Highlights From Romans

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Father in heaven, thank you for this time. Thank you that we get to gather together and Talk about you and talk about your glorious son
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Who lived that perfect life that we could have never lived and went to the cross? as a final act of obedience and Died for our sins was buried and rose from the dead and we thank you for that righteousness that only comes from you
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That is imputed to us because we know that you made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf
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So so that we would be we would be the righteousness of you And we thank you for the resurrection of Christ that someday he will come back to take us home and finally that day
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There'll be no more sin. So we thank you for that time. We thank you for this book of Romans for the great doctrines that it's been placed in our hearts and through the hearts of the history of the church
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And how much it has defended the Saints throughout the ages We thank you again for everything you do in our lives and we do all for the glory of you in Jesus name.
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Amen all right, so today we're gonna be looking at the book of Romans and The main point that I want to establish right now is
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What did Paul say to these Gentile believers to establish them? What 2 ,000 years ago?
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And so One thing I want to start out with is kind of just getting
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I wanted to ask you guys a couple questions I have two quotes here from a couple of well, they are spiritual legends, at least in my book and so I have two and so I'm gonna ask question if you guys can guess them and One of them is it's about the book of Romans And if we and it says if we have gained an understanding of this epistle
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We have an open door to all the most profound treasures of Scripture. So can anybody guess who said that use?
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Use French, it's a French guy wrote a lot of commentaries.
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The only book you didn't write was a revelations Carson's not French John Calvin nice.
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All right And then here's another quote Which I really love and actually starts out with both of them saying it's a prologue to the book of the book of Romans when they wrote it for 500 years ago and They start off with saying that this book is the most important book in the
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New Testament and so this is the rest of the quote where Both these men say this
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I think it meet that every Christian man not only know it by rote and without the book but also exercise himself
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They're in ever more continually as with the daily bread of the soul No man verily can read it too oft or study it too
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Well for the more it is studied the easier it is the more it is chewed the pleasure the pleasanter
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It is and the more ground you to search the more precious sir thing are found in it
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So great treasure so great treasure of spiritual things lay hid therein So two men said this said the same thing one wrote it first and the other was like, all right
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I'm just putting my prologue to So can any get it anybody guess who these two men are one was
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German and one was English Now this is before Spurgeon's time.
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This was during the Reformation this is right around the Luther yeah, yeah, that's right.
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And then who's who's the who's the Englishman? He's pretty much the reason we have our English Bibles Hmm no, not
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Gutenberg not Gutenberg Tyndale, that's right. Yeah, if there's anybody if there's anybody
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I wish everybody to know as a reformer That's him. Like I keep a picture of him In the introduction of my
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Bible and him and Rogers actually to remind me Um So Paul's writing these believers and What are some of the things that Paul wants these believers to know what are the some of when you read the book of Romans?
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What are some of the big things that you guys take away from what are the key doctrines that you guys see?
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Right. Yeah, it's how Luther got converted the righteousness of God Faith that's right.
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That's right. That's a huge one. It's like two more that I'm looking for Yeah, that's yeah, that's one.
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That's one for sure. And then we're missing one more Guess not where there's a lot of stuff, but this is a big one
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Yeah Yeah by grace alone through faith alone Christ alone. Yeah, but I guess the one that I'm looking for is in Christ Which is in Adam.
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It's pretty big. It's it's the doctrine that Paul like Paul What associates himself not as like a
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Christian most in the New Testament He says I'm in Christ and that's a big thing. At least for me. It was a big distinction of understanding my spiritual unity to Adam to Christ And so actually
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I want if anybody if you could open your Bibles actually to Romans 1 Because what makes sense we didn't open to Romans So can anybody
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Can anybody read? Romans 1 Versus 1 to 11, please. And I'm a
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Oh Mark. Thanks, dude Right.
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Okay. Thank you. So there it is. Some translations say established some say Strengthened but that's what
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I kind of want to keep repeating is what did Paul say to these baby believers because they weren't established yet, right? he's he's writing to establish them, so I personally,
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I believe this books great for non -believers because Here's this Apostle saying okay, you guys are not established and I'm gonna write pretty much the greatest letter ever written so to Establish you guys.
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So And to get a little bit of further context anybody know how many of these
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Saints perished What was the context? I mean, does anybody here know who
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Nero is? There's a coffee shop named after him Uh -huh So, I mean,
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I mean I was listening to some Martin Lloyd -Jones and he said not only do they believe but they knew what they believed and most of these most of these
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Saints died a pretty brutal death most of them Nero actually would Tie the mistakes and burn them alive and had them as lights for his garden.
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So that's a little bit of the context of this book and before we jump in to really
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I mean them nothing Well, yeah, I know the meat of this book I just want to start off with a little bit of like the beginning.
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So does anybody know? I know this is probably like a everybody knows this but who's Paul? Who's the
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Apostle Paul? What are some of what are some of his background? Pharisee Yeah, Pharisees turn disciple murder turn disciple of Christ.
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That's right Yeah What else about Paul that is so crucial to this letter?
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And really this whole ministry That's right, he was a Roman citizen Yeah Any does anybody know anything about his educational background?
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Very high. That's right. Yeah, there's I think Yeah, that's right. Yeah, he knew the law there.
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I think there was Because I just listened to a lot of Martin Lloyd -Jones to get ready for this there was then there was like during the
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Second World War or after the Second World War there was like a Context of smartest people to ever live and these were just non
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Christians who set this up and actually Paul was named among one of those big brains, so But one thing that I thought was really cool was
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Paul was actually edit like there were three in the ancient world there were three places called
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Tarsus Athens and Alexandria pretty much the Harvard Yale and Princeton of the day and we knew
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Paul was Paul. Well, he was solved Tarsus and So you had Paul who was
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Educated in Tarsus until the age of 13 where he probably shipped off to become a Pharisee where he's taught under Gamaliel whose nickname was called the doctor of the law, which is kind of intimidating, but also pretty cool and so So here you have
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Paul he knew the Greek side he knew the Jewish side you see the Greek side because in there in the Areopagus, I think it's an act it is an axe.
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I'm forgetting the chapter I think it's 17 where he's talking to the Stokes and the philosophers and then you see throughout the rest of the book where he's defending the faith by showing
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Christ and They say it like that Christ suffered was buried and rose from the dead he would talk about that defended it in the
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Old Testament and we even see that in Romans 1 where He says the gospel that which prepared before him by the prophets
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Okay, so we know about Paul and We know that he's writing from Corinth.
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It's the winter of 55 AD and I know I'm talking a lot But one thing that was really cool.
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I was listening to else s Lewis Johnson and you know like the intros to like some movies are like really strong voice like And I was listening.
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I was listening to s Lewis Johnson. It was just so epic He was just like like winter 55 AD Paul, and I just I just like it's
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I wish he did the intro to like every war movie possible, but like So, okay, so We know
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Paul is we know that he's writing the Saints right if anybody I mean can anybody read verse 7 I think it is again.
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Yeah. Yeah, right.
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Yeah, so Paul's writing believers and Why is that important to us? Yeah, we're believers that's right and he's right to establish them.
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So what what greater book I think To go through and I mean right here. We have examples from some of the greatest men
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I mean, we don't worship them, but we worship we revel their testimony But the thing that I want to talk about which someone said
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I think John and Mark said was justification by faith alone Which is the most important doctrine in the whole
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Bible it is what Luther said what the church stands or falls and Before I start asking some more questions just because I want to make sure you get the intro
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I was I took something from RC Sproul and he was actually explaining to some people my age Like what that like how important it was and he says
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The doctrine of justification by faith alone is the article upon which the church stands or falls repeating what
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Luther said The article that is so important that he said that if we lost if we lose it We lose
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Christianity if we don't have the doctrine of justification by faith alone You don't have the gospel and we don't have the gospel
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The church is no reason to exist The church itself ceases to be a church and falls into apostasy because it is the article that answers the question
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What must I do to be saved? Okay, so then I have a few questions for you guys now
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Which actually helped me understand this book a lot. So what is justification actually?
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Yeah Yep, right.
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Yeah Yeah, we'll definitely get to that because I like like the guilt grace and gratitude model that like the
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Heidelberg Catechism does I think Paul Like it's based from Romans It's kind of like the way I kind of do it is like Paul slaps him in the face first and then
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Brings in the good news in a loving way, of course but So the
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West the Westminster larger catechism question question answer 70 what is justification?
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It says that justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which he pardoned all their sins
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Accepted and accounted their persons righteous in his sight not for anything wrought in them or done by them but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ by God imputed to them and Received by faith alone and can anybody read?
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Romans 3 22 Mm -hmm and can someone read
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Romans 4 or 5 That's right.
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Yeah So those those are just some scriptural examples and I kind of just wanted to get what a definition of justification was
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And so, okay, so the next question that I have Is how is justification an act of God's free grace?
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Right. Yeah. Yeah any other thoughts
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Said Right, he's a justifier
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So the answer Like the definition I have here is
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Although Christ by his obedience and death did make a proper real and full satisfaction to God's justice in the behalf of them that are justified
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Yet in as much as God accepted this accepted the satisfaction from a surety Which he might have demanded of them and did provide this surety his only son imputing his righteousness to them and Requiring nothing of them for their justification, but faith which is also his gift and their justification is to them a free grace
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Okay, which yeah, we've pretty much covered So what is justifying faith?
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Yeah, what it yeah, what is justifying faith? Yeah. Mm -hmm
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Absolutely, yeah the Heidelberg Catechism talks about that too You go
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And when you fully acknowledge that, that he took every punishment person,
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I feel like you can do nothing but repent and praise because of that knowledge of what he's done for you.
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Like those can't be ruled. Like you fully acknowledge that principle, or that principle. Yeah.
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So the question I was begging with my response was that the difference between justifying faith and a non -justifying faith is the object of the faith.
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We can have faith in a lot of things, right? I have, you know, the classic example is you have faith when you sit in the chair.
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When you sit down in the chair, you have faith that the chair is not going to collapse underneath you. you and you know you will sit and remain in the seated position without crashing the floor right and so justifying faith is a faith in Christ in Christ as he is shown to a reveal to us in the
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Bible right not some made -up Christ not just you know the Christ of your own imagination which plenty of people invent but the true
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Christ and if the object of your faith is the Lord Jesus Christ and you have justifying faith whereas if you have faith in anything else then it's not right yeah try right yeah yeah that's pretty good pretty good that was really good no every element was really good anybody else want to add or not oh yeah okay cool yeah so the definition
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I have here which is also from the larger catechism and I'll share the one from the
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Heidelberg because they're very similar so justifying faith is a saving grace wrought in the heart of a sinner by the
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Spirit and the Word of God whereby he being convinced of his sin and misery and of the disability in himself and all the creatures to recover him out of his lost condition not only a sentence to the truth of the promise of the gospel receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness therein held forth for pardon of sin and for accepting and accounting of his person of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation in the
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Heidelberg catechism is similar says what is true faith true faith is not only a sure knowledge but which
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I hold this true all that God has revealed to us in his Word it is also a wholehearted trust which the
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Holy Spirit works in me by the gospel that God is freely granted not only to others but to me also forgiveness of sins eternal righteousness and salvation these gifts are purely of grace only because of Christ's merit and the
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Puritans kind of hammer it home and like earlier to and the questions but I'll save it so okay so yeah
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I got some really good responses so how does faith justify a sinner in the sight of God I think we talked about that but yeah yeah anybody else want to add all right well all right so question number 73 because these all just go in order faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God not because of those other graces which do always accompany it or of good works that are the fruit of it nor as if the grace of faith or any act thereof were imputed to him for his justification but only as it is an instrument by which he receiveth and applieth
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Christ and his righteousness and I'll say that Luther has a really good quote and I forgot my way of godliness by Horatius Bonar Luther has a really good quote pastor
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Steve that's wrong okay
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I didn't mean that to you pastor yeah I mean you you know the answer you kind of taught me this already oh yeah and I think you were the first person to teach me it but I mean that's
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Piper and Schreiner right it's final justifications whack theology yeah yeah yeah that's a book yeah it's below right yeah it's like Catholicism Catholicism light yeah probably have to show
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God you read your Bible every day or something hey try mmm faith justifies a sinner in the sight of God not because oh the question was how does faith justify a sinner in the sight of God you're right right but it's the grasping on of Christ's righteousness that's what faith does yeah okay
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I'll tell the Puritans to change that one I'm just kidding um this is the larger catechism it's the question question answer number 73 yeah yeah
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I'll call I'll call Thomas Goodwin we're good we're good friends um okay so no yeah no no that's good for me to know because I'm still like this has been so fruitful for me just to learn what this is
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I guess I didn't share this at the beginning but like the reason this is so important to me was because when
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I was in Amherst well yeah I'm just still in college but like when I was at UMass Amherst and I got into whatever so -called
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Christianity it's called up there and like the way to stay away from sin and everything was like my friends would sleep on hardwood floor my friends would sleep outside in the cold like dead of winter it was nuts and like I remember when
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I finally like it's recent that I've been sleeping in my bed because like I like I think it's three months after I got
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I three months I've been at BBC I've been sleeping on my bed cuz I was just sleeping on hardwood floor just grab my blanket pillow and yonder so like oh what what why what well
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I mean like to stay away from sin with those sinful thoughts come or yeah just to like stay like you focus on the pain rather than the yeah yeah bunkish you're right and also like you felt like everything
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I did felt like I needed to earn from God like the more pain the more I felt like God loved me it's terrible it was
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I mean not to like down -death -hell but like it was hell on earth and it's like it's that's why it's so nice to be here and understanding justification by faith like I was at a coffee shop and like like reading all this stuff and like getting so excited and jittery like my fingers felt like they were flying and then and also catching myself getting angry at the same time because I was remembering all my dumb friends who taught me that and so it's just it's amazing what it is and actually
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I have another one which I really want to say because the Belgian confession and I think the
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Dutch did a really wasn't really Dutch I mean Belgic but at the time they did a really good job of the definition actually wanted a pastor
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Steve yeah yeah
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I can see he's a man Charlie yep yep
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I know yeah it's wrong yeah no it's hard like when
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I'm still struggling with the sadism now it's not like it's gone but pastor Steve sent me a really cool article which really helped and I'm still like trying to digest it but it's it's been really good and it's like I think the red light went on when
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I was here and one of my friends we call it and it was like yeah Dave I do ministry with the Catholic and I was like oh where's the red button no like bye and then put um so yeah good right yeah yeah that's what
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I did yeah yeah oh yeah yeah no absolutely yeah it's funny about the rock music
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I guess just like we were at his house for dinner and he started playing country music and I was like you can do that like and literally like before that before this to calm me down I was listening to Tom Petty it was calming what why oh it was a good song but it's funny like before even this like I thought
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I'd only listen to Sovereign Grace music which is not bad it's great but I was like just listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers before this is soothing but uh so okay um and I actually wanted to open up the floor with any of your stories you guys wanted any because this is such an important doctrine
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I know it affects people so I don't know if anybody would want to share it if they don't that's okay I got plenty of quotes like just how justification of by faith has affected your life somehow and we feel like we have to keep on doing and running on that treadmill in order to you know keep
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God happy with you make God happy with you somehow you think that you can make him love you more and what truly opened my eyes to this was within Psalm 103 and recognizing that not only does
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God know and understand my brain when he saved me, he knew that I was done and so you know he knew exactly what he was getting past present and future for me and there was there's he loved me with a perfect love and so there is nothing that I can do if it's perfect it's already perfect right there's nothing
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I can do to possibly make it make him love me more and also there's nothing I could do to make him love me less because it's perfect and that finally got me off the treadmill.
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I think that for a lot of Christians, the proper understanding of justification by faith really helps with assurance because every
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Christian throughout their life will go through peaks and valleys of being assured of our salvation or lack of assurance and it's very easy for us to get lost in that.
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I go out and stand in front of the door, I smile at people, I get inspired when I walk in.
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I feel better about myself because people are smiling at me. But that doesn't change our relationship with Christ.
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Paul does write about the value of doing good work in the sense that we keep up rewards for ourselves and yet it's not selfish.
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It's just our desire to serve the Lord by serving God. And so a lot of that treadmill stuff is really just like a band -aid over this issue of assurance that is something that we as Christians can do well to remind ourselves about.
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Right. Try. Then I'll get to you John. I think, too, about the value of God for some of us.
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And we can get to know
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Him. And it's almost like God puts us in the training ground, in the treadmill.
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We're trying to live with the same life as Jesus as our Savior. And we let that struggle, and struggle, and struggle, and struggle in our new faith, in our new faith.
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And then there's the glorious revealing that you learned about. There's almost the same degree of uncircumcised faith.
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It's like a second rebirth when you say, God, don't have to do all this. And it's almost like the
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Lord is very, like a kind Father, showing us that. And it's like, okay, it's me.
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I'm the one that's doing it. I'm the one that's saving you. You've got my hand in mine.
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This is all just light and heat. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. And you've got to sort of learn what it's all about.
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And so, I think, not growing up in a
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Hebrew family where we talked face -to -face with the law all the time. You've got to sort of grind away, in the face of the law, the value of the grace that you've been given.
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I mean, let's look at it sort of in parenthesis. So, it may feel like you use the word, faith, but it's the
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Lord. Yeah.
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So, the children finally get it.
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Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. I'll let John go first. So, like a lot of things, this point was made more clear to me as I became a parent and started training my children.
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And I was warned of the danger of teaching my children moralistic, therapeutic theism.
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And it's even more dangerous at the home school. You go to the home school convention and all these really shiny criticisms that will teach your children character and own the character.
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Because if you go through these, they talk about all these good things you should be doing as a home schooling student.
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And they don't talk about grace. They don't talk about forgiveness of sins and why and how we have it.
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And so, there's a real danger. I just learned there's a real danger as a parent of teaching my children to just be good because there's a
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God. Because it's good to be good. So, yeah, this doctrine of justification by faith alone is the defense of how you avoid that.
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Yeah. And you have to be careful to teach that and not just be good. Yeah. Yeah, just one more.
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So, in my early Christian walk, it was like roller coaster of highs and lows.
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And I think it was partially because my view of justification was just the forgiveness of sin side of it.
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And so, like sin carried with it this guilt and this feeling like there's division between me and God that it does change his care for me.
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Based on the quality of my life. And when you fully understand justification as Christ's righteousness being imputed to us, that other half of it is that God's view of you.
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He looks at me and he sees the perfect work of Christ. Yeah.
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And so, that fuller view of justification, I felt, for me, helped me overcome that roller coaster phase of recommitting my life to Christ and things like that.
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Yeah, Mark, I love that because I think the incomplete view that a lot of baby
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Christians have is that justification took me from on the sinful side, took me back to like zero.
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Right? Like, okay, good. All the past stuff's wiped clean. I'm back to zero. I can start over. Right?
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And it's not that you start over and now we're, you know, oh, good news. The score got reset, but we're still keeping score.
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Right? It's in fact that God's thrown you all the way up to completely to the other side of the scorecard, right, by giving you
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Jesus' righteousness. You've now gotten the alien righteousness of perfection. And, you know, and so there's no more score keeping.
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There's no condemnation now for those who are in Christ Jesus. Yeah, one more, and then
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I've got to pray. Okay, so we're not going to be able to fully discuss this now, but where this leads me, though, is
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I agree with everything that's being said. But what is it? No, it's not. So in the purpose for those things, and the law reveals our sin, which then leads us to the
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Savior, who then does the Bible. But, like, when I was a new believer, and I was saved, and I kind of held that,
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I was waking up and doing hours of devotions. I was spending time with the Lord, and I was doing all those things.
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And then I heard this, you know, idea of justification, and I was like, well, I'm not saved by this thing. And then
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I was like, so am I allowed to wake up and read the Bible? And it's like, I almost wrestled with the balance between our works that don't save us, but then the discipline of our bodies.
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Because there are times, you know, there are times that those good works are good. There are times where you don't be apathetic and know what you're doing.
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But there are times where, yeah, you do discipline your body. And if you live your life in the way it's in. And I know it's a hard thing, but like, where's that balance?
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At that second moment, like, you wouldn't treat the bride like that, right? So then you have the realization that we love
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Him because we first loved Him. And you just go, like,
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I love you, Lord. And the rest of your life, you're learning a little more how much He loves you each day.
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And if you love me, you will be like Him. Sweet. Dang, I wanted to say the
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Belch Confession, but we don't have time. So if anybody remembers, number 22, 11 plus 11 is 22. Just remember that.
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Read that article, please. It's so good. It's the righteousness of faith. They did a pretty good job.
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All right. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for all the saints here who have helped me and encouraged me in my faith.
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Who have taught me to live for you more correctly, to live for your son more correctly. We will fail in this life.
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But we thank you again for that perfect righteousness of Christ that's been imputed to us. We thank you for that perfect life as stated before, which is so sweet, that's given to our account.
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We thank you that your son said it as he was dying, it is finished. He bowed his head and died.
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And we know that Christ Jesus did die for the sins of His people. And thank you that we're justified.
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Right now we're being sanctified. And someday we'll be home. No more sin. And that will be a good day.
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So we thank you again for this time. Thank you for the Book of Romans. And thank you for that wonderful doctrine of justification by faith.
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Help us rest more in you. Because as Pastor Mike says, the gospel is not written on our hearts, the law is.
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And so help us remind ourselves of the gospel each day. And as good brothers and sisters, remind us each other of that glorious good news.