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Good morning, everybody. It's very good to see you. It's feeling like home, feeling like family in here. It's good to see. Don't be afraid to get close.
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Don't be afraid to get close. So move on up if you can and move into the rows, and don't be afraid to to get cozy. That's what we're about here. So, anyway, good morning. What do you say we start by by opening up in song?
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Sound good? In fact, I'd like to open up in prayer first. Would you would you stand with me, and and we'll pray and just give thanks and ask God to prepare our hearts. God, we do. First, we just give you thank.
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Thank you for being our good and gracious and wonderful God, our creator and our sustainer. And we recognize who we're talking to right here, the God of the universe. And we would like to meet with you and give praise to you and adore you and acknowledge you as our God. And I would ask God that you would really give us a heart to wanna worship you and meet with you, knowing full well by the grace of of Jesus. That's why we can we can do this, why we can come boldly before you.
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You have made us worshipers. And with this breath and this life, we come to worship you now. Amen.
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Alright. Before the day, before the light. The day, before the light, before the world and fog around the sun. Drop on high, step down into time, and blow the story of stuff everyone. He has filled our hearts with wonder so that we'd always remember you and I made worship you and I called to love you and I are forgiven and free you and I embrace surrender you and I choose to be you and I will see who we were meant to be.
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All we are and all we have, All we are and all we have is all a gift from God that we receive. Amen. Brought to life. We open up our eyes to see the majesty glory of the king. And he has filled
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Hey, man. Y'all can have a seat. I have a couple of announcements. Actually, I'm going skip most of the announcements really this morning but I have one that I want to mention two that I want to mention three that I want to mention. Iwana is Monday nights at six that happens in this room.
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Pour in scripture into the minds and to the hearts of kids. Monday nights are on. Carl's preaching from Nehemiah. That's meal, music, and a message. Every Monday night, that's 06:00 in the evening.
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We still are doing the connect hour and during the connect hour today, there'll be a couple of different sets of missionaries that are here. It's kind of a miniature missions conference impromptu that is going to be here. So, if you would, head down the hall, you have coffee and donuts and that sort of thing but I wanted to mention, this is the one I wanted to mention. So, family fun night. Turn out to be a lot of family fun.
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It was really, really good. The whole the whole place was full on Friday night of kids and parents starting off in the fellowship hall at the standing room only and then, when we split up and the the parents were up here, the kids were downstairs with people taking care of them too and it was just great. So, any testimonies for that? Anybody want to just say, amen? Amen.
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Amen. Good. There are few of it that that you can ask around. Half the folks in this room, it felt like we're in here. It was fantastic.
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So, if you want to come back for that, it's 05:30, Friday, this Friday, and for the next five. That's it. Now, I wanna introduce to you somebody else. Renzi Reno, stand up.
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You all know me. He didn't wanna introduce me. Just real quick, youth spring retreat is happening. It is May thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth. I just wanna put that on the parents' radars as well.
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By the back bulletin board going out the fellowship hall exit, there is a rack with the flyers. And then on the back of the flyer is everything you need to know as well as the weekend schedule. So if you've got a middle schooler or a high schooler, grab one of these, and we'd love to have them.
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Thank you very much.
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Now, can introduce them.
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Okay. Hey. I'd like to introduce to you Rolando Po. Po. Po.
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Is he in the room? Because I don't see him right now. Okay. Okay. Por favor.
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This is Rolando and Aaron, his wife. They are missionaries in Guatemala, indigenous. He is from Guatemala and I told him he had three minutes. Yeah. To introduce himself to y'all.
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So, here we go. He we're skipping the announcements, alright? He
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said you're stealing a minute from me. We live in and work in the center of Guatemala. I'm a preacher. And the Lord has allowed us to work in three different areas. In evangelism.
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We believe it is important to preach the gospel and that people need to know Christ. So so we do personal evangelism, talking one on one, and we also do evangelistic crusades in different areas. And the second area we work in is discipleship. We focus specifically specifically with pastors. We do different conferences and seminars with pastors from all different denominations.
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And this year this year, we're gonna start a new program for new leaders of pastors. And then the third area of our ministry focus is on social work or helping our
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neighbor. My
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wife is working with a library. We have a library in the village where we live, and we work with up to a 150 children. So I wanna leave that in your hearts. Right now we have a new project where we'd like to buy another piece of land and build in a better spot for us and build buildings, you know, where we can minister in. And with the permission of the pastor, we're gonna let you know how much we need so you can pray for us.
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We need to raise $80,000.
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So thank you. I'm
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hungry now.
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Thank you for your time. Thank you.
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Larry. Sorry. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.
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And I also, excuse me, would like to introduce Steve and Britt. Would you stand up? So Steve and Brittany Malik are here, and they are heading to Central Asia and with Missions Aviation Fellowship. They had had a time to present a while back, but they're gonna be down the hall too. You wanna say howdy?
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There's a mic right there. Just say howdy.
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Howdy. Yeah. We're here back in September, and I think we're just starting off on this whole support raising thing, and just wanted to give you a quick report. We're at, like, 81% for a monthly support. So I have 19% to go, but just been really encouraged how the guys been just kinda moving, and we've been grateful for that.
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And then the church decided to come on as well, so just thank you all for deciding to do that. And we'll be in town for about a week and a half, and just in town to connect with all of you. So if you have time or wanna know more about us, I'd love to connect over a meal or coffee or something like that.
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Yep. And they will all be down the hall during the connect hour. So, thank you very much. All of you may pray for them and then
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we'll go forward with more music. Lord, thank you
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for these that are wondering whether to stand on the stage or stand on the floor. I thank you that they are willing lord and flexible and able. Twenty two years for Rolando, over twelve years for Aaron, and Britt and Steve are just getting going although they've been in ministry for years in their own Christian walk. Lord, would you bless them? Would you make disciples through them, through their discipleship, through their faithfulness?
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Would you show others your way? In Jesus name, lord, would you bring to these causes the needed resources. In Jesus name, for his purpose, for his glory, and for the advance of the gospel. Amen. Amen.
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Amen. Alright. Now, normally, we tell you to get up and shake hands. Don't do that yet, okay? Stand up with us and sing and we'll we'll tell you when.
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Blessed be your name blessed be the name of the Lord blessed be the name you give and take the healer of the broken and weak. And you are you are. And even though few there is one like you. Not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
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I'm not ashamed on Jesus Christ. I will stand and say that this is my life. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed on Jesus Christ. I will stand and boldly say that this is my life.
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He's the author of salvation and faith. And And you are the author of salvation and faith. And you are you are and you are the victory that conquer the grave and you are you are and even though few may stand and profane your great name. It's a life I want to live because I'm convinced I will stand and say this is my life. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
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I'm not ashamed on Jesus Christ. I will stand and boldly say this is my life.
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God, it's the gospel. That's why we're here. And, really, why would we be why would be ashamed of it? Your love poured out for us, dying in our place for our sin so that we could be justified and made right. And that's nothing to be ashamed of.
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That's something to be very proud of and to be very thankful for and Holy Spirit, I'm I'm just thankful that you are with us. I'm thankful that you continue to to work in us. That you continue to move, that you continue to speak, and lord, we don't wanna we don't wanna hinder you and in this song we're singing, Holy Spirit, you are, you're welcome here. You invite, you're invited here and and we really do. We invite you here.
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And let us become more aware You can be seated. I'll invite the frontline team up, and let's let's pray together. God, how true. How how true that, really, your presence is is and it fills us up. It satisfies our our soul.
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It's what you've created us for. And I think of the verse that a single day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere, and it's true. It's true just to hang out with you, to be with you, to be filled by you. I pray that we would continue to walk in your spirit as you lead. I pray that this place would be marked by your presence filling up filling up your believers that we go out and that the world truly does see it.
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I thank you for every gift that you give and as we participate here in the worship through giving that these gifts that we offer, that'd be it'd be our heart's expression to you. And we thank you for using them. I thank you for our missionaries that the gospel is spreading right here in Jackson and to the ends of the earth, and I pray that you keep doing your good work. And thank you for using us in the process. Amen.
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We pray for blessings we pray for peace comfort for family protection while we sleep we pray for healing for prosperity we pray for your mighty hand to ease our suffering and all the while you hear each spoken need yet love us way too much to give us lesser things because what if your blessings come through raindrops what if your healing comes through tears and what if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near and what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise we pray for wisdom your voice to hear and we cry in anger when we cannot feel you near we doubt your goodness we doubt your love as if every promise from your word is not enough all the while you hear each desperate plea and long that we'd have faith to believe because what if your blessings come through raindrops what if your healing comes through tears and what if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near and what if trials of this life are your mercies in disguise friends betray it's not
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our
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because what if your blessings come through raindrops what if your healing comes through tears and what if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near? What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life is a revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy and what if trials of this life the pain the storms the hardest nights are your mercies in the
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Amen. Thank you, Kristen. Alright. So, now is the time for children's church and for the kids to be dismissed and I'm going to try something new this morning. We didn't shake hands already and there are a lot of people sitting back behind that wall and if you've ever sat back behind that wall, it's not a good seat.
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Do you agree? Yes. Yes. So, when all of them are getting up and getting out, I know it's uncomfortable. I know you've gotten your seat warm but I promise you, somebody else has warmed the other seat, okay?
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So, would you all stand up, get up, shake hands, but don't return to the seat you're sitting in. Return to a seat closer to the front, okay? So, we can try to bring all those folks in the back in here. Please, we'll try it. It's an experiment.
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Okay, everybody. I didn't completely think that through. I know you all do this very well but usually we have a song that brings you back together. It's just me this time. So, come on down.
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Alright? Bob Barker, come on down. Seriously, nobody moved. Yes, some people did move forward. You're in the back and you want to see it, there's one up here, okay?
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If not, it's just a bad seat. So, alright. Keep your distance. Whatever. Okay.
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I'm going to pray. God, if you would, would you center our hearts on your word? Would you center our minds on your will? And would you give us a time right now where we can just focus. Focus down and see what it is you have for us today.
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Thank you for the study of Romans so far and would you implant this message, lord, this good gospel, deep, deep into our hearts. Would you begin to grow it up? So that others may see. You, through us. In Jesus name, would you give us an outlet for this gracious good news?
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Amen. Amen. So, a few weeks ago, we had the crowdsourced sermon. Do y'all remember that when the crowdsourced? I asked you the week before, bring in a 10 word gospel.
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I'm going to share a few of those at random just to give you the idea of what it is but the gospel in 10 words or less was the assignment. I did say, if it was less than a sentence, we'd count it and the reason I'm doing this is because Paul has one incredible sentence today. We're gonna go through exactly one sentence of scripture. So, at the cross, Jesus reconciled holy God and sinful man. Amen.
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Jesus resurrection reconciles holy God and sinful people who believe. Amen. Faith in Jesus is enough to be forgiven and transformed. Amen. God's gift of reconciliation offered to humanity.
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Amen. Individuals can have peace with God through Jesus atoning death. Jesus perfect life for our imperfect ones. Amen. God's message of love and forgiveness available in Christ alone.
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Amen. I was dead, now alive, lost, but now found. Amen. God's son, his love, or God's love, his son, for redemption, our gift to heaven. Little poetic on that one.
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Peace with God on his terms. That's the good news. It's possible to have peace with God on his terms. Amen. Acceptance and undeserved blessings and atonement for yesterday, today, and forever.
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Christ died so that we might live. The only way to become right with God. God's righteous wrath shall be averted, pleading Christ's death alone. Each one of these picks up a little something different. This last one, damnable as mankind is.
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God and Christ provides the opposite. Amen. So, those were good. I I like when y'all respond and y'all responded very well on that sermon. This is Paul's sentence.
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It's not 10 words. I have color coded it today into three different sections. I know the pink is a little bit hard to read in this room. This one's a little easier than that one. If y'all could kill these lights right here somehow, the ones up here, that seems to help too.
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So for the last seven slash eight weeks, something like that, we have had a lot of talk from 01:18 to 03:20 and it's been about sin and it's been about wrath and it's been about condemnation and how everybody is under that and one part of this verse goes into that, one of these clauses. So we'll go to that one first. This is actually the best. This sentence is ridiculous. I know.
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This is this is you don't have to read everything up there. That's Greek, and that is diagramming a sentence in Greek. It's a mechanical layout of this sentence. It's awesome. It just for a grammar nerd, it was the best.
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For the last few weeks, I've been looking at this and going, wow. The genius of that. And so that's it translated into English. It's on a piece of paper this big, you know, trying to get just that one sentence all notated. But this is what I came down to.
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These three main clauses. And the first one we're gonna do is that blue part in the middle. I mentioned it last week. It's a very good summary of what we've been covering from 01/18 to 03/20. Very good.
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It doesn't leave anything out. It's everybody. Covers us all and it is. For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is his point.
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It has been his point since one eighteen and he clears it up right in the middle of this blessed gospel statement. There's no distinction. Don't think that you're special on this one. Don't think that there's an exception. There's no distinction.
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All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Before there no is no distinction is easy enough. For all have sinned. Now, this verb is a past tense. It's an heiress tense verb.
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It means that it's definite. It has happened. I could say by nature, if you wanna argue original sin or by nurture, we have all sinned. Don't think any of you would disagree with me about that. All have sinned.
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That's a past tense deal. And the next one is a present participle are falling short of the glory of God. They have sinned and it's not like that and they fell short. No, it's they have sinned and they are falling short of the glory of God habitually and continually. Part of that is the stickiness of the sin from the past.
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Part of it is our nature and the war between spirit and flesh but think about that. It'll humble you if you get it. So, summary, in one word of 118 to three twenty is sin. The pervasiveness of it. It looms large.
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And three twenty one, but but I love an extra large adversative conjunction. And I cannot lie. This one happens to be but now. But now. So, it's even intensified.
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Actually, the the Greek words are noonie day. Noonie day. Noon noon means now. Noonie is now, right now. Big stump of the foot.
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Now, but now, it changes everything. In this sentence, Paul just blows away everything but now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, Being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. I skipped the blue part here. Going straight to the pink. Being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith.
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Amen. Now, the yellow part. So, we've gone through the blue part, sin. The yellow part. This repeats many of the elements of the gospel that Paul shared in Romans one one to four.
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He shared it again in one hundred sixteen and seventeen, which we would say is the theme of the letter. It's the good news. It's the gospel. I'll read both of those to you right now. Paul, a bond servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, that gospel which he promised beforehand through his prophets and the holy scriptures.
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Concerning his son who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our lord. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God, for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, for in it, the gospel. The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written but the righteous man should live by faith. Sin though. It's pervasive.
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It's ever present. It's something that all of us have to deal with. We have to find a way to deal with. So, right here, it is and then we get to a but now. So, for ages past and Paul's been talking about a long time past and he's going to go back to in the next chapter, he's going back to Abraham which is quite a few years before but he's getting to the but now.
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What we did for sin before and what do we do now? There's a difference. Visually, I'm a visual kind of learner kind of and some of y'all are too. So, I'm just going to put it up here. The clauses.
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The but now is the big one. But now, everything changes. Apart from the law, he said, does not matter whether you're a Jew or have the law at all. Apart from the law, God's righteousness has been manifested. So, apart from the law, God's righteousness has shown up on the scene.
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Now, he backs up and says, it was witnessed now by the law and the prophets. If you know them, then it will bear witness to what it is that I'm telling you that God's righteousness is revealed. Even the even in this verse is an intensifier. It's an intensifier for this clause and so we can say the righteousness of God. Moreover, the righteousness of God, okay?
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Even the righteousness of God through faith. That part, it intensifies the message. So, I'm intensifying it with a little outlining there, right? So, there, it's glowing now. God's righteousness is glowing forth and it's glowing forth through faith of Jesus Christ.
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Now, normally, when we hear this, we say through faith in Jesus Christ, that is a capitulation for our language to say, it's faith in Jesus Christ but I want you to think about something. If you've never considered this before, some of y'all are amateur theologians. If you've never considered this before, I want you to think about this. What it says is through faith of Jesus Christ and it goes on to say, for everyone who believes. So, that's about your faith.
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I want you to consider something here. That of right there comes from this. Dia pisteus, su cristo. And the o o right there at the end, that is a genitive construction. Genitive construction for those language and grammar nerds is usually about either possession.
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It can be objective or subjective. It's usually about possession or it's about something that someone has for someone else. So, I want you to consider this. The way we typically take it in a way a lot of Bible translations take it is this, through faith in Jesus Christ. About 70% of your translations will say through faith in Jesus Christ and that's good.
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Really good translations. Nothing wrong with it at all. It is a little bit redundant since he says, just after that for for everyone who believes, Okay? The other more subjective genitive in this case would be through the faith of Jesus Christ or through faith of Jesus Christ. Pisteus can be either faith or faithfulness if you think about the noun form of faith.
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How are the verb how you work that out? The faithfulness of Jesus Christ. So through Jesus Christ's possessive faith. Would you think about that for just a second? So, God's righteousness has been revealed or has been made manifest.
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God's righteousness has been shown through the faith of Jesus Christ. It's a very demonstrative example. There's a demonstrable example. They saw how Jesus lived. They had heard how he lived.
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They heard how he died. They knew that he was surrendered to the will of God. People already knew that he was without sin. So, through Jesus Christ faith, God's righteousness has been shown. Would you agree with that?
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I agree with both. I'm not saying that one's against the other but most of us consider the objective because that's the way most of our Bible translations translate it and it's fine but this one over here actually gives you a little bit more freedom. A lot of people struggle with doubt And if this verse is through my faith in Jesus Christ, sometimes it feels like that waivers. If it's God's righteousness is shown through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, then that's a sure thing and it doesn't waver. Now, through belief in him is coming.
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We'll see that in just a minute but I want you to consider this and this is a fairly common topic that you hear in seminary and different writings these days but I want you to consider it at least. Both are true. I'm not trying to take anything away from you but consider that through Jesus Christ's faithfulness. What's Philippians two say? He became obedient.
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Even to death, even the death of a cross. Jesus Christ faithfulness never never wore out, never wore down. So, apart from the law, God's righteousness is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even or moreover, God's righteousness has been manifest or made manifest through through, we're looking through Jesus Christ's faithfulness right there. Wordplay. Jesus Christ faithfulness.
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Through Jesus Christ faithfulness, we see God's righteousness for all those who believe. Now, to believe it, when you look at the life of Jesus, you see God is good and right. Now, if you don't believe it, some people have even called it divine child abuse. If you don't believe it. If you don't believe that it was on your behalf, if you don't believe it was for sinners.
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Through Christ's faithfulness, God's righteousness is shown for all those who believe. For all those who believe, the gospel of John. We went over belief, belief, belief, belief, belief. There is nothing added to it. You have to believe and when you believe, believing, doing follows what you believe.
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Okay? It's not about the doing. It's about the believing. So, here we go. Just to reiterate.
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03/21 through 23. But now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe. For there's no distinction. For all have sinned and are falling short of the glory of God.
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We've covered that much so far. Okay? Now, the pink part, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. Now, this being justified, I mentioned last week that it's a divine passive. It is God acting on someone.
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Being justified instead of justifying themselves. It's being justified. Who is being justified? Those who believe. That's that's the referent there.
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That's what it's talking about. So here's the pink part. Three metaphors for the actual mechanism of the gospel. I love this. I just love this.
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When I was reading it over, I was going, wow. And then I started reading commentaries and they were seeing some things and I was going, wow, that's true too. So good. This is central. Being justified as a gift through his, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood.
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Now, underline the difficult words there, the churchy church church words, being justified, redemption, and propitiation. We have jargon. Plumbers have jargon. You know, journalists have jargon. Everybody who has a specialized focus has jargon and these are some of the jargon words for Christianity.
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Being justified. This is Paul's legal metaphor. So, if you are in a court, justified is declared to be right. You see this term in cop dramas or you hear about it when someone shoots a bad guy and then they go back and they investigate and they say, was it a justified homicide? Because he killed somebody else, that's homicide.
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A justified homicide is when they killed somebody else but it was right in that situation. So, being justified is Paul's legal metaphor wherein a believer in Jesus is put at right relationship with God. He is declared to be right with God even against his or her very, very real guilt. Being acquitted by God's decree because he's the judge. He sets the rules because he's the judge.
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The grammatical construction, like I said, is a divine passive. It's not by means of any work that the defendant has done or will do. Are you with me? Okay. It is not by means of any word.
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There's an underline that the defendant has done or will do. I've got a point in that. So being justified actually is followed by a couple of adjective clauses, and it says or adverbial clauses freely. That's how one is justified freely. So, it it underlines what I just underlined.
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It's not by what you have done or what you will do freely and then it says, not just freely, as a gift in most translations. And then it goes on beyond that and says, by his grace and his is in an intensive spot to say, it is by God's grace. As a gift, freely that those who believe are justified. So, it's taken all of the work off of us. Do y'all get that?
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Now, when you know this, it leads to work. It leads to you doing what you what you want to do for your savior but it's not about the work. It does lead to it though. Redemption is the next one of those churchy church church words. Paul's metaphor, this is from prisoners of war or slaves.
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So, someone who is captive or condemned, a prisoner, or a slave where they are ransomed, that is a price is paid to secure their freedom from captivity, condemnation, or slavery. Do you get that? So this is redemption. One could be redeemed by someone paying a price, heavy price usually, full price, to remove them from their captivity, their condemnation, or their enslavement. The emphasis is on the freedom after the payment of a price.
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Okay? Because if the person that we're buying you just bought you to be their slave, that's a different thing. This is buying someone and redeeming them, setting them free. You you got it? Okay.
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Example. Quick two verse example from Exodus, and it's in the middle of all that law, you know, all the all the laws. If however, the bull has the bad habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it pinned up and if it kills a man or a woman, so this is a bull that belongs to someone else, kills a man or a woman, that bull is to be stoned, and its owner also is to be put to death. However, if payment is demanded, the owner may redeem his life by the payment of whatever is demanded. That's getting themselves out of the jeopardy of the death penalty if they are willing to pay whatever it is that the people ask them to pay.
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That make sense? That's redemption. Same word used right there. It's actually Hebrew there, but redemption and that one's described this way. The redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
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So, that's freely justified as a gift by his grace being justified. Redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Now, propitiation. What a word. That's a $10 word right there.
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Propitiation. Paul's metaphor from the Old Testament mercy seat. Now, there are a lot of people who see this in the Holy of Holies, in the temple, in the Old Testament. There was one place where one time on Yom Kippur, day of atonement at the end of this year that one priest could go in, that tie rope around his leg, and he would go in, having prayed up, having tried his best to clean cleanse himself as best he could. He would go in and then tie the rope around his leg just in case he didn't cleanse himself enough.
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They could drag him back out without going in there and getting struck down. Are you with me? Paul's metaphor from the Old Testament. Now, there was the cover of the top of the of the ark of the covenant and there was this mercy seat and that was where the blood was to be sprinkled and that blood was the propitiation for sin Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin and so that is the place where atonement is made. Well, Paul picks up that word here and he uses it.
50:16
It is about the removal of all wrath and that wrath is associated with sin. So, it's about the removal, complete removal of wrath. If you look this up and you look it up online and you want to dig in further and you look up propitiation, there are all kinds of people fighting back and forth but there's no doubt about this. This is the place where the wrath of God is averted. It is Jesus's blood makes the way possible.
50:41
The propitiation. Some people on the internet will say, it should rather be translated expiation which is fine. If you want to go there, that's fine because expiation is the removal of sin which is if you remove sin, then you have removed wrath. That's a very technical thing. I think jargon goes too far sometimes.
51:02
Propitiation, expiation, either one, it is about the removal of God's wrath from a situation. Now, what I like about this is it is propitiation and it's very clear what it what is making that propitiation. In his blood, through faith. That's it. Trusting in the good and right atonement provided by Christ on the cross in his blood but it's through your faith that it can be accessed.
51:29
So, the mechanism of the gospel is discussed with these three churchy words but everyone of em is power packed and means something. So, for all those who believed, for who believe as a gift by his grace, they are being justified, redeemed, and propitiated. Their sin is being propitiated. So, justification deals with guilt. It's legal.
51:52
Redemption deals with enslavement and propitiation deals with wrath. You got it? Alright. Have you all ever heard of a plea in abeyance? Some of y'all are legal minds.
52:04
Yes. Have you heard of this? If you have heard of a plea in abeyance, you are either a lawyer and yes, that's Johnny Cochran just because we're talking about being guilty but getting off anyway. Plea and abeyance. Sorry.
52:22
Plea and abeyance. You are probably a lawyer or you have received a speeding ticket in the state of Utah. Those are the two places where this term is used quite often. So if you were on your way back from spring break and you couldn't wait to get back to Jackson, and you were going a little over the speed limit and you got stopped in Murray County, Utah, You you have you have the possibility of a plea in abeyance. Now, if I think about Utah, think of two things.
52:54
Now, I will think of three things but two things. One of em is Mormons and Mormons and Mormon theology, all it goes with that, the temple in Salt Lake, all that and the Great Salt Lake. I went 15 more short last time. I'm going at least fifteen minutes over this time. So, the Great Salt Lake.
53:11
And a plea in advance. So plea in advance is this. You admit your guilt by entering a plea of guilty or no contest. You do not technically pay a fine because that would be punishment. You do pay a one time administrative fee associated with your plea.
53:27
It happens to be the same as defined for being guilty. Your plea will then be held in abeyance. That is in limbo. In legal limbo, your plea will be held for up to six months before it's put in or maybe a year. If you do not reoffend and you do complete a class and pass a test and oh, both are provided at an additional cost to you, the offender.
53:50
Okay. Then your case will be dismissed, kind of, because there is still a record of it. Okay? Y'all get this? This is Mormon theology.
54:07
I have not really considered it until this week. How does this differ from what we're talking about? I want you to consider this. One last point. Whom God displayed publicly.
54:20
That's not legal jargon. It's not from the slave marketer anywhere else. We read that in English and say, yeah, God displayed them publicly. Big deal. But I want you to look at this pro proate theta.
54:32
This is an aorist, middle, indicative. I know y'all loving this. Third person, singular, from the verb, prote. That is to place before or set forth. And since it is middle, it is to place before oneself, to set before oneself, to set before to be looked at, exposed to view by oneself, to expose to public view in front of everyone else so that you can see it and so that they can see it, to set before oneself, propose to oneself, to propose or determine within oneself.
55:12
That's middle, and it's really good. This is a great point Paul made. All have sinned, all are continually fallen short of the glory of God habitually and continually but God has set before himself the propitiation for all of those sins and all he is asking for is that you would believe it. Amen. Sin.
55:42
It is ever before us. It is one of those things that is for everybody. Guilt, enslavement, and wrath come with it and God has made a way in the blood of Jesus Christ to get rid of guilt, enslavement, and wrath and immediately, you're free. Immediately, positionally, you're free before God when you see this and go, that's what I want. I don't want to plead in abeyance.
56:15
I don't want to admit that I'm guilty, have it still hanging over my head, and have to do everything to bring myself up to par. I want you to make me better, judge. I want you to do it. The but now is for all those who believe. Now, I didn't put one slide but the Great Salt Lake.
56:38
Great Salt Lake in Mormon in Mormon. In Mormon territory. Sorry. Great Salt Lake in Utah. It has no outlet.
56:47
Do y'all get that? So, water flows in from four different rivers, little tributaries here and there and as that water flows in, it brings with it different salts and chemicals and who knows what and all kinds of stuff, little stones and whatnot and it brings it in and then it sits in that basin in the sunshine, in the desert, and it begins to evaporate off but it has no outlet. It doesn't flow and so it is dead. Other place in the world where we have this phenomena, the Dead Sea, right there, Israel. Right there near Jerusalem is a good example then.
57:21
It's a good example now. We need an outlet people to keep ourselves spiritually fresh. We need an outlet. So, God has made the way by his own doing. He took it upon himself when we were guilty to pay the price for the penalty of our sins, to release us from the guilt, and to transform us.
57:44
The rehabilitation. He has taken that on through his Holy Spirit, the transformation process. He has taken that on. I've got one commandment that I want to share with you. Just as God in Christ has forgiven you, be forgiving others.
57:59
How did God forgive you? Was it because you promised to do better? Was it because you paid a fine? Was it because you promised you wouldn't do it again? No.
58:11
When you said, lord, would you forgive me for this sin? He threw it as far as the East is from the West. He remembers it no more. I know as human beings, it's hard to forget but your outlet for God's grace is sharing it with other people. They've sinned against you.
58:28
Absolutely happens to all of us. Can be terrible and I've heard a million stories. How did God forgive you? That is the way. Your outlet, your outflow is to be forgiven others in the same manner that Christ had forgiven you.
58:45
He put himself out there. Christ blood through belief is what expiates, propitiates, redeems, and justifies. Amen. I think that's it. Peace with God on his terms.
59:05
He accomplished it. Can you see how the whole thing was about God? About how he did that? And it said, towards those who believe and then at the end, it says, in his blood, through faith or through belief. Peace with God on his terms.
59:18
He accomplished it and what he asked is that you believe him. That's it. Amen. And I want to say one more thing because we're going to sing I saw the light. Y'all come on up.
59:26
At some point, you have to have a but now, okay? If sin is the pervasive determining factor in your life right now, I pray that God will give you that but now. That you'll just say, I don't know how to do this God but now, I'm trusting you. Show me your way but now, is that it? That's it.
59:48
Would you stand with us and sing?
59:57
By the way, Ray wasn't speeding. I was.
1:02:38
More time. Amen. God, thank you and I wanna say this, therefore, we, y'all, all of us, we together, we are ambassadors for Christ. If we understand that message that we just got pure from Paul, man, we are ambassadors for Christ. This is what he says and as though God were making his appeal directly through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ.
1:03:00
Be reconciled to God. Amen. Simple as that. Amen.
