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Hey. Good morning, everybody. It's quiet in here this morning. Are you doing okay? Okay.
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Why don't we stand up? And I'd love to I'd love to begin just by praying, thanking God for a new day. God, we are grateful for another day. I thank you for breath in our lungs. I thank you for creating us and giving us meaning and purpose.
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And as we are here together as a church family, would you kinda take the focus off ourself right now that we could put it on you, that we're asking more what can we give to you than what can you give to us, but what can we offer you? And may we learn from you, worship you, adore you in Christ's name. Amen.
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Here in this morning weary land, many a dream has died. Like a tree planted by the water, And to the world, we're reaching out to show them who you are. Living water flowing through. God,
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Y'all can have a seat. I've got a few announcements this morning. One of them, Moana is back. So, that's starting to again, starting back up tomorrow night just like school starting back tomorrow. So, I wanna start back tomorrow night right in this room.
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Glad to see that come back. Mondays at six every Monday. Monday nights is on. That's happening at 06:00. You're in Nehemiah.
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Nehemiah, come and join us. Meal music message.
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Alright, very good. Connect hour still here. It's happening again between services. We've got coffee down there and it's good too. The coffee is actually really really good.
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I know. I just had two cups of and there are other treats down there but the best treat is getting to meet people kind of between the services. We don't want for this to get it to a place where there are two different churches that meet in the same building or three. So, get down there and connect with somebody. It's pretty cool.
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So, spring break being over. We told you, Friday nights for the next six Friday nights, we're gonna have visionary parenting. Friday nights is family fun night. So, if you want to be a part of this, I've looked it up on the internet. I know a little bit more about it this week than I did last.
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The folks who are going be leading are Dan and Nancy Tolleson and the veterans, Tim and Cathy Vetter and so family fun night starting April 15. That's this Friday and 05:30 get together for pizza. There will be a parenting study upstairs and then there will be the children are going to meet downstairs and go have, you know, fun videos and games and stuff like that. So visionary parenting, it's pretty good. Doctor Rob right now from Illinois is the one that'll be leading the video series.
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So it's gonna be fun, gonna be good. If you're a parent, single parent, please plan on attending those Friday nights. Bring the kids and I think that's it. All the other announcements and there are plenty of other things going on but they're in the bulletin. So, if you'll read that, study it, put it on your refrigerator.
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That that's all we've got this morning. I thank for announcements. Would you stand and greet one another? I think give each other a hug or a high five or a handshake or who knows? A holy kiss if you want to.
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Welcome back. Alright,
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What can wash? And be thou my vision.
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Vision God, that really is our it's not just the the song we sing, but really it's a it's a prayer too. Would you would you be our vision? Would you be the one that we're looking to? You're our hope and you're our peace. You're our light.
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You're our salvation. You're the one that truly can and does satisfy our souls, and I I pray that we would continue to be people that look to you. And I pray, God, also that you would illumine illumine us. Would you open our eyes and open our hearts as as we get into your word and Holy Spirit be working. Be moving.
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We don't wanna limit you or hinder you. You're good and you still speak to us and you still move in powerful ways and I pray that that would be what we are desiring and what we're asking. Amen.
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Life. For your words bring life and your voice speaks promises. Will fade away, but what will remain are your words. The grass will wither. The grass will wither, and the flowers will fall.
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But the Your words bring life. Your words give us life that's never ending. Your words bring us love that never never fails everything else will fade away but what will remain are your words let's sing that chorus again shall we your words give us life our
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You may be seated. Let's pray. Heavenly father, we are so grateful. In the name of Jesus, we're able to come to you through the his blood and we are just so thankful for the blessings that you have bestowed upon us and this song, lord, reminds us that life is short and we just want to be surrendered to you and as we come and we open up our hands and we give to you, give back to you a small portion. Help us to remember lord that it's all yours and you just let us keep some of it.
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We pray that you'll just take it lord and you'll multiply it and you'll bless this community, bless this church, meet the needs of the people here, and in Jackson, and in this state, and in this country, and around the world, Lord. As it gets dispersed, we just ask Lord that each penny would go, and it would go with your name on it, and the gospel might be presented and lord that many people will come to know you. We are so grateful. Thank you for the blood of Jesus. Thank you for the salvation, the great salvation you've given us.
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And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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Is that right? Is children's church happening? Okay, good. So, I'm making sure. Alright, very good.
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I was just sitting here thinking, I wonder if children's church is happening this morning Because the message is gonna be pretty hefty for all these kids in here. I don't have a sermon sack. I don't have any sweet, nice, little presentation for the kiddos. I don't have any candy or little trinkets. Paul's message has been kinda hard for the past two and a half chapters and so we're gonna come to a close on that part of things this morning in this passage and get to a really bright spot.
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Again, justification by faith. The gospel restated and presented again. So, that's where we're going. There are not any pictures of old art this morning. The song references will be on the fly.
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I don't have anything out of the ordinary artistically planned, okay? We're gonna just stick with it because I feel like this is one we just need to hone in on exactly what Paul is saying and agree with him about it because it takes agreement with this part, the bad stuff, the bad news before we can get to the other. So, last week, while many of you were away, welcome back by the way. We went over this. Romans three, we started the first verse and we went through the first eight verses.
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I'll read it really quickly. I'm not going to re preach it but I'll read it really quickly so you can kind of catch back up. Then, what advantage has the Jew? Question mark or what is the benefit of circumcision? Question mark.
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Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. Do you see what's happening there? He's saying that the Jews have been entrusted with God's message. They have had this whole Old Testament.
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They had the gift of his law and they are they have a specific and special insight into the heart of God if they paid attention and if they did it with God's view in mind. First of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God and I said last week that if you've grown up in church, it's a blessing. Sometimes, the baggage that you have from church growing up might not feel like a blessing but it is a blessing that you know God's law. You know God's heart. First of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God.
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What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief would not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be. Rather, let God be found true though every man be found a liar as it is written that you may be justified in your words, God speaking to God and prevail when you're judged. Now, that is from Psalm 51.
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That's the great repentant Psalm of David. After his great sin with Bathsheba and with killing her husband, He felt the weight of his sin and that's what he responded. Lord, you are right to judge me and I understand it but he came pleading for God's forgiveness. So, this man after God's own heart, he's speaking primarily to the Jewish flavored Christians in Rome during this portion of Romans and while he's speaking, he's saying, no, your guy, David, you know, he's your guy, King David, the one after God's own heart. He knew how to respond to his own sin and so this is the way he did it.
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Lord, you're right and you're just and your judgments. If our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Question mark. The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? Question mark.
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Ugh. I'm speaking in human terms, Paul says, here. May it never be. For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie, the truth of God abounded to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?
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This is a fairly normal progression in the Christian life when you figure out that you have been forgiven, if you're tempted to go back into an old walk or into an old lifestyle, an old habit, an old sin. If you're tempted to go back that way, it's a fairly common thing. We see this sometimes with kids off at college. We see this anytime that we kinda just start to think that sin doesn't matter. This next verse, why not say as we are slanderously reported and some claim that we say, Paul says, let us just keep on sinning.
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Let us do evil so that good may come of it because God's grace abounds more when the sin is greater, right? So, that's a fairly normal thinking that people fall into but Paul ends this with their condemnation is just. The reason I read all eight of those verses for that little last phrase, their condemnation is just. Last week, I said multiple times that every soul ever will either be justly condemned because they deserve it because all of us have sinned. Everyone will be justly condemned or mercifully saved.
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So, it's at the mercy and the grace of God that anyone is saved. Now, he's made a way and we'll get to that in this presentation but their condemnation is just as a pretty heavy way to end the sermon and that's where we stopped last week. So, here we are at Romans three nine through 26 and the more I thought about this, I wanted to put some little tag on it. I think that Paul has been building this building and he's raised everything. R A Z E raised everything.
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Taking it down to the foundations. Doug a deep foundation. Set it on the gospel. The theme of the letter is one seventeen, one sixteen seventeen. I'm not ashamed of the gospel for that's the power unto salvation for all who believe.
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For the Jew and the Greek but he is starting to build this theology that's in line with God's truth and it has to start with the desperate nature of man. It has to and so this is where we're going. After their condemnation is just, this is where we end off. Their condemnation is just and then we get to this. What then?
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Are we better than they? Are we, whether Paul means apostles or Christians or Jews or Jewish flavored Christians? He didn't say. He didn't specify. I'm gonna have to leave it to you a little bit to say this but are we better off than they?
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You could take that. Whatever group you're in. Bronco fans, whatever fans. I don't care what you do. Are we better than they?
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He has put us all, as Florine says, in the same bucket over and over for two and a half chapters. Are we better off than they? And their condemnation is just. Are we better off than they? What then?
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Are we better than they? Not at all. Our condemnation is just two. We've already charged, brought it forth, Paul, me, and my buddy who's writing this down for me. We have already charged that both the Jews and the Greeks are all under sin.
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Starting to feel like a broken record up here, honestly. It's been six straight weeks of this. As it is written. Now, Paul stated this outright. If you wanna start looking in one eighteen, one nineteen, one twenty right in there.
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He stated all these different things that come from not wanting to retain God in our knowledge and all this list of sins and he states it because this is what he has surmised for himself in chapter one. Then, he says, the pagans or Gentiles fall away because of these things. The Jews also fall away because of these things. He's charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin and now, he's going back and he's letting scripture speak for itself. He picks up in the next few verses at least six Old Testament references and probably more.
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A lot of em are repeated by different folks. So, as it is written and I put up there by David in the Psalms, they would have known this, the Jewish flavor Christians especially. The hymn book of Israel is the Psalms. It has something for every human emotion in it and this one is where he goes next. There is none righteous, not even one.
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Tell us what you really feel, Paul. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. Wow. All have turned aside.
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Together, they have become useless. There's none who does good. There was a guy this week as we're contemplating this. Some of y'all are reading ahead. Some of you are reading what we did last week, you know?
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And one guy, just every once in a while, would text me something this week and it would be, there is no one righteous, not even one. The gravity of that hit him so that he had to text it. And then a few days later, he texted something else and it was this next little bit but this is not something new. Paul is marrying the old and new testaments together. He's saying, this tradition continues.
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There's nothing new theologically here. Psalm 14, a Psalm of David, the fool has said it in his heart, there is no god. They're corrupt. They've committed abominable deeds. There's no one who does good.
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The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God, and they have all turned aside. Together, they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. Same thing. Paul's treatment in the in the New Testament is a Septuagint translation if y'all care about that sort of thing.
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It's it's this though and it's this too. Psalm fifty three one through three. The fool has said in his heart, there is no god. They are corrupt. They have committed abominable injustice.
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There's no one who does good. God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there's anyone who understands, who seeks after God and everyone of them is turned aside. Together, they have become corrupt. There's no one who does good, not even one. And Ecclesiastes seven twenty.
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So, those two are David. This one's Solomon. David's a man after God's own heart. Solomon is reported to be the wisest man ever and he says this, in Ecclesiastes seven, indeed, there's not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins. This is where the tulip folks get the doctrine of total depravity.
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There's no escape from it. All of us are in the same bucket. We're all in the same group. Romans 13 continues. Their throat is an open grave.
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Their tongues, they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips. Do you notice that this is all about speech? It's the place from here, the throat is an open grave. Their tongues, the soft, fleshy part that James says is so strong.
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And the poison of asp is on their lips. Have you heard sticks and stones might break my bones but words will never hurt me? That is a lie. That is a lie. Words hurt a long time after sticks and stone injuries would have gone away.
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There are a lot of things I wish I could take back that I said. You know, Their throat is an open grave. That was another one of those texts. Their throat is an open grave. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
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Jesus said, actually, he was surrounded by a big crowd and Pharisees and the Pharisees were asking why they didn't follow the traditions as they should. Why don't your disciples wash their hands when they eat bread and why don't they do this and why don't they do that? And Jesus turned it around on him and said, you know what? Here and understand. He called the crowd to him and he said to them, here and understand this, it's not one enters into the mouth that defiles a man but what proceeds out of a mouth.
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That's what defiles the man. Our words damn us. And everyone of us and it's not just some of us, It's everyone of us. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known.
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There's no fear of God before their eyes. Now, I get to this point and it makes me think. Now, there are in in the normal just in the world, everyday parlance, everyday getting together with people. You'll have two different types of people, and we see both of them very, very almost cartoonishly here, at least to me. Maybe it's because I'm an outsider coming in here.
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But when I get here, I see people who are incredibly optimistic about the human experience and about humans, and I see people who are incredibly pessimistic about humanity. Do you all see that? You see some that just think, all we gotta do is get together. There are all these philanthropic organizations, and if we just get together, we can end world hunger. We can end, you know, all of this stuff and we can do this.
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We can do this because we're, that's the humanitarian, I mean, the humanist society feels like that's one of the things and they're very positive on humans and the triumph of the human spirit. I don't think that's biblical. Not after reading this, it makes it very apparent that everyone's in the same state, and this is what we have. If we could have done it, why haven't we done it? Why is it that when we just had this this humanistic theology take over, when?
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Around the enlightenment, starting right around in there. Have the wars gotten better or worse since then? Oh my goodness. It's gotten worse and it keeps getting worse. So, there's a pessimism too where and I think that like I said, the the references are all on the fly this morning but I've got a Pink Floyd song stuck in my head and this Pink Floyd song says, you run and you run to catch up to the sun but it's sinking.
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You fritter and waste the hours in an all fed way. The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older, shorter of breath, and one day closer to death. That is the most nihilistic but it's got a little hint of truth in there. Without God, that's under the sun thinking. That's why I use Solomon.
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Under the sun thinking says, indeed, there's nobody. Not one who does good continually. So, there's optimism, there's pessimism. What the scriptures present is that we are dead men, that we are condemned by our sins, and we are walking as dead men. The throat is an open grave, poison, mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, Swift to shed blood.
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All these things are hard and heavy and true and we see it played out over and over generation after generation in every culture worldwide. There's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside.
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Together, they've become useless. There's none who does good. There's not even one. David wrote this, remember. Their throat is an open grave with their tongues.
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They keep deceiving. Poison of asp is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their past.
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When you think about destruction and misery in their past, what is the end? What is the path of someone who just goes for it? Sends all they wants to, goes for it. It's destruction and misery, isn't it? Anybody testify to that?
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I'll cover my eyes. Anybody wanna testify to destruction and misery? It's not just your destruction and misery. It's everybody around you. The path of peace they have not known.
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A lot of times people take substances to feel numb, to feel peace, but you just come down and you're further behind in the rent than you were when you went up. Passive peace they have not known and Paul gets back to this. There's no fear of God before their eyes. There's no awe. There's no reverence.
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There's no retention of the knowledge of God before their eyes and that's where he says it comes from and then we're starting to turn the corner here. Do you feel sufficiently icky? Now, we know and he says that, absolutely. We know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law and who's under the law? Everybody.
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Whether they know it or not. Everybody. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. We know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed. Puts us in the same bucket.
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Every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable before God or accountable to God. That's where we start. This is building a theology in line with God's truth. You remember Job? Job had a hard time, right?
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A hard time for a long time and after a lot of chapters of Job, he eventually, after his wife has told him, curse God and die. All of his friends said, it's your sin. It's something else and he didn't know where he could go. Anything else that he could do and he starts to question God and so he blast God for a little while and then God says, Job, brace yourself. And God answers question after question.
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Where were you when I put the bounds on the oceans? Where were you when I strung the stars in the sky? Where were you when I stretched out my my plumb line? Where were you? And then Job says this back, behold, I am insignificant.
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New American Standard Version. Behold, I am nothing. I am insignificant, and what can I reply to you? I lay my hand on my mouth Once I have spoken and I and I will not answer. Even twice and I will add nothing more.
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He said, I spoke up and I shouldn't have. I cannot charge you God with sin. It's me. It's me. You're the creator.
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I'm the created and I want to get that right first. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. Now, that should be very very humbling for one thing but it should also give us hope, I think. The works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For the law comes for from through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
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The law is really good at letting us know where we have gone wrong but like I said a few months ago, the decalogue, the 10 commandments, there's no mercy there. There's no grace in the 10 commandments themselves. It just lets you know where you went wrong. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made manifest or has been shown. It's been manifested to you and it was witnessed by the law and the prophets.
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The law pointed to one that would come. Even Moses pointed to one that would come. The prophet, the in Hebrew. Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, all the prophecies, looking forward to Jesus. The righteousness of God has been shown Through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.
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There's the hope right there. Now, Jesus did complete this life without sin. He was the God man. Now, David wrote, there is no not one, no not one, no not one. Paul says, Jesus Christ is the sinless one.
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He's tempted in all the ways as we're tempted but without sin. Amen. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now, do y'all know what the Roman road is?
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The Roman road to salvation. Have you all heard that before? In some evangelism training class at some point in your life. If you ever memorize this, does anybody have it taped to the inside of the back of their Bible? That's where mine is.
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It's the verses in Romans that will get people on the path towards God and it's great. Absolutely great. This one is usually the very first one. So, we have gone through how many weeks now of Romans and this is the first significant point the Roman road picks up. All have sinned but that's a very good summary of the lap from 118 all the way to 03/20.
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It's it's a good summary of everything that has been said. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Amen. I agree with that. Roman Road.
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They usually go back from there to pick up Romans three ten, which is that quote from David. There's none righteous. No, not even one. So, do you think you're without sin? Is there anybody here who thinks they're sinless?
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No. I didn't even close my eyes for that one. Nobody in here thinks they're sinless because we all can see that. We all see that. No, we're we're flawed for sure.
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I love this and this is the last verse of this morning. You got up through 26 in your program but we're gonna pick up that next week. Propitiation is a deeper concept. Being justified. This is another one of those things that is a divine passive.
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God acts. God acts. He acted in Christ to redeem. And for everyone who believes, everyone who puts their faith in him, he saves. Everyone who calls out to him, he saves and he justifies them.
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Being justified. Now, I've used this example before but most of y'all know computers and when you're typing away on a computer and you just start typing and you've got a screen and your words are all over the place, you can either justify left or justify right or justify center, right? But you're the actor, you're the prime mover when you're on the computer usually. You're the one that can can make things happen and so if you write a whole paragraph out and you want it to be up against this side of the page, you just hit justify left. There it is.
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Justify right. Does it that way. Justify center. But you're the one that's doing that, right? The words themselves are not doing it.
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Does that make sense? Being justified. God is the one who is saying, this is where it will be. You will positionally be made right with me because you put your faith in Jesus Christ. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
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That's it. That's the gospel. If we back up to right here and take this in, that little verse where the Roman road, where it gets its start, Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Is a clause in the middle of a sentence? Do you notice that?
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Look at the sentence though. The sentence starts up there. Apart from the law, it's not about what you do. The righteousness of God has been made manifest. That's another one of those divine passives.
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God is the actor. He's manifesting himself. Being witnessed by the prophets, they're seeing it and agreeing with him and the law. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe being justified. For all who believe, being justified.
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It is about belief. The gospel of John, I call it the gospel of belief. We've used that for the past couple of weeks. We used it. We went to Easter from John and it's all about belief.
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It makes a difference. What you believe makes a difference on how you act. God's redeeming love and his redeeming power changes lives and transforms them. We'll talk about some life change and transformation. I don't ever wanna get into self help but I do wanna get to a place where you will allow God to help but that's next week.
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Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus and I will say, it is in Christ alone. That's the only place that redemption is available. He's the one who paid the price. We are the ones who owe the debt. If we put our faith and our trust in him, that's all.
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That's it. Being justified. Would you come on up? And we're going to sing Soul on Fire. Would you join us?
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I've been going long. I went short this week. Stand up and join us.
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Yep, Ray had requested a Pink Floyd song but I think we'll do this one instead.
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Alright. God, I'm running. God, I'm running for your heart, running for your heart, till I am a soul on fire. Lord, I'm on for your ways, waiting for a day when I am a soul on fire, till I am a soul on fire.
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Amen. Now, God, may the God of peace grant you that peace and may you share it with others. This whole study has shown that you were not any better than anybody else. The fact that we know God and that he has accepted us is something we can share with other people. God, would you guide us as we go?
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Would you give us the strength to follow through on our decisions to follow you? Would you give us the grace to walk in your way by your path in the gospel, the good, good gospel of grace. And would you allow us a nonchalance about sharing it. In Jesus name, Lord, would you take away from us all fear and all shame? Would you cast it out in your love?
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In Jesus name, guide us this week. Give us your peace in Jesus name. Amen.
