Sermon: Gifts of Faith & Suffering

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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We truly believe that it's important for the Christian Church to have an engagement in the public square with the

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Word of God. So we thank you so much for partnering with us to send this out across the world. I just wanted to say something before you actually watch this, and that is that I'm not your pastor.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. Art, if you would open your

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Bibles to Philippians, Letter of Paul, to the

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Philippians. We're in chapter one. And as I've said over the course of the last couple of months, this is sort of a sidestep series.

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There's just a couple chapters here before us. We're really four chapters. And we're not approaching this so much as we've done how we've done the gospel according to Matthew, which has taken us quite a while to get to chapter 24.

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But for the life and health of our church, we're doing a letter of Paul to the Philippians to focus in upon some core, powerful, important truths.

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Focus in upon our delighting in God, delighting in God's delight in us, and really finding out what was the core, what ought to be the core for us, of authentic joy for the apostle

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Paul. You've heard me harping over the last couple of weeks as we've gone through this, as we talk about joy. I hate the plastic smile.

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And I think we need to approach this in a way that allows us to be cut and challenged and changed to really be exposed so that when we're really focusing in upon the joy of the

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Christian life and joy in God, it's not a fiction. It's not a fiction.

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It's not external. It's not something we sort of try to put on like a pair of pants to wear on the outside and to come into church or come into Christian gatherings with sort of the

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God face, right? Like you're in your car on the way to church and you know, you're swinging your hand back, beating your children.

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You know, you come in and open the doors and all of a sudden, smile kids! And you've got the hand on the back of the child's neck squeezing nice and hard.

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So it's squeezing out a smile, you know. I'm talking about your experience. This isn't my experience.

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But authentic joy, not the pretend joy, not the plastic smile. So what is it?

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How does Paul have it? What does he say? How do we find that? How are we transformed?

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That's the focus of this study. And again today, a little section before us we're in verse chapter 1 verse 27 and through 30, but I'd love to,

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I really would truly love to stay on 27 for two or three weeks.

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That's not the purpose of this study we're doing right now. So i'm going to try my best to really focus in today upon two primary parts of this section.

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The first part in verse 27 and then the last about being granted faith and suffering as believers.

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I think those are important elements to understand. So we're going to do it together. Chapter 1 verse 27.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

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So that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

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And not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.

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For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.

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Engage in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

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As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together as a church. God, I pray that you'd bless today as we open your holy and inspired word.

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Help us to understand your word. Help me, Lord, as a minister, as a shepherd over these people that you've called to this task.

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Help me to be faithful. I pray, Lord, that you would speak by your spirit today through your word, that you would,

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Lord, teach, challenge. Open our eyes. You know what's off.

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You know what's broken in each and every one of us. So we do ask

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God for your grace, for your mercy in this moment as we open your word. Whatever the condition, if someone here does not know you as Savior and Lord, Lord Jesus, I pray that this would be the day of salvation.

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I pray, Lord, for those who are redeemed, who are trusting in you. I pray that you'd help us to be challenged and transformed by your word.

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Please convict in a way that only you can. Let this not be the words of a mere man.

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In Jesus' name. Amen. So the Apostle Paul, again, go back and get those past sermons, the past messages on chapter one.

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They're on all of our platforms. You'll be able to see those. I encourage you to do that to get an understanding because I'm going to assume a lot of the things we've already done and unpack thus far.

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But the Apostle Paul, again, is writing this letter from the context of pain, suffering.

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From a human perspective, at any human examination, this man's life is a tragedy.

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It is totally broken. It's not the kind of life that somebody would sign up for and ask, say, that's the life

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I want, right? If you had a spectrum of different lives you can live and property you can have and things you can have, and you lay out the

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Apostle Paul's experience on a human level, it's the last choice. Who wants to be slandered?

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Who wants to be vilified? As a matter of regular practice and experience, who wants to be gossiped about constantly?

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Who wants to have constant theological battles and concern for all these churches and other believers, the stress of that, the anxiety of that?

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Who wants to be on the run for their lives and lowered out of windows? Who wants to be on trial and to have people actually conspiring to lie about you in court so that you die?

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Who wants to have people taking oaths not to eat food until you're dead? Who wants to be in constant conflict with false believers, people who are challenging you?

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Who wants to live that life of poverty and shame and prison and all that? So again, from a human perspective, the

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Apostle Paul's letter is compelling, is powerful. I mean, I love this letter because it's four short chapters, but it is packed full of truths that you could dwell on for the rest of your life, that can challenge you for the rest of your life, that will change you your whole life through it.

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It really is. I mean, I think just in the first chapter alone, there are things that we could have hung out in for a year or two years and really truly benefited from as a church body.

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Really just open our eyes to our own pride, to how much we don't trust

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God. And at moments, we don't really believe in Him. We don't really believe that He is who He says

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He is. We don't believe His promises. So it doesn't impact us. So we live lives of really a core of depression, a lack of joy, no rejoicing.

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We're mad at God. We're bitter because we don't see the truth of God, that He's the sovereign, that all things are towards His glory.

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So we go on living for some other glory, glorying in something else other than the true God. We go against God's creative decree and purpose for image bearers of God.

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And so we fall apart. We live lives where we're lonely, we're depressed, we're anxious. And the interesting thing here is that Paul has an experience, and I've mentioned this, where he's got us beat.

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He has you beat. He really does. He does. Think about it. I mean, we can't have legitimate things to complain about.

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I'm not saying that we don't have particular plights that we face as Christians, where we need to minister to each other, and we need to grieve with one another, and hurt with one another.

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You know, when someone's being slandered, or lied about, or when you're being attacked in some way, or there's loss, or pain, or suffering, or disease.

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Yes, grieve. Enter into that suffering with each other. All of that is true, of course.

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But again, as we examine this, and we think about our own our own plights, and how we embrace things, depression, loneliness, sadness, anger, bitterness, whatever the case may be,

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I want to just argue with you that I think Paul has you beat. He has you beat.

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I mean, if you're going home now to a place with a roof over your head tonight, if you've got relative comfort at home, you've got food in the cabinets, you've got people around you to love you, to keep you safe, you've got a job, you've just got relative ease around you, quick transportation, fast communication through the internet.

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I mean, whatever your plight, I mean, I think again, Paul, he has you beat in terms of suffering.

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So why is he so full of joy? Why does he have such authentic joy?

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You understand this isn't pretend. Why pretend in these circumstances? He really is delighted in God. He really is rejoicing.

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He really meant it through, of course, inspiration. You see the truth right there in his guts.

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To live is Christ and to die is gain, right? If I live on here in the flesh, it's fruitful labor.

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It's more of Jesus. It's more experiencing Jesus. It's more God being glorified in the midst of suffering and pain and tragedy.

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He knows all that's part of the experience, but he knows also that like, I don't know, I'm hard -pressed.

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I don't really know exactly like which one because to depart, to weigh the anchor and go sail away to be with Jesus, that's far better.

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It's so much better. Why? Because it's more of Jesus. If I go to be with him, it's more of Jesus.

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In the end for Paul, the core here of all of life is Jesus. It's glorifying

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God, intimacy with the true God. It's living the life that God intends for you, which is not your best life now.

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It's God being most glorified in us. That's the pursuit of Paul.

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You see it just pours out of every chapter. Just read through four chapters a day. No problem.

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It won't take a lot of time just to read through here and to see the constant marks towards because God, because God, because of what

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God is doing, because of Christ, because of his glory, and then there's rejoice, rejoice, joy, joy.

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That's the center of it for Paul, the authentic joy, that experience of the believer that I do believe that God calls us to.

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I mentioned in last week's message some of what Dr. Piper has said. And again,

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I don't know if I explained it well enough last week. I mentioned that Dr. Piper is known for, he calls it

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Christian hedonism, which people look at that and go weird. That's odd because hedonism is pleasure seeker.

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So that usually is bad connotation and you go, yes, but the word hedonism is pleasure seeking.

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So it's Christian hedonism, seeking the pleasure of God, seeking pleasure in God. And Piper mentions at the start of,

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I think, Pleasures of God, a book that we're studying as a church in our REACH groups, that if, when he says, when

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I get to heaven, I'm going to owe Jonathan Edwards a lot of money and royalties, because I've taken most of what

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I'm saying about Christian hedonism from him. Seeking, uh, okay, here's how Piper puts it.

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And I actually, I agree with what he says. He says that we should be seeking pleasure in God.

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We should be seeking delight in God. And you see that here with what Paul's talking about. And we should be seeking delight in God's delight in us.

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Really stop and think about that. Find pleasure in God, and find pleasure in God's delight in us.

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He is pleased in us because we are in his son. So there's the source of that pursuit of pleasure and that real authentic joy.

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But Piper says, if you really want to get at one of those passages that expresses this, he says,

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Philippians chapter one, you see it in Paul all over this chapter and where we ended last week.

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And I mentioned that Piper has a really well -known saying that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

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God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

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I like that. I think it's a great expression of a lot of truth that we can draw from scripture, but you see it again here all throughout.

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We did chapter one through, and now we're at verse 27. And it's interesting because so much from this point, from the past to where we're at here has been about his experience, joy, glory, and praise of God.

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All this, you see it in verse 10, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.

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There it is again. It's never us, never from us. We're never the source and the origin of this project.

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It's not my thing. It's through Jesus Christ. These things of righteousness, these fruits of righteousness comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

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There it is again, all him like do this, produce this, which comes from Jesus for the glory of God.

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See, it just totally rips men and women out of the picture in terms of glory.

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Did you catch it? Just that one passage, just look at it before we go to verse 27. Look at it again so we can highlight it.

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So that you may approve what is excellent and be pure and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ filled with the fruit of righteousness.

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Okay, we go, okay, great. This obedience, right? Producing righteousness.

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It says this, that comes through Jesus Christ, right?

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Do this, it comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

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Out of the picture. Who? Me, right? My glory, my exaltation.

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This is all about Jesus. There's the answer for authentic joy. Stop glorying in and worshiping substandard gods like yourself, like false pursuits of pleasure that will never satisfy.

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All bootleg worship will never satisfy real spiritual needs. All of this is directed right back towards God.

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By the way, that's the answer. You realize, I don't know where you're at right now. That's your answer. Coming into worship today, leave with that.

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The answer is go to God, glorify God, believe his word. That'll solve the problem of your marriage right now, your marriage conflict.

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Really look inside. What's the source of it? Well, you want to just, you want to try to figure it out yourself or go to God for the inventory.

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It's probably your pride. It's probably your anger. It's probably your lack of forgiveness.

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It's probably your rebellion against God, right? So there you go. Go to God, seek him, let him do the inventory, listen to his word.

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What's the source of your pain coming in here today? What do you feel? You feel like you're lacking in some way.

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You feel no authentic joy. What do you feel? What? Lost, lonely, depressed, darkness.

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Well, the answer is not going to be found in you. It's going to be found in God and his truth, his word.

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So there's a simplicity of it all. It's God. He's the center. It's his word. There's the solution.

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There's the healing power. And Paul says here in verse 27, after glorying in Jesus and saying,

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I don't know what I want to do, live with you or be with Jesus, to live as Christ, to die as gain. In verse 27, he says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the good news of Messiah, of the gospel of Christ.

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Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or I'm absent,

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I may hear of you that you're standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.

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So again, here's what's interesting here. You're going to see in a moment that Paul gives all the credit, in a second here, all of it, every inch of it, all of it, to God, to his glory.

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Hey, birds. All of it goes to God, down to the faith, right?

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We say to somebody, you need to repent and believe in the gospel, right? But what do we know from God's word?

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It's only going to happen if God, in his grace, condescends, opens the eyes of the blind, gives a heart of flesh, and causes them to see their condition, right?

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God opens their eyes and brings them to life so that they can believe. So even down to, like, salvation is a gift of God through faith in Jesus.

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That's an amazing gift. Apart from works of law, it's all God, to his glory.

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But then you move even further back, and Paul's making it clear, even the faith itself is granted to you by God.

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Even that's a gift that you didn't conjure up on your own. You're in this room believing in Jesus now because God was seeking you, not you seeking

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God. You're seeking him now only because you've been energized, empowered, and made alive by his spirit.

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But Paul's very clear, this is a gift all from before the world began. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

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In love he predestined us to adoption as sons. You see, it's all God. But what's interesting, it's very clear in Paul, and it's not just Philippians here, these four chapters, it's a part of his theology and his soteriology, that what happens is new status.

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Pause there. Remember, just quick things to, okay, what am I to hang my hat on? That, that if God has redeemed you, if he has saved you, if he's done all this to his glory, the source of it is all gone.

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But what's clear in Paul is that what happens to a person when they've been made alive is now they have a new status, a new status.

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They've been declared righteous by God through faith. They've been given new life.

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They've been united to Jesus. They've been given a righteousness that is not their own.

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It is from God through faith in Jesus. So there's a new status. Something significant has happened.

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Now pause and just stop for a second, because what we do have to face here is what

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Paul clearly says in verse 27. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

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Because we do live in a time, now, I mean, it's, it's not like it's never existed before in the history of the church, but we live in a time in the

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West where we have a particular slant on the gospel. You can call it evangelicalism, the evangelical church in the

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West. The idea is sort of like I have like a, a moment where I, I pass by Jesus, right?

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He's sort of the salesman on the street, right? Trying to, you know, deliver me something. And, you know, I have a conversation,

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I acknowledge all the things I punched the ticket and okay, I'll see you. And if somebody asks you, are you a

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Christian, you a believer, you know, Jesus, the answer is, well, yes. Why? Because I met him on the street once, passed by that guy, told me a story.

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I liked it. I acquiesced to those facts. He punched the tickets and I'm on my way, right? I'm going to heaven one day.

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Why? Well, I prayed this prayer, you know, and, and then, well, that's it, right?

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I mean, that's the thing, right? Like believe these facts about Jesus, just, just acknowledge that those are true facts, right?

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No, no trusting in Jesus for forgiveness for me, but I just acknowledge those things are true.

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Well, the demons also acknowledge those things, but they'd never turned to Jesus. You see, we have this fictitious version of the, of the

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Christian faith that says basically nothing happens. It's really suggested, and this is pervasive today.

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It's pervasive. It's pervasive a lot in independent fundamentalist Baptist churches.

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The idea, you know, we go door, door, soul winning. And by the way, we're all for winning souls at Apologia Church, but with the gospel, the real gospel, the call to come and die and believe in Jesus, to rise again, to repent and believe the gospel.

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But you hear it, right? Like, you know, I've won 50 souls today. 50 souls. Whoa, that's amazing, right?

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I knocked on a lot of doors. Well, what's that mean? Well, well, I, I, I said some things and I had them, you know, pray this prayer with me and I walked away.

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And then what, what, what, what happened? Well, nothing has to happen because they acknowledge these facts and they pray this magic prayer.

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You see, for Paul, it's not the case. If you've been saved, if you've been gifted faith in Jesus, if you are new in Jesus, there is a new status.

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You're now united to Jesus. Something has happened to the person who has believed in Jesus.

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So Paul says, only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. So I wanted to just unpack this today, just a bit to show you it so you can get a fuller explanation from Paul elsewhere.

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Cause we've dealt with it over here in verse 10 and now we're in 27. And I thought, well, how do we expand upon that in terms of theme?

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And I thought what would probably be most helpful is to see it in Paul's systematic explanation of the gospel in Romans.

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So just go there quickly just to see it. And I want, I want a circle.

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We're going to make a circle here by the end. So just go to three, just, I'm not going to read all of it. I just want you to see in chapter three of Romans to see how

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Paul sees this consistently. It's a course inspired by God. It's consistent with all the revelation, but we're looking at Paul's words here in Philippians.

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So we need to see how those actually coincide with the words elsewhere. What's the gospel he's preaching? What is it?

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Well, in verse nine of chapter three, Paul is finished now taking down all of humanity.

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Everyone knows God, they don't want them in their knowledge. So they worship other things. They go off and they worship and serve the creature rather than the creator.

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And the Jews saying, yes, get those Gentiles, Paul, go get them. And he says, and you, you tell people don't lie and you do, you tell them don't steal, but you do.

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You think because you have the law, you merely possess it. That makes you right with God. If that was the standard, you got to do the things in the law, but you don't do you.

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And now we have everyone level at the cross, right? All dead, all lost, all sinners, all broken.

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And so Paul says in three, nine, what then are we Jews any better off? No, not at all.

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For we have already charged that all both Jews and Greeks, Jews and Gentiles, Jews and everybody else are under sin as it is written, none is righteous.

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No, not one. This is really important. I'm going to go really slow here because it's so important that we embrace what it says in terms of our condition.

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No one understands, no one seeks for God. My fear is that many people who love the word of God, profess to love the word of God, love

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God, can see words like that on a page and can give a passing.

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Yeah, I believe that. But then as you get further down the road and how they express what they believe about what

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God has done in salvation, you see that they really don't believe, believe what Paul says here.

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No one understands. No one seeks for God. No one.

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Ain't happening. All have turned aside. By the way, if you didn't know this, what

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Paul's doing here is he's taking verses from the Old Testament and he's bringing them together in kind of a collage here.

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And he says, all have turned aside together. They've become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

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By the way, Pastor James and I have another debate set for when we're doing conference in Utah.

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We're debating two people on does ethics depend upon God?

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Does morality depend upon God? So I've been researching the opponents to try to listen to them and everything else.

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And I've heard that the constant expression and debate and lecture and all those different things, the, you know, people can be good.

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There are people are basically good. You've got pagans that are basically good. They didn't need Christianity to basically be good moral people.

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And we would have an answer to that in terms of there's common grace and the image of God and us having the law of God in our hearts.

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We know the true God. We don't live consistently with it. And that's why you have people all over the world that know you should love your neighbor rather than eat them.

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Right? Of course. But in terms of positionally and truly right, what is truly good, right?

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In terms of like the absolute standard objectively of what is good, Paul says this, no one does good.

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No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

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The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood in their paths of ruin and misery, misery, and the way of peace they have not known.

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There is no fear of God before their eyes. So there's Paul. Very important. I'm laying this down because we're coming right back to it near the end here in terms of his identification of the condition of humanity, men and women, children before the cross, before redemption.

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This is who we are. And it's consistent throughout Paul's writings. You can look at Ephesians two dead in our sins and trespasses by nature, children of wrath, who fall in person.

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That's our condition. Dead, spiritually dead, alienated from God, not good, not one.

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That's the condition. You have to see that. So then Paul moves. I'm not going to read all this here. In chapter three, you can read through here how now the law cannot be used to justify any of us.

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The law was given, Paul says in verse 19, so that the whole world may be held accountable to God and everybody's mouth shut.

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What's the law do for every sinful person? It shuts you up. It shuts you up before God's throne.

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It does. You see, you can criticize another image bearer of God who's a sinner for the sins that they've committed.

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And we can say that's a sin. You ought not do that. But in the end, before the throne of God, guess what?

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You can't take the standard of God's law and go, see, God, look at me. Because in reality, all the law does for the sinner is it shuts your mouth before the holy

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God and his throne of justice. And so Paul says, verse 20, by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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And then the, but now verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

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See, there's the apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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You see, there's the essence of it all, not through law, not through works.

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This is a, but God thing. God did this. You see what God's doing here in Christ in giving

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Jesus as a sacrifice in pouring his wrath out and fully exhausting it in the sun.

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You see what he does. He's able to be just Paul says, cause he's a holy God and he hasn't let the sin just go, but he's now able to actually justify the one who has faith in Jesus because he's actually provided for their salvation.

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And then Paul, of course continues on in verse 28, clearly how he feels.

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He says about the law. He says in verse 28, we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

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We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Here's works of the law.

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Here's faith, faith declared righteous in God's court declared righteous by the judge by faith apart from that apart from the works of the law, faith alone.

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Did you see it? But watch here. It is look right below it. Verse 31, he already has to handle the objector.

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He already has to handle the lie about true biblical Christian soteriology, doctrine of salvation, how you're saved.

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He says this, do we then verse 31 overthrow the law by this faith by no means.

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On the contrary, we uphold the law. Do you see it? Faith alone, faith alone, apart from law can do nothing.

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You're not righteous. You don't see for God. No one does good. This is all Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, all

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God, God, God. And so people go, yes. So that means I can sit all

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I want. And the answer is you clearly didn't hear it clearly.

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Don't understand it. You have not had your eyes open because if you heard the part of your sin and your brokenness and God's holiness and the propitiation that's in Jesus, the wrath of God, if you heard all that and you want

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Jesus, then that means now you come to him to be saved, trusting in what he's accomplished.

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And that means a new status. That means new life. That means something new has taken place.

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So Paul has to already deal with it. Do we then overthrow the law? The law is done now by this faith by no means.

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On the contrary, we uphold the law. What do people who have been justified do in reference to the law?

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What do they do? Throw it away. What do they do? Unhitch it. What do they do?

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Paul says they uphold the law. There's a new status, a new position before God justified.

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Romans four, read that about the glory of justification. God crediting to us righteousness apart from works, not counting our sins against us.

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But here's what I wanted you to see. Chapter five. Paul then goes on to say this.

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Therefore, we have been justified by faith, have been justified by faith.

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Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Stop. Talked a lot about this, right? Shalom, true peace with God.

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Christians have peace with God. They're not trying to get peace with God. They're not on the ladder, on the way up the steps, down the race track towards that finished line of, oh,

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I finally have peace with God. Paul says this. We've been declared righteous through faith.

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We have. Peace with God. Peace. How do you have authentic joy,

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Paul? I think Paul would say, there's a lot of reasons I do, but I have peace with God.

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No more conflict. There's no more war. There's no ceasefire happening here, right?

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Where arms can be brought up again between God and I. This is true peace, real peace, eternal peace with God.

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So Paul then explains how, how does this work out?

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What's, I believe what he's doing here is demonstrating this new position, this new status where you're at.

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And he explains now all of humanity comes down to two representatives, Adam or Jesus, Romans five,

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Adam or Jesus. And he says, if you're an Adam, here's what you get. Death, condemnation.

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And he says, and everyone's there. Okay. Death and condemnation comes in our first parent all the way down the line.

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And by the way, I do believe this. One of the ways as Christians, as the people of God, that we can fight against the current trend that really has a lot of historical pedigree to it.

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Believe me, it does in terms of Marxism, cultural Marxism, all the political stuff that's happening today.

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You're hearing about racism, racism, racism, all this stuff that the desire to try to split people apart by their skin color that is happening is pervasive today.

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It's happening outside the church is happening inside the church. Romans five, Romans five.

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That's a distinctive part of the Christian worldview. If you'll highlight race and are obsessed with race, and you just love the color of your skin and the color of the skin of the people next to you, and you want to highlight it and glory in it.

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I want to say, you don't know Romans five. Do you? Romans five says, this is all of us.

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Same parents, same parents. Racism is an abomination and is wicked and evil.

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And Romans five says this, look, if you want to try to talk about categories, the only ones that really matter is really two of them.

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Adam or Jesus, where are you? Which one? If you want to talk about being in a group, a category, a class, the only one that really matters here is are you in Adam or Jesus?

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Are you dead or alive? Because Paul says this, if you're in Adam, there's death and condemnation.

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That's all you get. He says, if you're in Jesus, if you have this new identity, a new status before God, he says, then you have the gift of righteousness and eternal life.

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So which one are you in? And so Paul really begins to just talk about the blessing of that.

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And so here's what he says, go to the end of chapter five. He says, therefore, as one trespass led to the condemnation for all men, verse 18.

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So one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners.

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So by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased grace abounded all the more so that as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. You get to the end of these five chapters and it's like, oh my goodness, that's earth shattering.

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It should change your whole perspective, authentic joy, rejoicing, delighting in God, all that.

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I got a foundation for it all now. And why would God do all of that for someone like me?

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That's what we should be feeling right in these five chapters. It's all grace. It's apart from works. It's all

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God. He did it. I'm in Jesus now, eternal life, peace with God, not condemned like forever, forever, ever, forever, ever.

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Yes. Some of you know where that was from.

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Okay. Um, you could tell where I'm from. Um, so Dr.

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White is like, I have no idea. Okay. All right. I'm sorry,

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Ms. Jackson. So here we go. Um, so what's, what's interesting is you get all of that here and you go, wow.

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So here's what's amazing is that what it does is it gets people to a place where they can distort it. They distort it.

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And what do they hear falsely? Oh, I see.

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So now that you're saved, now that you're forgiven, now that you know, Jesus, you can do whatever you want.

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You can send however you please do what you please. So Paul knows it's coming.

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Clearly, he's had to deal with it when he's out preaching grace and peace and salvation is a gift.

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He's got to hear it from those who are opposing the message of the gospel, the Messiah and the church.

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He knows it's coming. So he's got it built in. And this is where we're getting right back to Philippians.

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It's the same message, new identity, new status, new place with God.

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He says this chapter six, verse one, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound, right?

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That's the false. That's the fictional portrayal of what Paul is saying here, right?

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There's the argument. Oh, okay. Wait. So here's what you're saying. So God's got all this grace for sinners.

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He saves by grace through faith. It's all of God counts you righteous apart from works doesn't count your sins against you.

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It's all God's all grace. All right. So here's what we should do then. If this is really true, the more

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I sin, the more grace God has to give. And it ends up making God look really, really good, right?

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The more sin I put in, the more grace God gives. God looks amazing. Something to that effect, right?

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What then shall we say? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound more grace just means more glory to God.

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If I send more, he has to give more grace. He looks better. The end of history, just all grace, grace, grace.

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Paul says this by no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it?

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And by the way, that's the response to the common pervasive even jellyfish theology of today that sort of gives the idea that you can have like a passing moment with Jesus where he punched your ticket.

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And then that's it, right? Like I prayed that prayer, I'm going to heaven one day. Well, it's true.

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If I've turned to Christ through faith for salvation, it's true that I'm going to heaven one day and it's eternal life.

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And it's a gift. All that's true. But what Paul says here is something very different. He says, by no means, how can we who died to sin still live in it?

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There's a new position. There's a new status. That's something that's happened to a person that knows

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Jesus. Something is new. You died. That's what

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Paul says here. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into his death?

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We are buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, we too might walk in newness of life.

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For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

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We know that our old self, believers have an old self. Did you hear it? An old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

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For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

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We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all.

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For the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

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Do not present, go on presenting your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

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Instruments for righteousness. Instruments for righteousness. Back to Philippians.

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Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel so that whether I come to you to see you or am absent,

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I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents.

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This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation. Again, in the space of one chapter, you've got

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Paul, verse 10, verse 27, clearly teaching the church at Philippi something new, right?

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This is who you are now. Authentic joy? You want the source? Only God. He does it all.

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Glory of God is right up front and central for Paul, but he says this. Here's how you to live now.

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Fruit of righteousness comes through Jesus to the glory of God. Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

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Now, are we going to fail in this as believers? Yep, you did today. You might have done it while I've been preaching, right?

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But you see, there's something different. Do you have an old self crucified with Christ?

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Are you alive in God, in Jesus Christ? Are you new? This is not a question of whether you struggle and strive with sin.

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This is very important. I want to make sure I say this as you talk about righteousness and the pursuit of obedience through Jesus Christ to the glory of God.

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It's very important for us to highlight this. If you're in this room right now and you're like, oh, I desire that.

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I long for that. I long for obedience. I long for authentic joy that comes understanding that the point is the glory of God.

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All things go back to him. Like I long for that. And I hate my sin.

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I hate that my passions on Thursday were completely the wrong direction. I hate that I engaged in false worship.

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I hate that I was angry towards my wife. I hate that I wasn't respectful towards my husband.

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I hate that I was mean -spirited or selfish or prideful. I'm despising this about myself.

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And to that, I would say, sounds like you're alive from the dead, right?

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It sounds like you're not dead anymore. So we shouldn't actually be depressed, right?

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We shouldn't live a life of anxiousness and anxiety and anger and sadness because we're striving and warring against sin.

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Like that's kind of the point. And if you're warring against sin and you hate these misdirected passions and this false worship and this idolatry, and you hate the failures and the inconsistencies,

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I would say, it sounds like the spirit of God is right there within you doing his work that he said he was going to do, right?

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But the point is for Paul, for believers and communities of believers, there's a goal to all this.

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Here it is again. I already said at the beginning of this series, he that began a good work in you will complete it.

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You see, that's what's also missing from the popular message of today, right? They'll say, yeah, he started a good work in you, but he's not necessarily going to finish anything along the way.

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It's not necessarily like an old man and a new man. There's not like a new like identity and a transformation that actually necessarily occurs.

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Like you're missing the whole beautiful story. I'm going to say this, that the bootleg gospel of today is lacking in glory.

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It's not even that good. There's no real hope for the sinner, right?

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Oh, great. I'm going to go somewhere to some higher elevated story someday out there.

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But in the meantime, same me. In the meantime, same passions, same struggles, same everything, right?

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It's the same. That's like, that's a lackluster gospel. It's not even beautiful. I want the real thing because the real gospel actually brings

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Paul to authentic joy in a prison. So this last part,

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I wanted to just spend a few moments. We've talked about it the last couple of weeks.

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I just keep going back to it because it's kind of the end of the chapter. It's where Paul's ending up. I think it's important, especially because as a church body, we're growing now with new believers.

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We're doing new baptisms. We've got new baptisms coming up. I never want to, as a pastor, just assume, right?

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We all know this. Everyone knows it. And I don't want to miss these core elements that really keep us very small and make

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God, well, they don't make God very big. They show us how big God is.

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And it's right here in Philippians 129. If you don't have it memorized, I want to encourage you to memorize it.

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Just one verse. And it's a potent one. Philippians 129, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.

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I've talked very often about the fact that you've got two things there that seem to contradict, right?

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Like we wouldn't usually put those two things together. But if we're to really understand the source of authentic joy for Paul in a prison, we have to understand what he sees, right?

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And he's not seeing merely the seen. He's not looking at what is seen, but at what is unseen in suffering.

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But he does say, he says, it's been granted to you. It's been gifted to you.

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What? To believe in Jesus and to suffer. To believe and to suffer.

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Gifts from God. We love the first one, right? Good reformed folks, good

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Calvinists will say, that's right. Repentance, faith, gifts from God. He starts it. He finishes it.

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All the work of God, all to the glory of God. None in me, soli deo gloria. I'm starting the online t -shirt shop and the mugs and all the rest.

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You know, that's what we do with that, right? Soli deo gloria. It's a God alone be the glory. And we go faith, faith, faith. But then there's the aspect of this verse.

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It's like that doesn't fit, but it really does. It does. When you understand the

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God that we're talking about, the God of this book, who is totally different than all the religions of men in that he is the sovereign

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God, truly sovereign, not partially sovereign, not merely sovereign as a passing word.

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Sure, you're the sovereign, right? But really ruling and reigning, really determining, decreeing what does and doesn't happen in his universe, right?

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You ever think about it? I mean, Nate Wilson was on with us this week to talk about the film that they did,

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The Riot and the Dance, Water. And one of the things that he mentions, you'll hear him say this, and I think it's a powerful point to think about.

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He said, when they went down there into the water to film for this film, he said, one of the things that hit him, struck him was that we're getting to see now down here in the water, things that only

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God saw for thousands and thousands of years. Like this entire glorious, beautiful world underneath here, we're only fairly recently able to get underneath to see, right?

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And to go, wow, the majesty, this whole world underneath here, only

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God's been delighting in. Like he made it and it's around us and we're fishing in it and all the rest, but all of this, the majesty of this water world,

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God did for his own pleasure and only he saw these silly creatures.

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These crazy, silly creatures existing in these caverns and crazy parts of the deep that look silly and funny, hilarious, some of them, some of them glowing, like they've been under there doing their thing while only

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God sees them and delights in them. Right? He's the sovereign

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God who right now in some far off, crazy, unreachable galaxy is holding it together so it spirals in this majestic form.

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Like there are molecules and there's matter out in the universe that God sees and is sustaining.

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There are planets out there that are probably more awe -inspiring and glorious than Saturn, right?

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Or Jupiter. Like we look at that, we go, whoa. Like if we were, if we got to get in a ship and hang outside of Saturn or Jupiter or Pluto, which is still a planet, bro.

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No, I'm just joking. All right. If you were outside of it, like you, you know, it'd just take your breath away and you probably stare at it just for hours.

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This is insanity. This thing is so glorious and huge and wow. But there are so many galaxies with so many planets and only the sovereign

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God who made it all seeing any of it. Like he is totally unique, totally sovereign.

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And what Paul knows is that God is sovereign over our faith and our suffering.

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Paul knows the God in scripture in Psalm 115, three, where it says, our

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God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. We don't like it.

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You really have to stop because you can be, you can have the typical Christian response where you hear a verse like that.

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Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. You can have sort of the autonomic response.

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You know, the autonomic responses, it's like when someone flicks you in the eyeball, what's your first reaction, right?

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They flick your eyeball. He's, you know, punch him. No, no, no, no. You're, your reaction to being flicked in the eyeball is what?

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To flinch and like put your hand, right? Or if somebody kicks you really low, what's your first response?

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Hands down, right? Something that autonomic response. So there are Christian autonomic responses like my automatic response to it.

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Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. Everyone goes, amen, amen.

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That's the sovereign God. So you just yelled it. Good. Well done. Grasshopper, little disciples raising him up, right?

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But we have that response, but you hear what it says. Our God is in the heavens.

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He does all that he pleases, whatever he wants, all that he pleases.

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You look at the world around you and you go, I don't like, I don't know if I like that.

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I don't know that I like, I like it in the good moments. I like it. What is seen as the, as the, as the garden and the blessings.

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I don't like God doing all that he pleases where there's a wilderness and a desert. I don't like it where there's suffering and pain and trauma, but that's the

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God who truly is. He's the sovereign God who does all that he pleases.

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You see, Paul knows here when he talks about faith from God as a gift and suffering for the sake of Christ.

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He knows the God of Job 42 too. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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I know that you can do all things and then no purpose of yours can be thwarted. He does all that he pleases and no purpose can be thwarted.

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That's the sovereign God that Paul was talking about. He's talking about the God of Isaiah 46, nine.

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Remember the former things of all for I'm God and there is no other. I am

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God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

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There's no God like me. I'm the first and I'm the last. God says here in this beautiful section, just read

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Isaiah chapter 40 through 46. Just read it. Just read it where God clearly says, is there a

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God besides me? I don't know of any. I don't know one. I'm the first. I'm the last.

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And he challenges false gods to actually do what he can do. And we know at apology of church, we've mentioned it all the time.

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Pastor James always speaks to this and public debate on these issues in the Potter's freedom. Like this is a huge distinction between the gods of men and the true

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God who is, who does according to his will. No purpose can be thwarted. He does all that he pleases.

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This is what makes him distinct. He declares the end from the beginning. He's in control of every detail.

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And so he actually challenges the false gods of men. And he says, okay, tell, tell the future.

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Try it. Go ahead. Try to tell the future. It's a pretty significant challenge.

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Why? Because none of us see it. None of us are really in control of it. We know, and only

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God can control the future because he wields it. But then he actually has a powerful one.

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This is my thing, my favorites, because you anticipate the sovereign God can do whatever. Like I get that, but it's a, it's a very powerful takedown.

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He says, have your gods tell you what happened in the past. And everyone goes, Ooh, I got the history book.

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He goes, no, no. And why you see, God can tell you both the future and the past.

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And he can tell you the why of the past. Why did my loved one die like this?

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Why did I lose this? Why did I experience this?

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Why did we endure this? You see the God that Paul's talking about in Philippians 1 29, that gives faith and suffering.

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The reason it can be called a gift. Listen, here it is. This is it. The reason it can be called a gift is because it's meaningful.

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You have to listen. You have to hear that. If you're a Christian in this room right now, you call yourself maybe reformed.

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You believe in the sovereignty of God. You have to see this is that it's meaningful.

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The reason Paul can say this is a gift of suffering is because there is no meaningless suffering in God's world.

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None zero. It doesn't exist. Everything has a purpose.

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And that's why, by the way, we can have hope. And that's why, by the way, listen, there is also meaning and evil in the world, right?

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So the unbeliever says this has happened many times in debate with atheists. It's come up in my debates and pastor

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James debates. It's always the go to chestnut argument for the atheist. It is. It's the chest not argument, right?

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If God is good, why is there evil and suffering in the world? Answer. There is no evil and suffering in the world.

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In your worldview, all you have is animals red and tooth and claw.

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In your world, all you have is protoplasm, meat bags, ugly bags of mostly water, right?

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Moving throughout a purposeless universe. There's no evil and suffering in the world. In your worldview, it's just what is.

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So you just borrowed from my worldview. And now let's get to the evil and suffering parts. The evil and suffering

01:00:04

I can actually define as truly evil because I have the character of God to compare it to.

01:00:11

And in terms of suffering, there is no meaningless, purposeless suffering in the world.

01:00:19

None because God is the one who sovereignly decrees every event in history so that it has purpose.

01:00:27

Now here's the thing. Watch. I'm going to prove to you that we have the autonomic response, right?

01:00:33

He does all that he pleases. We go. Amen. Do you believe that when we talk about the sovereign

01:00:41

God who allows evil in this world as judgment on sinners, he does all that he pleases.

01:00:49

Some of the evil and the suffering and the brokenness that happens in the world is from a holy

01:00:56

God who is giving to sinners what they want, the consequences for their pursuits, doing as he pleases in a fallen creation with rebellious creatures.

01:01:09

Do you see? Now, do you believe that verse? Can you accept and embrace it now that he does all that he pleases with all the suffering in the world?

01:01:19

Sometimes the suffering is for his children and it all works together for good, right?

01:01:26

All of your suffering, this is important, all of your suffering is gifted from a loving

01:01:33

God who has a purpose in the suffering and it all, every inch of it, all of it works together for good, for those who love

01:01:42

God. So for the children of God, all the suffering, all the pain, purposeful to what?

01:01:49

Good. All good. He does according to his pleasure for my children, good.

01:01:57

Gifted suffering for their good. He has meaning and purpose in all of it.

01:02:02

And in some instances in the world, there is pain and brokenness because a holy

01:02:09

God is offended and he's giving to rebellious creatures what they deserve, but there's still, listen, meaning in it.

01:02:20

There's still purpose in it. That's the, that's the

01:02:26

God of the apostle Paul. So Paul clearly believes faith is a gift.

01:02:34

Not a lot of time on this today, but just encourage you to spend time reading Paul and the condition of fallen people.

01:02:41

We did some today in Romans three, go read Ephesians two. Faith is a gift from God. Paul says you're dead in your sins and trespasses by nature, children of, sorry, by nature, children of wrath.

01:02:53

But God who's rich in mercy made us alive together with him.

01:03:00

There's a new identity, a new status. You were dead. God made us alive together with him by grace.

01:03:07

You've been saved. By the way, that should be definitional for us. Come back. We're almost done. It's definitional.

01:03:13

When we say we've been saved by grace for Paul, when he says that in that section, he says you were dead, but God made you alive by grace.

01:03:21

You've been saved. Did you catch that? Where are you in that? Dead, dead.

01:03:31

So when we talk about like grace, unmerited favor, like what's it mean? Oh, it's so grace.

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You got to dig down deep to the grave where there's dead rotting corpses and they've got nothing, nothing to respond with.

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They are spiritually unable and capable. They're not responsive. They're not seeking. They're dead.

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And Paul says, God made you alive. Now you come out of the grave, Lazarus hopping out by grace.

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You've been saved. It's that kind of grace is that deep. It's that much in the grave and out of the grave.

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And Paul, of course, in that same chapter says, Ephesians two, eight, nine, by grace, you've been saved through faith and that the grace and the faith, not of yourselves.

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It is the gift of God, not according to works. Less than any man should boast for we are there again.

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See it. Paul never leaves it out. Does he forward? Here's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which

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God has already prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You see, there's that whole picture of the gospel that Paul has here.

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It's a source of his authentic joy. He knows what God started. God's going to complete. He knows it all goes to God's glory.

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He knows all the righteousness that comes out of a believer is through Jesus Christ to the glory of God. There's a new position.

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There's a new identity. There's a new status. There's a new relationship. So just two things.

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I'll end on this because I think they're awesome too. Quick. You know this. Someone says, how can you have purposeful, meaningful suffering in the midst of like serious suffering and evil?

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So we go to acts four and he asked the question, like, what's the greatest, most horrific sin of humanity is the murder of Jesus, right?

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We hate God so much that if he can come down here and get flesh on him so we could kill him, we would.

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And we did. And so the church prays that prayer gathered in this city against your holy servant,

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Jesus Pontius Pilate, Herod, the peoples of Israel, the Gentiles to do whatever your hand predestined to occur.

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God predestined the brutalizing of the son of man, predestined the brutalizing of the son of man, the murder of the son of God, predestined it.

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Everybody in there had different motives. Herod, Pontius Pilate, Gentiles, peoples of Israel, all different motives, just pouring out of them, just evil intentions.

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And what? God predestined it. Now it's easy for us as Christians on this side of the cross, having not really seen it, truly been there for the brutalizing of Jesus.

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It's easy for us to say God predestined the murder of Jesus, but I bet that on the day of the crucifixion and the brutalizing of the son of man, that would have been a hard thing, a hard thing to embrace, that the father predestined

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Jesus, having his beard torn from his face, having his back ripped open with a cat of nine tails, bleeding, organs possibly exposed, nailed to a cross, exposed on that cross, publicly shamed, crown of thorns smashed, mocking, bleeding, suffocating.

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It's easy for us to say out here, predestined by the father, it would have been probably hard to manage that at the cross.

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But it's true regardless. So there's suffering. A more modern story.

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It's one of my favorites. If you've been here for some period of time, you know the story. I'm going to read it to you and then we're going to end. Some of you guys know the story of Corrie ten

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Boom. Corrie ten Boom concentration camp during the holocaust.

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We know how awful those horrific death camps were. We know about the brutalizations, the murders, the gas chambers, the experiments.

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We know about the wickedness on this side of this generation. We can't imagine the pain.

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If you ever get a chance, go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D .C. It'll really impact you. It really will.

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But Corrie ten Boom was there with a family member, Betsy, and they're in this quarter of the camp where they were dealing with a lice or flea infestation.

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And so this was her famous story from the hiding place.

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She says this, we lay back struggling against the nausea that swept over us from the reeking straw.

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Suddenly, I sat up, striking my head on the cross slats above. Something had pinched my leg.

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Fleas, I cried. Betsy, this place is swarming with them. Here, and another one,

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I wailed. Betsy, how can we live in such a place? Show us, show us.

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How? It was said so matter -of -factly, it took me a second to realize she was praying.

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More and more, the distinction between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be vanishing for Betsy.

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Corrie, she said excitedly, he's given us the answer before we asked, as he always does, in the

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Bible this morning, where was it? Read that part again. They have a Bible there. How that happened in itself was a miracle, but they've got a

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Bible in this quarter of the camp infested with fleas. She says,

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I glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight, then drew the Bible from its pouch.

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Bibles aren't allowed in concentration camps. It was in First Thessalonians, I said.

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We were on our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving in a concentration camp, just reading through the

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Bible. In the feeble light, I turned the pages. Here it is, quote, comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

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See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. It seems written expressly to us.

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Go on, said Betsy. That wasn't all. Oh, yes. Rejoice always.

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Pray constantly. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

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That's it, Corrie. That's his answer. Give thanks in all circumstances.

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That's what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks.

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I stared at her, then around me at the dark, foul aired room. Such as,

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I said, such as being assigned here together. I bit my lip.

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Oh, yes, Lord Jesus. Such as what you're holding in your hands. I looked down at the

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Bible. Yes. Thank you, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here.

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Thank you for all these women here in this room who will meet you in these pages. Yes, said

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Betsy. Thank you for the very crowding here since we're packed so close that many more will hear.

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She looked at me expectantly. Corrie, she prodded. Oh, all right. Thank you for the jams, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds.

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Thank you, Betsy, went on serenely for the fleas and for the fleas.

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This was too much. Betsy, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.

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Give thanks in all circumstances. She quoted, it doesn't say in pleasant circumstances.

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Fleas are part of this place where God has us. And so we stood between tiers of bunks and gave thanks for the fleas.

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But this time I was sure Betsy was wrong. So the story goes on where they're thanking

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God for the fleas. She's struggling to thank God for the fleas. And they discover as time goes on, an amazing truth about their circumstances that where they were at in their quarter, they were infested with fleas and lice.

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They were able to hold Bible studies, get into the word of God, point people to Jesus. And for some reason, the guards never came into their barracks.

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They had free reign to study the Bible in there and they were just left alone. They can never really understand why.

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Until one day, a guard was heard explaining why they never come into the barracks and why they were able to have all those

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Bible studies and to live in relative peace for a concentration camp. It's because it was infested with fleas and the guards didn't want to come in there.

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So thank God for the fleas. They're holding Bible studies in a death camp and they're able to do it and thank

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God for the fleas. God has a purpose, a gifted purpose, a granted purpose, giftedness to the suffering of every believer.

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It is ultimately to his glory, to his praise. And we can't see it all now.

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And here's the thing to wrap this on. Nobody's asking us to have an answer for all of our suffering on this side of heaven.

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Only God truly knows, truly knows the reason for that gift of suffering.

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And I do believe that when we stand with him and with one another before him in heaven,

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I do believe we'll get answers. I trust in that. I hope in that, that we'll have answers from God as to, and this is what

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I did and this is why I did it. Some of us know today, don't we? Like we know our past and the suffering that God brought us through.

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And I know many of us today, I hope you have experiences like this, like me, where you actually can look back at your life and say on this side of the suffering, thank you

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Lord so much for that suffering. I am so grateful for it. I don't want anything different.

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I wouldn't want it any way different. I am so glad you are the master at this narrative.

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You are powerful and I'm so glad that you brought me through all that suffering and pain because now

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I see your glory on this side of it and I wouldn't want it any different. Some of us get to taste that now and get a sense of what

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Paul says when he says it's been gifted to you, not only to believe, but also to suffer.

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And so brothers and sisters, I encourage you to consider these truths as we pursue as a church authentic joy and rejoicing in God as the people of God.

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Let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd bless the message that went forth today for your glory.

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I pray that you'd change us, transform us, renew us in our minds, make us more.

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Father, like your Son, help us to know these truths, embrace them, believe them.