James White | Shalom: How?

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You'll turn with me please in the New Testament to Paul's epistle to the churches of Galatia Paul's epistle to the churches of Galatia.

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We will be looking at a number of texts today But we will start here in this very important Text as we answer the question shalom

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How? Shalom means peace In the

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Hebrew language But it does not simply mean a cessation of hostility.

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I was reading earlier today that There was a rocket attack in Israel Many many rockets were fired all but a few were shot down and The greatest casualty on the

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Israeli side Was they took out an entire chicken coop? And so now there are

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AI generated images of chickens with automatic weapons Appearing on the internet as they go to take their revenge for their brothers

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You know young people today You just don't understand us old folks.

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We look at this stuff and go what is going on? How in the world do you end up in a matter of minutes with AI generated?

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Videos of chickens with AR 15s. I don't I don't even know how that happens But that's what's happening in our day

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And what that means is even if there aren't any rocket attacks today Even if there aren't any shootings stabbings bombings, whatever else it might be

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There is no peace in the state of Israel There are walls drones satellites tanks soldiers and They're there because there is no shalom

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Shalom is not merely no firing of weapons. It is a wellness of relationship

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It's a wellness of relationship and so How do we obtain that with God?

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How does that happen? The time of the Reformation this was one of the greatest

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Cries of the human heart It's not so much today that may change

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When everything's good, you got lots of food and lots of entertainment and lots of stuff to distract your mind

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It's easy to stop worrying about eternity your relationship to God you can

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Find a way to not think about your own mortality the fact that everyone in this room knows whether you think about it or not

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That when you leave this room you're going to get into a

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Machine That weighs well different amounts

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The beast that I drive weighs over 7 ,000 pounds And once you get it up to about 65 miles per hour, that's a lot of energy going down the road and If I hit something else or something else hits me

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That can frequently end a human life And we try not to think about that We try not to think about the fact that every time we get into a vehicle

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We do not have a guarantee that we are going to get where we're going. I remember so clearly it's amazing how it's etched in my mind.

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I was most of you know I'm a cyclist don't look like it anymore, but I still am and I was riding up 51st

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Avenue over in Glendale number of years ago and I was coming up to a stoplight.

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It was still a ways away And I was passed by a little old couple in a tiny little

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Chevy love type pick -em -pick -em -up truck. It was a little one and as I'm watching

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We still have a red red light And it's amazing how your mind can do math, you know

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You may not have done well in geometry in school, but it's amazing how well it works when you're driving a car or riding a bike and I I don't see any brake lights

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This old man. He's not slowing down he's heading straight for that red light and I look and here comes a full -size dump truck construction dump truck we're talking the big ones and my mind does the

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Geometry and I you know doesn't do me good to yell I'm on a bike for crying out loud Thankfully, he hit the back wheels of the dump truck

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But he still hit it so hard. He spun the dump truck in the middle of the intersection and That little truck ended up Up against one of the light poles.

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I Don't I don't think they made it. I really don't When that little young little old couple got into that little truck

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Only a few minutes before that They were thinking about the future. They were thinking about all sorts of things.

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They never got there and We know that's true, but we have been trained to not think about it the time of the

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Reformation You could not live in that culture without having seen death

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I was I Was well into I think my late 20s

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Before I saw someone die No, my grandmother had died, but she was in another state and I had gone to some funerals, but I'd never seen anyone die we hide ourselves from death and so at the time of the

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Reformation, I mean that was only a Hundred and forty some odd years from the time of the black death

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The great mortality we're in some cities seven out of ten people died in just a matter of months and So you saw the end the plague was still coming in and out of cities even at that time

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People would run for the hills when it when it came But you didn't you didn't get out of childhood without seeing someone die without seeing a dead body laying in the streets and There were periods of time in European history where a woman had to have ten live births to get one one child through to maturity that's how high infant mortality was and so People understood life is short.

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And so you wanted to be you want to have some understanding. How can I have peace with God? I know my own sin.

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I know the lust of my heart, how can I have peace with God and Rome By its human traditions had robbed

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From its people true peace with God. They said you can't know You can't presume that you're in the state of grace

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You've got to go to the sacraments. You gotta go to the mass you've got to you've got to worry about purgatory and you've got to have masses said for you after you die and and there's there's no true peace and so when the message of Sola Fide faith alone

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Not what I bring in my hand not what I purchase not what I do. I bring faith in Christ and That alone is how

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I am made right with God because what Christ has done for me that message

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Thundered across Europe and it spoke to people where they were

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It spoke about the most important things in life and it said you can have peace with God not because of who you are

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But because of who Christ is in your place It has been well said and I wish

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I could remember now who said it. It's in my book on justification somewhere that was written 20 years ago, so But someone has well said that in the modern period the doctrine of justification by faith alone does not ring the bells of men's hearts because of The fact that we do not we are not faced daily with the reality of our own mortality

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How short life really is and so we don't think much about it.

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We don't care much about it all sorts of falsehoods about the doctrine have developed within the supposedly reformed churches since the

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Reformation Some people are concerned but a lot of people it's like well, it's just a theological argument

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We are working through the core doctrines that define Apology of Church as a local body

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What has what makes us different than many others and We've come

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To a doctrine that I fear most of us go. Yeah, I get that one. I understand we're good with that Well, okay, but we still need to understand it

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We still need to live in light of it. In fact, I would argue that Every single

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Lord's Day when we come and we partake of these elements When you take that cup when you take that bread

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What gives you the right? to come before a thrice

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Holy God and partake of these elements when you wake up in the morning and You think back upon maybe the preceding day's events and You think of the the words you said the thoughts that were yours

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The anger The lust jealousy

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What makes any of us think that we can

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Rise up from their bed or lay our head down upon the bed without fearing the wrath of God one doctrine

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No, I know justification by faith is not a doctrine off there by itself It's intimately connected to election and the atonement that yes,

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I understand all of that But how is it that we have peace with God?

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Why do we believe that an alien righteousness the righteousness of Jesus Christ has been imputed to us?

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So that we're not pleading our righteousness we're not pleading the things that we have done

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That our entire hope is to be found in What another has done in our place?

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That's justification by faith. That's sola fide So briefly we only have so much time even though Jeff's not here, you know still, you know

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He'll he will look at the YouTube video and find out how long I went and we'll have a discussion about it But I want you to think with me from the book of Galatians about this subject of justification

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We will hop over to Romans for a while as well, but I want you to to feel you should feel completely at home

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Opening the Word of God and explaining to someone how it is You have peace with God that should be something that not only are you comfortable with that you want to do but that you long to do

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You long to do so when we look at Galatians Galatians is one of the hardest

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Toughest books in the New Testament. I don't mean Translationally or textually or anything like that The fact is you read

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Galatians it is choppy Very often verbs are missing and it seems very much to me that Unlike Romans and Basically the rest of Paul's epistles

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Which he dictated to an amanuensis to a scribe Where you have

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It's it's smooth and it and it flows Paul says he wrote

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Galatians with his own hand He did not dictate it to anybody else and it is very obvious that this is a man deeply invested

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Mentally spiritually emotionally there is anger in the

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Apostle as He writes the churches in Galatian. You have to remember something when he wrote this epistle.

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He knew it would be read in the fellowship on the

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Lord's Day the people gather together and We have a letter from the

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Apostle Can You imagine what happened when this letter

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Was read on that Sunday morning so much for that day's potluck

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Nobody had any hunger after this one Hopefully there was weeping and repentance

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But there would have been a many many people were very angry after this one was read

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It has a very short opening statement. There's no long flowery. Oh your faith is spoken of throughout all the world

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He gets right to his point Galatians 1 6 I marvel

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I'm shocked That you are so quickly Deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel

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This morning somebody on Twitter told me That in my tweets and in my interactions

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I needed to have More kindness and wooing.

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I Didn't know wooing was really a word but more kindness and wooing Well, Paul forgot his kindness and wooing

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He didn't have any wooing despair Can You imagine I marvel you are so quickly deserting him

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Who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel

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No warm -up no warning Straight right hook Which is really not another

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Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ so he says you're going for a a

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Heteros a different gospel, which is which is not it and then he used another term Another gospel the same kind you're going for a gospels of a different kind It's really not another

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But there are some Who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ?

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Every generation Every generation of believers must recognize

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That since the gospel is the power of God and the salvation there will be constant attempts to distort it

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Deny it openly. Oh sure Boy, do you have a lot of that now my goodness?

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So many of the old mainline churches just Total denial

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But distortion that's a little harder That's a little more subtle To distort something is to twist it just enough.

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It's like it's like the key and Keys can be bent a little bit.

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I've got I've noticed my house key. I probably need to have another one made It's got a little bent to it. It's not quite the way it should be it's still working

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But it gets to the point where it stops working And Paul's enemies in the churches in Galatia.

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He says they want to distort the gospel of Christ They want to do it

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But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to the gospel

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We have proclaimed to you. Let him be anathema Let him be accursed

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This is The strongest language I know of in the New Testament is in Matthew chapter 23 in the book of Galatians without question if Anyone proclaims to you another gospel

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Let him be accursed as we said before so say I now again if any man is proclaiming to a gospel

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Contrary to what you received let him be anathema and everybody's sitting in that room Everybody's sitting in that location wherever they were

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They knew who Paul was talking about Some people couldn't control themselves they looked over They knew who it was

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They knew who the Judaizers were and They were a part of the fellowship

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They were a part of your reach group They seemed eminently

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Orthodox in so many ways They didn't deny the resurrection They loved

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Jesus and Paul says Let him be accursed

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Let him be anathema ties Paul come on Why does he say this well

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Like I said, we only have so much time. So Look over at what?

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He says in chapter 2 He's talking about what happened with Barnabas and Titus and he says in verse 4 but this was because of the

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Pseudedelphi The false brothers secretly brought in who had sneaked in To spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus in order to enslave us

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But we did not yield in Subjection to them for even a moment so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you think about what he says here

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He says that there are false brothers Now look

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I am well aware of the absolute necessity of having balance

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The internet social media has made it possible for us to call anybody a heretic

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To call anybody a false brother and man we pull that trigger fast. I Don't believe the

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Apostle wrote these words Unadvisedly Without a tremendous amount of prayer, but we have to recognize

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That there are those who will claim Brotherhood they will claim to be of the family of faith

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But they've been secretly brought in They have snuck in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus Man that is that's the

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Apostle talking about motives, isn't it? This is why they've come.

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This is why they're doing what they're doing They've sneaked in to spy out our freedom

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Which we have in Christ Jesus why in order to? Enslave us in order to enslave us

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You distort the gospel you change the gospel and you enslave people

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Because the possible the gospel is the power of God in the salvation The gospel is what frees us from our sin.

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You change the gospel and you're enslaving people you're enslaving them to systems traditions you're enslaving them and these false brothers

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That's what they want. They want to enslave you to them To their system to their traditions their teachings

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So, what do you do? How do you respond to this

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Paul does not respond the way that we are told to respond in today's world

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He says but we did not yield in subjection to them for even a moment

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We did not have ecumenical love fests Where we said well you all present your view and then we'll present our view and Then we'll set up a committee and we'll get together next year at At our annual convention in the summer and we'll see what the committee says and we'll have some more talking

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That's how it's done today, right? We did not yield in subjection to them for even a moment

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We knew from the start what this was about but what if we did

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What if we had? Look what the Apostle says So that the truth of the gospel would remain with you

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How important is that? How important is it?

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That the people of God have the truth of the gospel now. We have the promise of Scripture That God's truth will abide with his people until Christ returns

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It's a promise, but we are the ones called to be the ones to be the shepherds to love the truth and to not submit to those who would enslave us and once that happens

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Once you lose the truth of the gospel What do you have? You have an empty shell it is so sad today

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To travel around formerly Christian places

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Before I stopped flying in 2020 In 2019,

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I spent almost two months in London and I was still running back then and so I'd go running and I'd run across the the bridge there next to Big Ben and Next the eye and along the the

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Thames and oh man Great memories love it You know what?

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all the buildings You have the famous Abbeys and churches and cathedrals but on almost every corner chiseled into the stone

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Names of great Christian men this was a city that once was considered a

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Christian city and yet Are there still true churches there?

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Yes, there are. Thanks be to God But they're small They're small you have the

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Metropolitan Tabernacle you've still got Spurgeon's guys there They're pretty big but not as big as they once were

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The big huge buildings if they're even still churches are apostate

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No gospel Gospels not there anymore. It's not being preached. It's messages of self -help and Psychology And it's tragedy and we're seeing the result as that culture collapses into totalitarianism

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I mean honestly Even if I decided to start flying again, which

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I'm not gonna do I Don't believe I could go over there and do the debates in London that I did only ten years ago

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Without either getting kicked out or in prison They're chucking people in prison for 18 months two years for Facebook posts

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I've seen some of your Facebook posts. Don't go to London Don't go to London once the truth of the gospel is lost

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The power of God has been removed. The blessing of God has been removed.

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Well, what is this all about? Well, you know the story in Galatians chapter 2, you know that Paul talks about what happened

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When Men came from James in Jerusalem. They came to Antioch and Peter Was drawn away in their hypocrisy because they came from Jerusalem and they still held to Jewish traditions

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Where they would not share table fellowship with the Gentiles and So you had the church would gather together

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You'd have fellowship and the Jews would separate themselves Now Peter used to eat with the

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Gentiles But when they came from Jerusalem then Peter went off with the

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Jews and Paul faces him publicly.

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Can you imagine? Paul the last -born Apostle Facing the

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Apostle who witnessed the resurrection Walked on water started sinking in the water, but walked on water and Yet Paul knows the gospel and the dangers of compromise in the gospel so much that he faces

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Peter look at verse 14, but when I saw that they were not Straightforward about the truth of the gospel the

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Greek term there is ortho podeo. They were not walking in a straight line About the truth of the gospel.

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I said to Cephas Peter Before everyone if you being a Jew live like the

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Gentiles and not like the Jews How is it you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

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We are Jews by nature not sinners from among the Gentiles. Nevertheless knowing that a man is not

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Justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and Not by the works of the law since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified

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But if while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners is Christ and a minister of sin

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May it never be For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed I prove myself to be a transgressor for through the law

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I died to the law so that I might live to God. I Christ lives in me and the life which

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I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

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I Do not make void or set aside the grace of God For if righteousness comes to the law then

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Christ died needlessly what was going on? It's real simple. The idea was you had to be in the

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Old Covenant before you get in the New Covenant you have to be circumcised enter into the

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Old Covenant and Then you can enter into the New Covenant by faith in Jesus. And so when people see the works of the law

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There's been a big huge 25 year plus controversy within Reformed circles and non reformed circles

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Something called the new perspective on Paul where a guy named Sanders a long time ago came up with the idea that we've always misunderstood the

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Jews all that's really being discussed here is is Membership it's not really how you're made right with God the

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Jews believed that you were made right with God by grace and we Luther was wrong and the whole

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Reformation missed all of it and we've just This it's just been all over the place It's it's a mess and the number of trees that have died for all the books that have been written is a sad a sad thing

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But the point is leaving that aside, but making sure you're aware of that You'll run into people sometimes you'll talk to folks and they'll start saying strange things.

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You want to where they're coming from That's where they're coming from It is not as if what was being said was well

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You have to keep all the commandments of the law first and then

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Believe in Jesus. No, that's that's not what Paul's talking about. That's not what they were saying There is by the way one group that in essence does believe that and You'll be surprised when

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I tell you who it is Seventh day of Venice surprise you

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Ellen G white who was married to James Robert white No relationship same name no relationship

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Ellen G white taught something called the investigative judgment and To zoom through it ever since the failed

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Millerite movement in the middle of the 1800s Jesus has been in his heavenly temple examining the lives of Everyone who has trusted in him for salvation to see if they lived the law well enough for him to apply his atonement to them and Especially whether they worshiped on Saturday or Sunday If you worship on a

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Sunday you're toast Ain't gonna happen Christ atonement will not be applied to you

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But there are other aspects and so really the investigative judgment is to me the most

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Reprehensible Aspect of Seventh -day Adventist theology most people don't anything about it

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But that really is an idea of you do the law Well enough for Jesus atonement to be applied

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What was happening here was not really that it was you need to be circumcised

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You need to enter into the Old Covenant. You need to do those works of the law and And then have faith in Jesus So you do this and then you add faith in Jesus Well, what's

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Paul's assertion? Well, we know that a man is not justified by the works of the law

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But through faith in Jesus Christ notice he makes those two contradictory things. It's not this it's this

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It's not this combined with this It's just this faith in Jesus Christ even we

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Jews Have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law

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Since by works of the law no flesh will be justified now Paul does not have a low view of the law

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Paul believes the law came from God. In fact, he says in Romans we established the law by faith in Christ Jesus He does not have a low view of the law but he understands what its purposes always have been and he says

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Not by works of the very law that God gave which he will describe as a tutor a

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Tutor to lead us unto Christ Not as the means of having peace with God But a very important aspect of what

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God has given us so we may know him know what his righteous standard is and therefore realize we're never going to be able to reach that righteous standard and Therefore we need one who can provide us with righteousness and that is the person of Jesus Christ and so as he says

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I Died to the law and I have been crucified with Christ It is no longer

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I who live but Christ lives in me in the life, which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the

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Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me So you you can't separate justification by faith out from the atonement of Christ the perfection of that atonement

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Particular redemption all those things that we believe in those areas as well But Paul says in verse 21 that if righteousness comes through the law

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Then what? Christ died Needlessly in an empty fashion

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Wow Have you ever stopped to consider that? You see if there's some other way if If I could be good enough to obey the law so as to earn my standing before God Then Christ died needlessly

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Cry the father put his own son to death for no reason That is about as stark a statement as you can get

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And that's why a lot of people don't like Galatians Galatians When I they debated

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Barry Lynn 23 years ago now on Long Island a subject of homosexuality

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Galatians came up and Barry Lynn's dismissal of Paul's statements and Galatians was couched in the phraseology.

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Yeah Galatians is way over the top It's way over the top He actually believed that he received revelation on the same level as Paul and Therefore he could in essence dismiss what

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Paul said in the book of Galatians There are a lot of people that do not like this book Because of the starkness if righteousness can be obtained through law -keeping the good law of God Then Christ died needlessly

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Christ died needlessly Chapter 3 verse 10 for as many as are of the works the law are under a curse

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For it is written curse it is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law to do them Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident for the righteous shall live by faith

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Verse 13 Christ redeemed us in the curse of law having become a curse for us for his written curse

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It is everyone who hangs on a tree in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the

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Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith I memorized this section and I Forget what year it was now.

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I think it was around 1983 84 at the latest we used to Did it a couple of times?

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We'd go to the Mormon Ward Chapel on Fasting and Testimony Sunday and if you ever been to Mormon Ward Chapel on fasting and testimony

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Sunday, they invite people to come up and give their testimony and My dear wife had gone with me the month before The my

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Summer was Delayed getting here. So they didn't get their normal seats. And so they're in overflow today.

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Hi guys So Kelly is not in here at the moment. It's probably best as I tell stories like this when she's not here, but I Will never forget where we're sitting in the

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Glendale sixth Ward We hadn't been married very long at this point. We were kids. I was 19.

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She was 18. We got married and When they invited people to come forward they did not say we invite

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Mormons to come forward and She caught that and I glanced over at her like this and I see her looking up at me

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Don't you dare? Just I just remember don't you dare

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But the seed was planted and So a month later we took about four other people with us

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This time she was prepared and I won't go through the whole thing because it was quite the experience, but I got up there and I started going through these passages about how we have peace with God by justification by faith this was one of them that I had memorized

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Galatians chapter 3 verses 10 11 and It was right about when

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I got to that passage that a little Folded up piece of paper flew over my shoulder and landed on the pulpit in front of me and It was from the bishop that was sitting behind me and little piece of paper said

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Brother white our time is up now I knew that they had gone a whole lot longer the month before and of course when

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I sat down the line formed on the left and Everybody was bearing their testimony right at me

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That was quite the interesting experience But this was one of the texts and it's vital in sharing it with anyone

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No one is justified by the law before God it's Evan the righteous shall live by faith the

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Mormons don't believe that And sadly the Roman Catholics do not believe that either and Many who claim to be quote -unquote

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Protestant do not believe that either I Would recommend to you and time is passing us by I'd recommend to you of course the in the reading of the entirety

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Of the book of Galatians because it is Paul's defense of his statement that any gospel

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That is not based upon justification by faith alone in Christ alone is A false gospel that will bring you

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God's curse but I would be completely errant if I did not

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Remind you of a text Walk you through the text in the last few minutes here together that I honestly now listen to me here.

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I honestly If you're a member of this church,

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I Hope scripture memorization is a part of your life.

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Let me tell you right now Do it young people kids

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Memorize it now Memorize it now. Don't wait till you're my age.

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It's hard for me to memorize anything anymore The mind just doesn't You know young people are able to learn multiple languages like that Become an adult doesn't work that way anymore now is the time to do it

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Memorize scripture, but I say to you if you want to be prepared to walk

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So many different kinds of people who have been given false Gospels of works and merit if you want to be able to walk them through One of the plainest clearest most powerful texts of scripture

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Memorize what we're gonna look at Memorize it and You should be able to walk through it with just as much ease as I'm gonna walk through it with you right now

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You really should Romans chapter 4. Oh, yeah, there's lots of important stuff that comes before it

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Romans 3. Oh goodness So much their doctrine of sin everything it's right there, but Paul lays it out

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In Romans chapter 4 He has said back in verse 28 of chapter 3.

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We maintain that man is justified by faith apart from works of the law

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He has said in verse 31 Do we then abolish the law through faith may it never be on the contrary we establish the law

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Well, how can it both be true? It's simple. You need to understand what the law is about Remember, it's our tutor to lead us unto

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Christ But then he gives the example Chapter 4 what then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according the flesh is found

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For if Abraham was justified by works we he has something to boast about But not before God For what does

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Scripture say? Abraham believed God It was counted to him as righteousness

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Genesis 15 6 God's second favorite Bible verse Given how many times it's quoted in the

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New Testament Abraham believed God and that believing attitude was imputed to him counted to him as Righteousness God saying not guilty right with me.

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That's righteousness Zedekah Righteousness before God Abraham had it by faith

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How does he prove it now to the one who works Notice he doesn't say does works of the law

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He says to the one who works His wage is not counted according to grace but according to what is due it's a simple statement if you go to work and You give it you get a paycheck

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Of course, they didn't have paychecks then but you understand what I'm talking about His wage is not reckoned or imputed as A gift as if it's according to grace as if your boss is saying to you

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I'm just gonna be really kind to you to give your give you your paycheck In fact,

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I would suggest to you if your boss says to you. I'm being really kind to you to give you your paycheck

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I hope your resumes in order because I don't think you could be around much longer to the one who works

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His wage is not counted according to grace But it's a debt According to what is owed you

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You work the hours you get you get the pay. It's the way it's supposed to be But to the one who does not work and The original language verses four and five start with the exact same words

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With only one difference in verse five. It's the word not So it's they're meant to be paralleled to one another

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You've got the working one who's trying to get something by doing something But the one who does not work but believes

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Total contrast Believes upon him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted as righteousness

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There's the contrast The not working one, oh, but Paul says elsewhere we do good works, that's true

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Ephesians chapter 2 We do the good works that God has before ordained that we walk in them

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But having been saved by faith we then do those works

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The difference is the attitude that the person has what am I trying to do by my works?

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The one who does not work But instead Believes upon him who justifies the ungodly

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His faith is count as righteousness and I know a number of you know this But Joseph Smith changed this verse in his inspired version

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Because he didn't understand justification. You'd understand God's righteousness And he changed it

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But believes upon him who does not Justify the ungodly

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He had no idea what Paul was saying he had no idea what justification was so he changed it

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Our faith is focused upon not our works But upon him who justifies the ungodly that faith is counted as righteousness

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That's the only faith that brings righteousness No other it's an empty hand

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It does not bring any merit You don't put a little few little crumbs a few little pennies

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I know I can't pay it all but but can I know the only hand that's gonna fit into that hand of grace is the empty hand of faith

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It's been well said This is the kind of faith that says if Christ does not save me.

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I will not be saved Not adding Christ to all the other things you're trying to do

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To get God's favor. I used to illustrate if I have in a chair and Going, you know, there's two ways to sit down a chair

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You can You know sort of hold on to other things and hold on to the people and sort of ease yourself down Just in case you know

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Or you can just plop on down And if it's not gonna hold you it's not gonna hold you

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This Kind of faith that faith says it's Christ Christ alone nothing else. I don't have any backup plans

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That's kind of faith that's count as righteousness, but then the next three verses

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This is especially helpful if you have Roman Catholic relatives friends co -workers

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Just As David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works now

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Don't don't read that. Don't read the next section. Stop. Oh, you already know what it is, don't you? But but listen to what he said

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Just as David so we're gonna be quoting from the Old Testament Also speaks of the blessing on the man

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It says somewhere David spoke about a man who receives a blessing from God and The blessing is to whom

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God imputes counts righteousness Apart from works

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We say that's how you are made righteous before God is apart from works God changes us

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He gives us a new heart as a result we want to do what is pleasing to God But that doesn't make us righteous before God Where did

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David speak about this? and then notice Notice the quotation.

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It's from Psalm 32 Psalm 31 the Greek Septuagint Psalm 32

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Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered blessed is the man whose sin the

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Lord will not take into account and You look at that and you go

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Verse 6 blessing on the man to whom God imputes righteousness

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Apart from works and then the quote is about the forgiveness of sins

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Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven Whose sins have been covered

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Blessed Is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account

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You see the inspired Apostles understanding of the

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Old Testament text Leads us to understand that the crediting of righteousness is here seen in the covering over and the forgiveness of sin and then verse 8

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Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account How can the

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Lord not do that? the Lord's a righteous judge and so if a man sins

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There has to be justice done So, how is it that the

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Lord will not impute to someone their own sin? We all know the answer

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It's been imputed to our sin bearer Blessed is the man whose sin the

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Lord will not take into account. Why? because that sin

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Was nailed to the cross of Calvary there is one who bore it in our place and So what more could we do?

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than to but simply believe in The one whose work is perfect in our place some of you may have seen a

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Debate that I did I've been doing a lot of them this year. I'm thankful for that a debate with a

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Roman Catholic apologist in Houston and in that context

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This text came up because for many decades now. I have been asking

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Roman Catholics Are you the blessed man of Romans 4 8 and so I'll ask you

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Are you the blessed man Blessed woman blessed is the man whose sin the

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Lord will not take into account. Is that you because in Roman Catholicism That's not them

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If they commit a venial sin It is taken into account it's imputed to them and they have to go through confession and Penances to remove the

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Temporal punishment of that venial sin If they commit a mortal sin, it is imputed to them.

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It is credited to them and they lose the state of grace and They have to be rejustified

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There is no Non -imputation of sin in Roman Catholicism Because there is no positive imputation of the righteousness of Christ in Roman Catholicism Christ's righteousness is not imputed to the individual

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Roman Catholic That's called a legal fiction from their perspective and that's why

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Rome cannot give you peace Because you see the answer to the questions that I asked the beginning of our time together

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How can you have peace when you lay your head down upon the bed tonight, how can you have peace

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When you rise in the morning, how can you pray to God bless me this day

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How do you have Shalom true wellness relationship with God It's because your sins were imputed to Christ and His righteousness

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Has been imputed to you. It's the great exchange. He made him who knew no sin to be sent on our behalf

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That we might be made the righteousness of God in him Sadly there are very smart

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Protestants who tell us that's not about us. It's only about the Apostles They've really lost

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They've lost their perspective It's the great exchange That's how we have peace and in a moment

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We are going to partake of these elements and When we do so we are saying to the world.

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I Have peace with God But it is only in and through the work of Jesus Christ and my behalf and I obtained that Not by works of law not by merit

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But by faith The empty hand of faith if there is anyone in this room

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You've never bowed the knee to Jesus Christ or you have spent your life trying to earn his favor.

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I exhort you to listen to these texts To think about the message and realize

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Christ cannot use your filthy rags Reach out with the hand of a of faith nothing in it.

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No merit Knowing that the hand of grace that will grasp that hand of faith

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Has a nail print in the palm and He can save Let's pray together our gracious Heavenly Father your word

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Reveals to us our need and your holiness and then praise be to you your tremendous provision for us

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God we are so thankful for the gospel We confess there is nothing that we can bring before you and yet you by your grace

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Have provided complete salvation For everyone who will believe in Jesus Christ We pray for those who have heard these words

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Lord that you draw your people unto yourself. I Pray for those in this room that you would embolden them to be bold witnesses in this coming week

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For those of us who have family who are Entrapped in false religious systems that we would have opportunity once again to share with them

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And that you would be glorified in it all We thank you for the cross. We thank you for the gospel.

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We thank you for the empty tomb We thank you for justification by faith