Sermon: In The Wake of His Resurrection & Ascension

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If you would open your Bibles to the book of Romans, chapter 6. Romans, chapter 6.

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Romans 6, starting in verse 1. Hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

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By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus...

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were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death...

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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 was crucified with him... in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing...

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so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.

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Now if we have died with Christ we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

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Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all.

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But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin...

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and alive to God in Christ Jesus. As far as the reading of God's Holy and Inspired Word, let's pray together.

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Father, thank you for your Word. Thank you God for the preservation of your Word... the revelation that you've given to us...

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you've preserved through history. The grass withers, the flower fades... but the Word of our God stands forever.

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God, thank you for the gift of your Word. Thank you for the gift of your speech...

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you speaking to us. Lord, we know what is written here represents your voice, your very

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Word. And so God, I pray that you'd bless today the proclamation of your Word... that you'd work through the ministry of this pulpit.

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Speak to your people by your Spirit. Convict us, challenge us, renew our minds.

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We pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen. So, as I said, I want to talk about living in the wake of the death...

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resurrection and ascension of the Messiah. We've spent so many years working through expositionally... the

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Gospel according to Matthew, verse by verse. And we just finished the last verses of the Gospel according to Matthew.

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And there's so many things that we discussed in terms of getting into each verse... sometimes just a word here or there...

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unpacking that and going throughout the Bible saying... well, where else does God talk about this truth?

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And what is Matthew trying to communicate here? And even as we finished up last week in Matthew 28, 18 through 20...

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we talked about that great commission passage... where Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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And He says for them to therefore go... because that's true, because He has all the authority...

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because that messianic hope is now in force. Jesus has accomplished everything. He says now go get the nations, disciple them.

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And He says to baptize them in the name of the Father... and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And He says teach them to observe all that I've commanded you.

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And He says, Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age. We talked about what that means and we tried to make application...

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in terms of how we tend to view the world today as Christians... the modern evangelical, how they look at the world and they compartmentalize...

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that this is the physical, this is the spiritual... this is the realm where Jesus has authority over here...

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but not so much over here, this isn't of concern to Him. And we tried to talk about the fact that that wasn't the messianic hope.

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The messianic hope was that the entire world would come to know Jesus Christ. That all the families of the earth would return to worship

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God. That He would have dominion from sea to sea... from the river to the ends of the earth. That all of His enemies would be put under His feet as a footstool for His feet.

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And that the goal of the gospel, that great commission... is to actually win this entire world to Jesus Christ.

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To have it come under His feet, to His glory... and to establish peace, forgiveness, salvation and justice in the world.

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We talked about that. But I think one of the things we need to talk about... is we need to talk about, okay, now that I know this story...

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of the messianic king, that all the nations are going to come under his rule... this one who is going to have victory over the world...

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this one who has promised to be the righteous one... to die for sinners and rise again from the dead...

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now that I know that story and I know the why of the story... I think the next question that has to be asked by us is...

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how do I apply that today? More importantly, how did the apostles actually apply...

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the truths in scripture regarding the life, the death... the resurrection and the ascension of the

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Messiah? How do the apostles view this... in terms of individual believers who've been brought into this salvation...

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and intimate relationship with God? What's it all mean? You know, our catechism, we do...

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I love my favorite catechism, question and answer is the very first one. I've said that a lot, right?

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The very first one is my favorite... because it encompasses so much of the Christian life and our purpose.

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Why did God make us? Why did God do all of this? I mean, it's amazing, but why did

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He make us? And, like, what's our purpose? And that old way says, what is man's chief end?

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That's an old way of saying, what is man's primary purpose? It says, what is our primary purpose?

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What did God make us for? And what we say as our answer is... man's primary purpose is to glorify

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God and to what? Enjoy Him forever. And we know all those scriptures that talk about the glory of God...

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the sovereignty of God, the power of God, the majesty of God... and that it's ultimately all about God.

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But also that purpose in creating us is to bring Him glory... and to actually enjoy

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Him. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever.

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And the gospel gets at all of that. It's a network of truths. They all come together.

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And the gospel gets at all of that... bringing glory to God and enjoying God forever.

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But how does the death and the resurrection and the ascension of the Messiah... connect to all of that with us as believers?

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I think we need to talk about that before we move on to our next series. We need to talk about some application as believers.

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We talked about the purpose and meaning of the death, resurrection... and ascension of the Lord Jesus. We talked about its meaning and ultimately the mission.

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The mission and the purpose. We talked about the fulfillment of prophecy... that the Old Testament had foretold long before it happened...

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that the Messiah was going to be the righteous one... that He'd justify the many, that He'd bear their iniquities... that He'd be pierced through for their transgressions...

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that He was going to be cut off out of the land of the living... and that He'd be raised again from the dead. We went through all those prophecies.

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But again, it can't just be bare facts. All of this was foretold. All of this took place.

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The question has to be, okay, now what? How does that actually connect to me as a believer...

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living in the light of this wake of the resurrection... and the death and the ascension of the

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Lord Jesus? What's the practical meaning and outworking of all these truths...

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for those of us who are joined to Christ? That's the way to put it. Okay, I'm joined to Christ now. I'm in Christ.

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There's so much in Christ in Scripture. The New Testament is all about that concept... of union with Christ, of being in Christ.

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Okay, now that it's true... that I'm actually joined to Christ, I'm in Christ...

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what's the practical meaning of all these truths... of the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus?

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And I think to get at that, we shouldn't just try to be special and unique... and try to be creative.

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We need to ask the apostles, what does the apostolic witness say? I mean, these were the ones who walked with Jesus.

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They were called as apostles. They gave us this New Testament revelation. So we shouldn't go about this in a creative manner.

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But we should ask the question to God Himself. What have you revealed about the meaning and the purpose of all of this?

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Us being united to Jesus in His death, burial, His resurrection. What does all that mean?

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How does it actually apply to those of us who now have this... personal and intimate union with Jesus Christ?

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And so let's go to the text, brothers and sisters. And it's interesting because what we're going to talk about here...

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is one of those things that pop culture gets so wrong.

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Now generally, you can talk about it in terms of the secular culture. People write books all the time, popular books.

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How do I be a more disciplined person? How do I stop being so angry? How do I stop being so compulsive?

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You've got the secular world that does that. They're in God's image and they feel broken. They know something's not right with their life...

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because they can't avoid the fact that they're made in God's image. And this isn't working. Something doesn't feel right about my life, about my habits...

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about how I speak to my friends, how I think. And so what they do is they go off away from their

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Creator... away from the objective revelation of God. And they say, give me the book that will give me the 10 steps...

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to success of being a happy person. Now the problem also is within the quote -unquote Christian world...

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where Christians will jump into that problem of... how do I live in a new way? How do

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I change? How do I stop being an addict? How do I stop being an emotionally abusive person?

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How do I deal with my shame and my guilt? And so the Christian world will sort of jump onto that problem...

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and they'll give sort of, you know, happy tips to success. And why don't you work this out in your lives?

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And here's how you can live a happy, healthy and wealthy life in Jesus. It's a popular thing.

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But the question has to be asked, how does the Bible talk about this? How does the Bible talk about putting away the old man...

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and walking in newness of life? It's a very important question to ask and answer as Christians.

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What does God actually say takes place with you and I? Now that we have peace with God.

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Now that we're forgiven in Jesus Christ. What actually has happened to me? And how does

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God call me now to live in Christ's likeness in a new way? All of this is important when we talk about what happened in Matthew...

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as we talked about all of that pain and suffering... and glory of the resurrection and the ascension. It's so important for us to ask the question, okay, now what?

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Or more importantly, as I often say at the end of sermons, okay, so what? So what? What's it mean now?

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What does God intend to say to me as a believer now? So I think we need to go to Paul. Now we started this today just reading from Romans chapter 6...

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but I want to direct you to two places today, just two places. Paul in Romans chapters 3 through 6...

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and Paul in Colossians chapters 2 and 3. The end of chapter 2 and in chapter 3.

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Because when we ask the question, okay, all this took place... but is it just brute facts?

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It just happened? That's just the way that it is? It is? We have to ask the more important question.

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Okay, what does God actually say is his intention in all of this... for each of us as believers, as those united to Jesus?

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We need to go to the scriptures and ask the question. What does all of it mean? So Paul in Romans chapter 3, go there quickly.

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I'm not going to read through all of this. But Paul in Romans chapter 3 deals with... what is the actual background story from God's perspective...

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in terms of the justice and all that took place in the death of the Messiah? What did it all mean?

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And Paul says in Romans chapter 3 in verse 23... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God...

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and are justified, that is declared righteous... by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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So here's Paul talking about that purchase Jesus accomplished on the cross.

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And this is a gift gift. We've said that before. It's a gift gift by his grace as a gift.

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It's like stuttering. That's how much of a gift it is. It's grace gift, gift gift. Paul says, this is redemption that is in Christ Jesus...

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whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood... that's by his death...

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to be received by what? Faith. That's what identifies the people of God.

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This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance... he had passed over former sins.

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It was to show his righteousness at the present time... so that he might be just...

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and the justifier, the one who has faith in Jesus. So here's Paul giving you the divine interpretation...

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of the death of Christ and the redemption that he purchased. This is him saying, okay, here's what it all means.

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What God was doing in Christ is he was giving us redemption. He was purchasing a people.

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And what he actually did on that cross... was something that would allow God to remain a just God.

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Because he's not just overlooking sin. We've talked about this quite a lot, right? Man -made religion can never get this problem of sin...

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and the justice of God right. Because man -made religion has no atonement... no redemption that accomplishes anything.

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They'll say their God is good. They'll say their God is righteous or holy in some way.

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And they'll say there's something wrong with us. And the way back to that God is climb your way back.

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Be righteous enough. Be good enough. Obey enough rules. Obey enough ordinances. Do enough things.

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Obey these statutes. And maybe, just maybe, if you've done enough... like if the scales weigh more over to the righteousness side...

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maybe this God can accept you one day. The problem with that is human judges don't even act like that.

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They don't just let criminals go who are truly guilty of crimes. There must be justice for the victims.

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And we are the perpetrator of the crime according to scripture. We're the dead ones.

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We're the unrighteous. We're the rebels. We're the enemies of God. We're the all have sinned ones.

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And so what Paul says is what was taking place in Jesus on that cross... was God was remaining just.

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He was remaining just because he was actually delivering to Jesus the justice... that was really due to us.

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And he says, and this was also so that God can declare... the one who has faith in Jesus righteous.

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How so? You're going to see later. Union with Jesus. Because you're united to him in his death.

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And resurrection. This is intensely personal. It's intensely personal. And Paul then goes on.

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I want you to see it with your own eyes. In Romans 3 .28 he says...

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For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. There it is. Faith alone.

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Faith by itself. Faith apart from the works of the law. It is faith that joins us to Christ.

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Not our good works. No one will be justified before God by their works. And so notice what

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Paul is doing here as he explains the gospel. As he explains the meaning of the redemption purchased by Jesus.

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He's laying down a foundation saying... it cannot be through law. It was never through law.

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The law is only going to expose your sin. It's only going to shut you up. So the only way is faith.

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It's trust in Christ. And it's something that God has done in Christ. It's not something that you have done.

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That you are doing. Or you'll ever do. It's something that God does through faith and through faith apart from works of law.

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That is faith by itself. Faith alone. So Paul starts this story of the meaning of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus by saying...

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And here's how you and I connect to that. It is through faith and through faith alone.

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And then the story continues for Paul. In Romans 3 .31 he makes a point.

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You know he knows the people in the background arguing. Paul does a fantastic job of that.

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As he's giving us didactic literature, systematic teaching of the Christian faith...

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he always is interpreting the argument of the person out there... who's going to hear what he's saying and actually come to the wrong conclusion.

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So he's always answering that person who has the objection in the background. And what he says in Romans 3 .31

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is this. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means. On the contrary.

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We establish the law. Now this is going to be really important. We talk about the meaning of the redemption purchased by Christ.

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Sanctification. This question of works. This question of the law of God. This question of obedience to God's law.

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It's actually central for Paul. He's saying it's not through works. It's not through works of law.

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It's through faith apart from works. But he knows the person back there is saying, oh. So you're saying the law doesn't matter.

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So you're saying as a Christian... your life doesn't really need to change at all. And none of this law stuff matters now at all.

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And Paul actually denies that flat out. He says, verse 31. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?

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By no means. On the contrary. We establish or uphold the law.

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Which law? The same law in discussion. The law that cannot justify you. Well that's interesting.

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It's through faith and faith alone. It's a gift, gift by God. God does all this redemption. He purchases it. It's apart from works.

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But we actually establish the law now that we're in Christ. You're going to see why he says that in a minute. And it's really important too because I think one of the most nefarious teachings about the gospel is something that I was actually reminded about providentially since I'm speaking on this.

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Yesterday a video came across of a well -known false teacher. And he was being asked the question in an interview about well what about the person who says that they believe in Jesus?

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And then like nothing happens. Same sins, same past, same manner of life.

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No love for God. No desire for worship. Nothing in terms of a love for God's word.

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Literally nothing happens. They're the same sinner they were before they supposedly professed faith in Jesus.

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And this local false teacher said well you know if you believe in Christ you'll be saved.

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Well yes the Bible says that. But it's really believing in Jesus that saves us.

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Amen? Yes? Not a mere profession of faith. Or just simply acquiescent to certain details of other

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Christian faith. And what this false teacher argued is that it's possible for you to believe in Christ and literally nothing ever happens to you ever.

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You're the same person. There's no transformation. Nothing takes place. In other words you checked a box, prayed a magic prayer, and because you say you believe in Jesus therefore you're saved.

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Nothing needs to happen. Now brothers and sisters nothing can be farther from Paul's explanation of the gospel you'll see here in Romans 3, 4, and 5.

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That is an impossibility according to Paul. And we're going to see more here.

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So in Romans Chapter 4 Paul then goes on as he's explaining what it means that Jesus died for sinners and rose again.

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He says, What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? He's rooting his gospel and his message of peace and the story of the

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Messiah in the story of Israel. And he says, All right, let's go for the big guns.

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Heavy hitter now. Abraham. This is where we need to all anchor it. Paul's clearly saying.

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And he's saying, Okay, what about Abraham? He says in verse 2, For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about but not before God.

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For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.

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You all understand that, right? If you're working for something and you get a paycheck, that wasn't a gift. You earn that.

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They owe you pay up. And that's Paul's point. If you're working for this, if you're working for this salvation, this justification, then what you're getting is a wage.

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The problem is that this salvation in Jesus is a gift gift. So you're not getting the gift of the gospel if you are working for this justification.

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And then Paul goes on to say, He says, And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the wicked or the ungodly, his faith is credited or counted as righteousness.

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Just as David... There he goes. See, two heavy hitters. To the Jew that's what matters most.

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Abraham. David. Okay, these are our superstars. These are our heroes. These are the ones that God promised to bring this whole story through.

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And so his point is, Alright, if you're really a child of Abraham, are you saved like Abraham? Are you justified like Abraham?

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Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness before anything happened. Before his son on the altar.

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Before the law was given. Before circumcision. He believed God. He had empty hands. And it was credited to him as righteousness.

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And then he says, And David, King David, our hero, he says, Just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom

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God credits, counts righteousness apart from works. Did you catch that?

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God counts you righteous apart from your works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven.

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Let it hang. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

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Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin. Forgiveness and a not counting sin.

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There is a crediting or a counting righteous and a not counting your sin.

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They are forgiven. One of the things I loved as a young man coming up and hearing Pastor James defend the

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Gospel with different religious groups around the world, I used to love that question. Are you the blessed man?

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Are you the blessed man? Are you the blessed woman? Are you? Because the question is very, very important.

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Because this story of the Gospel and justification and peace with God, Paul said that there's a blessed man.

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That God counts righteous apart from your works and He will not count your sins against you.

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So are you the blessed man? Are you the blessed woman? Because if you are, if you are, then your sins are forgiven.

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You see, that's the meaning of Jesus' death. His atonement. Don't lose it. Don't lose sight of it.

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Truth. God's people can easily get jaded. Easily get jaded to the cross.

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Easily get jaded to the word Gospel. Easily get jaded to the promise of salvation.

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You're in Christ for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. And all of a sudden now these beautiful truths of your redemption aren't as beautiful, aren't nearly as beautiful as they used to be.

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They don't bring you as much joy anymore. But if you will reflect on the holiness of God and the purpose of creation, all of us are going to die and be before this

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God. This is the truth of all creation. All of history is being carried along by God.

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All of history's meaning is only meaningful in God and His purpose. And so everything is wrapped up in this

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God. And so the question that is most important for everybody in the world is this.

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Do you have peace with Him? Are you reconciled to God? Because He made you to bring

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Him glory and to enjoy Him forever. So which side of history are you on?

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Are you on the side of the judged and condemned or the side of those who have joy and salvation, forgiveness and peace?

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It's the most important question that any of us can ask and have an answer to. So are you the blessed man?

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Are you the blessed woman? If you can say, I trust in Christ and He's my only hope. He died for me on that tree.

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If you can say that, then you are counted righteous apart from any of your works. God does not count your sins against you.

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You are forgiven of all of your sins. And that's true of you today. It'll be true of you tomorrow.

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It'll be true of you 10 billion years from now. Not because you deserve it. Not because it's owed to you.

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Because of the power of God's love and His commitment to justice given to Christ on that cross.

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That's Paul's whole position on the cross. What's the meaning of it all? What's it mean that Jesus died?

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Why? What's it mean that He rises again from the dead? But notice the connecting point that Paul is making consistently always as he explains the

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Gospel. You're forgiven. You're at peace with God. And now, something new takes place.

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And God's law now connects to the believer in a new way. In a completely transformed and new way.

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So Romans chapter 5. Move there. He builds a foundation. Here's what that means.

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Jesus died. Jesus did this for you. How does that actually join you to Jesus? What happens?

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Then in Romans 5, he says this. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Pause there for a second. No religion in the world can touch that. That is truly one of the most precious verses, words from God in all of Scripture.

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No religion in the world can touch that. No religion, no pseudo -Christian religion that apes

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Christianity, then distorts the Gospel or the nature of Christ can touch that message.

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You have people in institutions today. They've got crosses in their buildings. They've got religious texts before him.

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They have ritual and things that they're doing. They're doing all these things. And they've got this portrayal of Christ right in front of them.

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And he is as far away from them as the farthest, most distant galaxy because they have no understanding of what the

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Gospel actually accomplishes for God's people. What did the Apostles say is the meaning of all of it?

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We were in Matthew for years. We talked about his death, his resurrection and ascension. But what did the

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Apostles say any of it means? They say, here, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. I saw this incredible moving video recently, and it was,

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I wish I could remember the guy's name and the story, just came across and I had no context. I just saw it.

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I was so moved by it, it brought me to tears. It was hard not to get emotional. It was just like 60 seconds long.

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But the video described what was going on. Like, you know, words came on the screen first. There was a man who had been prosecuted and incarcerated for decades, like two decades for a crime that he didn't actually commit.

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And finally, new evidence came in that was able to completely vindicate him to show that he was actually righteous.

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He was actually innocent of that crime. He was not guilty. And it was the moment where, after all of it was brought in and he was clearly not guilty, it was the judge actually declaring him righteous and saying, you're free to go.

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It was a powerful moment because the judge started to say, OK, if you would all rise for the verdict. And you know, he was shaking and crying and standing up slowly, and his attorneys are like holding him up sort of a thing, and his family's behind him who's been suffering for decades because of this false accusation and because of this terrible injustice.

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And then the judge tells him, you're not guilty. He says, you're free to go. And it was just the courtroom just bursts, and this man just turns into a puddle.

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Can you imagine the emotions and the pain of all that took place? And to finally hear the verdict come from the judge, you're not guilty.

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You are free to go. That's what's happening here. Do you get it?

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You see, that verdict has already been given according to this. For Christians who are in Christ, you are already declared righteous.

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That's a declaration God has made, not because you are, not because I am. We're not.

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You're not. And you're not going to be ever in yourself. It's because Jesus is.

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And every one of us, through faith, have been joined to him. You're united to him. And you are declared righteous because of his righteousness, not because your own.

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He was declared guilty, and he suffered the penalty of sin because of me, because of you, because of his people.

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And he did it because of love and obedience to the Father. But God says, you are righteous.

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I declare you righteous. And we have, presently, peace with God. You have peace with God.

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Sometimes, admittedly, I think if we're all honest with ourselves, we don't feel the weight of that. You don't feel the weight of it when you're in conflict with your spouse.

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You don't feel the weight of it when you wake up some mornings feeling like garbage and tired.

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You're old like James. And you know, I'm totally kidding.

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He said that he was going to, there's a curtain right here. He said, I'm going to look at you during your sermon and just peek around and just shake my head at you.

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You know, when I first started preaching, and Pastor James, he was a member of our church, and he was sitting over here.

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You have to understand how hard it was, you know, growing up with him as your hero and your teacher and everything else, to have him now at your church, sitting at your side, gazing at you in sermons.

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Very difficult, but I've overcome it. I've overcome it. Where was

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I? OK. Stop looking at me.

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Romans, what's that? Yeah, yeah, Matthew 1. OK, guys, Matthew 1. I heard some groaning.

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No. So Romans 5, peace with God.

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If we all are honest, there are times where we don't truly delight in this truth because we are so overwhelmed by our emotions and by our own circumstances, the conflicts of the moment, the stresses of the moment, the difficulties of the moment, maybe even our own internal monologue, constantly lying to ourselves about how lonely we are, about how maybe

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God is far off, or how I don't really have anybody, whatever the case may be. We're just constantly lying and not believing

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God's word. We're being unbelieving. And so because we're unbelieving about God's word and his promises, we believe our circumstances and our environment more, and the words coming in around us that are not from God, or our own words coming from inside of us to ourselves.

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And so we do not actually enjoy and delight in that truth and that precious verse,

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Romans 5 .1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Do you realize there's nothing left? So what do the apostles say is the meaning?

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Well, Jesus died, Jesus rose again. And there's this part in that story that says, it is finished.

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It is finished. The transaction is complete. It's finished. There's nothing ongoing.

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It's been done. It is finished means it's finished for you. If you're in Christ, you're forgiven. It's finished.

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Yeah, you're going to struggle with sin. You're going to struggle with sin because you're indwelled by God's spirit. God's causing you to hate your sin.

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You're putting your sin down and putting it to death constantly because, are you ready? You have peace with God.

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Right? And we constantly misinterpret that experience as Christians where God's convicting us, he's growing us, he's challenging us as a father, he's showing us our sin.

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And we're so now all of a sudden aware of our own sinfulness that somehow we think that, OK, well,

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God must hate me now. He's mad at me, and I've got to find some way to climb back to God and just do good enough so I can finally wipe myself off and say,

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OK, now, Father? Never going to work. The peace has already been established. It's already done.

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And it is finished should change your life forever. It is finished.

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It's over. And any view of the atonement of Christ that doesn't actually highlight the glory of it is finished is not from God.

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If anybody says that this is an ongoing process of Christ's atonement, and it's not actually finished, it's ongoing, it's perpetual, you need to keep grabbing for it, keep getting it in some way before sins sort of stain you and now get you sort of displaced from your peace with God, all of that's a lie.

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That's not what Christ accomplishes. It's finished. You have peace with God. So where's the smiles, right?

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Where's the joy? Where's the joy? Where's the daily joy to rest in that? I have peace with God. That's the meaning.

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What's the meaning of the life and death and burial and resurrection and ascension of Jesus? Well, according to the inspired word of God, that's the meaning.

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I have peace with God. I have peace with God. How can you say that Christians have no fear of death?

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Why should they have no fear of death? Why should you have no fear of death? Here's why, because this life is a vapor. This is not all there is.

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And the ultimate thing that needed to be satisfied in my life, the most important thing, wasn't my career, wasn't my car, wasn't my house, it wasn't my bankroll.

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It was whether or not I have peace with God. Do I have it? And if that's satisfied in Jesus Christ, I'm loved by God.

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I'm forgiven. I have peace. The ultimate thing is done. It's done.

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And so this is really the glory of the gospel. But then what Paul does, I'm just going to sort of explain to you the passage here, where Paul goes in his mind as to the meaning of the atonement itself as he says, it only happens like this and because of this.

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And it's only faith that joins you to Jesus. God's forgiven your sins. He counts you righteous. And then he says, now you have peace with God.

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And then he actually says there's actually two humanities, in a sense. There's Adam and all those who are dead and in their sins and they're separated from God.

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They're in Adam, and if you're in Adam, there is only death and condemnation. And so humanity, no matter your size, no matter your environment, no matter your geographical location, no matter the color of your skin, no matter your tribe, doesn't matter.

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You're either going to be in Adam, where there is condemnation and death, or you're going to be in Jesus, where there is eternal life and righteousness.

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And so here's what he says. In verse 6 of chapter 5, he says, for while we were still weak, at the right time,

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Christ died for the ungodly. And look at this love here. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.

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But God shows this love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

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Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

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For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, now that we are, see there it is again, have been justified, have peace with God, we are reconciled to God, shall we be saved by his life.

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More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

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We've received the reconciliation. It's over. The shalom is here. Peace is here.

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Reconciliation is done. And how? Because of what Christ accomplished in his death. We were enemies, and Christ died for us.

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Nobody does that. No one dies for their enemies. Might die for a good guy, maybe a friend, maybe a family member, but no one dies for their enemies, right?

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It makes no sense. But God reconciled enemies. He loved us, and so Jesus died for us.

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That's what it means. And verse 15. But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man,

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Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin,

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Adam. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

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For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man,

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Jesus Christ. Verse 21, go there. 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. So there it is, Paul says. Here's how you're in Christ. This is what the cross meant. Here's why it took place.

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You're united to Jesus now. What you have is the gift of eternal life. What you have is no condemnation.

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What you have is a reconciled relationship with your Creator. Now, he said some stuff here that shakes up a lot of people.

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Free, gift, peace, done, reconciled with God, apart from works, counting righteous, forgiven sins.

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It's all done. It's a free gift. And now the answer to what he knows is lurking in the background is this.

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What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means.

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How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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You were immersed into his death. We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 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 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.

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For the death he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

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So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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So there's Paul's points. Okay, have you met people that have said this?

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I certainly have. I've met people who have said it. They hear this bootleg version of the gospel that says if you just make a mere profession and you acquiesce to certain facts that the demons also affirm, by the way, if you simply acquiesce to those things, say, yeah, that's true,

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I believe all those things, then you're saved. And so like, okay, well, I'm saved, so I'll just continue living the way

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I was. And you know, it brings God glory because the more sin I commit, the more grace God gifts.

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So who ends up looking better in the end? God looks better because he just keeps giving grace for all my sin.

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I mean, all glory to God for all my sin. And Paul says to that broken, depraved version of the gospel, he says, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means?

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How can we who died to sin still live in it? And Paul's whole point is this. Here's the Christian experience. Here's the meaning of the work of Christ.

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You know the story. You know the brute facts. Okay, what's it mean? He says, here's why

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Jesus did it. Here's how you gain access to that life. Here's what happens, you're united to Jesus.

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And he says, and now in Christ, that you're joined to him in that death and resurrection, he says, you've died.

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Your old self is crucified by Jesus, and that's dead and buried. That's an old man.

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That's an old woman. That's an old child there. There's somebody else left in that tomb.

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And he says, because Jesus was raised, and you've been raised with him to newness of life.

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And so this whole concept of somebody who supposedly has faith in Jesus and nothing ever happens is a foreign concept to the entirety of the scriptures and the story of redemption.

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I mean, from Old Testament to New Testament, New Covenant is spirit of God and dwelling God's people, giving them life, raising those bones to life, giving new hearts and God empowering by his spirit people to love him, to long for him, to observe his statutes.

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And Paul's point is this. You've been joined to the Messiah. You're reconciled to God. You have peace with God. And guess what?

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There's a dead man behind you. And you're new. You're raised to life.

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And so here's how Paul tells believers how to live in light of these truths.

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He says, chapter 6, verse 12. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions.

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Do not present 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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For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. You wonder, why am

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I struggling with all these sins? Why can I have no victory? This is us talking to all of us. Like, why, why, why?

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Well, we have a habit of having presented ourselves to all the things where we sin.

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It's constantly a presentation of ourselves to all these things that tempt us to sin, that lead us into sin.

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It's a constant presentation of ourselves to all those things out there that are earthly, that are sinful, that are idolatrous.

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We've got an old habit of presenting ourselves to those things. And so Paul's point is, you're dead, now alive, so don't go on presenting yourself to those things.

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Now present yourself to God. And now yourself as an instrument of righteousness.

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And it's interesting because you want to ask the question, well, what's he mean by unrighteousness? He says, what? Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness.

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Well, this is Romans 6. But in Romans 1, he gives a little bit of a list, not an exhaustive list, but a list of what unrighteousness looks like.

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Go there quickly. In Romans chapter 1, when he describes sinful people in rebellion, suppressing the truth about God, he says in Romans 1, 28, and since they did not see fit to acknowledge

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God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

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They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness.

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And what does he start describing when he talks about unrighteousness? What does he say? He says, evil, covetousness.

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That means what? What? Not that I appreciate your success and all the things you have.

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I want your stuff. I want what actually belongs to you.

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I want your things. It's like a lust for their stuff, right? He says, malice.

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They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

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They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil.

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Kids, listen. Disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

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Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

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So watch, brothers and sisters, when you see Paul talking here about a death that's occurred where you're joined to Jesus and new life in Christ.

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And so don't go on presenting your members as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead.

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So I have to stop going this direction towards those things and pursuing those things and now pursue him and the things of God.

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Here's a list of things that shouldn't exist in the Christian church, right? Romans 1, the things we should hate, despise among ourselves.

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I'm not saying despise the person, but despise this list. This is what death looks like.

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It's what unbelief looks like. It's what hostile rebellion to creator looks like, right?

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Envy, strife, gossip, slander, haughty, boastful, disobedient to parents.

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And so Paul's whole argument here about the meaning of the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus is they're putting all those things together and saying,

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OK, what does it all mean for me now in Christ as you're united to Jesus and now there's a dead person behind you and now you're alive.

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You're alive from the dead. So here's, watch, what does man -made religion say? Make yourself better, obey just enough, do all the ordinances, obey this, obey that, do all this stuff.

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A list of 150 things down to like what you can watch and what you can't watch and all that stuff.

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Man -made religion says, OK, you do all these things to climb the moral ladder in some way to get back to God, to somehow maybe one day be reconciled out there.

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Christian gospel knows nothing about that. It's all God. It's all to his glory.

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He purchases it. It's a gift from God. You're united to Jesus. You're made alive. And so the good works the believers do, the pursuit of righteousness that a believer does is a pursuit of righteousness that comes from a person that's now alive.

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I'm alive from the dead. I'm pursuing righteousness not to gain righteousness, but because I've already been declared righteous by God.

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I'm forgiven. I'm alive. The pursuit of Jesus Christ, the pursuit of obeying

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God's law occurs because the person has already been reconciled and they're now alive from the dead.

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And so Paul's argument is, if it's true of you, then stop presenting yourself as instruments this way and present yourself to God as someone who's alive from the dead.

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That's his argument, Romans 3 through 6. But he says it again, and I'll do this rather quickly,

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I think. Colossians 2, same kind of discussion. Consistent teaching from the inspired apostle.

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Colossians chapter 2. Chapter 20.

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Sorry, 2 verse 20. I just threw you off, didn't I? Verse 20, he says this.

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Look, same story all the way through. He says, if with Messiah, if with Christ, you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why as if you were still alive in the world, like you were still that same person, that same man, that same woman, still a part of that whole thing, do you submit to regulations?

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Do you not handle, do not taste, do you not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used, according to human precepts and teachings?

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These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self -made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

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This was something that I used to think so much about when

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I first was asked to be the head chaplain at the hospital at the drug rehab. And they didn't have anything for me.

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I mean, imagine, imagine now. I came to Christ out of drug and alcohol addiction. I just had a new heart.

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God saved me. My life was transformed. I loved God's word. I got into the church. There was discipleship.

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There was leadership. All of that. It was just Christian discipleship and the word of God. I never thought about some special program that I needed to be in because I had this special category of addict or something like that, no, the gospel addresses all of that.

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Jesus takes adulterers, makes them dead and alive, right? Joins them, and then boom, we're alive again.

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He takes the addict, same situation. There's a death and there is life. He takes the liar, the thief, all of us.

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It's the same story. And I used to really struggle because I'd come into this hospital like, all right, you have the

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Christian program now. People come here from all over the country every single day to receive like a

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Christian addiction program. And these were a bunch of secularists. They're like, hey, it's a Christian hospital. We bought it.

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And so you're the pastor. And I was like, I can do what I want? They said, yeah, do what you want. We don't understand what you're supposed to do.

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And so I start going through all of these materials. Like, well, OK, is there any good

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Christian material before that's already in place? I could run that for 30 days. That's a discipleship program.

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And I'm seeing all of the secular thought, all of the programs apart from Christ, and even the

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Christian programs that were addiction programs were nothing more than just like a secular way of thinking, something that was not gospel -centered, with a

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Bible verse slammed on here or there. And I was like, I can't do any of this. And so it was interesting, as I came into these rooms,

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I would just be honest with people. I would say, hey, listen, I don't have any hope for you apart from Jesus Christ.

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I would just be brutally honest. I'd say, there's nothing I can tell you and do for you to make you a better person.

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I cannot do anything in terms of giving you tips of success to stop you from using drugs and alcohol.

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I can't. So I can't do anything for you to make you a better person, to make you more disciplined and sharper and stronger and more committed.

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I have nothing for you. But what I would tell them is this. I have a story of ultimate hope.

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And you can do nothing to get it in yourself. It is all purchased by Christ. And what has to happen in you is a miracle.

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It has to be a miracle, or I have nothing for you. We would have doctors and therapists.

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Pastor Jeff, this person's in a real tough situation. I scheduled them for a counseling session with you. Can you spend some time with them and help them?

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And I was just like, oh, no. Right, like, what do you want me to do, give them tips of success, tell them, like, you know, take a cold shower, like, call a friend sort of a thing when you're struggling with addiction?

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I got nothing for you. And people would come in. They'd be desperate. And I would say, here's what you need. You need a new heart.

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Here's what you need. You need to be reconciled to God. Your primary issue here is not merely the addiction.

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It's sin. It's sin in your whole life. It's rebellion to God. And until you repent of your sin and trust in Christ, until there is a new life and a dead man or dead woman, until that happens,

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I've got nothing for you. Nothing, because you need to be made alive.

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You need to be made a new creature. You need to be reconciled to God. And when that happens,

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I got nothing but good for you. I got a good story after that. I have so much to say to you.

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I have so much to say. And it was amazing, because I would sit in all these classes that the therapists were holding, the doctors were holding.

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I would come just to sit in the back. I'd sit down. There'd be like 30 people in a room. I'd just sit and listen. And I would listen to them tell people who were desperate and broken and hurting, the worst of the worst.

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Tell them, all right, when you really have a need to use, you need to get to a group somewhere so you can get through that couple hours of strong urge to use.

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Make sure you have some friends you can call. Get to a group when you're struggling with urge to use.

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Or they'd say, you know, if you're feeling really lonely, one night, instead of going to drink or to shoot up or to do whatever, you know, join a singles group.

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Go see a movie with a friend. I mean, they were literally telling them. Or when you're really angry, instead of going off to the bar to pound down like shots of whiskey or whatever and to make it all go away, here's what you do.

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Punch a pillow. Punch a pillow. This is what they had for these people, right?

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Like beat the body into subjection. Sound like what Paul's saying here? All these systems, all these religious practices, all the same story.

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Don't touch, don't taste, don't do this, right? It's all about beating the body into subjection. And Paul's point is this.

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They are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. It's not going to help you. So what's

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Paul's answer? What's the apostolic interpretation of the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus?

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He says, if then, Christian, listen. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.

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Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

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For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

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Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you?

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Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry.

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That'll get you. Do you love God? You can answer now.

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Do you love God? Is he the only God? Is it the desire of your heart to worship him and him alone?

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Do you believe that? Do you mean it? From your guts and your soul?

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Here's what Paul says. He says all these sins, like sexual morality, impurity, all this stuff, he says all of it, when you do it, it's worship of a false

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God. So kneel. You'd look better doing it.

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That's powerful, right? I used to say that a lot. I'd say to the, it was awesome, all these people in the room come to Christ, all new hearts, they're getting in trouble in the other groups because they're preaching the gospel and everything else.

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I was like, this is awesome. All these new believers in the room. And one of the things I used to say is like, you have to consider this in the way that Paul addresses it.

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You've been made alive, you're new in Jesus Christ. The old person is dead. And so now you're alive with Christ, seated with him in heavenly places.

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And so when you go into that liquor store, and you have a moment where you're at war with like a desire to worship

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God, love God, but a temptation to go back. I used to say, you need to walk into the liquor store and you need to see it for what it is, for you.

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It's a sanctuary filled with idols. So rather than grabbing it off the shelf and going and putting it in a paper bag and drinking it somewhere, why don't you go ahead and kneel and assume the position?

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Because this is what you're doing. It's what you're pursuing. That goes for all of our sins, all of our lusts.

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It's better to think about it as a believer who's been made alive, who longs for God, loves

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God, wants to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. It's better to think about your sins you struggle with in the way that Paul describes it.

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It's false worship. It's the worship of a foreign God. So if you're going to pursue it, assume the position.

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You'd look better doing it. It'd make more sense. And so Paul says this. Here's the answer.

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You're alive in Jesus. You've been reconciled to God. So put it to death.

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Mortify it. Kill it. Treat it like the enemy that it is. You already have the passion and the motivation and the new life in Jesus Christ.

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So put it to death. Kill your sin. And actually act like you're trying to kill your sin.

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If you long for God and you love God and you actually are new and you have a new heart, he's already given you the motivation to obey him and pursue him.

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So that war that's taking place, you have to contextualize it. Don't engage in false worship.

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Don't give something else more glory and sacrifice than you give to God.

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Give it only to God. And put this to death and actually make it look like you're putting it to death.

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Paul goes on to say, put to death, therefore, immorality, earthly, whatever's earthly in you. He says, in these, verse 7, in these, you too once walked when you were living in them.

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But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

01:00:05

Do not lie to one another. Seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

01:00:15

Here, there is not Greek and Jew circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,

01:00:20

Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. So he says, put it to death.

01:00:26

So he says, you put these to death. Why? Not to gain something in terms of righteousness before God or new life.

01:00:33

No, you are alive, raised up with Jesus. And if that's true of you, kill this stuff.

01:00:40

Treat it as it is. Idolatry, sin, put it to death. And he says, put on the graces of Christ as God's chosen ones put on.

01:00:50

Holy and beloved, he says, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

01:00:59

And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you. There's a connection point again.

01:01:06

So you also must forgive. And above all these things, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

01:01:12

So for Paul, when he is talking about the meaning of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and our being united to Jesus Christ, he puts this in the context of,

01:01:23

OK, now you've been made alive and new. And so therefore, this is what the life looks like because you've been reconciled, because you have peace with God, because you've received this gift from God, because you're united to Jesus and you have the gift of eternal life.

01:01:36

You're new in Jesus, so this is what the war looks like. Put it to death. And we so often don't really look like we're putting our sins to death.

01:01:48

Amen? I know there's like two people that agreed with that. I guess you all got it.

01:01:57

Are you alive? That's the fundamental question. I have faith in Christ, I'm alive.

01:02:04

So what's it look like to put it to death? You've seen the list. Envy, strife, disobedience of parents.

01:02:11

You know what it all looks like. Sexual immorality, you know what it all looks like. So don't go on presenting yourself as instruments of unrighteousness.

01:02:22

So put it to death. So what is it? Don't avoid it.

01:02:29

We love our pet sins. In particular as Christians, we get to places where like, you know, I've hated that sin forever, but like it comes up from time to time.

01:02:38

And I've been in Christ for 20 years. I just don't think God's going to get a hold of this one. Like I really hate it.

01:02:44

And I asked for forgiveness, still there. And you know, he's healed me in a bunch of other places.

01:02:50

But you know, I think I'm still going to be the bickering wife. I'll still be the disrespectful wife.

01:02:58

I'll still be the wife that just refuses, under most circumstances, to submit to my husband, even when he's not sinning.

01:03:05

Even when he's actually saying something wise. Why? Because I just want to be prideful, and I want to have a war with my husband.

01:03:11

I kind of enjoy it. It's something that happens on a regular basis. And we both get into an intense scuffle. And this is just my pet sin.

01:03:20

And yeah, it bothers me, and I struggle with it, and I hate the sin, and I ask God for forgiveness. And you know, I tell people

01:03:25

I want to be a different woman and a different wife to my husband. But here's the challenge.

01:03:31

Are you alive? Do you know that sin as a wife? What are you doing to put it to death?

01:03:40

Are you willing to be humble enough as a wife? I'll get you two men. Don't worry. Wives, relax. You're like, oh, hashtag me too or something.

01:03:48

I don't know. Relax. Look, this is a sin the Bible defines, right?

01:03:55

Wives, submit to your husbands. Men sin, and how? Not loving our wives.

01:04:01

How do wives sin? Often. Come on. Come on, women. Not submitting to your husband, right?

01:04:09

Even when it's nothing even big. Like, it could be something that's simple. It's like, I don't want to go with him on that.

01:04:15

I think I'll argue with him on that. I think I'll disagree on that. Right. It is not sinful at all. It's something that he says, hey, we need to do this, or we should do this instead.

01:04:24

And instead of just saying, I'm going to worship God and glorify God right now, and just submit to my husband in that, because God commands me to.

01:04:31

There's no sin here. There's no lack of wisdom. Instead of disputing, just as an act of worship to God, put it to death, and just say, for your glory,

01:04:39

God, I'm going to submit to this really stupid decision. OK. You're going to feel like that, but it will be glorifying to God as an act of worship to say,

01:04:52

I'm going to obey you, rather than yield to the pursuit of my own heart. Men sin consistently against our wives by not loving them.

01:05:03

By the way, if you sit down with us in counseling as pastors, and you feel like you're just going to get to go at it, some of you guys have been in those counseling sessions.

01:05:12

The first thing we do, this might take a couple of weeks, the first thing we do is simply say to the man, how are you sinning against your wife?

01:05:20

If there's not something dramatic going on, where we really need, there's evidence, if there's just something where there's a tussle between husband and wife, and it's a consistent thing, maybe it's ongoing, know this.

01:05:31

We'll sit you down, and the first thing we're going to say to the man is, how are you sinning against your wife? What is God showing you?

01:05:37

How are you sinning? What are you convicted of? And we'll say to the wife, how are you sinning against your husband? How are you not submitting to your husband?

01:05:42

What are you doing to sin against your husband? How is God showing you your sin? What are those sins? You know what's awesome?

01:05:48

I mean, this is so incredible. Sometimes we'll have married couples who love Jesus that are really in a moment of struggle. Don't pretend like you haven't been there.

01:05:55

God says you should not lie. So there. And they're on the couch when they first come in, and they're sitting on opposite ends of the couch.

01:06:03

This will happen often in marriage counseling with Christians. And then what's amazing is, is you start to let the Spirit do

01:06:08

His work and use the word of God to talk to the man. You say, how are you sinning against your wife? And he starts to actually confess how he's sinning against his wife.

01:06:15

He's not talking about her sin. He's talking about his sin. He starts repenting of it. And then she does. And she's saying, here's how

01:06:20

I'm sinning, and I know that I'm wrong, and I want to give this to God. It's amazing, out of the course of a couple of days, or even that moment, you start to see them getting closer, and closer, and closer, and closer.

01:06:30

And we've never even dealt with how they have complaints against each other yet. Sometimes you don't even need to get there, because they're already in the process of doing personal repentance and putting their sin to death.

01:06:42

They've already gotten clear of all of that. And so oftentimes, we'll say to the husband, how are you not loving your wife?

01:06:48

Because men, face it, our struggle is we don't obey Scripture when God says to treat our wives, the woman, like a weaker vessel.

01:06:57

And so what do we do? We act like a dead man. We try to dominate our wives. We try to treat our wives like she's a dude, right?

01:07:04

Like, when I get into a debate with a dude, I can just, I can be black and white. We can just get dirty, and we can just go for it.

01:07:11

It's a man versus a man. We understand each other, and that's how we can go at it. Black and white, let's just say the hard things, maybe if I need to.

01:07:18

And then we go to our wives, and we do what? We act like the old man. We act domineering. We act powering, overpowering, and abusive.

01:07:31

And maybe that's been an ongoing sin for you in your life. And so what does Scripture say? You're alive from the dead, put it to death.

01:07:37

Put it to death. So it looks like that, as a Christian, if I have a habit, a particular sin that is ongoing in my life,

01:07:44

Scripture says, put it to death, mortify it. And mortifying it will look like you're actually trying to put it to death.

01:07:50

Like the person who struggles with, say, alcohol addiction. You're a drunk, and you want to repent of all that.

01:07:58

Well, putting that to death means you're not going to hang out at the bars alone on Friday and Saturday nights anymore.

01:08:06

You come home drunk at 3 in the morning, you're like, why can't I get over this sin? Because you're a dummy. You're presenting yourself to all of this, temptation and sin.

01:08:19

What did you think was going to happen? Putting it to death means putting it to death. Killing it.

01:08:25

Giving it no life. I often try to give this example. When we're dealing with sin, we have to deal with it, men and women, all of us, like you would deal with an intruder who means you harm, a mortal threat.

01:08:40

I think it was like two years ago, I've had so much stuff happen in my house. I've had people try to break through the window. We had a dog, one of my dogs attacked somebody climbing over a fence like a one in the morning years ago.

01:08:50

Well, I've had some crazy stuff happen in this house. It was like two years ago. My whole family was over.

01:08:56

We were all, I forget, maybe it was during Christmas time. I don't remember exactly when it was, maybe New Year's. And it's like 1 in the morning, everyone's asleep.

01:09:04

My wife's asleep in bed. And I was just getting ready to turn off the TV. And all of a sudden,

01:09:09

I hear a gunshot go off, but it's on my patio in the back.

01:09:16

And I could see the muzzle flash through my blinds. And it's right outside my back door at 1 in the morning.

01:09:25

I live in South Phoenix, y 'all. Gunshots are a normal thing. Muzzle flash, bang, it's a gun.

01:09:34

And so my gun is right next to me. And so I jumped up. I mean, before it even finished ringing, it was like, boom.

01:09:41

I was like, grr. Grabbed the gun. I run over to the door. I had the gun ready.

01:09:47

And what do you think my intentions were? What do you think it was?

01:09:53

I was going to go out there and reason with him. I was going to go out there and wag my finger.

01:10:00

My only thought from bed to door was the safety of my family.

01:10:06

And all I had in my mind at that moment was that I am going to have to put this person to death, this person that is outside of my bedroom door at 1 in the morning, and a gun went off,

01:10:20

I'm going to have to put them to death to preserve the life of my family. And so I got to the door.

01:10:27

It was just, it seemed like it was milliseconds. And I looked through the blinds. And I had my gun pointed.

01:10:34

And I could see somebody with their back to the door. They were clearly startled themselves.

01:10:40

I think the gun accidentally went off. And so they're on my porch. And all I saw was his back. And he was just startled.

01:10:46

That's how fast it happened. And so I won't belabor the story, but I was about to shoot through the door.

01:10:53

And then I thought, well, if he turns around and starts firing, he might hit August or Candy or somebody else. And so I just closed the blind.

01:11:00

I said, get on the floor now. I saw, for the first time in my life, my wife did the most amazing army crawl.

01:11:07

I've been married to her for almost 25 years. And she was like straight Navy SEAL. She was like hustling.

01:11:14

I go across the floor. It was always like, you do have the ability to do these things, right? Anyway, SWAT team came up.

01:11:22

By the time they showed up, this guy had been long gone. But my point is, in a moment like that, you have an intruder.

01:11:27

You have an enemy that's there to destroy you and to kill you. What are you going to do?

01:11:33

You're going to kill him. And you'd be justified to kill someone, biblically, who is coming into your home and is a mortal threat.

01:11:41

You'd be justified to kill an enemy, right? OK, so sin is your enemy, brothers and sisters.

01:11:47

What are you doing to put it to death? You're alive from the dead? Kill your sin. Porn addiction?

01:11:53

I can't get over it. I can't get over it. Where's your accountability? Where's your accountability? Do you have accountability on your devices?

01:11:59

Or you just have free reign with your device where nobody's looking? You can't figure out. How come you can't get over it?

01:12:05

I like to address this to guys who come into counseling and say, do you struggle with this sin, lust and the pornography?

01:12:12

Are you struggling with it right now, in this moment with your pastor? What do you think their answer is?

01:12:19

No. Why do you think that is? Because in this moment, what is there?

01:12:27

Accountability. You're not struggling right now because you have accountability. And in this moment, that sin's put to death.

01:12:34

You wouldn't pull out your smartphone right now and start going to town in front of your pastor. Why? Because there's accountability.

01:12:40

You want to put this to death. And you have protection, the protection of a brother right in front of you. So where's your accountability?

01:12:47

If you have none, you're not putting it to death. What about any of our other sins that we struggle with?

01:12:56

You know, I'll land on this one in particular, just to show you how we try to practically work this out as pastors.

01:13:08

This is sad. Couple of years ago, if you've been in town for a long time, you know a couple of years ago, there was a very large church in the valley, very, very large church.

01:13:19

Still is there. This pastor's not there anymore. Word came out, it was all over the media, all over the news, this pastor had been in intimate relationships with the women that he had been counseling.

01:13:35

So he was pastoring a church, mega church locally. He was in intimate relationships with these women he was counseling, married women, from what

01:13:44

I understand as well, were included. And it was not just one, it was a number of them.

01:13:50

Came out, of course, he was thankfully taken out of that position.

01:13:56

And that church had to go through a lot of brokenness and a lot of healing. Many years ago, before I planted

01:14:03

Apologia, I was going to be a pastor at a church in South Carolina. And they had a search committee process for like a year long.

01:14:11

And what had happened was that that church, the guy who had planted that church, and it was a mega church in South Carolina, the guy who planted that church had been involved in the same sin, and they threw him out, thankfully.

01:14:23

And it was amazing, listen, I went to visit the church for a week. They were unanimous, they wanted me to be the pastor.

01:14:29

This church, one of the pastors of that church. And they're taking me on the tour of the church building, huge, huge campus, huge church.

01:14:36

So they bring me down this long hallway at one point, a long hallway, and they show me this door. And they said, yeah, that was his office.

01:14:42

I said, who? They said, our planting pastor, the pastor. And I turn to look at the office, and it's a wall like this.

01:14:51

It is a brick wall all the way down, and there's a heavy wooden door shut.

01:14:57

No windows, just brick and a wooden door. You can't see in.

01:15:03

No one knew what was going on in there. We give the enemy too much room when we put ourselves into situations for any particular sin we're struggling with, where there is no accountability.

01:15:18

So as pastors at Apologia, many of you guys know this, women who have had to get counseling from us, you know that we never, ever, ever counsel a woman alone.

01:15:30

If you get counseling from your pastors, like it or not, the door will be open. Somebody will have to have access to that conversation to see inside.

01:15:39

We will never allow elders of this church to ever be alone with a woman in counseling, to not have accountability.

01:15:47

Another party there, the door open. Why? Because I know the tactics of the enemy.

01:15:53

And what we want to do is say, how do you put this to death? How do you put adultery to death?

01:15:59

You know, one of the ways that you can put sexual immorality to death, if you're a young, single believer, you know, trying to find that wife or that husband, is you don't do things like, you want to come over tonight?

01:16:11

10 o 'clock, watch a movie? What do you think happens, even with those who love

01:16:18

Jesus desperately, when you're alone with no accountability at 10 o 'clock?

01:16:24

What is it? It ain't called Netflix and chill for nothing. Right? You're going to sin.

01:16:31

Why? Because you're not putting your sin to death. There's no accountability. There's no one there to witness.

01:16:36

There's no one to help protect you. So as believers, when we think about the meaning of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, we have to think about it in light of what the apostles say about it, that you've been made alive, you've been reconciled to God.

01:16:48

And so don't go on living in the old way, like the old self, and put this to death.

01:16:53

So my challenge to you right now to think about, as believers, is simply this. What are your struggles right now?

01:16:59

You came in here to worship. You came in here to hear from God. I've given you his word. And so the challenge is this.

01:17:05

Don't put it off into the back burner. What are your struggles? What are your common struggles with sin that God is showing you, you're repenting of, you want to get free from,

01:17:15

God's given you desire to get free? What is it that God wants you to present before him and put to death?

01:17:22

Because you have been made alive, brothers and sisters. Let's live like it's true. Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the word that went out for your glory today.

01:17:31

We praise you that we have new life in Christ. Grant us the strength by your spirit to live for your glory.

01:17:37

In Jesus' name, amen. We're going to come to the table now. It's different today because the...