They've got the list of all the alphabet, the

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English alphabet, from A to Z, or A to Z, and they help the children learn about biblical concepts.

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And we've talked about some of those on the show. A, in Adam's fall, we sin all.

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C, a cat doth play, and after, slay. I don't know why that one's in there.

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The moon shines bright in times of night. That's M. Rachel doth mourn for her firstborn.

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So some of them are biblical. Z for Zacchaeus did climb the tree, his Lord, to see.

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T is very interesting to me. Time cuts down all, both great and small.

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And then to also teach kids this, X, Xerxes the Great did die, and so must you and I.

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Interesting concepts to teach children, but very needed. Today on the show, we're not going to look at the

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New England Primer. We're going to look at Law Gospel Primer, introductory concepts when it comes to law gospel.

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Most of you probably already know law gospel. You probably read the book, probably understand the

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Reformation and how it's not just Lutherans who think this way, but the Reformed. But maybe you've got a friend that needs a little intro, and so that's for today.

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One of the things you can do when you teach the Bible is you can secure interest from people if you talk about needs.

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And I don't mean just felt needs, but real needs. And so let me kind of draw you in by asking questions like this.

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How do you know you're a Christian? Did you know law gospel primer would actually help? What's the essence of Christianity?

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Do you know law gospel would help? And what's the best way to have assurance of your salvation? How do you know you're going to go into heaven?

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And so today on the show, we're going to use those questions to try to get you in and thinking about this through the law gospel prism.

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Because if you understand law gospel, it is easier for you to answer biblically and biblically well, how do you know you're a

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Christian? What's the essence of Christianity and how to have assurance of your salvation?

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Law and gospel. Theodore Beza, who took over for John Calvin, and by the way, where's our

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Beza briefing? I need to start doing that again. It's been some time we've been working through the

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Christian faith, his systematic theology. Beza said, we divide this word, that is the

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Bible, into two principal parts are kind. First word is called law.

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The second part is called gospel. For all the rest, Beza said, can be gathered under one or other of these two headings.

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Summarizing all the scripture with the words law and gospel. Martin Luther in his book called

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The Freedom of the Christian, explains quote, that the entire scripture of God is divided into two parts, commands and promises.

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Commands, law, promises, gospel. Luther worked with a man named Philip Melanchthon and Melanchthon said, all of scripture is either law or gospel.

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So today we're gonna talk about law and gospel and then see how it relates to those questions that I used at the beginning of the show to draw you in or hopefully draw you in.

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First, let's talk about law and what law is and defining law when it comes to scripture.

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First thing I like to say is that the law of God reflects his justice, his righteousness, his holiness.

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And at the very root of it all, law just means do. Law is a command.

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Law is an imperative. Here's something that you have to do, that you have to obey.

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And maybe the easiest example we can use is the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 22, maybe

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I'll pick it up earlier in verses 34 and following. When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the

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Sadducees, they gathered together and one of them, a lawyer, not like our lawyers, but a person that was skilled in the law of God, Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, ask a question to test

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Jesus. Always a really bad idea. Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?

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And he said to them, said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.

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This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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On these, the two commandments, on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

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So law is simply do. Actually, love is law. In this particular case, loving

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God and loving neighbor. If you wanna talk about God's love toward us, that's a different category. But for today, loving

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God, loving neighbor, that's law, to do. You think of the 10 commandments.

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They are law. They are things that you do. And what happens is when the law is given to unbelievers, love

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God and love neighbor, it's supposed to condemn them. Romans 3, verse 19, it's supposed to shut their mouths.

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It's supposed to let them know that they need a savior because they've actually not loved

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God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They haven't loved their neighbors themselves. And so when we give the law of God to unbelievers, and by the way, we call that the first use of the law, this law reflecting

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God's righteousness and His holiness and His nature. Think 1 Timothy 1, think

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Romans 7. This law comes to the unbeliever and then it's to show him or her their sin.

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I sin, I fall short of God's glory. I fall short of loving God and loving neighbor.

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And so when we are out evangelizing, for instance, or you've got a friend or a relative or your dad teaching your children, a mom teaching your children about the savior, you need to show them their need of the savior.

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Why have someone save them from something that they don't need to save from? Now that they always need to be saved from that, but they don't know that, and so we give them the law.

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The law says do. The law says the doers of the law shall be justified. You just need to keep

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God's law and you get to go to heaven. And any thinking person, any smart person, anyone who wants some insight would say to themselves,

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I don't keep God's law. I haven't perfectly kept it. I haven't entirely kept it.

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I haven't eagerly kept it. I haven't perpetually kept it. I don't keep

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God's law. So law, we give to the unbeliever and the unbeliever should have their mouths shut.

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Do is law. My son's friend, JT, teaches his students,

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I think at junior high level. Every time I say the word law, JT would say, everybody else yells, do.

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Law, do. Super simple. A side note here.

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Remember, law is good for Christians too. We're not antinomian. We're not against the law, but we see the law now in a different sense.

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In this sense, that it's now coming, not from the hands of a judge or the creator that says do this and live.

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This is showing you your sins. So you need a savior. For the Christian, we've trusted in the

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Lord Jesus by grace and by grace alone. And now God's law, instead of condemning us, because Jesus took our condemnation, the law guides us.

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The law directs us. The law helps us understand what God requires of us as Christians.

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So think about it this way. The unbeliever receives the law, love God, love neighbor.

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They see that they can't do it. They call out for a savior. That's the idea. But now what about for the

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Christian? Should Christians love God? Should Christians love their neighbor? Should Christians love the

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Lord, their God, with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength and their neighbors themselves? Of course. So the law doesn't change.

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Why? Because God doesn't change. God is immutable. He has no mutations. God doesn't change.

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His law doesn't change. But as you know, you've been taught, at least on this show, you've been taught that the relationship to the lawgiver is different because of Christ, because of union with Christ, because now the law comes to the believer as a father would give a son, as a father would give a daughter direction and guidance.

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The father doesn't say to the son, by the way, if you do these things, you're in my family. If you do these things, you stay in my family.

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No, no, you're in my family. Here's what's best for you, law, and here's what honors my name, that same law.

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And so the law says to the unbeliever, do this and live. The law says to the believer,

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God has done this, now live and obey. So law says do. It just depends on who's handing you that law.

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The unbeliever's getting that law from the judge. The believer's getting that law from a father.

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So the law says do, super simple. You read something in the scripture, forgive one another, that's law.

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The scripture says, don't complain to the believer, that's law. The scripture say, it's good to go evangelize, that's law.

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And that's something that we do as Christians, third use of the law. So that's the word law.

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Now let's talk about the word gospel. That word gospel is simple. It just means good news.

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It's the kind of news that you probably have to stand on your tippy toes. I've never said the word tippy toes on No Compromise after 4 ,500 shows.

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You stand up and you herald this good news. There's a smile on your face.

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In the world of bad news, the word gospel is good news. And as law simply means do, gospel simply means done.

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It's been done. The work of salvation has been done by God himself, the father sending the son, the son dying on the cross of the spirit raising him from the dead.

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And we can talk about all these things. Those who trust in the Lord Jesus have all their sins forgiven. There's redemption, there's propitiation, there's reconciliation.

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This has been done. Sins paid for, sins out of the way. No reason for God not to have you into his holy heaven when you die.

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The gospel means done. It's an announcement. It's an indicative. It's good news.

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And the easiest passage to think of for law, we went to Matthew 22. For gospel, let's think of 1

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Corinthians 15. I delivered to you as a first importance. Everything in the

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Bible is important, but there's something at the top of the list and that's gospel because it talks about what

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God in Christ has done. But I also received that Christ died for our sins.

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The Messiah died for our sins. In accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, he really did die, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12.

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The word gospel means done. I think of Romans chapter one that helps us think about who

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Jesus is. Because if you think about Jesus, we're thinking about the good news of the gospel.

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Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, this is Romans chapter one, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh, declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead,

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Jesus Christ our Lord. And so that's all about who Jesus is. It's about who

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God is. It's about what God has done and that's called gospel. And when we think about gospel strictly, it's about who the

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Lord Jesus is. It's about the father sending Jesus. It's about the spirit proceeding from the father and the son.

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We're talking about the triune God. And when you think of the one, you think of the three. When you think of the three, you think of the one. We're talking about the good news of God who saves sinners by grace alone, through faith alone to God's glory alone.

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So much so that there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. That's not law, that's gospel, something that is done.

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Law says do, gospel says done. An interesting thing that was written during the

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Reformation called the Heidelberg Disputation says the law says do this and it's never done.

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Grace says believe in this and everything is already done. Now putting these side by side, law and gospel, let me read to you

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Galatians chapter three verses 10 and following. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse for it is written.

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Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them.

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For the unbeliever, law says you need to perfectly obey, entirely obey, exactly obey, perpetually obey, personally obey, always obey.

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The doers of the law shall be justified to quote Romans chapter two, verse 13. Here, you have to do everything.

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That says law for the unbeliever. Then in verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

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So now we see not just law do this unbeliever and live, but here's what

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Christ has done, gospel. Side by side. The law says you're a sinner and you're on your way to hell unbeliever.

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And the gospel says, Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners, gospel.

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Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. Law for the unbeliever, law for the believer.

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Now, let's talk a little bit about some of those questions that I asked earlier.

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Three questions, remember? I asked at the beginning of this, how do you know you're a

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Christian? What's the essence of Christianity and what's the best way to have assurance? So in light of law and gospel do and done, question number one, how do you know you're a

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Christian? How would you answer that? How do you know you're a Christian? Mario, you're not allowed to talk on the show, but how do you know you're a

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Christian? Typically what people say is they say things like, well,

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I know I'm a Christian because I read my Bible. I have an appetite to understand. Wish I read it more, but I know it's important and I try to read it.

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I evangelize people when I can. It's something that I'd like to do.

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Speaking of which, I was walking on the beach with my friend, Pastor Bo Beckendam.

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He's at Christ Church Carpinteria. And if you're up in that Santa Barbara area, Carpinteria area,

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Ventura area, that's a good place for you to go to church if you don't have a church. And we were walking and we met a couple and I asked him where he's from.

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He had an accent. He said, South Africa. We began to talk and he was like touching me, talking.

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We're walking along the beach. We're talking about fishing and fly fishing and all these other things.

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And I thought, I've just got a brand new friend. And then I said, well, this is my friend, Pastor Bo. He pastors a church right down here.

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He regularly talks to people about how they can have their sins forgiven because everybody's a sinner.

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And he looked at me, he backed up like 10 feet. And he goes, he said,

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I'm not a sinner. And then I said, you just sinned right there because to think you're not a sinner is a sin, right?

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It's like 1 John 1. You know, if you say you have no sin, you're a liar.

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And what? The truth is not in you. And it was such an interesting thing because his body language changed, his spacing to me changed.

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And so I told him he was a sinner. He said he wasn't a sinner and off we go.

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What does this have to do with anything? Well, it's just interesting story. I'm just trying to keep your attention is what we're doing here on ADHD Radio.

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That's our call signal. It's not W -A -B -C, it's not W -B -Z, it's

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ADHD Radio. If you're on the left side of the world here in America, you start off your call letters with K.

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If you're in New England, you started them off with W. If you're here in the NoCo studio, you start them off with A, ADHD Radio.

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How do you know you're a Christian back to that point? Oh, I was talking about evangelism. That's right.

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You know, I have a desire to evangelize. I don't pray as much as I want to, but I pray.

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I go to church on Sunday. I go to home group. Now, all those things, well, we'll talk about the home group, just kidding.

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All those things, great. But think about now the categories we were talking about with this primer, law and gospel.

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Evangelize, law or gospel. Read your Bible, law or gospel. Pray, law or gospel.

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The answer is they're all law. They're good laws. They're what Christians should do.

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They are desires, but they're fruits and evidences. They're not at the core why you're a

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Christian. How do you know you're a Christian? Through the law gospel lens, we move over to the gospel side and say,

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I know I'm a Christian because Jesus died for me. He was raised for me.

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He's forgiven all my sins. And therefore I stand before God as no longer an enemy, but as a son or as a daughter.

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And so we're talking about who God is in Christ Jesus. You could talk about the covenant of redemption now and eternity past.

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I know I'm a Christian now because God the Father gave the elect to the son and the son went and lived for them and died for them and redeemed them and saved them and made certain it was true by raising himself from the dead.

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And he, the son said, if you simply trust in me, if you believe in me, you'll have eternal life.

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And I, by the grace of God, believe in that object, believe in the Lord Jesus. So how do you know you're a

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Christian? Let's talk about the object of our faith, gospel, not just these are things that I do.

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It's fine to talk about those things, but they're secondary to who Jesus is. How do you know you're a Christian? The next time somebody asks you that question, please give me your testimony.

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Why don't you talk about Jesus? I was talking to my son -in -law the other day and he's going to join that church,

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Christ Church Harpandrea. And I said, when the pastor asks you for your testimony, don't forget to talk about Jesus.

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Oh yeah, it's an important thing to do. Number two, the second question, what's the essence of Christianity?

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All right, here we go. This is why you tuned in today. This is why you paid big bucks to be on our subscription list.

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Most of the people in evangelical world think that the essence of Christianity is love.

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I'm not talking about the love of God in Christ Jesus. I'm talking about loving

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God and loving neighbor. You drive by churches, you look there on their website, you look at their bulletins, their programs.

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We're all about loving God and loving neighbor. And when I drive past those churches, I just go, law, that's a law church.

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How do you describe your church? We love God and we love neighbor. Okay, that's good. I'm not saying the law is bad.

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That would be a sin. The law is good. It's from God, it reflects his nature. We've talked about that. But the essence of Christianity is not loving

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God and loving other people. The essence of Christianity is God loves us. God loves us in this way.

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God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It's about God's love toward us. It's about Jesus.

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It's about the gospel. No wonder Colossians 1, 28, him we proclaim. 1 Corinthians 2,

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Paul says, I'm gonna show up at a city, I already know what I'm gonna talk about. It's Jesus Christ and him crucified.

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What's the essence of Christianity? It's not the law. That's something we do in response to God's grace, guilt, grace, gratitude.

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But the essence of Christianity is the gospel. So if you've got law gospel categories, you can easily make sure you talk about Jesus.

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And when you talk about Jesus, you're talking about the gospel. What's the essence of Christianity? It's not law, it's gospel.

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And then lastly, question number three, what's the best way to have assurance? Someone comes to you or you say something.

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As I've thought about assurance, as Mario's thought about assurance, sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down.

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It just depends. How would you counsel someone that's a Christian, is proclaiming to be a

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Christian and they seem like one and they said, I'm really struggling with my assurance. What do you say?

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What do you tell yourself? How do you preach to yourself? If you say, I, Mike, struggle with assurance. I get prostate cancer diagnosis.

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I'm in the hospital for 16 days thinking I'm gonna die of COVID. I get leukemia. How do

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I process? Why am I struggling with fear and anxiety and everything else? How do I know I'm a Christian?

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Well, if you know law and gospel categories, you can be helped. Because if you only have law categories as fruit and evidence, it's gonna be harder.

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Do you pray? Do you read your Bible? Do you evangelize? Do you say no to self?

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Do you pick up your cross daily and follow Jesus? Do you deny yourself when you get home to love your spouse? All these things, they're good, they're right.

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But assurance, how about this? God loves you. Jesus died for you.

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You don't get to heaven by doing anything. And even now, your good works, they don't contribute to anything because the

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Lord Jesus paid it all. Jesus paid it all. He did everything. And He said,

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Mario, all you have to do is trust me. You take me at my word that I'm the Messiah, that I've done these miracles, that I'm the

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God -man. And if you trust in me, if you believe in me, no works, you believe in me and my works, you go to heaven.

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That's all you have to do. The essence of Christianity is the gospel. How do you know you're a

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Christian? It's the gospel. How do you have assurance? It's not, do you pray enough?

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Do we evangelize enough? Those are desires. Those are good things to talk about for subjective assurance secondarily.

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But primarily, the objective assurance is believing on the Lord Jesus, talking about the object of your faith.

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How do I know I'm a Christian laying there in that hospital bed? It wasn't, I'm praying enough and I'm reading enough and I'm memorizing enough.

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It was Jesus evangelized enough in my place. He read enough in my place.

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He perfectly obeyed in my place. He died for my sins in my place and he was raised from the dead and I trust in him.

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Today, law, do, gospel, done, no compromise radio, law, gospel, a primer.