No Hedging of Bets

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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All right, let's pray and we will get started Blessed lord. You've caused all holy scripture to be written for our learning

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Grant that we may so hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of your holy word

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We may embrace and ever hold fast to the blessed hope of the everlasting life through jesus christ our lord.

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Amen All right, any questions crop up as a result of the sermon? There's a little bit of an interesting text in that luke was quoting the septuagint and um

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Which is fascinating Um the septuagint if you don't know what that is in the ancient world The hebrew scriptures the old testament the tanakh was translated

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Into koine greek actually it was kind of a mix of classical koine. It was it's interesting greek.

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But um And it's called the septuagint because apparently there were 70

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Jewish elders 70 jewish scribes who were responsible for that translation

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And um that would have been the common Uh old testament used when paul was on his missionary journeys if he would go into a synagogue

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They would oftentimes be reading from the septuagint And a little bit of a note that uh, the early christians

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Especially the church fathers the apologists within the group of the church fathers became very skilled

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In using the septuagint to prove that jesus is the messiah and so They were so effective at it that um, uh, the judaism abandoned the use of the septuagint

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And came up with a different translation, which couldn't be so easily used to prove that jesus is the messiah

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Kind of a fascinating thing. So they abandoned that thing by the end of the first century early part of the second Yeah, very very fascinating Right, yeah trump was responsible for the the other translation

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Uh -huh. Yeah. Okay that fake news concept. Okay. All right That being where we're at.

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Let's get into leviticus. Uh when we last Worked our way through portions of leviticus.

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We were in chapter five just by way of review. Um We're going to note that as we went through these different types of ways in which you can

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Sin and commit breaches of faith either intentionally or unintentionally There was always a sacrifice

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And I I find in this portion of leviticus That the most important words at were at the very end and he shall be forgiven

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He shall be forgiven so that you'll note these sacrifices Were all type and shadow pointing to the one sacrifice in christ

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And it was so that people who had transgressed god's holy law that they shall be

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Forgiven not a maybe Not a I don't know If you're good enough, maybe you can be forgiven.

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No, it's you've you've committed a breach of faith You've committed this sin. You've committed this intentional sin.

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You've committed this unintentional sin. Here's the sacrifice And you shall be forgiven at the end of it.

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The priest can pronounce an absolution God has forgiven you You are forgiven Why?

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Because god said you shall be forgiven if god says you shall be forgiven. Who are we to question god?

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Who are we to question him? And so that's kind of the scandal of christianity if you think about it In in these terms and i've used this illustration before but it's worth pointing out, um,

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This is one that was kind of burned in my memory from dr. Rod rosenblatt and and We have a lot of anxiety at times

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Regarding whether or not god has forgiven us, you know We look back across our life and it could be things that we're ashamed of when we were younger

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It could be something we're super ashamed of from like last week It doesn't matter this these sins that we commit in the way in which we fall short they create in us that very profound understanding that When it comes to standing before god on our own steam in our own righteousness, that's that's not a winning proposition

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It's not going to happen in that way And and when you have that anxiety you're going to go one of two ways you're either going to trust

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What god said is that you are forgiven in christ and you're going to believe that or you're going to try to hedge your bets um

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And so before I get to the rosenblatt story, um early on when christian missionaries first got up into the scandinavian countries

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You know, so they were preaching the gospel to norwegians and swedes and and you know people like this, right?

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um The the so you're you know, those are norwegian in the in the group your ancestors they worshiped the norse gods

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Yeah, you think of odin and thor right and the stories regarding them and what was very fascinating in the first Generation of christians and this is this is something you can actually see

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If you know where to go as far as the right cemeteries But the first generations of christians as the gospel is being preached in these norse

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Lands in the scandinavian countries somebody would die And then their their gravestones would be kind of like hedging their bets

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So on the one side it has like the christianized version And then on the other side you have like the prayers to odin and thor and stuff like that You're sitting there going that guy's hedging his bets

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Yeah, that guy's heading. Yeah Okay All right so When it comes to christ

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That there's no hedging your bets You see you sit there you go. Yeah, but you go to the roulette table if you if you want to win every time

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You you you play red and black together. You're going to win. No, you won't because there's a green slot

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Right on the roulette table, but so the idea here is is that christianity Teaches us that we have confidence that we bet all of the chips on christ

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And that when that ball finally drops it's going to fall on christ period and that's the confidence that we have

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But internally we have this anxiety. We have this profound sense of anxiety It's like oh, I just am not measuring up And so you you have doubts regarding the gospel itself

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So rosenblatt would tell a story Along these lines of you know, imagine being in the courtroom, you know, and and god is the judge

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And so you're standing before the judge And christ isn't your prosecuting attorney.

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He's your defense attorney And and so You stand before the judge he's about ready to make his verdict

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But closing arguments are all on christ and christ sits there and goes. All right. So here's the deal I bled and died for that guy

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He's forgiven. He's pardoned. There isn't a single sin that he's committed or will commit in his entire lifetime that I have not taken care of and therefore

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He's forgiven the judge says Slaps the gavel down and says, all right. Here's my verdict not guilty

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And of course the guy Who's just been pardoned and let off rather than sit there and go.

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Woohoo. I beat the system man You know he he instead does some introspection says

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I know you said i'm innocent that i'm not guilty, but man, I know i'm guilty as sin And so in rosenblatt's telling of the story, this is you know a parable of his own

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Uh, he says the judge gets down from the bench gets in the guy's face and says

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There is no higher court than my court. You can't appeal to anybody else. I just declared you forgiven

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Now get out of my court Okay Very good so you shall be forgiven full stop period

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And no and no buts but but but but yeah that that was that was paid for too But what about no that one also covered by the blood of the cross

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, but no no, but if only you knew trust me, I know

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Okay, trust me. I know i've been a pastor just long enough to have heard all of the horror stories

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And they're way worse than anyone ever prepared me for So I know So yeah all of that too forgiven

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You shall be forgiven and so now the pastor by the command of christ given in john 20

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The sins you forgive will have already been forgiven. Jesus says to the church the sins you retain are already retained

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So now the pastor Trusting that jesus knows what he's talking about Stands up before the congregation at the beginning of the service you confess your sins to god

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And I get to be the schlub who gets to be the voice of jesus All right, not because i'm anybody special but there

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I am I turn around and I say As a servant of christ, I forgive you all of your sins and oh and by the way

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There's the reference to the text is right there. And so my forgiveness isn't even mine. It's jesus's you you all are forgiven

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You said then go. Yeah, but but but but yeah knock that off Knock that off and if that's not enough on the sundays

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We have the lord's supper you come up to the altar. You come up to the rail And the pastor comes by and he says take eat

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This is the body of christ given into death for the forgiveness of your sins

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You shall be forgiven. So now, you know what forgiveness sounds like Right now it sounds like roseboro's voice

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And in the future some other pastor, you know down the line will be here and it'll be it'll be his voice

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So, you know what? It sounds like forgiveness sounds like when my pastor says i'm forgiven and he's speaking on behalf of christ

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And if that's not enough forgiveness tastes like Gluten -free wafer thingies that we make

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And that cheap mogan david sweet wine that we have Forgiveness tastes like that And if that's not enough you can come meet with your pastor privately and he'll forgive you your sins because scripture says you

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Shall be forgiven God wills for you to forgive to be forgiven.

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It's not his will that any should perish especially you And me we're in the not his will that any

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It's not his will that any perish. In fact that people perish It's just so foolish and stupid

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Because even the people who perish god didn't will them to perish he wanted them to repent to be forgiven Now that's a great question and the answer to the question is

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Yes, no No Yes, it is a requirement of salvation but no it doesn't come from you and let me explain

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Here's kind of a fascinating thing about the gospel. Okay, we'll start with the law first the law says

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Do this and you'll live Don't do these things do these things and you're going to live now.

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Let's see how you're doing. How you doing dave Terrible, right? You're you're not going to live you. I'm, sorry.

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That's terminal. You're dead. Okay Now the gospel says Believe and you will be saved

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Now what the law demands it doesn't give you but here's the interesting thing about the gospel What the gospel demands of you it actually gives

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And I can show you this from scripture So the idea then is is that when we look at that core passage of of the bible in ephesians 2 um ephesians chapter 2

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I always like to consider this like to be like a ground zero text if you want to summarize the christian faith in 10 verses

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This is the place to go. This is the place to go and um

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It the structure of it uses, um An outline form called a chiasm

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I don't know if you're familiar with this concept But in when we when we write an outline we follow like the roman system

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You have you have major point I You know number one in roman numeral right and then under that sub point a and then from there

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Sub point number one in parentheses and you kind of follow that down and that's a very linear way

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Uh, that's not how a chiasm works a chiasm works with the first point that i'm going to make

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Is going to be the last point that i'm going to make but kind of in an opposite way you bookend things

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And then the second point that you make Is going to be this the second to last point that you make and so you're bookending things and it kind of comes to a head

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In the middle and so that's the outline of these 10 verses and here's how this works And so paul talking to the ephesians the christians in the church in ephesus

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He said you were past tense because we're christians you were dead in trespasses and sins

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Now let me ask you just a stupid question It's designed to kind of make a point though. Um, have any of you ever done any evangelism to the people outside?

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there in the graveyard Have any of you ever done any cemetery evangelism?

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right You'll notice that nobody sets up bookshops in the cemeteries To sell to the people in the ground for to sell himself help books

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And there's a reason why Is because the only thing people who are dead are capable of doing is voting in chicago

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Right aside from voting they can't do anything else It's the only thing they could do right so dead means dead

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You were dead in trespasses and sins. Remember what god said to adam and eve on the day you eat of this tree

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You will surely die And they did die They did die now not physically physical death comes later, but they died

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Spiritually in the truest sense. So you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked

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Now you're going to note that this this idea dead in trespasses and sins now is bookended that um

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That we are god's workmanship created in christ jesus for good works Which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them

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So dead is here is bookended with the concept of being alive in christ That's the idea.

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So you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked Perry patejo ear is picking up a hebrew concept from the hebrew word halakh means how you conduct your life

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So in which you used to conduct your life you conducted your life Following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons

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Of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind

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That's a pretty bleak Diagnosis for humanity and that's all of us prior to being in christ dead in trespasses and sins

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So how does one? become alive Now this is where you have to pay attention to how the verbs work in the subject of the sentences

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Work in the greek and i'll help you out here Okay, so we get an important word and it's right here de

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Now it shows up as the second word in the sentence and the reason why is because de is called a post -positive particle

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Which means it can't actually appear as the first word in a sentence. That's just good greek grammar

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But it's the first word that gets translated so de and so but and then ha theos god but god

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Now interesting note here theos god here appears in what's called the nominative case

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And this is the nice thing about greek The only noun that will appear in the nominative in any greek sentence

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Is the noun that is the subject of the sentence? It's really nice because there's no ambiguity

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And whatever verbs are in that sentence It's the noun that is in the nominative that is the subject doing the doing in the verbs

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Does that make sense? So here's the best part about this but God, so all of the verbs that are going to follow god's doing the doing not you doing the doing he's doing the doing

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Does that make sense? That's what my seminary profs would say.

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It's all about who's doing the verbs Okay So but god being rich in mercy

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Because of the great love with which he loved us Even when we were dead in our trespasses

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And here's your first If I can even get to it you're this is your first verb.

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All right, he made us alive together with Which is a strange verb, but let me pull this up here um

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Yeah, here it is I I have a hard time with this because greek can sometimes be like legos

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You just kind of you can create these ginormous words just by clicking a whole bunch of bricks together So soon x o a poi a sen

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That's a mouthful to be made together alive with That's your verb

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So you notice it takes like four english words to pull out this one and then by the way made us alive together with Cristo with christ

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So who made us alive together with christ? God did god is the subject of the sentence god made us alive together with christ

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And then you get this kind of in the middle of the chiasm this aside by grace.

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You have been saved And next verb same sentence, by the way

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Raised us up with him Raised us up That's your verb soon a gary

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Who be doing the verbs there? God So god raised us up with christ and then the last one seated us with christ soon

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Sen That's your verb who be doing the doing God be doing the doing

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So god is the one who? Made us alive together with christ

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Raised us up with christ Seated us with christ in the heavenly places

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You didn't do that You were dead God did that to you

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Because you couldn't do nothing because dead people don't do stuff except for vote in chicago

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And sometimes minnesota All right So that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in christ jesus and now here's

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It's kind of a summary of this all then for by grace you have been past tense saved through faith

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And this is not your own doing it is the gift of god All right.

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So david i'm answering your question now. I throw it back to you What is not your own doing and what is the gift of god according to that text uh -huh bingo

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That's right. Hang on power punch Yeah Yeah Yes, yes, yeah

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Yeah Yep, yeah

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Yeah Yeah, wow, did you call the police okay

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It was there. Yeah Right Yeah, and god is the one who who born us again

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We are born of god Not our own decision. It's not by a decision that I made but god has made that decision for us

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And so the idea then is this is that what the gospel demands unlike the law the law demands obedience and doesn't give you any

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Of it. Okay The the gospel demands that you believe And then what does romans 10 say faith comes by hearing hearing by the word of christ

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And so what the gospel demands the gospel actually gives So you sit there so the gospel comes to you and christ says david

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Christ has bled and died for your sins And you sit there and when that first comes to you you're dead and trespasses and sins and through the miraculous living

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Active word of god in the proclamation of the gospel god miraculously raises you gives you faith

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And you say I believe Okay.

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Uh -huh It's a great question All right. All right.

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All right. So the by the way, you asked the question I have to just ask if you were to like Take the the word repentance and just give me what you think the word means

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I have to start there because you know, you know you ever You know how like you get a spray can and you got the like the bb

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Inside of it. There's like a bb running around in here and I don't want to track this thing down See if we can pull it out. So, you know, there's something there's something, you know going on here

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But how would you define repentance? Ah, okay.

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That's like that's called licentiousness. That's not repentance Uh -huh, but if you need an absolution probably pastor first Yeah Okay, yeah and and this is where we want to make sure we don't get our theology from our wives

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Yeah, I I know but here's what I mean is is that Um, I don't know if you've noticed we men can be a little thick, you know

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And it's just a wee bit on the stubborn side. And so, um Yeah, right, thanks for proving my point alex, thank you.

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Yeah Yeah, yeah So yeah, so important words for us to learn are you're right.

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I'm, sorry in yes, dear, right, but um, what what ends up happening is is that um,

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Especially early on in our marriage because it's like we are really unruly when we're when we're younger Is that we have this amazing ability to hurt our wives and not even recognize we're doing it

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All right, and so she finally has enough and she says that four -letter word fine when you ask her how she's doing

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Right. Yeah, it really should be it needs to be. Yeah, what? Yeah board.

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Yeah run away run away So, um, so then you ask her what's bugging her and she tells you

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You've been doing this and you've been doing it for this long and she's got the list out

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She's got the time stamps and everything And you sit there and you go Your first act reaction actually is

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I I haven't been doing that You know Not no, it's not as bad as all of that We want to self -justify right and then you know, and then she sets down communication.

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We sleep on the couch that night You know how it goes, right? You know, i'm i i've heard about this from other guys

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Right Yeah. Yeah So you you finally get to the point where you you you muster up.

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I really Half -hearted lame apology All right.

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I'm, sorry Right and and of course she says these words if you were truly sorry you'd stop this

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Now I have to prove it right this is bad theology, this is really bad theology this is messed up theology, right?

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So you don't want to get caught in that trap But here's the idea then repentance

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Has a definition in scripture All right And bundled in the big definition of repentance is confidence in the forgiveness of sins

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Then there is this thing called bearing fruit in keeping with repentance And this is going to require you on a daily basis

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To continue to repent repentance is not a flu shot. So what is repentance? repentance biblically defined and I would actually point you back to the archives at kongsvinger because I did a full lesson on what true repentance is and we took to look took a look at four people king saul versus king david judas and peter

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And we noted then that when we took a look at all four of those people you could actually get the biblical definition of repentance

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So repentance has two component parts One is true sorrow and contrition for what you have done wrong

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And that is worked on you and created in you by the preaching of god's law

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So, you know if you have a sermon that I've preached and you sit there and go. Oh, man

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It's like you were reading my email, right? And or you've got a camera in my house and you've been watching me

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That's the preaching of the law and god's law convicts you of your sin And so there's true sorrow and contrition over so that's part one of repentance

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But the second part of repentance then seems contrary to this, but it's actually bundled up At the same time real faith and true confidence

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That that sin that you are sorrowful for christ has bled and died for and that you are forgiven

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So repentance is is a component of those two pieces if either piece is missing you don't have true repentance

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So with saul king saul, there was no recognition of any of his sin. He would always self -justify deflect and blame others

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Kind of fascinating what he would do and and and without him owning his sin

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There was no way for him to be absolved and as a result of it. God rejects him king. David.

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He sins Spectacularly and when confronted by the prophet nathan, he says

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I have sinned against god He owned it no deflection just caught flat -footed and he says

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I yeah i'm guilty And he receives an absolution from nathan The lord has put away your sin

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Now come to judas Judas after betraying christ has true sorrow for what he did.

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He recognizes the magnitude of the sin that he's committed But rather than come to christ for forgiveness, he's not confident that christ would forgive him

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He goes to his co -conspirators the priests And says I have sinned against an innocent man

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And you know and he throws the the 30 pieces of silver back at him They said what is that between us go take care of this yourself?

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So he doesn't have confidence that faith that christ will forgive him. He despairs and commits suicide

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And then peter he denies christ three times christ said anyone who denies me before men.

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I will deny before the father And so he not he didn't deny christ once he denied him three times

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And he had true sorrow for his sin and at the same time Scripture says that jesus says to peter.

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I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail And so we know then because of christ's prayer that peter despite the fact that he blew it hard So much so that it was a damnable sin that he committed by denying christ

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And to a like a slave girl of all people come on really, you know, it's like um that He believed that he was forgiven and then christ eventually restores him so we see in david and then as well as in peter

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Sorrow for sin faith that it's forgiven All right, whereas in saul and judas one component is missing in saul.

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No sorrow in Judas, there's sorrow but no faith You see it Okay, and then this is this is the important part is that scripture tells us

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That god is the one who grants repentance So like when the jews confronted peter after cornelius becomes a christian the first gentile believer and his whole household

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After he gives the report in acts 11 It says when they heard these things they fell silent and they glorified god saying then to the gentiles also god has granted repentance

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That leads to life Now then all right, so i've god's given me repentance

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He's given me sorrow for my sin confidence that it's forgiven now what? Ah, we bear fruit in keeping with repentance and this is where we take a look at god's law

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We look at our life We look back at the law And we see the disparity right, and so now living in repentance, which is a daily thing is recognizing

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I want to be doing these things But I keep doing those things

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Lord have mercy on me forgive me and give me strength so that I can bear fruit in keeping with repentance

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And so then that's the process then of sanctification Where god through the means of grace through the preached word through the sacraments?

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is now Continuing to chip away at your sinful nature and its desires

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And replace them with the true desires that the holy spirit has for you. And so over a long

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Period of time you look back and you go, you know what? I used to be a complete scoundrel now.

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I'm only mostly a scoundrel you see Yeah, right All right

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Oh, it's in here. This is the last part of ephesians 2 1 through 10 All right, so here here's the last part then okay, so you'll notice then

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What we sinners oftentimes want to do is we want to bargain with god and here's how the bargain works. Okay god

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If you get me out of this Situation a minute if you will forgive me Right, then i'm going to do these things or i'm gonna i'm gonna do these things so that you'll love me and forgive me god

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Oh forget that. Okay, that's nonsense. Okay, that's just absolute garbage. Why do we do good works?

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All right, watch this so for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing

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It's the gift of god It's not a result of works so that no one can boast

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So works are out of the equation when it comes to salvation and then note what verse 10 says for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus

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For good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them or conduct our life in them

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So the reason why christians do good works, are you ready? It's no no, it's so we know our salvation isn't by works so we don't boast the reason why we do them is because That's what christians do

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Yeah Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's that's funny how that works, isn't it?

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Yeah yeah, so here's the thing if Yeah, if you're doing your good works in order to turn that into a currency that you can then offer to god in exchange for Your salvation.

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Oh boy that you are in deep kimchi as the koreans would say. Yeah, that's not a good thing

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All right So your good works are not a currency The reason why I do good christians do good works is the exact same reasons why cats meow and and cows move

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The reason why cats meow is because they're cats And the reason why cows moo

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Is because they're cows The reasons why christians do good works Is because they're christians.

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There's no such thing as a christian who doesn't do good works Uh -huh.

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Yeah. No, that's all that's completely backwards. You do you do you do good works because you is a christian

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Yeah, yeah

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Yeah Yeah, this is kind of man's default mode

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In fact, I would even argue that covering up their nakedness adam and eve with fig leaves

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Is like the very first example of this You know, we we've got to do something.

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We we've got to do something, you know, but faith basically says Nope, there's not a thing

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I can do Not a thing and and this is kind of the scandalous part of it. And you know Paul writes about this explicitly in romans um in romans 4

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Um, watch this what shall we say then was gained by abraham? Our forefather according to the flesh for if abraham was justified by works that justified means to be declared righteous or saved

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He has something to boast about but not before god. But what does the scripture say? Abraham believed god and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness

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Now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift But as is due I mean you you work in a trucking company when it comes time for payday

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Do do the truck drivers at your company say to your to their boss Thank you for this wonderful gift that you've given me with my paycheck

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No Because they all know that they have worked really hard to get that payday and it's a wage and it's owed to them

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Right, but to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift But as his due so to the one who does not work

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But believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness

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I always like to put it this way When it comes to salvation i'm on strike I'm on strike i'm gonna sit right here

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And i'm gonna do nothing not a thing You better get and do something rose, bro

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I mean jesus is coming back. You need to look busy. Nope. I'm not doing nothing I'm just gonna sit here and i'm not gonna work at all.

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I'm not gonna lift a finger at all. I'm on strike nothing and To the person who doesn't understand how the gospel works.

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They think oh boy that guy is in trouble when jesus shows up But the one who does not work but believes

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His faith is counted as righteousness So when it comes to my salvation no way i'm not doing nothing period

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And now you sit there and go all right, so now you're saved now what oh I got things to do I gotta

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I gotta I gotta love you I gotta help you. I've got to I how can I help you? Maryland is i've got to help you guys you sit there and go but you were just on strike

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Well, that's regarding salvation. Now that i'm already saved. It's like now i'm free to go and love and serve and do all this stuff

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All right Yeah And all this because we just focused on one phrase shall be for given shall be forgiven

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From leviticus. All right, so Dave, did that answer all your questions? For now, okay.

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So at the moment you yield the yield the floor to the speaker. Is that how that works? Yeah No, no

39:52

Yeah Yeah Yep.

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And so then when we talk about repentance when we talk about salvation we talk about faith and believing We recognize that god is the one who grants repentance god is the one who gives faith god and what the gospel demands that you believe

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God is going to give that to you because you are incapable of even mustering that belief within yourself So that the whole thing from beginning to end.

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It's all gift 100 And because you are saved

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You're going to be really busy helping and serving others. That's the freedom of the gospel It's the freedom that you know that comes from it, right?

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All right chapter six then in leviticus I'm going to watch my time.

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I think we have a little bit of time here So the lord spoke to moses saying if anyone's if anyone sins and commits a breach of faith against yahweh

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By deceiving his neighbor in a matter of deposit or security Boy, that happens to this day, doesn't it?

40:52

right or through robbery Or if he's oppressed his neighbor Or has found something lost and then lied about it swearing falsely in any

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Of all these things that people do and sin thereby If he has sinned and has realized his guilt

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And will restore what he took by robbery or what he got by oppression Or the deposit that was committed to him or the lost thing that he found or anything about which he has sworn falsely

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He shall restore it in full And shall add a fifth to it so the idea here is is that there's a concept of restitution when it comes to robbery and you'll note that What god did is basically kind of cover a big spectrum of different ways in which we steal from each other

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Thou shalt not steal. There's all kinds of fun and inventive ways to steal from others

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Especially under a false pretense to make it look like you're not really stealing while you're stealing people do that, too and so the idea then is is that restitution is is is one of these things that's kind of expected

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And it's not just the full amount So, you know dave, I I I heard you rip don off for a thousand bucks, you know

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You know don I can't believe you believe that about it. Yeah that thing that you know, seriously am

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Yeah, yeah, right So now now dave has come to realize. Oh, no I you know don

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I I stole that thousand bucks from you I know you thought you were giving it to me willing but the whole thing was a scam And don real says yeah,

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I kind of figured that out a while ago But yeah, you sit they sit there and go. All right. So what's the right thing to do in this situation?

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He can forgive you and then good works You know bearing fruit and keeping with repentance is i'm going to give you your money back and god then says

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You're going to give him this this money back And you're going to add 20 on top of it So at the end of the day don gets a thousand bucks back plus 200 bucks

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And that's the fifth Part of it and that's and that's bearing fruit and keeping with repentance the restitution that goes along with it so Right Yeah All right

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Now so he shall bring to the priest as his compensation to the lord A ram without blemish out of the flock or its equivalent for a guilt offering

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The priest shall make atonement for him before yahweh and he shall be forgiven love these words shall be forgiven

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For any of the things that one may do and thereby become guilty so the lord spoke to moses saying command aaron and his son saying

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This is the law of the burnt offering the burnt offering shall be on the hearth on the altar all night

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Until the morning I want to see something here. Uh, yes

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So the the word for a burnt offering Is one that you may be familiar with Have you heard you've heard of the word holocaust?

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Right. So a burnt offering is called a hola A hola

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So, um, the term holocaust is related to that You know where the people of israel in a in a sense during the nazi regime

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Where they became burnt offerings if you would that's kind of the the derivation of the word holocaust

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Has a slightly different meaning than that, but it comes off of the concept of a burnt offering um

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So they shall be on the hearth on the altar all night until the morning And the fire of the altar shall be kept burning and the priest shall put on his linen garment and put

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His linen undergarment on his body He shall take up the ashes to which the fire has reduced the burnt offering on the altar and put them beside the altar

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And then he shall take off his garments put on the other garments carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place and so you're going to note this is a this is a major part of this is is that the ongoing sacrifices especially the holas the burnt offerings that they

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Would then generate ashes And so part of the duties of the priest was to take the ashes from the burnt offering and there was a special place for them um, you know outside the city gates in kind of the you know

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Which would end up becoming like the dump outside the camp and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it

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It shall not go Out a little bit of a note here have any of you ever been in a church?

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Where no matter what time of the day? What day of the week if you were to go into the church?

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there is a Lamp set up a candle lamp set up and it's always on right

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That's that's those are the eternal flames They're always to be kept burning now people have used electricity to help keep them going nowadays but um, and so the the concept then here of of a of a flame of lamp that is

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Constantly burning it comes right from leviticus and there are churches to the same in fact many lutheran churches.

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They will have um this red this red lamp You know candle lamp set up And it's burning all the time never goes out unless there's like a um

46:32

You know electrical dip or something because now they're all yeah, they're all electric. But yeah

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So the priest shall burn wood on it every morning He shall arrange the burnt offering on it shall burn on it

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The fat of the peace offerings fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually it shall not go out

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Now this is the law of the grain offering the sons of aaron shall offer it before yahweh in front of the altar And one shall take from it a handful of fine flour of the grain offering and its oil all the frankincense

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That is on the grain offering and burn this As its memorial portion on the altar now

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Remember we read earlier in leviticus that all offerings have to have salt too.

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So you'll note that the salt isn't Mentioned again here But if you read leviticus, you'll know salt is also one of the ingredients

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So it doesn't say it again That's commanded once for all offerings And if you haven't read leviticus carefully, you're going to miss

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That point right so and this then is a pleasing aroma to the lord the rest of it

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Aaron and his sons shall eat it shall be eaten unleavened in a holy place In the court of the tent of meeting they shall eat it.

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It shall be baked with It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it as their portion of my food offerings

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And this is now we're going to note that there's a going to be kind of a switching in emphasis moving forward

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In this portion in this portion god is over and again going to be referring to these offerings now

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As food offerings as food offerings as food offerings and to make the point

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He's even going to explain that by it being a food offering it is intended

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That the priests eat their portion That those offering the sacrifices eat their portion and we'll see this later

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Where god will chastise The the levitical priests for not eating their portion of these food offerings

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It is not a good thing. So we're going to note then as you know This is kind of a change in emphasis from the shall be forgiven shall be forgiven

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Now the emphasis is going to be food offering food offering food offering food offering and you'll note that These offerings are not intended to be totally consumed a portion of these offerings

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These atoning sacrifices are meant for the purpose of being a food offering and that emphasis that you see the repetition in here is going to Basically bring you all the way up to the sacrifice of christ

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All of these offerings for sins are food offerings now jesus is our one sacrifice

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Is he a food offering yeah

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Yeah Take eat. This is my body Take drink.

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This is my blood right And so you'll see how a careful reading of leviticus prepares you for a proper reception of the lord's supper

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For what the type and shadow gives way then to the real substance And that's christ and so this emphasis on the food offerings becomes a very interesting emphasis

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As we kind of work our way up the spiral staircase that is the book of leviticus

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And we note that this is not a linear book This is a lot like the book of revelation We're kind of on a spiral staircase each time we go around we're kind of looking at the same things differently from a different level

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But we're always looking at the kind of the same concepts same things but different emphasis with each time we go around Uh as we ascend the stairs here

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So i've given this as a portion of my food offerings It's the thing most holy like the sin offering and the guilt offering every male among the children of aaron may eat of it

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As decreed forever throughout your generations from yahweh's food offerings whatever touches them shall become holy

50:36

Love that part Okay So shall be forgiven to now here eat this this is part of the offerings

50:46

And anybody who touches it shall be holy Shall be holy

50:58

Okay, let me give you another text where this is kind of laid out in a similar way isaiah 6 famous text the commissioning of isaiah

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In the year that king uziah died And because of this text we think that isaiah may have been a levitical priest

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That he was doing he may have been doing priestly duties inside the temple in jerusalem when he had this

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Vision of what was of of god. So in the year that king uziah died I saw y 'all I saw the lord sitting upon a throne high

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Lifted up the train of his robe filled the temple Above him stood the seraphim

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Those are the burning ones each had six wings with two He covered his face to he covered his feet with two

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He flew and one called to another and said kadosh kadosh kadosh

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Yahweh sabaoth Right. The whole earth is full of his glory.

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Holy. Holy. Holy is yahweh Of armies sabaoth his armies the whole earth is full of his glory

52:08

And so the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called and the house was filled with smoke

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And I said, oh woe is me. I am lost I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

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My eyes have seen the king the yahweh Sabaoth So he thinks he's dead.

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He recognizes that he's sinful. What's the solution then? Right anything that touches these offerings is made what?

52:42

Holy So then one of the seraphim these are the burning ones One of the ones that was crying out kadosh

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They flew to me having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar and he touched my

52:57

Mouth and said behold this has touched your lips your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for hmm

53:13

Can you think of anything else that maybe has been on the altar that it touches your lips and your sin is atoned for You see how this all connects back to the lord's supper

53:24

It's like unmistakable when you know what you're looking for. All right coming back then

53:33

So yahweh spoke to moses saying this is the offering that aaron and his son shall offer to the lord to yahweh on the day

53:39

When he is anointed So this is the having to do with the anointing of aaron And his sons a tenth of an ephah of fine flour as a regular grain offering half of it in the morning

53:50

Half of it in the evening. It shall be made with oil on a griddle You shall bring it well mixed in baked pieces like a grain offering

53:57

Offer it for a pleasing aroma to yahweh the priest from among aaron's sons who is anointed To succeed him shall offer to yahweh as decreed forever.

54:06

The whole of it shall be burned now This is particularly for their anointing. This is part of their ordination services

54:12

Every grain offering of a priest shall be wholly burned. It shall not be eaten So then yahweh spoke to moses saying say speak to aaron and his son saying this is the law of the sin offering

54:21

In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before yahweh It is most holy the priest who offers it for sin shall

54:31

Eat it and we don't hear michael jackson Dun -dun -dun -dun -dun

54:39

Just eat it. No, wait that that's uh, that's weird out. Yeah weird out

54:44

I can hear where uh, Don't you want me to repeat it anyway? Yeah, so in a holy place it shall be eaten in the court of the tent of meeting whatever touches its flesh shall be holy

54:59

And when any of its blood is splashed on a garment You shall wash that on which it was splashed in a holy place

55:06

And the earthenware vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken But if it is boiled in a bronze vessel that shall be scoured and rinsed in water

55:14

Every male among the priests may eat of it. It is most holy But no sin offering shall be eaten from which any blood is brought into the tent of meeting

55:24

To make atonement in the holy place. It shall be burned up with fire All right, we're going to leave there.