Ezekiel Part 21

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Ezekiel Part 22

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All right, we're gonna pray and we're gonna get into our study. Lord Jesus again as we open up your word and consider What your word says in the prophet

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Ezekiel we ask for understanding through the holy spirit So that we may believe rightly and also do accordingly we ask in jesus name.

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Amen Okay, when we talk about god's law What are the three uses of god's law?

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My catechumens are like not making eye contact here No, no context context context are not the three uses of god's law that is not it wrong

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No Those are the two answers. Yeah Okay. So when we talk about god's law, it's important for us to keep these distinctions in mind

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So the first use of god's law is used by the government and this is in this this is a curb against evil.

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So The government is supposed to I have to say it like that nowadays because of what's happening in certain states

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Supposed to punish evildoers and and and then the government by doing so is actually an extension of god's justice

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And you'll note that when a government doesn't punish evildoers, but they punish those who are doing right the government is rogue

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I I was cracking up because I saw a video of some television news

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Opinionators on on one of those news channels and they were talking about the the what's happening in new york

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Uh, new york is no longer sending people who steal things to jail They're not sending them to prison

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And so what is happening is is they is that criminals are stealing stuff?

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Cashing it out selling it on the black market and then they are going down and living in florida

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And and and someone asked them well Why don't you steal in florida and the answer from the criminal was because we'd go to prison

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And what was really funny is watching the newscasters go Oh It's like yeah, you know you want to see crime lower in new york and in san francisco and places like that Take those who are committing the crimes and throw their carcasses in prison for a long long time

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And they will be disincentivized to steal right you get the idea

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So that's the first use of the law second use of the law is the theological use

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Second use is the use where god convicts us of our sin. And so we recognize then that god's law is

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Always accusing us now. It's not Only accusing us so we say, uh that god's law is semper accusa

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That means it is always accusing but it is not solo or sola accusa, which means only accusing

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But the idea then is is that whenever you read commands in the scripture that tell you what to do

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What not to do how to treat others and things like this you're gonna know you sit there and you go

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Right, it's like falling off a tree and like hitting every branch on the way down, right? Okay, that's the accusing work of the law and that is a valid Use and an important use because then that prepares us to hear the gospel

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The third use is only for christians And I got this is where we have to make a big important distinction

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The third use it shows us. Let me change that word. It informs

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Us what a good work is That's the informing use the third use

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But the law does not Give you the power to obey it and one of the big problems in Many sectors of the visible church is they think

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That the law somehow has power to produce within you holiness

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It won't if you are preached nothing but law Law a little bit more law on top of your law salad with a law sandwich

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What it's going to produce in you is actually going to increase sin I know that sounds weird. But um, you know, one of the things if you guys remember 10 -ish 15 years ago, uh when we were, uh, you know having that military operation in Iraq and afghanistan and the westboro baptist folks were doing their thing right and they were protesting

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At at at the funerals of fallen soldiers And and they were always holding up signs saying god hates god hates this god hates that god's hate

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Whatever right? Okay, and they were saying that our fallen soldiers were a judgment from god kind of thing

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And you'll note westboro baptist were they known for preaching the gospel? No Okay, because that ain't the gospel

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That's the law and I would say they're they have kind of a twisted version of the law and and then it you know, maybe 80ish years after all of that kind of quieted down and they stayed in westboro, but you know to do their baptist thing um some of the younger generation of of like Daughters and granddaughters of like the major leaders within westboro baptist.

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They left And not only did they leave They spoke out

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About what was going on at westboro baptist and it turns out. I know you're going to be shocked to hear this

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Though though the people who left said the folks at westboro struggled with sins just like everybody else

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Okay Oh Okay, like stephen elliot, you know with the news that we're going to be in ezekiel today, right

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Right Yeah Right, okay, but so you're going to note then that we've that this comes from something

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And this is kind of like one of the bad leftover residues of westlian theology.

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Let me explain what I mean by this So roman catholicism, uh, well, I one of my old professors, uh, dr

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Charles manske at concordia irvine I you know, I had to take several classes from him and of course he wasn't really as colorful as rosenblatt

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You know manske was a lot more straight -laced. He was actually like the founding president of christ college irvine, you know

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And so he had to actually be respectable, uh rosenblatt not so much But What was really interesting is is that manske?

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He would make us take these we had to is all of us pre -sem students had to take a sociology of religion class from him

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And in a sociology of religion class, he would talk about That you need to evaluate each and every denomination

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Using the concepts of law and gospel and so he would look at rome and he'd go law There was no gospel just law.

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Okay, and then he would say lutherans law gospel But then you've got the whole wesleyan wing of the visible church and it goes like this law gospel law

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And the idea then was in wesleyanism Which has impacted a lot of this and I and I would note that wesley was heavily influenced by the kind of like the original charismatic

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Pietistic groups within uh within the visible lutheranism like count zinzendorf and people like this this which

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Zinzendorf man avoid that guy like the plague. I think he's a gnostic but um, wesley was heavily influenced by him and through that influence then

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Wesley came to teach a doctrine known as christian perfection In fact, wesley has a book that's out called a plain account of christian perfection

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And what was really fascinating is uh recently reading a book on the history of the pentecostal movement, okay

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Um and vignenne is the name of the author vignette I forget his last name but it's it was very fascinating in that history of the pentecostal movement's book because he goes back 200 300 years before uh, there were any pentecostals in america and he traces their theological lineage and early on Wesley becomes like the big guy who becomes the the big person who lays the foundation that will eventually become the pentecostal movement and the emphasis then in in wesleyan preaching was on holiness

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Holiness so the basic concept behind it was that Um you once you heard the gospel and wesley preached the gospel, but he just didn't preach it to christians

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He preached the gospel. Um, and once you heard the gospel you need to get busy being

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Holy and in order to motivate you to be holy We're going to pull out darth vader the law and we're going to give it a new use

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Okay, this isn't an informing use It is a use specifically to forge within you holiness

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That's a fourth use of the law And lutheran sits there and go that ain't a valid use.

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And so the reason why the the wesleyan Wesleyan influence theologies are constantly focusing on holiness and putting the gospel aside

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And focusing in on the things you got to do is because it's all up to you to get to that christian perfectionism

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And so what ended up happening is I think a very delusional thing and that is is that by the time we get to Like the 1800s late 1700s

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You start to get wesleyan groups Who are legitimately? promoting a concept of a

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Of a second blessing from god and that was a miraculous

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Sanctification Okay, and so you would you would be saved and then you strove with god in order to have god miraculously

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Sanctify you and sanctifying means he's made you perfect Okay, and so it became a very common thing in in the in the in the decades leading up to the pentecostal movement where you would have wesleyans say things like you know that not only did god justify me, but he miraculously sanctified me and then that was like the

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You attained that holiness that you were supposed to have and of course you sit there and go

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How how do you even believe that anyone who would anyone who would claim that kind of level of sanctification hitting perfection?

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I just sit there and let me talk to your spouse. I mean, give me five minutes with them. We'll get this cleared up Yeah, right, right this but what does the scripture say if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in Us, but if we confess our sins god who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness

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So within the pentecostal movements then and and the and the proto pentecostal wesleyan movements

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Was this heavy heavy influence on holiness? And then that's what kind of one of the major doctrines that got kind of rolled up into lutheran pietism as well

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Is this this strong super hard emphasis on holiness? And what it leads to is either delusion you think you're pulling it off or you've somehow miraculously now been sanctified and now you're perfect Or it leads to despair and a sense of backsliding and things like this now as christians

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We we absolutely believe in sanctification It is not perfected in this lifetime

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And as a result of it then We have a very different view of what the function of the law is

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There is no fourth use of the law to make you holy It informs you what a good work is and it's only the holy spirit who makes you holy and sanctifies you

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By giving you the strength and power to mortify your sinful flesh, which is a daily struggle

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Something completely different. Yes, don Yeah Yep Yeah Yes Yes, that's correct.

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So, uh don was making a point historically that so That wesley was influenced by the moravians

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And and you know and that I think zinzendorf's part of that group But a break off a group from the moravians made their way up into stevanger norway and hooked up with the haugians

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And and gave us the gift that is known as lutheran pietism, right? so They all brought it to america and they all brought it to america, right?

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Right, and you'll note then that this type of heavy emphasis on the law Becomes the seedbed then for liberalism because the generation that grows up in this stuff

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They end up despairing and saying I can't do this. So they they take everything to a hard left

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They they have a thing they got to go to so so you get the idea then so it's important for us as we look at What we just read in james james was not at all

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Preaching the law to us with the concept that through the law then the law would give us the strength to attain to holiness

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Instead you'll note that james was really heavily using the law to convict people of their sin

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And so we recognize there are three valid uses the the use used by the government the use used to convict us of our sin and the use to Inform us what a good work is the informing use of the law

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But at no point do we ever say that the law gives us the strength to then obey it

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Right and so, you know, there's exhortations in the scripture and we say yep We need to we need those exhortations

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But we don't that but it's only the holy spirit who gives us the strength To be to through the mortification of our sinful flesh to see the fruit of the spirit

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And an increase in obedience to his word to his commands. You had a bethany

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Yeah Yeah, so so you'll note with us that's actually laid out in our confessions in the book of concord formula concord has

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Several very distinct sections that lay out very carefully the three uses of god's law And especially the third use of the law is an informing use but within wesleyanism finding a unified confession like we have in Confessional lutheranism.

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Hey, good luck You and the thing is is that if you're with any particular branch of of of wesleyan theology

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You have to almost backwards engineer a confession But by the time you get it written and you got it printed out on your laser printer.

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It's already morphed Um, they they don't really stay in one place. They're kind of theologically wandering stars

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That you're not wrong so and that's the thing within these wesleyan holiness holiness movements

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There is a strong abhorrence to creeds and confessions Um, and as a result of that There what part of the the narrative of the holiness movements was that god the holy spirit left the church

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Probably about the third or fourth century after christ's ascension um, and that's actually

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Very well documented in in their writings and their belief was that the holy spirit was offended

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By all the order that was put in the church Yeah Yeah, that's right,

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I know Right. Yeah, their their their view was that the holy spirit needs complete

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Mission and free reign To be able to do whatever he wants to do on any given sunday

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If he wants to make you quack like a duck, then you don't complain That's what the holy spirit wants you to do Okay, and so but they believe that as because the church got organized and you had you know pastors and bishops and things like this and And you know and and there was a liturgy that that offended the holy spirit that the holy spirit just said goodbye and like left and what happened was is that they in their narrative that um that In that narrative martin luther is held up as the man who rediscovered the gospel

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But it's the pentecostal movement at azusa street and william parham and those guys who who then the holy spirit had returned

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They legitimately say the holy spirit like evacuated the church. It's crazy stuff. Yes Yeah Right Yes, so that that's part of their ethos then that so they believe that praying the lord's prayer is vain repetition

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I always like to take somebody who says that right to matthew chapter 6 because christ in that chapter

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He condemns vain repetition and gives the lord's prayer As the solution to it

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So that doesn't actually fit with scripture But right that fits then within kind of their bigger ethos the belief that order

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Somehow offends the holy spirit and keeps him from being able to do what he wants to do

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Yes Yes Yes, so many of the non -denominational churches you can trace their theological heritage straight back to wesley

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And the moravians and counts in sindorf and and folks like that And so that's why they are they they are what they are.

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Yes That's right. They're the They're the ones who say that you can put god in a box and that's a bit like you know

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You lutherans you put god in a box. There's the holy spirit going. I'm in a box

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You mean please let me out Yeah Yeah, we put god in the box the ark of the covenant cedar being biblical.

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You got to stop the head knowledge, josh Darn it. You gotta get heart smart, man

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Yeah, right So yeah, so you get the idea then but that's that very very subtle But big difference in in the emphasis on this fourth use of the law

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The the law then gives you the power to uh to advance in holiness

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That's not a valid use of god's law And so we use the three uses of the law to identify the right uses so that we are not then swept up Into these groups who will basically say let's just put the gospel away.

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We don't need the sacraments You don't need to hear that your sins are forgiven You need to hear god's law and you need to get into it and start obeying it so that you can advance in holiness

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By the way, we do advance in holiness because that's what sanctification is but that ain't how it happens

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How it happens is humbly waking up in the morning and saying lord I thank you that you've safely brought me to the beginning of this day

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And I ask that that the holy spirit would help me so that all my doings in life, you know

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May be pleasing in your sight And so you we humbly ask god the holy spirit to give us strength day after day after day living in repentance

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To mortify our sinful flesh and to do the good works that god has called us to do So the the problem then you'll note then if the gospel

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Is something that you only need to hear at the beginning and not throughout your life as a christian

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The gospel gets gets farther and farther and smaller and smaller. It's like in the rear view mirror it's like Well, I don't see it anymore

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You know, it's gone over the horizon and I can't even begin to tell you when I was in nazarene how many times?

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It just weirded me out that these lutherans Would talk about the gospel in such a way that like we needed to hear it daily

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I would I would argue with them and say you already made a decision to follow jesus and they say no

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We didn't we were baptized, you know, we didn't make a decision to follow jesus You don't need to hear the gospel every day

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Yes, we do And finally I got to the point where like yeah, actually I need to hear it every day, you know

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And and that was the that was part of the big revelation. So here when we see then in this text in ezekiel where The fruit of the spirit is is evident

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Along with the faith that made it that produces it, right? So we do good works because we are christians not in order to be them or maintain our christianity

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A contra to the whole concept of holiness that the wesleyan groups preach and teach

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Instead we you know, there is no such thing as a christian that doesn't do good works

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And you sit there and go but oh, but I sin daily and I sin much. So do I that's what we confess our sins

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We hear the gospel we go back out and we continue daily to the power of the spirit not our own to mortify our sinful flesh and bear the fruit of the spirit and do the good works that we have been that God has prepared in advance for us to do and we do them joyfully knowing full well that they don't save Us at all

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In fact, there's a heck of a lot of freedom in knowing that I can actually serve y 'all

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And I don't have to have an ulterior motive All right, i'm serving y 'all because y 'all need to be served the end

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I don't get a I don't get three more laps on my olympic -sized swimming pool when I get to heaven than you do because i've served

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You and any and that's the thing in the holiness mentality All good works and all obedience is done on a quid pro quo basis

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I do this in order that god will give me that It's a wonderful life Okay, but that's not how this works

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That's the in fact the very arrogance that christ condemns and that's the same kind of self -righteousness as the pharisees right

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So as we now work through this text with a proper distinction of law and gospel having heard james

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Soundly beat us to a pulp and with a whole lot of super heavy law We recognize that that law didn't give us any power to obey it

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We get that strength from the holy spirit So here's what ezekiel says again the word of yahweh came to me

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What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of israel? The fathers have eaten sour grapes the children's teeth are set on edge again a reminder

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This is spoken in exile as I live declares the lord. Yahweh This proverb shall no more be used by you in israel behold.

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All souls are mine The soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine the soul who sins shall die now

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The soul who sins shall die That sounds like a lot like the wages of sin is death

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Same concept and now you hear this that's a law statement Okay Ow What's it doing it's accusing you

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What am I gonna do I've sinned it says i'm gonna die ah

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But the gospel says you will not die christ has died in your place. You are forgiven you are pardoned

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Oh, okay Right So you see so watch how the heavy

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So watch how this law works. So if a man is righteous now, wait a second How is one declared righteous?

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Let me use an old testament text only here So i'm going to go to the book of genesis

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And let's see here. Is it 15?

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Yeah Here we go. Listen to this Okay Genesis 15 after these things the word of yahweh came to abram in a vision

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Fear not abram. I am your shield Your reward shall be very great But abram said oh lord

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Lord Yahweh, what will you give me for I continue childless and the heir of my house is eliezer of damascus notice abram's name

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Hasn't been changed yet to abraham Okay, and so he does not have a physical heir god has promised him one

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One from his own, you know, you know, it will be his actual child, but that hasn't happened So abram said behold you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir

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And behold the word of yahweh came to him this man shall not be your heir Your very own son shall be your heir and he brought him outside and said look toward heaven

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Number the stars if you are able to number them and then he said to him so shall your offspring be

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And abram believed the lord and he god counted it to him as righteousness

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How was abraham declared righteous? That's faith by faith That's the whole point of romans 4.

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Is it not abraham was declared righteous by Faith, so we look then here if a man is righteous

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And Does what is just and right? If you've been declared righteous by grace through faith

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Will you do what is just and right? Yes If you are if you think you've been declared righteous and you've decided that you're going to make a living as a christian bank robber

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Okay The world we live in is nuts

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Okay, it's absolutely nuts You you've heard of the upside down pineapple people

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Okay There is a group of people calling themselves christians And they are into the upside down pineapple peoples

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And they do it in the name of jesus Okay And you sit there and you go how how is that even possible?

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It's the only way it's possible is if they actually don't have faith in christ Right So if a man is righteous and he does what is just and right if he does not eat upon the mountains

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Eating upon the mountains. It's not it's not like they had mcdonald's up there. These were like pagan feasts

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Okay, or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of israel Does not defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman in her time of her menstrual impurity

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This is a person who is observing god's commands Does not oppress anyone but restores to the debtor his pledge commits

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No robbery gives his bread to the hungry covers the naked with a garment This sounds like a christian to me right and covers the naked with a garment does not lend at interest or take any profit

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Withholds his hand from injustice executes true justice between man and man

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Walks in my statutes and keeps my rules by acting faithfully Note here god says well.

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Yeah, he is righteous not because he does those things The fact that he does those things show that he he has been made righteous by faith

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That's the difference he is righteous he shall surely lives declares the lord yahweh

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Sounds right Okay That's that isn't that ephesians 2 8 9 and 10 for by grace you have been saved through faith

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This is not your own doing it is not the result of works so that no one may boast For we are god's workmanship created in christ jesus for good works that he's prepared in advance for us to do full stop

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That's the description of this guy A guy who believes trust god It's counted to him as righteousness and then is doing the good works that god has prepared in advance for him to do

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When you do those things, do you have anything to boast of by the way? Okay What is the parable that christ tells it's a wonderful parable

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Okay that if you if you have a servant and he only does what you have commanded him to do

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Is he to be commanded? No He should say i'm a wicked servant.

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I have only done what i've been commanded to do Okay Yeah Right, right you're only doing what you're commanded to do

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Okay If he fathers a son who is violent a shedder of blood

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Who does any of these things though? He himself did none of these things who even eats upon the mountains defiles his neighbor's wife

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This is his son doing it oppresses the poor and the needy commits robbery does not restore the pledge lifts up his eyes

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To the idols it sounds like pastor's sons, by the way, sometimes not you that some i've know

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Commits abomination Lends an interest takes profit then he then then shall he then live

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He shall not live. He's done all these abominations. He shall surely die. His blood shall be upon himself

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Not the father, but the son, right? now suppose this man fathers a son who sees all the sins that his father has

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Has done and he sees And he does not do likewise. I don't want to be like my dad.

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I don't want to end up in prison I don't want god to kill me. Okay He does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of israel does not defile his neighbor's wife

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Does not oppress anyone note the kind of the litany here Exacts, no pledge commits

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No robbery gives his bread to the hungry covers the naked with a garment withholds his hand from iniquity takes no interest or profit

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Obeys my rules and walks in my statutes. He shall not die for his father's iniquity

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Well, there goes the whole concept of generational curses just right there, you know

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That just blows that out of the water, okay He will surely live For as his father at for as his father because he practiced extortion robbed his brother and did what is not good among his people

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Behold, he shall die for his iniquity Yet you say Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?

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Seriously When the son has done what is just and right and has been careful to observe all my statutes

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He will surely live the son whose sins shall die The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son

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The whole concept of generational curses is taught within the pentecostal movements Just gone

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Okay, just absolutely gone the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself the wickedness of the wicked

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Shall be upon himself You stand before god or you fall before god based on your sin and your sin

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Only doesn't matter if your father was a pagan priest and offered sacrifices to molek

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Okay, that is not That is not bring it brought into account But if a wicked person turns away from all of his sins

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Hmm What about that guy? Okay. What about the guy who spends his entire life?

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just Fornal caboodling and and well, you know Living like hunter biden, you know

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Right Right Okay, is there is there any hope for that fellow, right?

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If the wicked person turns away from all of his sins that he has committed And keeps all my statutes

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So note he's first turned away from his sins, which means he has faith in the one true god and he's keeping god's statutes by faith

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He keeps all my statutes. What is just and right he shall surely live He shall not die

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None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him That is a good word

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Right. That is a good word. Let me see if let me let's see if I can do this from memory psalm 32 right

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Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven Whose sin is covered

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Blessed is the man against whom yahweh counts no iniquity And whose and in whose spirit there is no deceit

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We are the recipients of that blessing We are and anybody whom the gospel calls

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And regenerates and they cry out to god for mercy and forgiveness and they turn from their sin

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We that any of those people experience that blessing, right? So you'll note then there is absolute hope being taught here the wicked person who turns from his evil

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God will Not remember his sins That's what that in fact, that's the promise of the new covenant

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The promise of the new covenant is that god promises to remember to forget your sins

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When you stand before christ on the day of judgment, he's not going to be doing this

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Right He's not going to be going. Mm I've been waiting to see you

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Boy, we need to have a chat Your behavior was reprehensible. I can't believe what you did.

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All right. Yes, david Uh -huh.

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All right.

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Yeah That's wrong. That's absolutely wrong. You will not stand before peter. Peter's not your judge and he does

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Yeah Uh -huh

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Yeah Yeah That's correct

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See, it's only the it's only the blood of christ that gets you in nothing else Absolutely. Nothing else and you'll know

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I don't even have faith in my faith. I my faith is in christ Who bled and died for me?

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And so you'll note then today you heard The not from me, but from jesus.

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I just got to be the messenger. You heard that your sins were forgiven Okay, so so david if you were to stand before christ

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Let's say that you you you get in your vehicle and you hit a patch of ice and you spin out and you go into The ditch and you just hit it just right and you know, and now you're gone, right?

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So you're standing before jesus And jesus looks at you and goes well fagerlund.

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I'm glad you're here I've been waiting to have this conversation with you for a while and then he says to you

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Let's just cut to the chase. You're not coming in. I'm sending you to the hotter place, right? What should you do?

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What you do is you stand your ground and you tell jesus if you send me to hell you're a liar

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You told me through my pastor today that my sins were forgiven And if you send me to hell and count my sins against me, you're a liar

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And god cannot lie Now that's not my advice. That's actually the advice that luther gave Martin luther

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Yeah, that's his advice and of course none of us will ever stand before christ in him You know we who trust in him.

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None of us will ever hear from away from me. I never knew you Correct your faith hangs on to those promises and you know that those promises are for you because the scripture says so Christ gave that authority to the church

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And so you heard that your sins are forgiven today Now the only sins I am not authorized to give an absolution for are those of the impenitent

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All right, and the impenitent are pretty easy to find out because they don't really want to be forgiven

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They instead they want their sins to be affirmed Okay, big big difference altogether very big difference

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But the thing is is that christ doesn't lie you are forgiven and you have this blessing And so you'll note that this is promised to all of us and there's a very specific reason why

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Everybody who's a christian will never hear the condemnation And there's a mechanism given in the book of colossians as to why god will not remember

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Your sins and there's a reason is because they're not written in god's mind. They were written in a book

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Okay Um, and there's an important thing that happens to everybody who's a christian

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Here's what it says in colossians 2 13 and you were dead in your trespasses

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And you were dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh, but god has made you alive together with christ having forgiven us

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How many of our trespasses? all Every single one of them from adam's sin that was imputed to you at your conception

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To the last sin you commit as you are dying and expiring in this on this earth

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All of them he's forgiven us all of our trespasses and then we have an important phrase how did he do it?

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By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with his legal demands The record of debt is referring to a portion of the books

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In your book were written all of your transgressions in the section called record of debt

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Right. Remember that one time you made that snarky comment to your pastor that was recorded in the book.

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Okay Thick book but The idea every one of your transgressions was recorded in the book

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What did christ do with it? He canceled the record of debt This he set aside.

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He literally tore it out of your book and he nailed it to the cross. That's what this text says So the reason why god does not remember any of your sins is because every single one of them

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Was bled for and died for you sit there and go how can he forgive my future sins?

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Were you breathing when jesus died on the cross? You were not alive

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You hadn't committed a single sin the day that jesus died on the cross and christ died for the sins of who the whole world

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That includes you the entire kitten caboodle The entire lot of sin that you were going to sin

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In the 20th and 21st centuries christ bled and died for those of you who were born in the 21st century

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My apologies, you have to say things like this because I happen to straddle two different centuries, right? Yes.

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Hannah Yeah Yes Is Right.

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So that's a great question It doesn't doesn't mean good christology comes into play because you think about if christ was just merely a perfect man

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How could he have died for the sins of the whole world? And you'll note christ is both god and man at the same time and not only that christ accomplished bleeding and dying for the sins of the whole world in how many hours

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Count him up He was nailed to the cross at nine in the morning He died at three in the afternoon at the time of the evening sacrifice.

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How many hours was he on the cross? six That's a powerful number by the way

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Okay, six hours on the cross. So in that six hours christ

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Legitimately satisfied the wrath of god and the justice of god For the entire human race from adam until the last human being

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No, man No, man could have done that okay, um The only thing I can liken it to and this is a this is a bad analogy

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But I remember when my kids used to play super mario Okay, you know super mario 2 or whatever and they're sometimes if you like if I don't know if you like Hit this particular mushroom and do this little thing

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It was like a power up and like mario could go like warp speed and like All the coins were like tripled and doubled and quadrupled and stuff like that and you're able to rack up all this kind of stuff

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Christ by virtue of the fact that he is god and man As he's suffering that's like the ultimate power up Okay that god himself is suffering in our place

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It's like the ultimate power up and he's able then to accomplish The reconciliation of the entire world and the propitiation of god's wrath for the sins of the entire world in six hours

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Okay Okay Okay, that it's it's amazing when you think about it.

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So yeah. Yes Yeah Yeah, right

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That's the point. So christ didn't come to uh to to end the law. He came to fulfill it

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And he did he fulfilled it perfectly for us And so you'll note then that this is how

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When we hear in this text of the one who the wicked person who turns away from him sins

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Turns to god in faith Repents and then as a result of his faith begins to do right

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Does he do it perfectly? No, nobody does because you'll note now he's part of the covenant community

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Of under the mosaic covenant in this in this regard and what does he have to do every year?

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Come to jerusalem for the day of atonement And bring sacrifices and he's now which in order to cover his sins just for a year

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So so the idea this isn't inferring sinless perfectionism at all but the turning away from sin and a recognizing of his wickedness and it says that shall

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That the transgressions that he has committed shall be they will not be remembered against him

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They will not for the righteousness that he has done. He shall live So then god asked this question question.

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Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked declares? the lord yahweh Not rather that he should turn from his way and live

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It is always a tragedy to me when somebody who was an ardent outspoken enemy of christianity

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When they pass away, it's always a tragedy. I think of christopher hitchens

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They got you know, he was part of that group known as the new atheists, right? And he and he got cancer

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And he's getting ready to die his brother who had faith tried to preach the gospel to him and he was really upset

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Mad and annoyed and so he insisted that he was going to his grave not believing in jesus

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And when he died, what a tragedy utter tragedy God does not have any pleasure in the death of the wicked his desire is that they would turn and live

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Okay, it is not god's will that any should perish In anyone Now here's the next part don't let the calvinists hear this part, okay

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When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice And does the same abominations that the wicked person does shall he live?

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So basically we're talking about a person who has abandoned then the good works that god has called us to All right

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None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered For the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed for them.

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He shall die All right. So this is part of the reason why lutherans we believe the scriptures legitimately say

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Get this you can lose your salvation Because this text says that Yeah, it's it's not even a lose it's not it's like I like when

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I lose my keys, okay Thank god that my wife decided to put a hook next to the door. Okay, that just helps so much right because you know

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There's nothing more fun than the the hunt for lost keys But the point is is that it's not losing.

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It is not the right way of saying it It's the person who takes this precious gift of salvation and just goes nope

46:45

Whoosh and throws it as far away from them as humanly possible Yeah, that's right watch me throw my salvation over the mountain over there, yeah, right

46:58

Great reference Yeah So let me give you another text on this one here.

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This is a consistent witness in scripture paul writing against the judaizers in galatians chapter 5

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Now when we talk about we talk about chucking your salvation There is a theological way of doing that There is a moral way of doing that.

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Okay, so we recognize then That we just don't turn the gospel into a license to go and sin and you know

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And you know hanging out the beers and the brothels and stuff like that. This is No instead um

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And instead we recognize that sin can actually legitimately lead to us walking away from our salvation on the same hand theological error, which is a which is a form of idolatry theological error believing in a false gospel that also

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Disqualifies you from the faith. So listen to what paul says to the judaizers of galatia He says look

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I paul I say to you you galatians if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you.

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I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision He's obligated to keep the whole law verse 4 you are

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Severed from christ you who would be justified by the law you have fallen away from grace

48:31

Well there goes once saved always saved Oops. Yep. Yes, michael They don't know what is true

49:02

Yeah, they think they're doing the right thing but yet they're being led astray are they judged as they chucked away their salvation or Were they in good faith because they thought they were doing the right thing.

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Yeah, so um, there there's a saying ignorance of the law is um is not justification for breaking the law

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So the person who ends up in a situation where They are worshiping god falsely and believing falsely

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And saying well, I was just doing what I was told to do. They still end up being accountable

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But the person who who deceived them is more accountable. They're both accountable.

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Just one is more culpable than the other Which is one of the reasons why there's that stern warning in scripture

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Do you know not not many should seek to be teachers in christ church just this is to be blunt and The scriptures are very clear that teachers in christ church will experience a stricter judgment

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And god will legitimately hold the false teachers Accountable for the blood of everyone they deceived and misled that ended up in hell

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Although they're going to end up in hell along with them But the majority of the of the guilt and the majority of the punishment is going to fall on the teacher

50:22

So they're both culpable and the person who was deceived should have known better And they would have known better if they applied themselves to the word, you know there's also the

50:31

Really nasty details of the fact. Yeah, you know like think about it like like bring your bible to church

50:41

They literally have the word right there in their hand. Yeah The the people will be blunt.

50:48

I've been in blood Everybody nowadays has no excuse when it comes to the bible it's available for free on the internet

50:59

And the end Okay, the fact that you wouldn't hear it Won't hear it.

51:05

Don't pay attention to it. That's all on you. It would have cost you nothing Just go to biblegateway .com

51:12

Pick a pick a translation that you like start reading it free Okay, the only thing you have to pay for is your internet connection, right?

51:21

You know, and then of course if you want an analog copy of the bible don matheson see him

51:28

Okay, go visit the gideons. They'll be happy to give you one go to a hotel room and rip one off Okay They won't complain they're put in there for a reason

51:39

Okay, and by the way, the the gideon bibles in the in the hotel rooms now, they're the esv translation.

51:45

They're pretty decent Okay, you know if you if and the thing is is that if you take it

51:51

Don't feel bad. It was put in there for you to do that Okay, the gideons will come by and replace it

52:00

But the thing is we have access to god's word like never before You know, I think back

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I made mention in the sermon today of the people who lost their lives Translating the scriptures into the vernacular of the people of their of their their nations

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You know who were burned at the stake for translating the bible Back in the middle period in middle ages

52:23

You couldn't read the bible in your in your native language If you wanted to you had to be wealthy and trained in latin before you would even have an ability to approach hearing the word of god

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Now we have bibles everywhere And nobody wants to hear it Nobody wants to hear it.