WWUTT 1353 Overcome Evil With Good (Romans 12:21)

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The Bible says, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

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And this does not mean if you just love people then you'll change the world. It means in the midst of an evil world we hold fast to Christ when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

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For questions and comments send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. Well, we finish up our study of Romans 12 today.

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One last verse to go. But to keep it in context, let's look again at Romans 12, verses 19 through 21.

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Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written,

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Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

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If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.

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Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

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We have that statement by Paul in verse 19 where he says, Do not avenge yourselves. The wrath of God is coming upon all those who do unrighteousness.

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In John 3, 36, it says, Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not obey the

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Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

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That is where we are as descendants of Adam. We are born in sin with a sin nature to rebel against God.

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What we deserve is judgment and hell. We are under the wrath of God as sinful, rebellious creatures.

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But it is when the gospel comes in that we hear the truth about Jesus Christ. We learn about ourselves, that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

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But God, by His grace, gave His Son for us who died on the cross as a propitiation for our sins.

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And whoever believes in Him is justified. We are forgiven our sins and we are given everlasting life.

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We are born again. No longer objects of God's wrath, but now the objects of His love as adopted sons and daughters through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

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We become adopted sons and daughters of God. So for those who do not repent, who continue in evil and unrighteousness, and do evil toward the children of God, the wrath of God remains on them and He will avenge

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His children. Those who have been wronged, who have been persecuted by the world,

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God will have the final say. We read about it even in the book of Revelation, where you have the martyrs under the altar, they who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness that they had borne.

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And they cry out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

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And it says in Revelation 6, 11, they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

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Just as they were persecuted, there were many others to come who would be persecuted for their faith.

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And we see that even today. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount that we would be persecuted.

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You begin the Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. On and on it goes, these blessed ones who are the followers of Jesus.

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And then we get down to verse 10, where Jesus says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

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Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account,

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Jesus says. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

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As much as we have this wonderful beginning to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus is describing his followers, that they are blessed, that they have the approval of God and so receive the blessings of God, yet we get down to Jesus saying, at the end of the

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Beatitudes, blessed are those who are persecuted. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you.

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So this is Jesus saying that though we are blessed, it doesn't mean we're going to have a comfortable, happy life.

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People are going to persecute us. They will hate us for the Christ that we believe in.

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If you spend any amount of time on social media, I think you experience it there more than you experience it out in the world, unless you're doing any kind of active evangelism.

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Because when I go out and do evangelism, I'm sure to face some kind of persecution. If you're not out there doing that on a regular basis, you know, chatting with people in a park or in a mall or out in public somewhere, busy sidewalks, heading out tracks, whatever it might happen to be.

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If you're not doing that regularly, then the place where you'll surely face persecution is either in your own family, among unbelievers in your family, or you'll experience it online on social media.

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And you can just browse through a little bit of social media and you'll find people on there saying how much they hate

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Christians, how much they hate God, and they wish that these Christians would just go away. Earlier this week, there was trending on Twitter.

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I want to say this was Sunday morning. There was a journalist. I can't remember what paper he wrote for, but I remember reading his tweets and he was saying how much he wanted to beat to death anti -mask

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Christians. That was what he said. So Christians who don't want to wear masks in the midst of this pandemic, he wants to beat them to death.

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And I've had death threats hurled at me. I had shared with you about a few of those just a few weeks back toward the end of the year in one of the

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Friday Q &As. So there are people out there, even in a Western world where we get to enjoy a little bit more freedom of religion, yet there are people even in the culture around us who want us dead.

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They want us beaten and put in a particular place, or they want us thrown in jail, or they want us fired from our jobs.

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And we shouldn't even be able to run for public office without anyone taking us seriously.

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You'll find these comments all over the place, even the evening news. This is the way the world is toward Christianity.

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Those who are the followers of Jesus. He assured us this was going to happen and said to his disciples, remember when they hate you, they hated me first.

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So we have this guarantee that we will suffer or at the very least, at the very least be reviled for our faith.

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Peter says in 1 Peter 4, 12, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice in so far as you share

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Christ's sufferings that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

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Get this, this, this next part is so incredibly humbling for me.

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Verse 14, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed.

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That's, that's difficult for us to humble ourselves and, and embrace and have joy in sometimes, right?

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Especially if you live in a country where you have the freedom of religion, because what do you, how do you want to respond whenever somebody ridicules you or reviles you for your faith?

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You want to fire right back at them, right? Our response is not typically, oh, I'm blessed.

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Praise God. I'm being persecuted for my faith. I'm being reviled for the Christ whom I love and sharing in his sufferings because I know my master was reviled by his own people who he came to.

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And so we share in blessing when we share in the sufferings of Christ. Let me read that again and I'll keep going.

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So 1 Peter 4, 14, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, if you are insulted, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

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Jesus has said, we will suffer, hate, persecution, ridicule, reviling for our faith.

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And yet, how are we supposed to be? We're supposed to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

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That's further in the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter five, and we are supposed to rejoice in God, knowing that we are blessed, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.

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We may suffer a little bit of time here on this earth, but the promise of God for us is that we have an eternal reward in heaven above in the kingdom that the father is giving to the son of which we have become fellow heirs of that eternal kingdom in Christ Jesus.

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So consider this again here in Romans chapter 12, beloved, never avenge yourselves as we're going to be persecuted as we're going to be hated.

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Never avenge yourselves. Now, as we've as we've talked about this Monday and Tuesday, I didn't necessarily or at least quite directly attach this to persecution, but that's another application that we need to consider here.

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So we are going to be hated for our faith. We've been assured that we will be and do not get revenge against those who hate us.

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Leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the

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Lord. Verse 20 again, to the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. Now, now notice here that 20 begins to the contrary.

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So we don't respond in the same way that they are acting toward us.

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We don't respond to reviling with reviling. We don't respond to suffering by threatening them.

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Instead, we need to do as it says in first Peter two, that our Lord did entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

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So likewise, we entrust ourselves to the father in heaven above. So on the contrary, instead of responding with the measure of spite that they show to us, we need to instead show love to the contrary.

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If your enemy is hungry, feed him. Now again, there is a literal application to this and a spiritual application to this.

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Literally, if there is an opportunity for you to show charity to somebody who hates you, do so with that opportunity that you might have to share the gospel with them as well.

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In the spiritual application of this, we always need to be holding forth the gospel.

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Do not think that just because you've done a kind deed for somebody that you've shared the gospel with them.

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That's often an application of the gospel. You can, you can live out the gospel in that way, demonstrating how your life has been changed by the gospel, but that's not sharing the gospel with somebody.

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If you're sharing the gospel with someone, it means you're telling them something because that word gospel means good news.

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It doesn't mean good works. It means you are telling someone the news about how there is a savior,

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Jesus Christ, God incarnate, the righteous one who was the spotless lamb who died on a cross for our sins and whoever believes in him will be forgiven their sins and have eternal life.

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This is the message of the gospel. If you do a kind work for somebody that's just doing good deeds and even an atheist can do good deeds for someone.

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There was a guy who had a tweet that he made on Twitter. This was a new year's eve when he said this and he gave a list of things that the church needed to do for 2021.

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Here's what his name was, Rondell Trevino. He says the church's new year's resolution, feed the poor, visit prisoners, adopt orphans, love the elderly, respect women, pray for enemies, befriend the deaf, look after the sick, protect the unborn, advocate for people of color, house the homeless, welcome immigrants, speak up for the abused.

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All of those things are wonderful and good things, but guess what? If the church did all of that, every single person that they would have helped will still be going to hell.

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They would not have actually helped anybody except giving them a comfortable seat on their way to destruction.

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The only way you save a person from the hell of fire that is coming upon all those who do unrighteousness, who rebelled against God, who went their own way, who chased after the passions of their flesh, do you want to save those who are perishing?

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Share the gospel with them. And those who believe in the good news of Jesus Christ, who put their faith in him and turn from their sin and follow

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Jesus, they are saved. Saved from themselves, saved from their sin, saved from the wages of sin, which is death, saved from the righteous judgment of God.

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That's what we mean when we say that word salvation. We're saved from the wrath of God that is coming against all the unrighteousness of men.

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Paul started his apologetic here in Romans chapter one, in his letter to the

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Romans. Back in Romans one, he started that way, Romans 1 .18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who, by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth.

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And that was, of course, right after Paul had said, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

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Would you not share the gospel with somebody? Then you're ashamed of it and you do not truly love that person.

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You would rather they perish in hell. And that's what would happen if we do not share the gospel with even our enemies and especially our enemies.

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So therefore, if your enemy is hungry, if he is spiritually starving, feed him the good news of the gospel.

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If he is thirsty, give him the Holy Spirit as Jesus shared with the woman at the well in John chapter four.

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I know I made this connection earlier in the week, but he says to her, if you knew who it was that was asking you, give me a drink.

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You would ask him and he would give you living water. And that's what we offer someone when we share the gospel with them.

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We give them living water that wells up into a spring, that springs up into eternal life as the

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Bible closes in Revelation chapter 22 with the scripture saying, whoever is thirsty, come, let him drink of the water of life and live.

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And that is the good news of the gospel that we have. The scriptures are the water of the

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Holy Spirit that cleanses us and washes us and sanctifies us and makes us new.

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And so if your enemy is thirsty, give him the word of God for by so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head.

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And as I said yesterday, this doesn't mean that you make a guy feel guilty for having treated you unkindly and then you turn around and treat him with kindness.

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But if that person goes to their death, having never repented of their sin and put faith in Jesus Christ, then it will be to a greater condemnation to them that they will perish because they heard the gospel and did not receive it.

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And so by doing, by feeding your enemy, by giving him something to drink, you heap burning coals on his head.

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This is the judgment that will come upon such a person. Although, as I said yesterday, our desire should be that they would turn from their sin and live.

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Lastly, to close out Romans 12, and again, all these being application instructions to Christians who believe in the gospel.

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How is the life of a believer going to look? Well, Paul concludes this by saying, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

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Now, what's the application of this verse that you often hear? Well, the world's kind of a messy place, right?

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It's full of all kinds of bad news and suffering and sickness and death and evil and an evil people.

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And how do we overcome all of that evil? Well, we just need to do kindness to each other. If we just love one another, we will overcome that evil.

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But that's not what's being talked about here. That sounds kind of hippie, right? Just peace and love, man. No conflict.

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Just just love each other. And then we'll overcome all of this bad stuff that is that is happening.

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That's not the lesson that's being told here. If you just do enough kind deeds for people, then there won't be evil anymore.

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Because evil is not something that exists outside of us. Evil is inside of us.

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It comes from in a person because we are all inherently evil, having received the sin nature of Adam, all who are born in the line of Adam.

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So it's not that we are able to vanquish all evil by just doing enough good things. Rather, we will not be overcome by the evil in this world when we hold fast to that which is good.

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And that's everything that is in Christ Jesus. That's what that means. Remember that previously,

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Paul said in Romans chapter eight that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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So we are overcoming the evil in this world. Anything that would attempt to tear us apart, that would attempt to tempt us away from God, draw us away from God and Christ.

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Any of those things that would attempt to destroy us or break us down, even in our spirits from the inside out, we overcome those things by holding fast to Christ and his gospel.

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You share the gospel with an enemy. And if that enemy believes the gospel, then you've overcome evil with good.

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They are changed from the inside out. You want to change the world, preach the gospel and beware this

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Christless Christianity message going around of people just saying you just need to show love to one another and we will overcome all the badness that exists in the world.

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Consider these words from Michael Horton. This was in his book Christless Christianity. He shared the following.

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What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city over half a century ago?

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Presbyterian minister Donald Gray Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio.

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It was a different time a half a century ago. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, the city where Barnhouse pastored, all of the bars would be closed.

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Pornography banished and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other.

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There would be no swearing. The children would say, yes, sir, and no, ma 'am. And the churches would be full every

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Sunday where Christ was not preached.

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It isn't enough, folks, that we just do good works, we must preach

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Christ and him crucified for our sins. Let us pray.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for this gospel that has come to us at the right time.

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You sent someone to us to share the good news about Jesus Christ, that we would be convicted of our sin, that we would turn to Jesus and live.

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We all were once enemies of God and you have shown us kindness through your son, a kindness that is immeasurable.

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How could we possibly quantify the goodness that you have shown to us? And may we take the good things that you have blessed us with and share those good things with others in whatever way we can, always holding out the word of life in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation that we may shine as lights in the world, pointing to the true light who is

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Christ. Save our souls, dear God. Change our world.

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May we not be ashamed to share the gospel and in so doing lives are transformed.

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People believe it and they turn from their evil and hold fast to the goodness of God through Christ and live.

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These things we pray in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

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Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study.

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Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.