Hope for the Weary Sinner | Justin Perdue

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I may not get a chance to do this later, so I'm gonna do it now. The church here is the one who's really put all the work together, the volunteers for the coffee, for the music, for setting it up, live stream, and I would like to ask everyone here to thank them because we would not be able to have this conference without them, absolutely.

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And the servant heart is amazing, and it's been just so encouraging, and the piano playing, I'm so impressed.

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We literally walk over and say 429, and she gets up and plays it. How awesome is that?

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I just want to test it, I want to pick a number and be like, can she play this one? Justin Perdue, some of you may have asked how does

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Justin and I meet, and we are not in the same location. He is in North Carolina at Covenant Baptist Church.

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He's been there for seven years? Eight. Eight years, the original church planner. Four beautiful children and a wife, and Justin and I actually met through Twitter of all places.

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Some good things happen on Twitter. This is a good thing, some good things happen. He has become a very dear, if not one of my best friends in ministry and just in life, and for those of you that have listened to his sermons, you know it's such a joy and such a pleasure, and so there's not much more

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I can say than this man loves Christ and loves to offer him. So let's welcome Justin.

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It's good to be with you. Please join me in a brief word of prayer before we look to the word. Father, we come casting ourselves upon your mercy and your grace, and our prayer is simple, that what we know not, you would teach us, that what we have not, you would give us, and that what we are not, you would make us.

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We pray that we would see our Savior today and that we would cast ourselves upon him, and we ask that in Christ's name, amen.

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Well, friends, the experience of the Christian is utterly unique. We live in a kind of paradox.

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Our flesh loves sin. I don't know if you've thought about it that way. Our flesh loves sin, craves things that are wrong, but in our inner man, we hate sin.

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So when we do what is wrong, there is a real sense in our souls of hating what we've done, of hating the fact that we have the capacity to do the said thing, and we lament the thought that we may very well find ourselves doing it again.

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We struggle, we grow weary. We're often consumed by guilt. We carry shame around with us, and I trust you know this well, guilt and shame are heavy.

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We question ourselves. We ask legitimately, how could I, as a believer in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, how could I have done that? And then the evil one doubles down.

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He accuses us, and he says, if you were gods, you wouldn't have done that.

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Doubts and fears of every kind begin to creep in, and peace is choked out, and hope is nowhere to be found.

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You realize as well that it is normal for us, as flesh and blood, it is normal for us to have hard thoughts of God, to view him as harsh, severe, exacting, threatening.

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We think, in our flesh and blood, we think that it is presumptuous to view

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God as loving and tender and kind and gentle, and understand that it is not

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God who would have us view him that way, harsh, exacting, threatening.

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It is not God who would have us think it's presumption to view him as loving and tender and kind and gentle toward his own.

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It is the evil one who would have us think that way. Track with me for just a minute.

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This, at least as often how it goes in my own experience, as I'm battling the corruption of my flesh.

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Perhaps you can identify with some of these things. In the midst of the battle against sin, fighting my own disappointment in the ways that I have failed yet again,

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I recall things. The Lord is holy. He hates sin.

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He's righteous. He is the judge of all the earth, and his standard is perfection at a spiritual level.

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He deserves my service and my worship. My whole heart, my whole soul, my whole mind, all my strength every moment.

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We remember his word. He will bless those who obey his law. I've read that somewhere.

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He will curse those who break it. We remember the language of punishment and judgment and wrath.

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We even remember the words of Christ that he spoke to certain audiences that were crushing words of law.

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We fear, having recalled these things, we fear that this ain't gonna go well for me in the end.

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I certainly don't measure up. I don't meet the standard. God has to be frustrated with me. Like, low key, he's gotta be angry.

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I'm frustrated with myself. He has to be. I know myself.

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I could love so much more. I could sin so much less. I certainly haven't rendered unto

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God what he rightly deserves from me. And so here's the conclusion. We think, in our heart of hearts,

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I've got all kinds of reasons to be afraid, but here's what we forget when that is on loop in your mind and your heart.

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Here's what we forget. We forget that everything God requires in his law he's given us in his gospel. We forget that Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness, for everyone who believes.

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Our righteousness is in heaven. He's seated at the right hand of the father. He reigns there. We forget that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him would not perish, but have eternal life.

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We forget that whoever believes in Jesus, whoever, will never be put to shame. We forget that Jesus has offered himself for us to the judgment of God and has removed all curse from us.

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We forget that our salvation, far from being something that God reluctantly has done, our salvation, saints, produces rejoicing in heaven.

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We forget that. And we forget that the Lord loves us and that he has given us peace.

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So here's the deal. We still sin, we're still weak, and yet we have an unshakable hope because of Christ.

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And that's what I want to help us consider this afternoon. So if you have your Bibles with you, open them up to Romans chapter seven, a very well -known passage, a beloved one by many of us

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I know. As you're turning, allow me to just give a little bit of context for us. You are familiar, most likely, with Romans chapter six and verse 14, where Paul says that sin will not have dominion over us because we are not under law, but under grace.

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Now that law that he's talking about is the moral law of God. We are no longer under that as a covenant of works to be kept for righteousness.

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You may know that in the early verses of chapter seven, Paul argues that in Christ, we died to the law.

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His death is our death. And so we no longer belong to the law, but we belong to Jesus now.

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And that is so that we might actually be able to love and serve the Lord in the spirit, not in the old way of the written code.

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We might be fruitful because we no longer belong to the law, we belong to Christ. Now all of that raises a question.

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You may already be thinking it. If the law, when it comes to our flesh, if the law only served to exacerbate our sinful passions, and if we needed to be set free from the law in order to serve

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God in the spirit and actually bear fruit for him, is the law good or is there something wrong with it?

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Does it lead us to sin? And Paul answers emphatically, beginning in verse seven of chapter seven, by no means.

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There is nothing wrong with the law, right? The problem is sin in us. And then he begins to write of himself as representative of us all and communicates to us that through the law, he came to know sin as sin.

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When the law came with the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm not sure if you've ever thought about it this way. If you've ever been crushed by the law and you have seen that you don't measure up and you have thought,

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I need a righteousness I don't have, if you've ever had that thought, that's because the Holy Spirit has convinced you of that.

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So when the law comes with the power of the Holy Spirit and Paul's eyes were open to its standard at a spiritual level, everything changed for him.

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He saw the depth of his ruin and his corruption. All of his legal hopes were destroyed, legal hopes in himself.

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And Paul draws his conclusion about the law, that the law, this is verse 12, and everything it commands is holy and righteous and good.

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Let's pick up in verse 13 and I'm gonna read down through the early verses of chapter eight. This is the word of the

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Lord. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means.

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It was sin producing death in me through what is good in order that sin might be shown to be sin and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.

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For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions.

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For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what

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I do not want, I agree with the law that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

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For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

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For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what

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I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when

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I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

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Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?

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Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh

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I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

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For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,

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He condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the

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Spirit. We thank the Lord for His word. So my plan for the rest of our time is to preach a two -part message.

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Part one, I want us to consider these verses, verse 14 of Romans 7 through the fourth verse of Romans 8.

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We'll consider that in two points. I'll give them to you in just a moment. And then in part two, I wanna answer the question, why is it that we have hope?

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And I'm gonna give us two reasons for that. So part one, Romans 7, 14 through 8, 4.

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Point one of part one, for the copious note takers in the room, we'll entitle it,

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The Law, the Corruption of the Flesh, and the Internal War. The Law, the Corruption of the

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Flesh, and the Internal War. We're gonna look at verses 13 to 23. So in verse 13, you can put your eyes there,

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Paul strongly and indignantly refutes the idea that the law, which is good, brought death to him.

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He says, did that which is good, i .e. the law, bring death to me by no means? He effectively says that the law was the means of convincing him that he was a sinner.

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It was through the law that he came to know sin, to be what it is, and it was through the law that he came to see himself as sinful beyond measure.

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As he had written in chapter three in verse 20 of Romans, through the law comes what?

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Knowledge of sin. This is the first and greatest use of the law.

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You heard that referred to this morning. The first and greatest use of the law is to show us the depth of our sin and to drive us to Christ who kept it for us.

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Verse 14, Paul writes, for we know that the law is spiritual.

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We know, he said. He had come to know this how? In his conversion, through regeneration, the new birth.

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And he writes to saints who know this too. We know that the law is spiritual.

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He calls it that because it requires a spiritual righteousness and because it is of God.

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But I, he says, am of the flesh, sold under sin. So the law is spiritual.

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Spiritual righteousness came from God, reflects God's own character, but on the flip side, Paul says,

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I'm of the flesh, fallen, corrupt by nature. He brought this with him from the womb and so do we.

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Every Christian is of the flesh in this sense, this side of the resurrection. Sometimes people read this verse and they trip up over the phrase sold under sin.

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Well, Paul must have been writing as an unbeliever. Nonsense. Every human is sold under sin by the fall of Adam.

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Paul's saying this, look, the law is good and holy and just. It requires a spotless, heavenly righteousness, a righteousness that lacks nothing.

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But I'm a sinner and in my flesh, I can do nothing but oppose

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God's law. So know this, beloved. Paul is describing his present experience as a

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Christian. In this regard, these verses, truer words have never been penned regarding the

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Christian experience, right? He, as an apostle, let this encourage you.

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Paul, as an apostle, is a man with sinful passions and cravings just like you have and like I have.

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And like Paul, by God's grace, through our union with Christ we are renewed in the spirit of our minds.

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The old man, for every believer in this room, the old man has been put to death, but as Luther said, the old man floats.

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We drag that corpse around with us, this side of the resurrection, we do.

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And here's the key, our old nature, the flesh is not made holy. You understand that?

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We are never exhorted to make our flesh holy. We are exhorted to put it to death, but it's the inner man that is sanctified, that matters.

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But what this all means for us is that there is an internal spiritual war that we feel every day of breathing.

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At times it's disheartening and hard, but Paul knew it. He knew it, he lived it too.

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Verse 15, he writes, you're gonna say, Paul, bro, you're reading our mail, man. You're reading my mail, dude.

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This is exactly what I go through on a daily basis, for I do not understand my own actions. It's John Newton, right?

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I'm a riddle to myself in a heap of inconsistence, right? For I do not do what

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I want, but I do the very thing I hate. He's explaining what he just written in verse 14. How contrary is our fallen nature to the righteousness of the law?

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Even in a regenerate person, who is led to good by the spirit of God, the flesh resists the spirit and pulls toward what is contrary to the law.

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In this internal war is the unique experience of believers. Unbelievers might be plagued by their consciences, that's true, but this is different.

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This is a war at every level of our personhood. You know that, so do

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I. Verse 16, he says, now, if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law that it's good.

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This is simple to understand. Paul's saying this. If I, in my regenerated heart, if I, in my inner man, hate it when

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I transgress the law, I am agreeing with the law and God who gave it that the law is good.

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And every Christian in this room says amen. Why else would

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I be grieved by the breaking of the law if I didn't agree with God that it's good? Verse 17, so now it is no longer

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I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. That's not an excuse. That's just a statement of fact, reality.

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The regenerate part of us desires wholly to honor God and live accord with the law and our flesh desires the opposite.

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Paul understood that when he was sinning as a Christian, it was his flesh at work.

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And it's clear that his inner man hated and grieved that he was sinning. Verses 18 through 20, notice this.

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For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. Now, he has to qualify what he's saying.

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I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, I mean, in my flesh. Now, I trust you see this because you're thoughtful people.

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He has to qualify it like that because he's writing as a regenerate person. If he was writing as an unregenerate person in his natural state, there is nothing but flesh and there would be no need for this qualification.

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Paul limits the assertion that there is nothing good that dwells in him to his old sinful nature.

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Nothing good dwells there. There is good in his inner man. There's good in your inner man too.

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It's called the sanctification of the Holy Spirit. For I have, he says, the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

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For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

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He's just saying this. My flesh keeps me from running as I wanna run. I can't run the way

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I wanna run because of my flesh and my flesh also sets obstacles in my path. I crash against them perpetually.

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I stumble over them all the time. Verse 21, so I find it to be a law, that's strong.

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I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. The inclination of our flesh, friends, toward evil is so strong and so permanent that Paul calls it a law.

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This is our experience, right? I mean, think about your good moments, your good days, your good seasons, where like, man,

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I am enjoying fellowship and communion with my heavenly father. Christ feels near to me.

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And I am full of joy because this is wonderful. I wanna honor him.

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I am motivated. I am geeked up about pursuing obedience. And then, as if from nowhere, unsolicited sometimes, unrelated to circumstance, you have these moments and you're like, where did that come from?

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Desires, cravings, frustrations of the flesh explode. And sometimes they're so strong, it's like we can't shake them.

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They've got their talons in us. That's what Paul's writing about. This law, that whenever I wanna do what's right, evil lies close at hand.

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This law is a source of much grief for the saints. And it robs the saints of hope.

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It makes the saints weary. For many, it results in all kinds of doubts and fears.

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Paul goes on, though, verses 22 and three. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. Paul says that in his inner man, he delights in God's law.

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In that inner being language, you're familiar with this. Ephesians has been referenced a number of times today. If you read

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Ephesians 3, 16 to 19 -ish, where Paul prays for the saints in Ephesus, one of the times he does that, he uses this exact phrase.

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Inner being is what he uses to describe the new nature of believers. Now, this is obvious to you.

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Again, you're smart, you're thoughtful people. When he says, I delight in the law of God in my inner man, only a regenerate person could say such a thing.

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Only a regenerate person delights in God's law. Only a person who's been born again, who's been given a new heart, and here we go, only a person that's been justified, forgiven, and absolved could ever say such a thing.

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No one rejoices in something that is his death sentence. No one. But I see, says

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Paul, in my members, i .e. in my flesh, another law waging war against the law of my mind, that is, my inner being, and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

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So this is really important. The bent of Paul's mind, according to his new nature, is to delight in the law of God, but there is an opposite bent, an opposite law in his flesh.

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And he says that this internal war is what keeps us from doing what we want to do,

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Relations 5 .17. This is why we don't do what we want, but we do the very things we hate.

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This is why we don't do the good that we want to do, but the evil we don't want to do is what we keep on doing.

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So that was very heavy in the text. That was point one of part one. Point two is briefer. We're gonna look at Romans 7 .24

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through 8 .4, heading here, the cry and the hope of every believer. The cry and the hope of every believer.

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Verse 24, you know it well, put your eyes there. Paul cries out, wretched man that I am, in light of everything he's been writing, this is his cry.

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Who will deliver me from the body of death? Now observe this. This was not

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Paul's cry before he had encountered the risen Christ. It was not. Before that, his assessment of himself was entirely different.

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You know what he wrote, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

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Before Paul had encountered the risen Christ, righteous man that I am was his boast.

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But now, wretched man that I am is his cry. And it's the cry of every believer from all time.

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We cry it with him. Verse 25, he cries out again.

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This time, not in despair of himself, but in thanksgiving to God. He says,

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I'm a wretched man, who's gonna deliver me? I thank God through Jesus Christ, because Jesus will surely deliver me.

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There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Remember, the law promised life to all who keep it.

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But because of sin, the law was death for Paul and us. So what did God do? What did

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God do? Put your eyes on verse three. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, couldn't do.

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By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the

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Spirit. The law has been fulfilled by him, who is the end of the law for righteousness, for everyone who believes.

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To walk by the Spirit, beloved, in the context of Romans seven and eight, really in the context of the entire letter, is to seek not to establish your own righteousness.

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That's walking in the flesh. But it is to receive the righteousness of Christ. That is to walk by the

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Spirit. This is all because the righteous requirement of the law has been fulfilled in us.

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This is all because Jesus both endured the law's curse and he fulfilled its requirements.

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Heidelberg Catechism, question 60. Shout out to my man down here on the front row. I'm not kidding about this.

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When I just like quickly wanna share the good news, Heidelberg 60 is where I go. How are you righteous before God?

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How am I? Right? Only by faith in Jesus Christ. Even though I have broken all of God's commands,

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I've never kept a single one of them and am still inclined toward all evil. As a

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Christian, nevertheless, by sheer grace, God counts to me what? The perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ.

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It is as though I have never sinned or been a sinner. And it is as though I have been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me.

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That's what Paul's writing about here. Now, this takes us to part two.

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I apologize for the difficulty I'm having with this microphone. It's been a battle since last night. Part two, why is it that we have hope?

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In light of the text, in light of the things we've been talking about, why is it? Given our weakness, given our frame, how, why do we have hope?

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Two reasons. One, Jesus has set us free. Jesus has set us free.

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From what, brother, you ask? I'm glad you asked the question. We're gonna consider it. He has set us free, first of all, from the guilt of sin.

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Come, guilty ones. Weigh down with sin and hide away in the love of Jesus.

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The freedom, right, that you long for is found in him and in him alone.

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You remember the account of the fall. Adam and Eve had enjoyed communion with God. Walks in the garden in the afternoon.

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And what was the immediate result of sin in terms of their relationship to God? It's guilt.

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It's shame. Hiding from his presence. Well, because of Christ, all of that has been done away with and we have been reconciled back to the benevolent presence of the

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Lord. There's no reason to fear. There's no reason for guilt. There's no reason for shame.

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But next, Christ has freed us from the curse and the condemnation of the law. That yoke of the law, impossible to meet the standard for us in our flesh, what does he say?

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He says, all who are weary and heavy laden, what, come to me. I'll give you what? Rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

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My yoke is easy, my burden is light. I will give you rest for your souls.

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Christ has also freed us, though, from bondage to Satan. We just were hearing about the spiritual realm.

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I don't know that we think enough in these terms. We were enslaved to the evil one and Christ has set us free.

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The great adversary, the great enemy of God's people, sinister and manipulative and shrewd and powerful from the beginning.

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A liar, the great accuser of the brethren. The strong man, as Jesus refers to him in Mark chapter three.

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The strong man has been bound and his goods have been plundered, right?

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Think about the way Satan operated when it came to the earthly ministry of Jesus. You realize Satan's powerful, but he's not

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God. He's not omniscient, he doesn't know everything. What's going through Satan's mind? He tempts

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Jesus just like he attempted Adam and Eve. You're familiar with this account. And in every way that Adam had failed,

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Christ is victorious. We know that, praise be to his name. But do you know what it says in Luke's gospel in particular at the end of Christ's temptation?

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It says that the devil left him and waited for an opportune time. Fast forward about 18 chapters and then we read as if from nowhere that Satan inhabits, he enters

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Judas who's called Iscariot, right? And you know what happened then. Judas would betray

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Jesus. This is Satan at work. He's gonna foil the plan, right?

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The Garden of Gethsemane, later that evening when Jesus is arrested, he says, why are you coming out after me like a robber as though I've done all these things?

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I've been in the temple all the time and you've never touched me, but this is your hour and the power of darkness.

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Interesting. That was the opportune time that Satan had worked for, waited for, jumped on it.

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Little did he know. Little did he know. You wonder, what's going through his head as God the

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Son incarnate hangs on the cross? Did he think he'd won? Little did he know that at that moment,

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Jesus was bruising his head and that later on down the road, the ancient serpent would be thrown into the lake of fire.

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Little did he know. Jesus has conquered and bound the strong man and he has set

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God's people free. But next, Jesus has delivered us and set us free from the fear of the grave.

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These are all the reasons why you and I can have hope tomorrow when we're tying our shoes, when we're getting ready to do whatever it is that the day holds.

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We have been set free by Christ now from the fear of the grave. You know Hebrews 2, 14 and 15?

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It's refrigerator worthy. Because the children partake in flesh and blood, Jesus partook of the same thing.

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Why? So that through death, I'm the one who died and lived again, right? So that through death, he might conquer the one who has the power of death, namely the devil.

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So that what? So that you and I would no longer have to be subject to lifelong slavery, the fear of the grave.

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You know what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, that we bore the image of the man of dust and we will bear the image of the man of heaven.

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We'll be like him. Death is the last and final enemy.

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It's the greatest enemy in that sense. And you don't need me to tell you that death is harrowing. I mean, if we were honest, truth serum is given to everyone in the room.

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Are you afraid to die? I trust many would say, yeah,

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I am. That's frightening. But we know.

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We know that our Redeemer lives. We know with Job, right?

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We can say, I know that he lives and he's gonna stand again on the earth and I will see him.

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We will see him not with other, but with these very eyes, we will. May it be.

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We've been set free by Jesus also from the dominion of sin, the tyranny of it.

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Let me ask you this question. You ever get weary of battling against your flesh? You ever grow tired of that? You ever get weary of having to fight for joy?

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I do. But there is a day coming, saints, that because of Christ, those battles will be over.

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You realize this. There's coming a day when we will know nothing but joy in his presence forever.

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Joy will no longer be something we fight for. It will be our reality. Joy will be our resting heart rate and we won't be able to sin.

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That's a mind -blowing thought. We won't be able to sin, nor even better, nor will

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I even want to, nor will you. The end, you realize, is better than the beginning.

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We have gained more in Christ than we lost in Adam. Next, Jesus has set us free from fear and anxiety of all kinds.

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Do you ever feel like you live life waiting for the other shoe to drop? Like it might be going all right right now.

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It might, I might have a good day tomorrow, though I'm a little unsure, but I'm certain in the next week, month, whatever, it's going to go in a bad direction.

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I'm just living, waiting for the next difficult thing to happen. I'm living in fear of the next tragic event in my life.

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Yeah, it's good now, but it won't be good long. It's how we feel. Do you ever think, man,

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I'm living, just waiting for things to change for the worse. This is where I exist.

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Again, take heart. There is coming a day when the other shoe will never drop. Other shoes will never drop in the new heavens and the new earth.

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There's coming a day when nothing will ever change for the worst. Think of that. There will come a day when no sorrow, no pain are ever around the corner.

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There's coming a day when heartbreak is never headed down the pike. So Jesus has set us free from all of those things.

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That's one of the reasons why we have hope. The second reason that we have hope, and this is where we're going to end our time, this is very simple, but we need to hear it all the time.

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Jesus loves us. Jesus loves us. I mean, many of us in the room who are parents,

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I mean, this is commonplace, right? There's a series of questions that I ask my children at bedtime that are centered around Heidelberg 60.

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They're, again, tip of the cap, right? We do five questions based off of Heidelberg 60, and then I'll often say, does

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Jesus love you? And they'll say, yes, how do you know? And then we sing the song.

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It's sweet. He loves us, and we need to be reminded of it all the time. So what we're going to do now is we're going to consider our

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Savior. To behold Him is the greatest thing that we could ever do. It's the greatest thing that could ever happen for us this side of the resurrection is to see

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Him. And so what I want to encourage you to do as I talk about Him and how He interacted with people during His earthly ministry, put yourself there.

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Put yourself there with Him. Put yourself in the place of the people who are interacting with Jesus to feel what they must have felt and let it encourage your soul.

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I don't know about you. Sometimes I have a hard time in my human brain to comprehend what God is like.

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He's so big. I'm helped and encouraged by the words of Christ where He says,

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Philip, have you been with me this long and you don't know? But if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So maybe that will help you.

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You want to know what God is like? Look to Jesus and we'll know. Okay, here we go. You remember

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Mark chapter five. There was a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. 12 years of suffering.

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I mean, the physical condition alone is bad enough. We're not told exactly what it was, but you're bleeding for 12 years. Discharges of blood for a dozen years.

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That's soul -crushing stuff. But on top of that, you've got the entire dynamic of the community in which she lives.

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She's unclean ceremonially. She's on the margins, all the terms we like to use these days.

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That's her experience. And you know, she's thinking. She tried everything. She'd seen physicians, nothing helped.

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And she's thinking, says Mark, if I can just touch the hem of his garment, maybe something will change.

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I've heard about him. Maybe if I just touch him, something will change. So she makes her way through the crowd. And again, there's a lot of hoopla.

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There's a lot of fanfare. A lot of people, as Jesus is making his way to Jairus' house, because Jairus' daughter is dying, right, and people have come to get him so that he might heal her.

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So this woman makes her way to Jesus in the midst of a corral, a moving parade, and she touches the hem of his garment, and Jesus stops the proceedings.

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And he says, who touched me? The disciples react like we would have. Jesus, what in the world kind of question is that?

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Look at all these people. Who touched you? Now, Jesus is truly man and truly God.

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Do you think he did not know? Do you think he didn't know? Why does he ask that question?

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He wants to have the inner change. He wants to talk to her. We're told by Mark that she came to him.

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When he had done this, who touched me? She comes to him trembling. Think of this. Bleeding for 12 years,

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I've touched his garment. Did I do something wrong? Trembling, she comes to him, and she told him everything.

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And how does he respond? Daughter, daughter, your faith has made you well.

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Go in peace and be healed of your disease. There was a woman of the city who went to Simon the

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Pharisee's house one night because she'd heard Jesus was there. Clearly, I want to see him.

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She comes, you know it well. She's got nothing to offer. Most treasured possession that she's got on earth, she brings it with her, right?

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But she's got no righteousness of her own. Lot of shame, lot of guilt, very clear.

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She's on the ground. She's washing Jesus' feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. And of course,

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Jesus tells the parable to Simon the Pharisee and makes it plain that those who have been forgiven much love much.

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But what's his word? He speaks an exacting word to Simon the Pharisee, right? You've not done this.

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What's his word to her? Your sins are forgiven. What he says, your faith has saved you.

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Go in peace. John 11, we know it well. Lazarus has died or he's dying.

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People come to Jesus to tell him, Lazarus isn't well, can you come? We all know he waits two days.

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Before he goes, he's gonna let Lazarus die. That's so that he can show everyone the power of God. But sometimes we miss a little bit of the interaction with Martha that's there in the middle.

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He comes to her. Think about this. You've had loved ones die. Heartbreak, grief, the smell of death in the house, right?

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This is heavy. Martha comes running out to him and he asks her a question that is a very loving question in the midst of the grief and the heartbreak.

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Do you believe that your brother will live again? She says, yes, at the resurrection on the last day,

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I believe that. To which Jesus says, I am the resurrection. I am the life.

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Anybody who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

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Do you believe this, Martha? And she says, yes, Lord, I believe. Isn't it interesting?

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The Lord comes to her in this time of crisis, this time of grief and heartbreak, and he's gonna get right to the heart of the matter.

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Martha, do you believe me? Do you know that I'm the resurrection and the life? Do you believe that? Yes, Lord, I do.

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It's the most important question we could ever be asked in the midst of suffering. You remember a blind man,

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John chapter nine. The disciples asked the question that we would all ask, Jesus, blind man over here, born blind, who sinned?

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Whose fault is it? His fault or his parents, tell me. Jesus says, neither. But it's so that the, what, works of God might be displayed.

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Now, you're familiar with the story. Jesus restores this man's sight. Things are a little bit unclear at first for the man in terms of what all's going on.

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He's called before the authorities, the religious council, right? And they ask him, who's healed you? He can't answer with precision at first.

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Eventually, his parents are called. They kinda dip out on their son.

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Basically, you're gonna have to talk to him. We can't speak into this matter. So they call him back a second time. And then he's bold, man, in that instance.

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He's like, do you guys wanna be his disciples too? And they throw him out of the synagogue. Now, have you ever noticed what

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Jesus does after that? He heard, it's what

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John writes, he heard about what had happened to that blind man who had his sight. He heard about how he'd been thrown out of the synagogue, and what does he do?

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He went and found him. It's what John said. He goes to the man who's been thrown out of the synagogue, and he asks him this question.

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Do you believe in the Son of Man? He's like, who is he, sir, that I might believe?

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You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you. Lord, I believe, said the formerly blind man, and he worshiped him.

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Christ seeks and saves his own. He's the seeker, and we're the found. John 14, let these words land on your soul as personal words from your

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Savior to you. Let not your hearts be troubled. Oh, believe in God, and believe also in me.

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I'm telling you that in my Father's house, there are many rooms, and I've gone to prepare a place for you, and I would not say it if it wasn't true, and I'll come back, and I'm gonna get you, and I'm gonna bring you to be with me where I am.

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He says that to you. He says it to me, and he bids us to come to him. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden,

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I'll give you rest. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters. He who has no money, let him buy and eat.

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Buy wine and buy milk without money and without price. That's his invitation. And then at the end of it all, he is the one who says, behold,

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I'm making all things new. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

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Surely, I am coming soon, he says. He will be with us even to the end of the age, and he desires that we be with him where he is forever.

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And therefore, dear saint, we have hope. Let's pray.

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Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the testimony that we have about Christ. We pray above all things that we would behold him and see him, even as we reflect together, as we spend time together and think through what we've experienced this day.

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We pray that Christ and who he is for us and what we are to him would be in the front of our minds and hearts.

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We ask that as we behold Christ, that we would be transformed from one degree of glory to another. We pray that you would do this good and sanctifying work in us, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.