What Does God See In You? (pt-2) - [Romans 3:21ff]

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I'd like you to take your Bibles, please, and turn to the most important sentence and chapter ever written. At least in my opinion, the most important section of all of Scripture.
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Go ahead and turn there right now. Let's turn our Bibles to Romans chapter 3.
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As you're turning there, I love stories about how hymns came about. Certain situations with certain background stories, and someone would sit down and write a hymn for a certain occasion, and I just love those stories.
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And with Romans chapter 3, we could write a little book called Verse Stories. What were some of the stories behind these verses?
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J .C. Ryle, the bishop from a hundred years ago in England, he was sitting in a congregation not unlike this one, and the
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Scripture reading for the day was Ephesians 2, 1 -10. And during the reading, he got saved.
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William Cooper, it looks like Cowper, was a great poet back in the days of John Newton, close personal friend with John Newton.
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And he knew he was a sinner, but he couldn't get out from underneath of the law's demands. He said,
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I would cry out over and over, as he was troubled by his sin, my sin, my sin, oh for some fountain open for cleansing.
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I know I'm sinful, how can I get this sin off my back? Well, here's what he said.
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I flung myself into a chair near the window, and seeing a Bible there, ventured once more to apply it for comfort and instruction.
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The first verses I saw were in the third chapter of Romans, being justified freely by His grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
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Immediately, I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the sun of righteousness shone on me.
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I saw the sufficiency of the atonement He had made, my pardon in His blood, and the fullness and completeness of His justification.
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In a moment, I believed and received the Gospel. Isn't that neat? One hundred years before that, another man by the name of John Bunyan, he was sick about his sin too.
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He knew he had a burden on his back, and how could he get the burden of sin off his back? He looked down to Romans chapter 3, and read it, and was saved.
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Here's what John Bunyan said. As I was walking up and down in the house as a man in the most woeful state, the
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Word of God took hold of my heart. Then he quotes Romans 3, 24 and 25, and then he says,
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Oh, what a turn it made upon me! I was as one awakened out of some troublesome dream.
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Martin Luther would sometimes cry out to God for six hours. Six hours of confession.
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God, I'm a sinner, I don't know how you can forgive me, but I know you require your righteousness, your perfection, your obedience, and I just can't get there.
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So maybe six hours of confession, that would work, and they would say, Martin Luther, do you love God? And he'd say,
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Love God? I hate Him. And then one day
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God opened his eyes to understand this great truth. This morning we'll look at one of the most dense, compacted
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Bible sections of all of Scripture, and that is Romans chapter 3. If I had a pastoral prayer for you this morning, it would be this, that you would come to love
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Romans chapter 3, 21 and following, like you do Ephesians 2, 1 to 10. We all know
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Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, right? By grace you've been saved through faith, and we just quote those things and they just fall off our lips with just kind of a rhapsody of forgiveness and kind of give you a kick in your step, and you think,
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I don't have to save myself, God has done it. But Romans 3 should do the same thing. It's just packed with some bigger words, with some things that are maybe harder to understand, and so today we want to look at this, because I don't think you can understand
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Christianity unless you know these verses. At least you can't understand it to the fullness.
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And remember, as our theme is here at the church, or one of the themes, the more you understand theology, the more it will help you in what?
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Doxology. The more you know about God, the more you can praise Him, and the better you can praise Him. As I said last week, it's one thing for kids to say,
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Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. But it's another, and I'll just give you my example, walking by the reservoir just yesterday.
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And I was just praying through this passage, thinking, God, you are so awesome. I didn't have to work for my salvation.
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You were to be praised. I can't believe I could have been relegated to just try harder, do better.
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I'd have a friend and he was more religious, so I have to out -religious him. And I was walking, I was thinking, and Christ was faithful.
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He perfectly fulfilled the law in my place. He was the faithful one. God, thank you for such a gift as your
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Son. And then I thought, I'm a Gentile. I don't deserve to be saved at all. I'm not even a Jew, yet God has not only saved the
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Jews, but He saved the Gentiles. God, you are great. And then I thought, this is even more amazing.
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How can God look at me and say that I'm able to come into His presence when God's holy and I'm not? I said, you can do it because you've justified me.
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And I said, God, thank you for being my justification, for justifying me. So this isn't just theology, because if it is, then we haven't taken it to the next step.
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As we go through this passage, I want you to say to yourself and to God, God, help me understand this better so I can praise you more.
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Certainly for children who get saved or brand new Christians, even here. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so, is wonderful.
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But it gets better, did you know that? It gets better to think, how He's redeemed me and propitiated me.
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All these have made propitiation for me, all these things. I was at Price Chopper this week and I've been thinking a lot about evangelism.
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Make sure you're here next Sunday for Sunday School at 9 o 'clock. We have Grace Community Church's Sunday School curriculum, brand new for evangelism.
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And if you'd like to be better equipped for evangelizing and bolder and have opportunities, that's next
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Sunday here at 9. Hot off the presses at John MacArthur and Grace Church's new evangelism curriculum.
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That'll be next week. But I have a desire to see people get saved. So I said to the lady at Price Chopper, a lady in front of me was talking to the checkout clerk and they were complaining about the weather.
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And so I always have the standard thing about the weather and I know God sends rain and I know God makes it humid and all these things.
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And so I said, after the lady in front of me left, I said to the checkout lady, I said, yeah, but it's a lot better than India, isn't it?
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She's like, because that's always my little line. And then they go, India? What were you in India for? Oh, I was there to help teach pastors how to teach the
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Bible better. Oh, you're one of those Bible teachers and everything. And I said, yeah, I can't believe it. People in India and people in America don't know their
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Bibles. If your husband wrote you a love letter and you never read it, I would think you were crazy. People don't even know the
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Bible. And she's putting everything together. I'm preaching to some person over here, but she knows
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I'm really preaching to her. She's connecting all the dots. This guy's just preaching. And I said, can you imagine standing before God and he's saying, what right do you have to enter my heaven?
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What would you say? She's like, I say, I wish I would have just said, do you have your price chopper card?
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So I thought, you know, I'm going to be praying for this lady. And then I said to her, there's no one else behind me. So I said,
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I know Marsha Bilton is working here now. Do you know Marsha? Oh, yes, I know Marsha. Well, if you think I'm really crazy, just talk to Marsha.
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I'm her pastor. So Marsha said she talked to her. How can man be right before God?
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This is the issue. One day we'll all die and stand before God, and then what? What right do we have to be before a holy
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God? And that's what this question answers. And I love it that it answers it not from the perspective of me.
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It answers the perspective from God's perspective. It answers this question. How can God take someone like me to heaven when
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I don't deserve it? How can God accept me? Well, the way we'll outline the passage, and we went through the first three of these shades last week, so now we'll do these three in review and then the next six,
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Lord willing, is we're going to look at these nine perspectives of justification, of righteousness, in other words.
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How were we right with God? Kind of nine shades, I said last week, of a Polaroid that develops before you.
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Each one kind of brings a little more color and shape and density to the picture. And so we'll look at nine shades of righteousness.
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How can we be right in God's eyes? How can we have obedience which the laws demands and that God accepts, but we don't have it in ourselves?
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Number one, the first shade, if you will, God's righteousness is not achieved by works of the law.
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And I'll give you a key word too that will all end in A -T -E, celebrate. Romans 3 .21, if you don't have your
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Bibles, you'll need one. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God, the righteousness that is acceptable by God, has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
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And here we have this great turning point. This is the issue. This is the flicker of sunlight that we move from chapters 1 .18
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through 3 .20, where people are hedonistic, they're Jews who don't love
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God, they're Gentiles who don't love God, some have the law, some don't. What are we going to do? And 3 .21, it's just like this neon light that comes up and says, but we don't have to be saved by what we do.
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We can't be saved by what we do. Verse 20, if you go back up a verse, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight.
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Maybe other people's sight, you will be more religious, but not before God. You can't try harder, you can't get there from here.
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David Brainerd was a local a couple hundred years ago, trained up by Jonathan Edwards. And he said, this irritated me about God.
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What irritated me about God? His law. He said, I found it was impossible for me after my utmost pains to answer its demands.
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How can I do that? He said, it made me mad. He said, I made resolutions and I broke them.
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I tried to be more watchful, more prayerful, more steadfast, and I couldn't do it. Can you imagine just the courthouse scene?
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There you are, standing before God. God's over there in the judge's seat. And you try to plead your case, and then the prosecutor is the law, and he just says one thing over and over.
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The wages of sin is death. I was good. The wages of sin is death. I didn't beat up anybody when
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I was a kid. The wages of sin is death. I was very religious. I gave to the church. The wages of sin is death. So how do you get out from underneath this kind of thing?
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It's a different currency. It's not trying to be good. That was my life.
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I grew up in a Lutheran church. There are some good Lutheran churches, of course, but my particular one, I thought
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I made the grade before God, and God says, What right do you have? I thought I was going to say this. Because I ate this wafer.
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Because I've been baptized as a child. Those are things that I've done. Those are things that I do. God says,
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It's a different kind of currency. You can't do it. You can't do anything to get to heaven. You can't pray towards Mecca five times a day.
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You can't have a prayer wheel. You can't attend church. You can't have a sacrament. There's nothing you can do. And so that's why
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I picked the word celebrate. Because I'm glad this is the case. Because the good news keeps coming. Secondly, the second shade.
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Not only God's righteousness is not achieved by works. Secondly, God's righteousness is through Christ's faithfulness.
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It's through Christ's faithfulness. And for our key word, I'll just use mediate. Not as a prayer, but to affect an action by an intermediary.
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God's righteousness is through Christ's faithfulness. Look at the verse. Verse 22. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
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Since the law is not satisfied with imperfection. Since the law demands perfection. And God's about the business of saving people.
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He gives someone to us who perfectly obeys the law. And that person is Christ. He perfectly obeys.
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And you could translate this through faith in Christ Jesus. Through Christ's faith or through Christ's faithfulness.
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And I think that's the best way to take it as I said last week. Somebody had to perfectly obey the law and it was
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Christ. And since he's divine, he can credit that to as many people's account as he wants. Thirdly, not only is
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Christ's righteousness not achieved by works. But it's through his faithfulness. Thirdly, it does not discriminate.
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And that was what we could use for a word. Discriminate, not discriminate. Verse 22. For all those who believe, there's no distinction.
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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. If you're really a good person and you walk grandmas across the street.
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And you try to uphold the law and you never go 56 miles an hour. There's salvation for you.
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No smiling because then I know who the law breakers are. There's salvation for you, the good moralist.
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If you're someone whose society thinks is vile and should be locked up in Shirley or Lancaster jail.
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Wherever that one is. There's hope for you too. There's no discrimination for anyone. Because God is an equal opportunity savior.
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Because everyone has been condemned by the law equally. So there's salvation offered for all. There's never a distinction.
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There's no sin that cannot be forgiven. And if you're not a Christian today, you think I'm too bad for God to save.
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There's no sin that can't be forgiven in this age. Jesus talked about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That was when he was on earth and when he'll be on earth.
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Let's get to the new stuff. This is a new information. The fourth shade of God's righteousness as we just try to develop this picture.
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You say well this is kind of like a Bible study. Yes in fact it is. But we need to know this passage.
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Fourthly, God's righteousness is by legal declaration. It is by legal declaration.
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You can't work for it. Christ obeyed in our place. It's without distinction. And fourthly by legal declaration.
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And I'm going to use the word vindicate. So we've got celebrate. We've got mediate, advocate and now vindicate.
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It is by legal declaration. Let's look at the passage. Romans 3 .24. Being justified as a gift by his grace.
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Let's stop there. If you can picture courtroom terminology, a tribunal, you're going to get this.
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This is a courthouse with all kinds of courthouse terminology. And the passage says that we are justified as a gift by his grace.
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This is the central issue of the Reformation, wasn't it? How to be right with God. Justification by faith alone.
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Luther said this is the article with and by which the church stands. Without which it falls.
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Without the church of God cannot exist for one hour. Without this article the world is in utter death and darkness.
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Justification by faith alone is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, the judge over all kinds of doctrines.
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Now I have a quick question for you. You say, well, I don't know if I need to know this kind of stuff. I teach a discipleship lab and teach men here at the church how to preach.
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One of the assignments is this. I'd like you to stand up for ten minutes and we pull out all the stops.
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Six thirty in the morning. This microphone is hot. They stand up here. No other chairs except six down here.
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We're all taking notes for critique. I turn up the sound system loud and we come in here and we take turns preaching and then you get critiqued.
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And one of the topics is, would you please teach justification by faith alone to a junior high class?
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We're your junior high class. Why? Because it's so important.
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You say, well, I know because you're trying to make it hard for the guys. That's true, but it's an important doctrine and we need to know.
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This is not something that you could ever say, I don't really need to know that, that's one of those big words and I'm not into all these kind of monosyllabic words.
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No, we need to know this passage. My friend
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Steve Fernandez out in California said, to the degree a person grasps this doctrine, will be to the degree that a person worships and adores
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God. That's true. This is not a negotiable issue. This is not periphery.
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What does it mean? Justify means to declare righteous. You might want to write that down, even by your
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Bible. To declare righteous. As people get saved, they are declared righteous. Think of the courthouse.
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If I had a gavel up here, and I do, but I'm not into props, because then what do you do next week? If I had a prop, it's like the guy in Texas, I think it's
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Second Baptist Church, Southern Baptist Church in Houston, Ed Young Jr., he drives in for Ephesians chapter 6, message on top of a tank, an army tank, and preaches on top of the tank for the sermon.
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I have a lot of questions, but my primary question is this, what do you do next week? How do you get people's attention?
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If I had a gavel up here, there's one in my office, I would look at someone and say, hammer it down and say, you are what?
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Not guilty. That's what this word means. Not guilty. The opposite is condemnation.
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Romans chapter 8 verses 1. Listen to what John Risinger said.
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This is a legal term, and it denotes the status of someone or somebody. Do you get that? Status. We must understand the difference between state and standing.
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A man can kill someone and claim he did it in self -defense. A jury may find him not guilty of murder because they are convinced the man was justified in defending himself.
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Standing before the law as innocent, a jury in court finds and declares guilt or innocence, but it cannot make him either one.
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This is status. This is not the judge saying not guilty because you're a good guy.
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He's saying not guilty because you fulfilled the law's demands. That's exactly what has happened. It is a legal term.
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It is status before God. Well, how does this happen? We learned last week that Jesus fulfills the law for us.
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It's credited to our account. Our sins, we personally sin, and they're credited to Jesus' account even though he didn't sin.
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And God can say, you're acquitted based on another man's work. And if you look at the text, verse 24, to talk about this great position we have, this legal term, we are being justified as a gift.
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By the way, that word means freely. It means without reason, without a cause. Remember in John 15 they said to Jesus, Jesus said, they've hated me without a what?
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They've hated me without a cause. We have been justified for no reason, for no cause. If God looks down the corridors of time to see what you're doing and says, yeah, that's a good guy,
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I'm going to justify him, it blows us first out of the water. God looks down the corridors of time and sees nothing but Romans 1, 2, and 3a and says,
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I will justify you without a cause. No reason. At least that he gives to us.
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The sign outside says, what does God see in you to save you? Well, he loves people so much he sent his son, he didn't see anything in us.
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Now that we're his children, of course, that's different. But justification is to declare righteous. What is justification not?
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This will help us clarify what it is. It is not this slogan. Some of the slogans are great.
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Remember the slogan for grace? The acronym for grace? God's riches at Christ's expense?
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It's a good definition of grace, pretty much. How about this? Have you heard it? Just as if I never sinned.
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Justification is just as if I never sinned. That's what I was taught. And it's a good definition, but it's only partial.
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You need to add this. God sees me just as if I... It's easy for me to say. I'm trying to make it into one slogan.
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God sees me not just as if I've never sinned, but God also sees me just as if I perfectly obeyed the law from conception.
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That's justification. Not just that I've never sinned past, present, and future, but I've obeyed everything. Secondly, justification is not being made righteous.
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You are not changed on the inside when God justifies you. Kim and I met in Los Angeles, and we were right down the street from a little street called
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Gretna Green. In Brentwood, Los Angeles, West L .A. Anybody know what happened in Gretna Green?
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O .J. Simpson was alleged to kill his wife there, Nicole Simpson.
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At the O .J. Simpson trial, when that verdict was announced, as a matter of fact,
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I think it was announced 10 o 'clock Pacific Standard Time, and I had an appointment at 10 o 'clock as a sales rep, and I just called them and said,
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I can't make it on time, and I went to Montgomery Ward to the TV section to stand there because I wanted to see what was happening.
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When that judge said, or the jury said, not guilty, the issue was status before the court and the law.
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The issue was not O .J. Simpson is a great, wonderful person now. Right?
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You are not making the person more ethical or making the person more sanctified. You are just declaring that person is not guilty.
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So justification is not somehow making us better. That's a different term. That's regeneration that we'll get to another time.
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The problem is the word justification in Latin means to make righteous. It's not to make righteous in the
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Bible. It's to declare righteous. Let me prove it to you. Deuteronomy 25 .1.
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I'll just read it. If there is a dispute between men and they go to court and the judges decide their case and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked...
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Stop there. It's a court case. They're saying, yes, before the law, you are guilty or you're condemned or you're not guilty.
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It's not changing the status of the person. And I would say to you that if you believe that it is to make righteous, you're a
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Roman Catholic. If you believe it's to declare righteous, you're a Protestant. This is the whole issue. When I go to my barber and get a haircut, we don't talk about Mary.
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We don't talk about purgatory. We don't talk about the magisterium. We don't talk about the Council of Trent.
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We talk about this issue and this issue only. How are you made right with God? Is Christ credited to you?
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Or is Christ's holiness put into you? In other words, does God declare you righteous, not guilty?
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Or does God say you're made righteous by the start of baptism and then other sacraments as you go?
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This is the issue. I don't say it because I'm mad at anyone. You need to know this to evangelize.
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This is the issue. Both are not right. Only one's right. We're not all going to heaven. Let me prove my point even further.
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Look back up at Romans 3, verse 4. Righteousness means to declare righteous.
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How could we ever declare God being better? Look at Romans 3, verse 4. May it never be. Rather, let
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God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy works, and mightest prevail when thou art judged.
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We're going to have this happen, God, because you need to be justified when you do it. You need to be not guilty when you do such a thing.
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Now, let's read it the other fashion. That thou mightest be made better in thy words, and mightest prevail when thou art judged.
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This has nothing to do with being better. This has something to do with declared not guilty. Can you imagine when
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God looks at you? Even if you're in the process of sin that moment, He says you're not guilty.
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Why? Because my Son has paid for your sins and my Son has obeyed for you. More about justification maybe later.
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We need to keep going. For those who are calculating the points, we've got to zip. Justification means to declare righteous.
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It's a courtroom verdict that says, Jesus lived a perfect life in your place, Jesus died in your place, the great transaction is made, and God says,
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I agree and I affirm, because Romans 4 .25 says that the resurrection is
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God's stamp of approval, that I am satisfied. Okay, let's keep going.
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Number five. God's righteousness has its ground in redemption.
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Key word, liberate. God's righteousness has its ground in redemption. By the way, if you're a dad sitting here, you need to know this doctrine so well you can translate it to your kids.
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This is the gospel. You need to teach your kids this doctrine. How are we made right with God? And it is not by being better or by doing better.
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It's not that. It is by perfection. Can you imagine you have to be perfect to get into heaven?
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And can you imagine you have to be perfect to get into heaven, and you're not, and then you're going anyway, because God's perfect for you?
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You think, wow! That's why this doctrine has so many implications.
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For instance, liberty. That's why people walk around and say, oh, you know, I'm going to hell, that person's going to hell because they smoke a cigarette, and I've seen them drink a little wine in their house.
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You mean to tell me if you're justified by faith alone, and God declares you not guilty, past, present, and future sin, and looks at you also and says,
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I've had my son obey in your place, and when I see you, I see my son, and you go, I'm going to undo that with a bud?
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A cigarette bud? I don't even know what they're called. Whatever. There are other words for them too, and I dare not repeat.
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No. This issue has to do with salvation, and losing your salvation. You can't undo what
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God has already done. That's why when I sometimes feel like I'm not saved, have you ever had that feeling?
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I drive down the road thinking, I've devoted my entire life to be a pastor, and preaching the gospel, I know theology, not perfectly, but I know plenty, plenty enough, and I just, is this just a big joke, this whole
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Christian thing, and I've sinned, and what if I, I say this sometimes, I'm a Bible teacher, and what if I'm not saved, and if I go to hell knowing what
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I know, and what I've been teaching people, I'm going to bust hell wide open, and I get frightened. You know what soothes me, and calms me, and has abalmed my spirit, every single time that I think those thoughts?
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I am right in God's eyes, not by what I have done, or what I have not done, but I am justified by Christ's perfect death, and I am willing to stake my eternity on that matter.
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This is not just some theological pie in the sky. Look at number five again, found in verse 24.
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God's righteousness has its ground in redemption. A synonym, a key word is liberate. So we've got celebrate, we don't have to obey the law to get saved.
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Mediate, Christ obeys for us. Discriminate, it does not.
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Vindicate, and now liberate. We move from the courtroom of justification to the slave market in the city.
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Buying and selling human people. Through, verse 24, the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
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And did you notice it says only in Christ. When you think of redemption center, what do you think of? I know what
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I think of. I think of cans and bottles. Don't you? There's a redemption center.
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That's what I think of when I think of redeem. If you were a Jew, living in the Bible times, and someone said redeem, what would you think about?
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Well, it could be Naomi, Ruth, kinsmen redeemer. It could be redeemed from trouble, snatched out of trouble.
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But I guarantee you would think of this verse right here. Or one equivalent to it. Deuteronomy 7 .8
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But because the Lord loved you, and kept the oath which he swore to your forefathers, the
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Lord brought you out by a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, out of the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt.
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God says I'm going to liberate you. I'm going to redeem you. That's exactly what the word is. Emancipation.
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And it's not just a proclamation. Remember the emancipation proclamation? It just proclaimed emancipation.
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Didn't actually make everybody turn in their slaves, let them free rather. This word means to redeem by paying a price.
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To purchase in the marketplace. So isn't this neat? You think, okay, how does God see me? I've got the courthouse language, and now
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I've got the slave market language. We were slaves to sin and God has redeemed us. You know, the really funny thing is, it's not so funny
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I guess, we didn't even know we were slaves to sin, we thought we were free. Why don't you tell me about God's ordained and everything, and I've got free will, and you walk around all the time going,
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I've got free will, don't tread on me. The whole time you're so enslaved to sin, you don't have free will, but you think you do.
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Because 2 Timothy chapter 2 says that we have been blinded as unbelievers to do Satan's will.
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God has purchased us out. God says, see that one up there? Can you think of Homer and Gomer?
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Homer is in my sermon later as a Roman poet, but he's not supposed to be there right now. Hosea and Gomer?
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Hosea buying Gomer? There she is, a prostitute, naked up on the slave block, and he says,
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I'm going to buy her. And God says, you love her too. And what is implied in redemption is a payment.
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You have to pay something. There's a ransom, where Jesus came to give His life, a ransom. Revelation 5, 9 says, thou was slain and did purchase for God with thy blood.
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His sacrificial death was the payment. B .B.
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Warfield said, There's none, no one of the titles of Christ which is more precious to the Christian hearts than Redeemer.
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Redeemer is the name specifically of Christ of the cross. Whenever we pronounce it, the cross is placarded before our eyes and our hearts are filled with loving remembrance not only that Christ has given us salvation, but that He paid a mighty price for it.
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Keith Green, there is a Redeemer. Fanny Crosby, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the
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Lamb. The courthouse, you're vindicated or justified. The slave market, you're liberated or set free.
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Now let's move to the next one, number 6. We go to ritual language. God's righteousness was demonstrated publicly.
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Key word, propitiate. P -R -O -P -I -T -I -A -T -E. Propitiate.
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Now we go from liberation to propitiation. Found in verse 25.
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Whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate
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His righteousness. That word demonstrate means to declare, to show openly, to put a knee on side there and say, everybody look at this.
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Remember we read Leviticus chapter 16 earlier in the service today? And where was that atonement?
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How was that atonement made? Out in the middle of the desert? Yes, but there was a tent and it was inside the
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Holy of Holies and who could go in there? Aaron the high priest only. Now this is different. This isn't just for the
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Jews in a little tent tabernacle in the middle of nowhere. This is outside of the city, the biggest most important city probably in the world and it's publicly done.
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God demonstrated publicly that He was going to save men. It's not a secret deal, secret handshakes, only for us four, no more, shut the door.
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It's demonstrated. Well what is demonstrated? Propitiation.
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Propitiation. I told you I have several favorite words in my life, but one is propitiation.
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It's a wonderful word not only by what it sounds like, but what it does. It means to appease.
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It means to satisfy. It's only used one of the time in the New Testament, this exact form.
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Hebrews 9 .5, overshadowing the mercy seat. God propitiated
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His wrath that we deserve, but He punished His Son instead of us. He had wrath, due wrath, and then
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He flooded that out on His Son, and then He was appeased.
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This is all language that goes right back to the ark that was covered in the Holy of Holies. So can you imagine? Here's the ark, not the
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A -R -K, but the A -R -C, and you've got the cherubim coming over, and right on the top you've got something called the mercy seat.
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And reread Leviticus 16, and they'll come in and pour blood on there, and sprinkle blood on there, and what is the significance?
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Well, if you ask yourself the question, what's inside of the ark? And one of the three components in the ark was the
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Ten Commandments, right? The moral law of God. The high priest goes in, he sprinkles a bunch of blood on the top, and when
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God looks down to see the law that you have broken, His wrath is assuaged, and He is not going to do anything because He sees the blood already shed.
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And instead of your blood, here we have substituted blood. The innocent victim has been slain.
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The people who should be slain, who are underneath the law of God, the Torah, they don't have to be slain.
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People have a problem with this. Why? Number one, because they think God's only love. They don't think He's wrathful. How would you want
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God's wrath appeased, propitiation, if you don't think God's wrathful? God's not really that mad at sin, and I'm not really that mad at sin, and it's no big deal.
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This whole propitiation terminology comes from the pagans where there'd be a God, and He'd be mad at you, and you better give
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Him some berries. You have this berry God, and He loves berries, and you better put some berries in His mouth, or maybe you go to the restaurant, and there's a little
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God sitting there like this, and He likes oranges. So you better give Him some oranges. This God, He's super mad, and we better give
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Him some babies and kill the babies to Molech, because then His wrath will be assuaged. But in this particular case,
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God's wrath is not capricious. God's wrath is not, you know, I'm not taking my
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St. John's wort today in my Zoloft, and you're making me mad. God rightfully and dutifully says,
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I'm just, and you have sinned, and you have fallen short, and you are due all the penalty of the law.
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But instead of taking out my fury on you, I'll take it out on the innocent victim, and when I see you,
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I see you with blood splattered all over you. That's what propitiation is. It's not some bad -tempered
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God who's subject to moods and to fits. You say, when did this happen? Matthew 27, 45, you might write the reference down.
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Now, from the sixth hour, noon, darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour, three o 'clock.
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And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that is, my
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God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For three hours on the cross, completely dark, you've gotten the eternity of hell's punishment smashed down into three hours, placed on Christ, and God then is propitiated because he's poured out all his wrath on his son.
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That's why people ask me the question, well, what do you think about that new Mel Gibson movie, The Passion? Well, number one,
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I haven't seen it. Number two, if it's all about how bad the crucifixion was, they spit on him, they plucked out his beard, they stuck in the spears, they mocked him, they wagged their heads, they hurled abuse, all those things.
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That's horrible. My daughter watches it, she would cry, and so she doesn't even want to watch it. I mean, who would want our beautiful Savior treated like that?
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But many other men, thousands have been crucified. What's the big deal about the crucifixion?
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It was just this horrible form of Persian execution that they would say, this ground is holy to our
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Persian god, Uzid, and so we don't want you even touching him, we'll lift you up off the ground. What's the real issue with the
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Passion? Propitiation is the real issue. Not it hurt Jesus, although it did.
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But what was going on is when Jesus is having the fellowship with the Father, and they're always one, and they're always close, and now the only time in all the
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Bible He cries out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? That's the issue.
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For those three hours where Jesus was being the Lamb, and then the Father was pouring out His wrath, that we deserve un -Christ.
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That's propitiation. It's not what was a horrible, gruesome death. It's true. That's not the main thing.
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Another example of this word in the Bible, a different root word, is, remember the tax gatherer and the sinner?
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Tax gatherer's like, you know, kind of Tarzan guy, I pray, and I fast, and I do all these things, look at me, and his chest is big, and ha ha, look what
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I do. And what did the tax gatherer do? He went far away, and he said, God, be mercy seated to me, a sinner.
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God, have mercy upon me. Literally, be mercy seated upon me. God, when you see me, don't see me, see the blood of an innocent victim instead.
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That's propitiation. Treat me on the basis of blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, James Boyce said.
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And that's exactly right. Without getting into too much, because time is fleeting, think of the terminology here, this is very important.
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What did Jesus do on the cross? Hang in there with me. Did He make propitiation possible, or was propitiation accomplished?
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Did He make redemption possible, or was redemption accomplished? Did Jesus die for everyone, and now
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He's waiting for those to repent and believe, so then somehow it can be accomplished, or are those terms,
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He made redemption, and it was propitiated. It's a big deal. You say, what's so big deal about it?
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Well, Jesus did not create the opportunity for a propitiation to happen, or redemption. He made propitiation.
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True or false? Propitiated sins can be punished again. If God has poured out
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His wrath on His Son, are you going to hell? Of course, as believers, no!
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That would be double jeopardy. Yeah, God, Your Son paid for my sins on the cross, and now
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You're sending me to hell too? The devastating passage that talks about God's intention for the atonement to the elect and to those who believe and no one else is
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Romans 8 .32. He who did not spare His Son, but gave Him up for us all, will
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He not also give us all things with Him? In other words, Paul is saying, if Jesus died for you, won't
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He give you everything else? Wisdom and knowledge and how to have a family and how to do a work and everything else and eternal life and hope, won't
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He give you everything else? You mean to tell me, Jesus died on the cross for you, and you get nothing else because you're in hell forever as an unbeliever?
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That doesn't make sense at all. You can study the intention of the atonement, but the
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Father chooses the elect. The Holy Spirit redeems the elect, seals the elect, and Jesus does not make redemption possible or propitiation possible.
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He actually dies for those. Which one of these statements is true? This is the
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John Owens conundrum. Jesus died for some of the sins of all men. Two, Jesus died for all the sins of some men.
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Or three, Jesus died for all the sins of all men. Now certainly we rule out the first one,
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Jesus didn't die for some of the sins of all men. The second one, which I believe Jesus died for all the sins of some men, can be bolstered by this.
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If you say Jesus died for all the sins of all men, let me quote to you what John Piper says,
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Christ died for all the sins of all men, but then why are not all saved? They answer, because some do not believe.
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But is this unbelief not one of the sins for which Christ died? If they say yes, then why is it not covered by the blood of Jesus and all unbelievers saved?
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If they say no, unbelief is not a sin that Christ has died for, then they must say that men can be saved without having all their sins atoned for by Jesus, or they must join us in affirming that Jesus died for the sins of some men, all the sins of some men.
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You can study that on your own. It's not an issue of orthodoxy or heterodoxy, but I think at the cross,
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Jesus made propitiation, He made redemption, He made reconciliation, not just for everyone, but for His people.
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Alright, let's keep going. Seventhly, disagree with me on that last one if you'd like, but you won't disagree with me on this one.
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Number seven, God's righteousness was not compromised. Let's use the word vindicate again, but vindicate
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Himself. We were vindicated in justification, but how can God let people off scot -free?
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The real question is not how can God forgive sinners, the real question is this, how can God forgive sinners and remain just?
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Can you imagine God up there, kind of like a grandpa, I remember I went to my grandma and grandpa's house when I was a kid, and grandma would tell me,
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Grandma Nona, see that yardstick over there, that yellow yardstick? See that big, fat, thick yardstick?
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Not one of those cheap, free giveaways that they gave away at the grain mill or wherever they gave them away, and she said, if you disobey me, and I'm not only going to tell your mom,
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I'm going to take that and take that over your rear. So, one day I disobeyed, and then
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I walked over and disobeyed some more, I took that thing and went, handed it to grandma. Here you go, grandma.
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I love my grandma, but she wasn't just. She was just forgiving, but no basis for that.
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She just kind of swept it under the table. Isn't he a good boy? He'll make a good pastor someday.
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Because he knows the depths of sin. She just condoned it, and looked the other way, kind of forget, you know?
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What's God do? He says the wages of sin is death, and there's all these people throughout the world somehow getting away scot -free.
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How can God forgive sinners? Act somehow if their sin is just insignificant? Well, the text gives us the answer.
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How can a righteous God declare the unrighteous to be righteous? Verse 25, this was to demonstrate
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His righteousness. Why? Because in the forbearance of God, He passed over the sins previously committed.
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For the demonstration, I say, verse 26 of His righteousness at the present time, that He might be just, same root word for righteous, and the justifier, it just sounds better than righteous -ifier, of the one who has faith in Christ.
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Compromise righteousness, or condone unrighteousness. What would you pick? And this is a sticky wicket.
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This is a conundrum, kind of like a Rubik's cube. Like I said before, Horace, it wasn't even
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Homer, but it was Horace, was a Roman poet, and he introduced this concept.
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The deus ex machina. God and the machine.
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And he said, if you're going to have a play up on stage, don't have a God, small g, come up and solve your problem unless it's worthy of a
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God -solved problem. How can God be the just and justifier? Here we need that very thing.
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Why? Listen to Proverbs 17, 15. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the
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Lord. What's God going to do? Exodus 23, 7. Keep far away from a false charge.
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Do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty. So how is God going to solve that conundrum, that problem?
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Stifler said, the chief question in saving man is not how man may be accounted just, but how God may remain so in forgiving sins.
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Now one thing's for sure we know, in Leviticus 16, God didn't immediately say, you're dust. The first time you sin, you're dust.
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Even back in the Garden of Eden, Adam sinned, you're dust. No. God was forbearing, and He passed over.
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He didn't immediately execute the death sentence. Acts 17, 30. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance,
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God is now declaring to all men that everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world.
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That's the key. That opens up everything. If God just said, you're unrighteous, and I count you righteous, that's an abomination.
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But if God says, you're unrighteous, and I count you righteous, based on the righteousness of another, then that solves the problem.
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And that's what's exactly happened. Leon Morris said, when God does not punish the sinner, that might well show
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Him to be merciful or loving. But just? It would mean that God condones evil. Justice demands that the guilty be punished just as it demands the innocent go free.
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So God might be accused of being unjust. Not anymore, says Paul, the cross shows us
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God's inflexible righteousness in the very means by which He is forgiven.
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How do you solve this problem? The cross. God can say He's just, He punishes sins.
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And He can say, I justify people based on the work of another. Alright, time's up, so two more just quickly.
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Eighthly, because next week we'll be in Revelation 21 on heaven. The week after that, Don Whitney will be preaching about hell.
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So we need to finish this today. Hang in there with me. Number eight, God's righteousness should yield much, but not boasting.
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My key word there is prostrate. Verse 27, 28, Where then is boasting?
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It's excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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You ever had those little kids' puzzles? The kids' cartoons? And kids' coloring books?
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I like these even to this day. Which one doesn't belong? You got five pictures, and you have to try to figure out which one doesn't fit.
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You know those? Which one doesn't fit? Works and salvation? Faith and salvation?
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Works doesn't fit, so therefore we can't boast. It's excluded. It's shut out. The song says,
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When I survey the wondrous cross, I pour contempt on all my pride. When you get to heaven, why will you be there, and someone else not be there?
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Because you walked the aisle? Because you took the wafer? Because you repented? Because you believed? No, because God justified you.
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He redeemed you. He made propitiation on His Son for you. He did it all. He even gave you the gift of faith. And then ninthly, ninth and finally,
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God's righteousness is through faith. Key word, appropriate. It's through faith alone.
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Appropriate means to take possession of. For we maintain, verse 28, that man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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True or false? Faith is a meritorious action. God says, Your faith? Yeah, that counts.
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I'll save you because of that. True or false? That is false. Your faith does not give
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God a debt. Your faith is not the cause of salvation, it is the result. Did you get that? God doesn't say,
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I saw your faith, therefore I can save you. God's up there in heaven, He's just going, Mike, please believe, please believe, please believe, pretty please, with sugar on.
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I finally go, yeah, I repent. And He goes, Salvation. No, all bundled up into one.
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God saves me and I respond with, I believe. I've seen plenty of babies being born.
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When I used to work in the hospital, I've seen four of my own born. And they come out of the womb, and they come out, and one of the first things they do is like, they probably think to themselves, it's freezing cold out here, and everybody's screaming, but they're also going, they respond with breath.
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And just as the baby responds with breath, after that umbilical cord no longer serves its function, God saves us, and we respond with, it's not the cause of, but we respond with, breath, breathing, faith.
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You are not saved because of your faith. You are not saved because of your baptism that starts it. No. Spurgeon said,
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Remember this, or you may fall into error of fixing your mind so much upon the faith, which is the channel of salvation.
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No man comes to me, except the Father who sent me draws him. Spurgeon quotes Jesus. So that faith which is coming to Christ is the result of a divine drawing.
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That's right. It's the result of divine drawing. And faith is not just what you know, creedal.
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Matter of fact, the demons even do that, don't they? What do demons do? Demons believe, and they have an emotional reaction too, and they shudder.
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You know, we just got a little dog, and if the dog's scared, up goes the what on the back of the dog? The hair.
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Bristles up. And James is saying, you know, the faith that you have that's just merely creedal isn't good enough.
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Satan does that better than you. The faith that you have that means some kind of emotional thing, oh, I'm so emotional about him, that's like demons with the hair standing on the back of their head.
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That, by the way, is from the root word in Latin, horror. Horreo. Interestingly enough, the
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Jews and their religion had called in their tradition, demons, hairy ones. That doesn't save.
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It's a trust. It's an appropriation to use that word. As one man said, faith is believing that Christ is what
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He said He is to be, and that He will do what He's promised to do, and then to expect this of Him. We are saved by faith.
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Alone, nothing else. We can't add to it. Now, we've zoomed through here.
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We've had five sermons in one hour. Someone once said to me, if I ever want two sermons in a day, we come to BBC.
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And don't stay for the second service. This is so packed. But I wanted to preach this passage for many reasons.
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And one is, so the Christians here might be reminded, God is wonderful. Who could be so wise to come up with a salvation like that?
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And I also wanted to preach this gospel because I know there are unbelievers here. Maybe they're my own kids.
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I've got probably two, maybe three unbelieving kids. And I want this passage to be what
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Bunyan saw it to be, and what Cowper saw it to be, and what Paul saw it to be.
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This is the gospel of our salvation. If this is boring, then we have a bigger problem within we just don't evangelize.
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But if it is thrilling, you think, I can't believe God with all these different things. Courtroom, slave room, ritual practice.
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God has saved me. And God has saved you not to show His love to you, last point, but He saved you because He did love you.
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Then He initiated all these things. Next time you struggle with your salvation, then
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I'd go back to Romans 3. Next time you want to preach the gospel to a friend, I'd go to Romans 3.
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Next time you say, God, how can you be worthy of praise? My life is falling apart. Go to Romans 3.
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And your eyes go off yourself and they go up to the Lord and you say, fine. But one thing's for sure. You've heard Romans 3.
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What are you going to do about it? Because if you just walk back out that door and say,
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I heard another sermon, mark that one up, then it'll be in vain. But if you say,
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God is my Savior. Thank you for loving me.
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I love you. That's the response. Alright, let's pray. Father, we do thank you for this morning. And this is deep and rich, but Father, as our study goes deeper, our devotion can go higher.
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And I pray for those who may need to listen to tape two or three times. Maybe you need to study more.
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Maybe you need to get a Bible dictionary or encyclopedia out to study. I pray that you would just thrill their souls.
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Father, how short we fall even as Christians, yet you still love us. You couldn't love us anymore. You don't love us any less based on our performance.
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You've justified us. You've redeemed us. You've made propitiation on your Son for us.
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And now we can only respond with praise and singing and evangelism. I pray for that lady at Price Chopper.
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Father, that you would grant me and Marcia, Marcia and I, many opportunities to preach the Gospel. I pray for those who don't know you here, that they would just cry out for mercy like that tax collector.
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God, have mercy upon me. God, be mercy seated for me. And Father, that our church will be energized with new believers.
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And we might be anticipating Daniel's baptism next week, next Sunday morning, because we see your good hand in our life, and then
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Father, be pleased to have it in our children's life, in our grandchildren's life too. In Jesus' name, Amen.