Systematic Theology (part 35)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Heavenly Father, we ask this morning that you would bear us along by the

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Holy Spirit as you bore along the prophets of old when you breathed out the book.

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We pray that the Spirit would bear us along as we read the book, as we consider the book.

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We pray to see Christ in the book. We pray that you would give us confidence in the book.

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We pray that you would conform us to the image of Christ to whom we are predestined to be conformed.

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We pray in His name this morning, amen. Okay, there are a few more of these handouts left.

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Price has gone up now, this is the third week. And if there's anybody that needs these, they're the same as the others, except for the price.

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Yes, what? What does it look like? Okay, here we need two, you only need two here?

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Can you share? All right, that's fine.

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Okay, here's where we were as we closed last week. The question of the day is how do we proceed now that we're in Christ?

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And we have concluded that one, we don't do nothing. That's up to God. Okay, but two, we don't try harder, which makes it all up to us.

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Someplace between those two extremes is a biblical look at what we ought to do, how we ought to orient ourselves.

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Our working definition for our sanctification, that is our progressive sanctification, is that we are spending our lifetime, we are spending a length of time learning to adjust to what

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God says we are in Christ. Therefore, we do not operate, our experience does not operate off of what happens to us daily, how we respond to it emotionally daily.

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Our experience is to operate off of our position in Christ, which we cannot know apart from the book, because we would never, we would never by ourselves ever come up with what

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God has conceived of for salvation by grace alone, and so we cannot proceed in Christ except as we understand the revealed truth of the

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Scriptures. Our experience will not do, our determination will not do.

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We are, what we are in Christ can only be told to us, revealed to us in the

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Scriptures. So here was the bottom line from last week. We begin in Christ by the confession of the truth, which is

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Jesus is Lord, I believe in my heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and according to Paul in Romans, I will be saved.

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That speaks of justification, but it also speaks of sanctification, because by the time

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Paul got over there to Romans chapter 10, he had discussed every aspect of salvation, justification, sanctification, glorification, and so it all proceeds on what

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I call the Romans 10 .10 principle. It proceeds on the confession of the truth.

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So not only do we begin in Christ by our confession, but we proceed in Christ by our confession, by our rehearsal of the truth of that which we believe, and that which we believe does not come to us out of our insights.

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It comes to us from outside. It comes to us from the revealed Word. And then of course, we end up in His presence, confessing that Jesus is

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Lord, along with all the rest of the universe, and so this whole thing caused old

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John Gill, who proceeded Spurgeon at Metropolitan Tabernacle by several decades,

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John Gill to blurt out, all of the Christian life is a confession. The word that is confession in the

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New Testament, we looked at that last week, is that word homologeo, to say the same word along with another, in this case, to say the same word as God.

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And it is to say the same word aloud as what God says.

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And we talked about the fact that we are very cerebral people, and we have a tendency to try to do all of this between our ears, but the

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Scriptures imply strongly, Romans or Hebrews 13, our praise is the fruit of lips, not the fruit of neurons alone, the fruit of lips.

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If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. And I think we need to take that seriously regarding our sanctification, and to look forward to that in our glorification.

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So I said this week, we would talk about what does this look like? How does this operate day by day?

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So I'll tell you the story of Anthony. When we came back from Bolivia after our first term there,

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I then went to the New Tribes Bible Institute in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where I taught for five years.

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And one of my students, Anthony, came into my office one afternoon, and he sat down and he began to pour out the tale of woe.

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Broken up with his girlfriend, the job was not going good, wasn't sure how he was doing in my class and several others.

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He's on the mission field today, I believe. Okay, so he did okay finally, all right.

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But it was terrible, terrible, terrible. This is a bad, terrible, what is that thing about I wanna go to Australia?

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How does that work? It's a what? No good, very bad day.

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I think I'm gonna move to Australia. That's where Anthony was on the afternoon that he came into my office.

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So I said to him, Anthony, so what's your confession these days? And he said to me, this is why he wasn't doing well in my class, okay.

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He said to me, so what do you mean? Well, I'd talked about this already in class.

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And I said, well, you know that you are in Christ, that your sin is forgiven, that God has credited you with righteousness, that he has credited

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Christ with your sin, that you are adopted as God's child, that his spirit bears witness with your spirit, that you are his child, that your body is dead because of sin, but your spirit is alive because, you know,

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I went through the catalog of things that are what, of some things, that are what we are in Christ, okay.

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And Anthony says to me, oh yeah, yeah, I know all those things. That is not what I said, Anthony.

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That's not what I said. I said, what is your confession these days? Not what do you know, all right, but what are you rehearsing?

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What are you confessing? What are you rehearsing aloud? Now, I will not ask this crowd.

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What was your rehearsal this last week? Your aloud rehearsal. Okay, you don't have to raise your hands about this or anything like that, because I know that for us in our culture, a lot of this happens between the ears.

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Now, you're gonna get a chance for some serious confession a little bit later when we all sing hymns together, all right?

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And it will be a rehearsal of the truth of God because we do not sing rinky -dink hymns in this church, all right?

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It's a theological term that means we don't sing those in this church, all right. So what do

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I confess? What is the fodder for confession? The truth of the scriptures.

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I wanna make very clear now. If you were to walk into a group this morning that followed Kenneth Hagin, for example, they would say something like this.

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Now, have you done Brother Hagin's confessions? Well, Kenneth Hagin is a heretic, all right?

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Okay, should we get that straight? And he's in the school that we might term blab it and grab it, you know what

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I mean? And that is not what we're talking about here. This is not, I wanted a new Cadillac, so I am going to confess that I want a new

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Cadillac, and by next week, I'm gonna have it. And so you can get that on TV. You have to send money, of course, for the new

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Cadillac. Probably to the dealer, all right? Anyway, that's what

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I would call blab it and grab it. That's not what we're talking about here. We are talking about following the truth of the scriptures, which we cannot know from our insides.

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That's why it's important that we do it. You remember last week, we talked about mindset. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed, which we all want to be transformed.

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But it starts with the renewing of your mind, Romans 12, two, okay?

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To the Colossians, set your mind on things above, where your life is hid with Christ in God, all right?

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And so mindset is critical. So how do we get our minds headed in the right direction? We will never come up with this out of our insides.

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That's why it's critical that we stick to the scriptures. So we want to confess the truth of the scriptures, not the truth of how

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I feel. We're all big with that, aren't we? How are you doing today? Oh man, it's another day.

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Oh man, three to six inches of snow tomorrow. Oh man, no school, okay?

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There's that, okay? But it usually is about how we feel, and how we're doing.

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No, no, no. We're gonna confess the truth of the scriptures, and follow the scriptures, and not get into how we're doing on our insides.

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So it's who God is. We're gonna look at that in a few minutes if I have time. Who I am in Christ, what

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I am in Christ, I could not conceive out of my insides. What I am doing in Christ, and what

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He is doing in me. You know, Paul writes to the Philippians, doesn't he?

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It's God who is at work in you, both to will, to give you the want to, and to do the ability,

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His good pleasure. Okay, that's one thing that Christ is doing in me.

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All right. So here's an example, it's on your handout. So you don't have to turn there.

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I want to go to Romans chapter six, particularly verses three, six, and 11. But let's read the whole thing.

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What shall we say then? I'm sorry, I have a little sniffly nose. So if you listen to this recording, it's gonna be not so hot.

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Anyway, what shall we say then? Now, Paul has just come from Romans chapter five, where he says, where sin did abound, grace abounded even more.

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So then he foresees what some people may jump to. Great, great, great.

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If sin abounds, grace abounds even more. So let's go sin our heads off, and grace will abound even more.

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So then he starts Romans chapter six. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

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I'm gonna go with King James here. God forbid that we would do that.

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All right? How can we? Now, you gotta catch the tone of the next statement.

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How can we who died to sin still live in it? This is not a mother's statement, okay?

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Gonna have three to six inches of snow tomorrow. The kids are gonna come in the house out of the snow. They're gonna have that glop all over their shoes.

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And their mother is gonna say for the 80th time, I told you not to come in here with those.

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How could you come in a house with all that stuff on your shoes? That's not what's here.

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How can we who died to sin still live in it? This is not the Apostle Paul being like your mother.

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All right? How can we who died to sin live any longer? How could you do that? To read it that way and to catch the context that way is an invitation to sanctification by works.

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Okay. I won't do that again, mom. I'll be working on this. I will determine that I'm not gonna do it.

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They will, of course. Okay, and so will we where sin is concerned. Paul is here stating a fact.

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He's not giving an admonition. How can we believers who died to sin still live in it?

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How would that happen? That's all he's asking. But he asks it on the basis of some fact.

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How can we who died to sin still live in it? You feel dead to sin this morning?

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You notice how I said that? Do you feel dead to sin this morning? The answer for most of us is no,

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I don't feel dead to sin this morning. But the answer is it doesn't matter how you feel.

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You are dead to sin this morning. This I know for the

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Bible tells me so. So Paul says to the Romans, how can we who died to sin still live in it?

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Then here's a do you not know? Here's something to know besides the fact that you died to sin.

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Do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

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Now, this is not talking about water baptism. All right, the word baptize, as you know, is a word just brought over from the

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Greek that means to dip into and to pull out different. It was first used of those who dyed cloth.

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You put the wool in the dye, you pull it out of the dye, it's different. That can be applied to anything.

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You take the Oreos, you put them in the milk, they come out different and better by the way, okay?

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So those of you who have never baptized an Oreo, you ought to give it a shot, all right?

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Really, if you do them two at a time, it's really good, okay. This simply means that you have been placed into Christ Jesus.

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When you were placed into Christ Jesus, you were placed by the Holy Spirit into Christ Jesus. When you came to Christ, that means that his death, those of us that have been placed into Christ Jesus were placed into his death, which is to say when he died, we died.

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That's why Paul said before this, how can those of us who died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?

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And the idea is this, and you know this, this is a well -taught church.

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If you don't know it, I'm gonna remind you of it, that the experience of Christ becomes the credited experience of every believer.

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When he died, we died, he goes on. We were buried there, when he was buried, we were buried.

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

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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. The idea is when Christ died, we died.

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When he was buried, we were buried. When he was resurrected from the dead, we were resurrected from the dead.

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And you say, I don't get it, I gotta go to work tomorrow. None of that seems like it's true. However, it is true, this

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I know, for the Bible tells me so, all right?

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Also, that's why Paul would say to the Ephesians over there in chapter one, you people are seated in the heavenlies.

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He would say that to those of us in West Boylston this morning. You people are seated in the heavenlies and God sees you there.

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And what God sees is ultimately the experience and the truth of how things actually are.

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So, what would my rehearsal be to all of these things? One, I am dead to sin, all right?

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Two, I have been placed into the death of Christ. When Jesus died, I died, okay?

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Three, when he was buried, I was buried. Four, when he rose from the dead, I am going to rise from the dead, okay?

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That's all just fact, that's how it is. That's not how I feel, that's how it is, all right?

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We know that our old self was crucified, our old man would be a way to translate that, was crucified with him.

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There Paul says it again, for those of you that think, oh no, no, no, this doesn't sound right. Paul says it again.

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We know that our old self was crucified with him. When he died,

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I died. In order that the body of sin might be, I'll give you the 1984

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NIV translation, because I think it's the best one. If you want to start a church of the 1984

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NIV, you know, you could do that. I guess you can't do that.

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I wouldn't do that, okay? All right, I think it's the best one, that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, okay?

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This says it might be brought to nothing. The King James, I think, says something like that, which is, and the idea is, from which our brethren believe in sinless perfection.

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This is one of the places they get this, is that the body of sin might be destroyed,

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I think the King James says. Okay, well, the body of sin is not destroyed, nor is it brought to nothing, frankly, but it is rendered powerless.

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There is the potential for the body of sin to be rendered powerless in our experience, as well as in our position, okay?

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So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. So we don't any longer have to be slaves to sin.

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Four, one who has died has been set free from sin. So what's the confession tomorrow?

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The confession is, I have been set free from sin. If you don't think you have been set free from sin, don't look at how you behave tomorrow.

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Don't look at how it works out tomorrow. Look at what God says. And God says, for Christ's sake, one day when you see

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Him, you will be as He is, which is to say, you have been set free from sin. All right?

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Now, if we have died with Christ, there He goes again. We have died with Christ. Okay, that is not something to feel, that is something to know.

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We have died with Christ. Let's do a little parenthesis here.

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Now, because when you get to chapter eight of Romans, this is a big thing. There's three ways to understand the word if, both in English and in Greek.

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There is the iffy if. For example, it's gonna snow three to six inches of snow tomorrow.

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And on your insides, running on your feelings, not on how it is, okay, you say, let it snow.

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I am not going out there one more time to shovel that snow or blow that snow or whatever.

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I'm not even calling the guy with the truck to come and plow that snow. I am laying here on the couch until spring.

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And I'm confident that the Lord will continue to be faithful and that it will go away sometime in July, all right?

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And I'm just staying right here until then. And then your wife comes in and says, we gonna have a skating rink out here in the driveway or what are we gonna have?

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Not going out there. Kids come in, mom, is dad gonna, is he gonna shovel the snow, blow the snow, call the guy with the snow, whatever, is he gonna do that?

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And she says, I don't know if he's gonna do that. That's the iffy if. I don't know if he's gonna do that.

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He hasn't moved from the couch for some time. Okay, that's one kind of if.

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On the other hand, here's another kind of if. Okay, you'll hand me my coat.

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I'll go out and start shoveling the snow. Okay, in that if, it is assumed that what you ask about is going to happen.

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The assumption is made that that's going to happen. The third kind of if is what's in view here.

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And it's the context always that determines what kind of if we're talking about here. Not only the context, the immediate context, but the context of all of Scripture.

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Okay? And the other kind of if, it could be translated since.

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It is assumed that this is true. Okay, is dad gonna go out and shovel the snow?

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If you'll hand me my coat, I'll go shovel the snow. Okay, that if says you're gonna hand me my coat.

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And now the kids look out the window and say, hey, the driveway's all clear. Okay? If dad shoveled the snow, the driveway's all clear.

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No, it's since dad shoveled the snow, the driveway's all clear. That's the if in view here.

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Now, since we have died with Christ, he's already said that three times up to this point.

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Now, since we have died with Christ, we believe that we also will live with Him. Do you believe that one day you're gonna live with Christ?

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Let me ask it this way. Do you believe that you already are living with Christ? That's what the scriptures say.

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Eternity has begun for us already. Now, if we have died with Christ, since we have died with Christ, we believe that we also will live with Him.

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We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. And we will live with Him.

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Death no longer has dominion over Him. John chapter 11. Martha, I'm the resurrection and the life.

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Whoever believes in me, though he dies, though his body dies, yet shall he live.

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Okay, Jesus Himself said that. Now, Paul's saying, now you make good on it. You get this in your mindset, you get this between your ears, and here's where you make good on that.

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All right? The death he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.

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Now, from verse 1 down through verse 10, there have been a whole series of facts that are just true.

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Doesn't matter how I feel, doesn't matter how I'm doing, doesn't matter if things are great, doesn't matter if things stink, doesn't matter.

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Those things are true that are given there in verses 1 through 10 of chapter 6.

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And so we say, especially when we're feeling low and not very spiritual and all of that kind of thing.

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And so we say, well, like Anthony, well, I know all that stuff. No, verse 11 gives the what you do about it.

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So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin.

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Did you get that? Consider yourself dead to sin. Do I consider myself dead to sin?

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Not as much as I should, but I am dead to sin. This I know for the

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Bible tells me so. All right? And alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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I am alive to God. This I know for the Bible tells me so.

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Now here's the critical little phrase at the end. In Christ Jesus.

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His experience becomes my experience. That little prepositional phrase, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, is perhaps one of the most critical little phrases in all of the

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New Testament. Because apart from Christ, none of this is true. But in Christ, it's all true.

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And Paul says to these Romans, consider yourselves dead to sin, alive to God.

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Consider these things to be true. And we added, and I will add from last week,

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I will add from last week, not only consider them to be true, but confess that to be so.

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Confess that to be so. I'm not gonna ask how many people rolled up the window and, you know, read the, here's a good place to start.

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Read the Scriptures aloud. If you start looking for that which is to be confessed, when you read the

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Bible, it will perhaps revolutionize your Bible study. You are looking for the facts.

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Is there anything in this passage, whatever it is, even the Old Testament passages, is there anything in this passage which

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I ought to affirm by my confession, that I ought to rehearse by my confession?

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I will do that. I will say that aloud. I will not just acknowledge it between my ears.

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I will confess it. For with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation.

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Colossians chapter three. If then you have been raised with Christ, what kind of an if is that?

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Since then you have been raised with Christ. Paul would never assume about the Colossian church, people that he had never met, he would never assume that in that body of believers, some had been raised with Christ, others were working on it.

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He would never assume that. It's all of you in Colossae, all of you in probably, they read this letter in Hierapolis and in Laodicea.

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In fact, he says, have this read in Laodicea at the end of the letter. All of the people in that group of believers up there in the

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Lycus River Valley, all of those folks have been raised with Christ.

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Is there any fodder there for confession? Absolutely. I have been raised with Christ.

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If you have been raised with Christ, since you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.

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Well, what's above? Well, I don't really know. Well, you get into Revelation. There's a few things there that are above.

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Well, what else is above? God is above. God the Father, God the Word, God the

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Holy Spirit, all of that is above. So I could stop there and say, well, seek the things that are above.

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Well, you know, I really don't know too much about what's above. So if I'm going to seek those things, I better get at it and find out all that the

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Scriptures reveal, not what I think or not what Oprah Winfrey thinks or any of that kind of thing.

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What the Scriptures have to say about what is above. Where Christ is.

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Well, Christ is above. Seated at the right hand of God. Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

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Pastor Mike's going to talk about that when we get to the priesthood in detail. I'm not going there.

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Pastor Mike can go there, okay. When we get to that in detail, it's going to be a great blessing.

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Christ is seated at the right hand of God. There He intercedes for us. That's what's going on. Don't you think it would be better to take off tomorrow to work, no matter how crummy your work is, whatever it is.

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Don't you think you'd be better off to take off tomorrow to work to sing, you know what?

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I have been raised with Christ. Christ is above. He is at the right hand of the Father. He is interceding for me today at work.

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You know, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. All right?

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Don't you think it would be better to head off rehearsing that instead of another day, another dime.

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Yeah, so here I go, you know, or whatever. I think so. The other reason it would be a good thing to do that is just so that we don't fall into the power of positive thinking crap.

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I, in every way, I am getting better and better. Not that. The other reason it ought to be rehearsed is because it is the truth.

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It is more true than my experience. It's more true than what

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I have to face tomorrow. That's why it needs to be rehearsed. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things on the earth.

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There's that mindset issue again. For you have died. Oh, Paul said the same thing to the

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Colossians that he said to the Romans. You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

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When Christ, who is your life, appears, there's something to rehearse, isn't it? Jesus is going to appear one day.

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But He is already my life, is He not? When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

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One day I'm going to appear with Christ in glory. Paul talked about that to the Thessalonians.

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It just occurred to me. Paul talked about that to the Thessalonians. A group of people that were under great attack.

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And they also had been deceived by some who came along and said, hey, did you guys know Jesus has already come?

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And He's come and you're still here in Thessalonica. And so you've been left.

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And so Paul wrote these two letters to straighten some of that out. But here he talks about the judgment of Christ coming.

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This is evidence. Their persecution and their standing under persecution is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also are suffering.

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I'm at verse 5 of chapter 1, 2 Thessalonians, ok? Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the

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Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. Is there anything, by the way, there that is fodder for confession?

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Absolutely. The Lord Jesus one day will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

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God. That's not an invitation to feel good. That's a statement of fact. That's how it's going to be.

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And that ought to be a rehearsal that is on our lips among 152 other things or more, ok?

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They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.

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Now watch this. When He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, the saints are coming with Him, alright?

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And to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you is believed.

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What was Paul's testimony to the Thessalonians? Paul's testimony to the Thessalonians basically was, hey, you are the great sinners.

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Jesus is the great Savior. You need to trust Him to be your Savior. They did. They began to experience persecution because Jesus was

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Lord. Now Caesar was not Lord. Jesus is Lord. That was their confession. Paul said that testimony was believed by you.

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So hang in there. Keep your seatbelts fastened. The persecution that you already have endured demonstrates the presence of Christ in your lives.

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But the day comes, the day comes when you will be marveled at among all who have believed because of this testimony.

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Alright? Here's the deal. The day comes when the universe looks at us and goes, oh man, salvation by grace.

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We never imagined. We never imagined how gracious grace could be when the universe looks at us on the day that Jesus comes and we are seen to be the trophies of His grace.

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You know, we all look pretty good when we come to church, right? So, you know, grace, that's good. And way deep down inside of us, we kind of think, well, you know, grace is grace.

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But, you know, it's easier to be graceful toward me than to a lot of other people that I'm thinking about and that I can think about or read about in a paper or see on TV or whatever.

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So, you know, grace is grace. But for some of us, it's easier to be gracious than to others.

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No, no, no. When the universe looks at us and says, look at those rascals.

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And He saved them. On that day, that is going to be a day of glory, which we cannot even imagine.

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And we will be displayed before everyone who looks on. And you know what?

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With Philippians, the universe will confess Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the

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Father when we rascals are seen to have been saved when we were not worthy of that at all.

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Not at all. So, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

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And the universe will go, Jesus is Lord. And the Father will be glorified.

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Okay? Galatians 2 .20. You know this. This we ought to memorize. I have been crucified with Christ.

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Paul said it to the Galatians, just like to the Romans and the Colossians. Are you thinking now that maybe you've been crucified with Christ?

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I think so. Do you feel like it? No, probably not. But what is the reality?

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The reality is, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

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Does Christ live in you? Yes. Christ in you,

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Paul wrote. The hope of glory. We have the mind of Christ.

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The body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is alive because of righteousness, the imputed righteousness of Christ.

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It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Is there any fodder for confession there?

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Absolutely. Christ lives in me. It is no longer I who live.

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And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave

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Himself for me. There is nothing there but fact. Here's how it is, not how

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I feel. Not what I am determined to do. Here's how it is.

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And so in order for me to get in line with here's how it is, the vehicle by which that can happen is if I say the same word along with God, homiligeo, it.

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Okay? If I say the same word along with God, which is the truth that is stupendous, that I would never get out of my own insides, if I say that word along with God, I will begin to be conformed increasingly to the image of Christ.

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I don't think I've talked about this in this crowd. Judy and I grew up in Southern California.

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If you went to Southern California today, you would see that the major crop there is houses.

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About six of them on an acre from San Diego to Santa Barbara. And you may have seen on Facebook the picture of the

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Get Out of Town for Thanksgiving traffic jam that showed the 405.

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It was just, it was a parking lot. I mean, it looks, makes 95 and all of that down here.

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It looks like speedways, all right, in the morning. But when we grew up there, there was

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LA, it was 70 miles away. Okay, but between us and LA were thousands and thousands of acres of orange groves, peach orchards, plum orchards, chicken ranches, all that kind of stuff.

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All those little towns that all kind of run together there, you know, Baldwin Park, Covina, all of that.

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They just, just one big, no, no, they were all little towns. You could drive into one, you could drive out of it through the orange groves and drive into the next one and drive out of it and all that kind of thing, okay?

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So you got to understand that we understand something about orange groves.

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And Judy always says, at the time that the orange blossoms blossomed in Southern California, it was just like one big perfume bottle, all right?

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And it was. I never saw an orange grower, and we knew several.

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I never saw an orange grower go out in the orange grove and say, all right, I want all your trees to listen up.

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Okay? Now, when winter comes, and I want to get these navel oranges off to people in the

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East, where it's nine below, no, or it's whatever it is. Okay, we got to get these things off to people in the

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East. Your trees are to have oranges on you at that time. All right?

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So what I want to do is encourage you to really get with the program and let's get these oranges in view by at least

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September. All right? So we can start picking them. Now, how about your tree?

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You ever seen these Walmart early morning meetings? Give me a W, W, give me an

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A, give me an A, you know. The orange grower never goes out in the orange grove and goes, give me an

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O for oranges. Give me an R, give me an A, give me an N, give me a G. Okay, how about it?

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Trees, are you ready to go? No, he doesn't do that. What does he do? He irrigates the trees.

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You have to do that in Southern California. He irrigates the trees. He fertilizes the trees. He may do a little pruning on the trees, but basically he just cares for the trees.

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And you know what? The trees grow oranges. You know why? Because they are orange trees.

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That's why. Guess what? We will grow the fruit of the Spirit because we are believers.

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We have died with Christ. We are buried with Christ. We are risen with Christ. All of those things are true of us.

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And so nobody has to come out in our orange grove and cheerlead until we become conformed to the image of Christ because we are predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.

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And that can begin now as we rehearse the truth of the Scriptures along with the

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Lord in this. Now, let me close with this. One of the greatest examples, one of the greatest examples of confession unto salvation that you will ever read is in this little book right here.

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It's called The Valley of Vision. The Puritans were masters of the

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English language and also masters of the Scriptures. No, I don't, you know, that doesn't mean we agree with everything the

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Puritans said. No, they thought, for example, that God is done with Israel and that's that. Okay, so we don't always go with their eschatology and all of that sort of thing.

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Okay, well, you know, a lot of you might. You live in a hotbed of that here in New England, but that's all right.

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We all get to go to heaven. And some of you will be pleasantly surprised. All right, they were masters of the

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English language. They were masters of the

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Scriptures and Puritan pastors encouraged their people to write their prayers, to write their confessions.

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And some of the best ones are collected here in Valley of Vision. Let me read this one to you.

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This is the first one. Heavenly Father, blessed Son, eternal

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Spirit, I adore Thee as one being, one essence, one God in three distinct persons.

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Now, you could be like Anthony when you read lines like that and say, oh yeah, I know all that. No, no, no, no, that's not what's going on here.

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The Puritan is rehearsing what he knows. All right? Oh, Father, Thou hast loved me and sent

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Jesus to redeem me. Oh, I know that. No, we confess that, all right?

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Oh, Jesus, Thou hast loved me and assumed my nature, shed Thine own blood to wash away my sins, wrought righteousness to cover my unworthiness.

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Oh, Holy Spirit, Thou hast loved me and entered my heart and planted there eternal life, revealed to me the glories of Jesus.

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Three persons and one God, I bless and praise Thee. Oh, this guy must have been thinking about Hebrews 13.

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He offers praise, which are the fruit of His lips, and in this case, His quill, all right?

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For love so unmerited, so unspeakable, so wondrous, so mighty to save the lost and raise them to glory.

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See, this is going way beyond, oh, we all know that stuff, okay? No, no, no, no, this is a rehearsal of that stuff.

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Oh, Father, I thank Thee that in fullness of grace, Thou hast given me to Jesus to be His sheep, jewel, portion.

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Oh, Jesus, I thank Thee that in fullness of grace, Thou hast accepted, espoused, bound me.

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Oh, Holy Spirit, I thank Thee that in fullness of grace, Thou hast exhibited Jesus as my salvation, implanted faith within me, subdued my stubborn...

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Oh, the guy must be thinking about the Scriptures. When the Spirit comes, He will convince of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, and here he's saying, oh,

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Holy Spirit, I thank You for all of that, which was the beginning of my redemption, all right?

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Oh, Father, Thou art enthroned to hear my prayers. Oh, Jesus, Thy hand is outstretched to take my petitions.

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Oh, he must be thinking of 1 John. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

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He must be thinking of Hebrews and the whole rundown on the priesthood of Melchizedek.

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If you're going to Melchizedek, you have to wait. Pastor Mike's gonna get there. Okay, oh,

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Holy Spirit, Thou art willing to help my infirmities, to show me my need, to supply words, to supply words, to pray within me, to strengthen me that I faint not in supplication.

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Oh, triune God who commandeth the universe, Thou has commanded me to ask for those things that concern

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Thy kingdom and my soul. Let me live and pray as one baptized into the threefold name.

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And all of God's people said, amen. Thank you, Father, for your word. We pray that you would find it on our lips often.

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We pray that we would begin to think about the fact that we need to rehearse and confess all of the truth that is here in the

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Scriptures. We pray that you would enable us.

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We pray with the old Puritan. Holy Spirit, give us words, words to rehearse, words to pray within ourselves, to strengthen us so that we don't faint in that.

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All of that we ask that we might be conformed to the image of Christ increasingly, even this coming week.