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Advice for Reading Romans After Decades of Experience · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: The Book of Romans answers some of the most important
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  Speaker 1: questions that we have about life, particularly our own lives,
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  Speaker 1: Like what was my spiritual condition before my conversion? What
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  Speaker 1: did God do in Jesus Christ, his son to save
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  Speaker 1: me from that condition? And how was that work that
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  Speaker 1: he did different from what God has done inside of me?
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  Speaker 1: How did God overcome my stubborn resistance and give me
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  Speaker 1: the gift of faith? And now how should I live
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  Speaker 1: in light of the precious salvation God has given to
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  Speaker 1: me and is working inside of me? Now? How does
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  Speaker 1: it affect my relationships, my work, my life at home,
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  Speaker 1: in the church and in the world. And what confident
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  Speaker 1: hope can I have for the future. Paul's letter to
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  Speaker 1: the Romans is such a precious gift from God, answering
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  Speaker 1: all of these questions for us. Pastor John, as we
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  Speaker 1: approach March and prepare to dive into Romans and our
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  Speaker 1: Bible reading and to read it throughout this month, help
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  Speaker 1: us out here. You've been reading and studying and cherishing
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  Speaker 1: this book, this letter for over sixty years. Now what
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  Speaker 1: advice would you give us to help us draw out
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  Speaker 1: the most glories from this precious letter?
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  Speaker 2: Let me see if I can raise the expectations of
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  Speaker 2: us all as we move into Romans again this year,
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  Speaker 2: I will claim, without any fear of contradiction, that Paul's
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  Speaker 2: Letter to the Romans is the greatest letter that has
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  Speaker 2: ever been written in the history of the world by anybody,
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  Speaker 2: Christian or non Christian. And here's what I mean by
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  Speaker 2: greatest three things. Number One, it is the fullest divinely
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  Speaker 2: inspired summary of the greatest realities in the universe. Second,
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  Speaker 2: among those inspired writings, it is not only the fullest
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  Speaker 2: summary of the greatest realities, it penetrates more deeply into
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  Speaker 2: those realities than any other book does. Like the condition
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  Speaker 2: of humanity outside Christ, the meaning of justification by faith,
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  Speaker 2: the miracle of the Christian life lived after the Law
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  Speaker 2: in the spirit, the condition of the natural world under
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  Speaker 2: the fall, the future destiny of the people of Israel,
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  Speaker 2: the mystery of why God would prepare vessels of wrath
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  Speaker 2: for destruction, things like that. It's just unparalleled in its
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  Speaker 2: penetrating power. And Third, what I mean by greatest is
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  Speaker 2: no other letter has had a greater impact on the
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  Speaker 2: history of the Church and the world than this one.
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  Speaker 2: Augustine traced his conversion to Romans thirteen thirteen. Martin Luther
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  Speaker 2: entered the paradise of imputed righteousness and freedom through the
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  Speaker 2: portal of Romans one seventeen, and John Wesley's heart was
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  Speaker 2: freed from the strivings of the Oxford Club into the
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  Speaker 2: joy of faith by hearing the Moravians read Luther's preface
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  Speaker 2: to the Romans, and millions upon millions of others have
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  Speaker 2: walked into peace with God along what we call the
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  Speaker 2: Romans Road, namely Romans three twenty three. All have sinned
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  Speaker 2: and fall short of the glory of God Romans six
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  Speaker 2: twenty three. The wages of that sin is death Romans
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  Speaker 2: five six. While we were still weak, Christ died for
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  Speaker 2: the ungodly Romans ten nine. If you confess with your
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  Speaker 2: mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that
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  Speaker 2: God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Goodness,
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  Speaker 2: how many millions of people have heard those four glorious
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  Speaker 2: and painful and wonderful truths and been saved by God. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: it's the greatest letter that has ever been written. And
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  Speaker 2: we should enter the front door of Romans this year
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  Speaker 2: with a sense of wonder and reverence and thankfulness and
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  Speaker 2: expectation and joy. It's not just the mount everest of scripture,
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  Speaker 2: which it is. It is a whole range of mountain
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  Speaker 2: peaks of soaring revelation. If there's any scripture to which
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  Speaker 2: we should apply Psalm one nineteen, verse eighteen, this is it.
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  Speaker 2: Oh Lord, open my eyes that I may behold wonderful
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  Speaker 2: things out of your instruction. That's a good translation of Torah,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes translated law. So with with this sense of expectation
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  Speaker 2: and wonder and reverence and thankfulness for the greatest of
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  Speaker 2: all books, is there a peculiar angle from which we
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  Speaker 2: should come at this book as we read it this year? Well,
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  Speaker 2: I'm very hesitant to limit anybody's approach to this book.
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  Speaker 2: It is without exaggeration and ocean. It's an ocean of
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  Speaker 2: insight into reality. And the ocean has no bottom, and
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  Speaker 2: the ocean has no shores, which means that this book
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  Speaker 2: will never be exhausted by finite human beings in what
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  Speaker 2: it has to show us about God and his ways
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  Speaker 2: and about his world and his people. But if anybody
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  Speaker 2: listening to us would like to suggestion, here's mine. I
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  Speaker 2: would dare to say that no believer fully understands who
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  Speaker 2: he is and what God did to make us believers,
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  Speaker 2: who we are and what we will become. I would
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  Speaker 2: venture to say that most Christians have an incomplete and
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  Speaker 2: many even defective grasp of what happened to make them
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  Speaker 2: a Christian and the miraculous thing it is to be
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  Speaker 2: a Christian. Therefore, my suggestion is that many of us
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  Speaker 2: read Romans ransack Romans this year for what three four weeks,
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  Speaker 2: however long we're in it to find the answer to
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  Speaker 2: five questions. First, what was my condition before conversion to Christ?
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  Speaker 2: Or which is a form of the same question, what
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  Speaker 2: would be my condition now if God had not powerfully
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  Speaker 2: moved in my life to save me. We must let
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  Speaker 2: God answer this question from Romans, not from our experience.
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  Speaker 2: Some of us were saved when we were six years old,
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  Speaker 2: and we don't have any memory at all of what
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  Speaker 2: condition was, what our condition was before we were saved.
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  Speaker 2: And some of us think we know how bad we
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  Speaker 2: were because of the bad things we did before we
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  Speaker 2: were saved. But we don't realize how bad we were
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  Speaker 2: because deep down the analysis of our condition and our
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  Speaker 2: corruption is so much more profound that any experience could
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  Speaker 2: teach us. We must be taught by God what our
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  Speaker 2: condition was and would be today if we weren't saved,
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  Speaker 2: or we won't be singing amazing grace the way we should.
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  Speaker 2: Second question, we should try to answer what did God
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  Speaker 2: do in Jesus Christ in history to save me from
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  Speaker 2: that condition? Now, let's not confuse that question with what
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  Speaker 2: God did in me? In me Martin Luther's whole world
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  Speaker 2: was turned upside down when he realized that his salvation
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  Speaker 2: was accomplished outside of him. He called it extra nos.
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  Speaker 2: I remember the first time in seminary I heard that phrase,
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  Speaker 2: and it landed on me similarly with power extra nose
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  Speaker 2: outside of us, centuries ago, on a hill outside Jerusalem.
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  Speaker 2: It was done, The salvation was achieved, The decisive divine
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  Speaker 2: work was done before Luther existed. You existed, I existed.
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  Speaker 2: What did God do outside of us to save us
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  Speaker 2: in eternity in history? Romans is really good on that.
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  Speaker 2: Let's answer that question because we need to know what
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  Speaker 2: He did for us outside thousands of years ago, before
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  Speaker 2: we ever existed, not just what he does in us.
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  Speaker 2: Third question, what then did God do in us to
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  Speaker 2: save us? What does he do to us by his
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  Speaker 2: spirit and his sovereign grace. How was my resistance to
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  Speaker 2: him overcome? How did that happen? How did my faith
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  Speaker 2: come into being? What was that like? If the mind
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  Speaker 2: of the flesh is hostile to God and cannot submit
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  Speaker 2: to God's law? Chapter eight, verse seven, how did I
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  Speaker 2: get saved? The glory of God's grace that we find
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  Speaker 2: in the Bible is so powerful and decisive that we
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  Speaker 2: stop attributing things to ourselves, which the Bible attributes to God.
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  Speaker 2: Fourth question I hope we can answer this year, How
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  Speaker 2: then shall I live in this world? If I was
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  Speaker 2: saved like that? How shall I live in this church?
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  Speaker 2: How shall I live my enemies? How shall I live
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  Speaker 2: in relation to the government, in relation to unreached peoples
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  Speaker 2: of the world? Chapter ten? By what power can I
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  Speaker 2: live the Christian life? How am I to gain that power?
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  Speaker 2: How am I to defeat sin? How to live the
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  Speaker 2: Christian life? Last question number five? What is my future?
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  Speaker 2: What's my future in this life? What kind of care
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  Speaker 2: does God take of me in this life as I
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  Speaker 2: walk in the spirit? What is my future forever? Those
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  Speaker 2: are my five questions. Now, I don't want to limit
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  Speaker 2: anybody's insights. As you read Romans, God has things for
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  Speaker 2: you to see besides these five questions, I am sure.
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  Speaker 2: So one way to do both. Let God say whatever
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  Speaker 2: he wants to say besides these, and to do this
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  Speaker 2: bransacking for these five answers is to get a notebook
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  Speaker 2: or a few sheets of paper and put these five
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  Speaker 2: questions on five different pages. And then just as you read.
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  Speaker 2: I think that the sections we're going to read are
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  Speaker 2: fairly short. Just stay alert to these five questions, and
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  Speaker 2: every time you see something that relates to one of them,
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  Speaker 2: jot it down on that particular page. While he shows
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  Speaker 2: you all kinds of other things as well. Let God
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  Speaker 2: speak to you any way he pleases, and don't fret
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  Speaker 2: that you can't see it all. Depending on how old
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  Speaker 2: you are, you can read it maybe another one hundred times,
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  Speaker 2: and there will always be more to see.
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  Speaker 1: The greatest letter that has ever been written in the
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  Speaker 1: history of the world by anybody, Christian or non Christian. Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Bessor John. Thanks for joining us today. If
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  Speaker 1: you have a question, ask Pastor John. Find a link
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  Speaker 1: to email us and find our complete episode archive and
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  Speaker 1: ask Pastor John dot com. Every episode with audio and
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  Speaker 1: full transcripts available for you. Twenty four to seven speaking
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  Speaker 1: of Romans. Uh, there's a dilemma face by a young
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  Speaker 1: woman who wants to know what it means to have
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  Speaker 1: been an enemy of God before conversion, especially for Bethany,
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  Speaker 1: who was raised in a Christian home and has no
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  Speaker 1: conscious memory of such enmity against God. The issue is
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  Speaker 1: whether we should rely on personal experiences and memories to
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  Speaker 1: understand the realities of our sinful condition. It's a great
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  Speaker 1: question from Bethany. It's up next time. I'm Tony RANKI
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  Speaker 1: you'll see on Monday.