Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Unwrapping the Gift of Grace │ Msg 944 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Unwrapping the Gift of Grace │ Msg 944 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Now let me read for you please, Romans Chapter three,
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Speaker 1: the Getting at verse twenty one through thirty one, before
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Speaker 1: this morning's prayer and offering, Romans three twenty one. But now,
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Speaker 1: apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been
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Speaker 1: made manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
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Speaker 1: even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
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Speaker 1: for all those who believe, For there is no distinction,
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Speaker 1: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
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Speaker 1: of God, being justified as a gift by His grace
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Speaker 1: through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God
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Speaker 1: displayed publicly as a propitiation. The word means satisfaction in
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Speaker 1: his blood through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness,
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Speaker 1: because in the forbearance of God he passed over the
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Speaker 1: sins previously committed for the demonstration I say of his
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Speaker 1: righteousness at the present time, so that He would be
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Speaker 1: just and the justifier of the one who has faith
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Speaker 1: in Jesus, Where then is boasting well. It is excluded
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Speaker 1: by what kind of law of works? No, but by
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Speaker 1: a law of faith. For we maintain that a man
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Speaker 1: is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
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Speaker 1: Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he
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Speaker 1: not the God of gentiles? Also, yes, of gentiles? Also,
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Speaker 1: since indeed, God, who will justify the circumcised by faith
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Speaker 1: and the uncircumcised through faith, is one, do we then
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Speaker 1: nullify the law through faith? May it never be on
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Speaker 1: the contrary, we establish the law. This morning is one
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Speaker 1: of those times you're glad you're not preaching, isn't it.
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Speaker 1: I read over that and you go, what in the
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Speaker 1: world is that all about? Well? I don't know. So
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Speaker 1: we're going to go home. It'll be my pleasure to
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Speaker 1: unpack this passage of scripture, and you will realize after
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Speaker 1: it's unpacked, really how simple the message is. Join me
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Speaker 1: as we pray. Please, we're thankful our Father for this
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Speaker 1: season of the year. Thank you for the songs that
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Speaker 1: are familiar to us, to us but not to most,
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Speaker 1: For this season for many is simply lights in one's
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Speaker 1: yard and on one's house, a tree, gifts given and received,
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Speaker 1: meals served and enjoyed, and then a memory and really
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Speaker 1: nothing more. But together we as your followers, thank you
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Speaker 1: for sending us that baby boy, and in giving him,
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Speaker 1: you gave the one most precious to you, your one
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Speaker 1: and only son. We're thankful that when he came he
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Speaker 1: had us in mind, and we who have been brought
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Speaker 1: on this earth to live, realized that he came to
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Speaker 1: this earth to die. Thank You for that death. Thank
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Speaker 1: You for the complete payment for sin that his death provided.
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Speaker 1: Thank You for the good news of Jesus. May we
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Speaker 1: proclaim it openly and freely and boldly, so that those
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Speaker 1: who've never heard will realize what they've missed. Make this
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Speaker 1: a winsome place. Our Father guard us from the clique
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Speaker 1: that is often the characteristic of the church. May we
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Speaker 1: see this as a community church. May we understand that
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Speaker 1: it is ours, but it is others as well, And
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Speaker 1: it really is all about Jesus, who loved us and
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Speaker 1: gave himself for us. Take special care for those who
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Speaker 1: are in the uniform today in difficult and dangerous places.
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Speaker 1: Watch over those who help others in need, and be
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Speaker 1: near and dear to those who have lost the lives
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Speaker 1: of precious loved ones. We pray for them today. Now, Lord,
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Speaker 1: these gifts are yours, This building is yours, Our future
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Speaker 1: is yours. The message proclaimed today is for your glory,
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Speaker 1: and so our gifts are for you. We give them
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Speaker 1: gratefully generously in the name of your son Jesus, and
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Speaker 1: everyone said amen. Public surveys and on the street interviews
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Speaker 1: often yield surprising answers. This occurred years ago when I
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Speaker 1: was a minister up in New England serving a church
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Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. I had a friend who was a high
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Speaker 1: school teacher at a prep school where he was teaching
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Speaker 1: some of the brightest of the brightest in high school years,
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Speaker 1: planning on their years in college and on indergraduate work.
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Speaker 1: Many of them, he decided one year that he would
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Speaker 1: teach a course he entitled The Bible as Literature. He thought,
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Speaker 1: since I'm going to be teaching this course to these
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Speaker 1: students in this secondary school, it would be helpful to
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Speaker 1: know how much they know about the Bible, and then
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Speaker 1: I can sort of shape my course starting where they
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Speaker 1: are and take it from there. So we handed out
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Speaker 1: a survey that had a number of questions on it,
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Speaker 1: none of them trick questions, just sivil questions about facts
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Speaker 1: and people and events in the Bible. He got back, well,
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Speaker 1: let's use the word surprising answers. He learned from the
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Speaker 1: survey that Sodom and Gamarrow were lovers that Jezebel was
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Speaker 1: ahabs donkey, that the four horsemen of Revelation appeared on
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Speaker 1: the Acropolis, that the New Testament Gospels are written by Matthew,
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Speaker 1: Mark Luther, and John. Someone said that Eve was created
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Speaker 1: by an apple and Jesus was baptized by Moses. He
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Speaker 1: was most surprised with an answer that came to the
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Speaker 1: question what was Gawgatha? Gawgatha was the name of the
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Speaker 1: giant who slew the apostle. David was the answer. I
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Speaker 1: thought the funniest answer was the one that came in
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Speaker 1: answer to the question what were the epistles? One student said,
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Speaker 1: in all seriousness, the wives of the Apostles. That's a
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Speaker 1: pretty creative answer, as wrong as it can be, but
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Speaker 1: it's a creative answer. And when I heard that answer,
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Speaker 1: I thought that is hilarious, and so I shared that
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Speaker 1: in our congregation the following Sunday didn't fit the sermon.
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Speaker 1: I just jammed it in, and after it was over,
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Speaker 1: one of our members came up and said, in all seriousness,
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Speaker 1: if they weren't the wives of the apostles, whose wives
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Speaker 1: were they? On the street interviews are just as surprising.
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Speaker 1: In fact, they are very revealing most don't have a
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Speaker 1: clue who Jesus Christ is. As you noticed in the
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Speaker 1: video today, most if they were asked how does a
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Speaker 1: person get to heaven? What answer? If they even took
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Speaker 1: a stab at the answer with words like we get
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Speaker 1: salvation the old fashioned way, we earn it, we work
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Speaker 1: hard for it. And they would say that in all seriousness,
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Speaker 1: because every religion I'm familiar with says you get there
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Speaker 1: by working hard, by giving up something, by adding something
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Speaker 1: to your life, by doing more and more and more.
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Speaker 1: It'll be a works based salvation. What's interesting is that
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Speaker 1: every year there's a top ten hymns Favorite Hymns of
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Speaker 1: America put into print, and it always makes me smile
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Speaker 1: because in the top ten, if it isn't the top
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Speaker 1: of the ten, it's near the top. Invariably is the
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Speaker 1: song Amazing Grace. Is that interesting? A world that believes
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Speaker 1: in a work based salvation loves Amazing Grace and the
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Speaker 1: song the hymn doesn't even tie in with what they believe.
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Speaker 1: And so I've written hymn for those who believe in
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Speaker 1: words you won't find I did in today's Hymnoe, but
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Speaker 1: here it is. I've titled it excessive works, excessive works,
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Speaker 1: how sweaty the sound that came from someone as sincere
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Speaker 1: as me. I once was incompetent. Now I'm admired thanks
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Speaker 1: to what I've accomplished. It's all about me. Twas works
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Speaker 1: that earned my favor with God, and works that made
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Speaker 1: him smile. How hard I labored, how long I toiled?
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Speaker 1: How often that second mile? When we've been there ten
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Speaker 1: thousand years, proud of our efforts under the sun, we've
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Speaker 1: no last days to sing our own praise and remember
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Speaker 1: the great things we have done. Can you imagine a
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Speaker 1: heaven filled with people like that? I mean, I worked
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Speaker 1: sixty years to get here. My granddad was a preacher,
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Speaker 1: and my dad was a preacher, and I was a missionary,
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Speaker 1: and so I got here because I earned my way here.
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Speaker 1: Another one says, I gave up coffee, cigarettes, food, I sacrificed,
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Speaker 1: so I got here because of how good I was
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Speaker 1: and how pure I became. And another one and another
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Speaker 1: one another, Please, please, where do you throw up? What
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Speaker 1: kind of heaven would that be? It's grace that taught
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Speaker 1: my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How
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Speaker 1: wondrous did that grace appear the hour I first believed
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Speaker 1: there was nothing I could do to find my earn
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Speaker 1: my way, gain my way in. You see a person
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Speaker 1: who believes they worked their way to heaven, believes that
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Speaker 1: because they think there's something good down inside, they can
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Speaker 1: build on. Because there is something good down in there,
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Speaker 1: I can just make the those building blocks of good
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Speaker 1: works grow and grow, and sacrifice and grow and more
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Speaker 1: and more. I become all the more to God. However,
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Speaker 1: you and I know from the teaching of Romans Chapters one,
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Speaker 1: two and the better part of chapter three, that well,
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Speaker 1: as we read in Romans three ten, please turn, there
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Speaker 1: is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands.
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Speaker 1: Verse eleven says there is none who seeks for God.
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Speaker 1: Will you please believe that? Will you please rearrange your thinking,
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Speaker 1: regardless of the religious background from which you come. Will
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Speaker 1: you please remind yourself that verse twelve is true. All
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Speaker 1: have turned aside. You're in the group, I'm in the group.
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Speaker 1: Together we have become useless. There is none who does good.
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Speaker 1: There is not even one, not one, not in God's eyes.
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Speaker 1: If you notice, when you fly, you get up about
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Speaker 1: thirty thousand and forty thousand feet in elevation, you look down,
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Speaker 1: everything looks the same level, doesn't it in interesting, but
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Speaker 1: the elevation on Earth can be difference of ten, twelve,
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Speaker 1: fifteen thousand feet above sea level, or even a few
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Speaker 1: thousand below sea level, But it all looks the same
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Speaker 1: from above. That's how God views humanity through God's eyes,
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Speaker 1: through his lenses, if you will, as he looks at humanity,
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Speaker 1: he evaluates that all are sinful, none deserve or can
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Speaker 1: ever earn their way into the holy, absolutely pristine, pure
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Speaker 1: presence of God. In matter of fact, if you look
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Speaker 1: ahead to Romans seven and verse eighteen, you'll not only
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Speaker 1: see a preview of coming attractions, you'll see a verse
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Speaker 1: that states, in a few words, what I've been saying
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Speaker 1: seven eighteen. I know that nothing good dwells in me,
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Speaker 1: that is in my flesh, nothing good, nothing good, nothing
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Speaker 1: in my hands I bring, says the old hymn writer.
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Speaker 1: And I never will be good enough to bring God's favor.
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Speaker 1: That's the bad news of our nature, of our lives.
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Speaker 1: That's why you never have to teach your child to
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Speaker 1: do wrong. Isn't interesting, Nosan, Let me tell you what
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Speaker 1: disobedience is all about. It's a choke. You teach them obedience.
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Speaker 1: Why because the nature is to do wrong? Why because
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Speaker 1: they are by birth, by choice, and by nature wrong
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Speaker 1: with God. We are. They get it from us. We
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Speaker 1: got it from our folks all the way back. We
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Speaker 1: all got it from Adam as an Adam all die
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Speaker 1: if I stopped here. It is a very very dark story.
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Speaker 1: But there is a There is a continental divide in
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Speaker 1: the first two words of verse twenty one of Romans.
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Speaker 1: But now is that great? This is one of those
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Speaker 1: great butts found in the Bible. There are several of them.
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Speaker 1: This is one of them.
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Speaker 2: But now it's all been dark, it's all been depraved,
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Speaker 2: it's all been sinful, even religious pride and legalism and
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Speaker 2: all of the all of the moralism of doing good
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Speaker 2: and working hard, all of that.
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Speaker 1: But now, since there's nothing we can bring, now, I'm
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Speaker 1: ready to give you the good news that's great. And
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Speaker 1: in the verses that follow he tells us four things
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Speaker 1: about the Gospel, about the good news of Jesus Christ. First,
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Speaker 1: it is a transfer of righteousness. God's righteousness is never
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Speaker 1: inherited from our parents or grandparents, or even farther back.
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Speaker 1: There's no inheritance of righteousness. There's got to be a
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Speaker 1: transfer of righteousness from God to us. The second thing
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Speaker 1: about the Gospel, it is a gift of grace, and
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Speaker 1: that makes it that makes it fair. He's the little
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Speaker 1: kid who exists in the ghetto of South Chicago, or
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Speaker 1: in the slums of New York, or in some dark
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Speaker 1: part of our own city or your city, has just
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Speaker 1: as big an opportunity or chance to come to Christ
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Speaker 1: as the one who is in six digit figures in
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Speaker 1: his salary, very well healed, very self sustaining. We all
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Speaker 1: come the same way. It's a gift. It's a gift.
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Speaker 1: It's a gift of grace. The third thing that tells
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Speaker 1: about the Gospel is it's a display of love. God
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Speaker 1: shows his love to us in giving us the gift
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Speaker 1: of salvation. And then, fourth and finally, it is a
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Speaker 1: declaration of faith. We enter into it by faith, and
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Speaker 1: that's the only way we can know this life of
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Speaker 1: God and have the righteousness of Christ within us. Let's
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Speaker 1: unpack that Chally verse twenty one. Now, apart from the law,
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Speaker 1: the righteousness of God has been displayed rendered here manifested.
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Speaker 1: The righteousness of God has been displayed, being witnessed by
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Speaker 1: the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God
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Speaker 1: through faith. Notice three things about this. It has nothing
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Speaker 1: to do with the law. This righteousness, it says, it's
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Speaker 1: apart from the law. Second, it is not new. It
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Speaker 1: was witnessed, it was declared, it was written by the
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Speaker 1: law and the prophets. They knew of this righteousness. And
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Speaker 1: it is all a part of God's redemptive plan that
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Speaker 1: began all the way back at Adam. It's nothing new. Third,
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Speaker 1: it's not from within ourselves. It is based on our
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Speaker 1: faith in Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, when
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Speaker 1: we turn to ourselves, Verse twenty three tells it all
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Speaker 1: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now,
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Speaker 1: when some hear that, they think, well, I know some
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Speaker 1: people who are pretty righteous. I know some folks that
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Speaker 1: have worked hard all their lives, and they live purer
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Speaker 1: lives than I do. Well, I decided I need to
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Speaker 1: have an illustration that will help you remember how none
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Speaker 1: of that works in God's eyes. So I brought along
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Speaker 1: this scale. Okay, let's say that you know somebody who
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Speaker 1: has about a foot of righteousness. They've been working, They've
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Speaker 1: been working fifteen years of their lives to get to heaven.
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Speaker 1: And they've given up this, they've given up that. They've
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Speaker 1: handed out tracks on street corners, they've been busy about
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Speaker 1: the work of religion. So they got about a foot
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Speaker 1: of righteousness. But you know somebody else who has been
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Speaker 1: working long enough to get two feet. They've been at
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Speaker 1: at thirty five years, and they got a righteousness is
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Speaker 1: you know, they got all of those things that hang
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Speaker 1: off your chest for never missing a day in Sunday school,
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Speaker 1: and all they got bibles that look like they've been
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Speaker 1: carrying them behind their car and dragging them along. They've
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Speaker 1: been reading the Bible, and they've been praying all the time.
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Speaker 1: And then you know some of them that are preachers
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Speaker 1: and they're lost, but they they got three feet of righteousness.
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Speaker 1: Stay with me, now, they got three feet around. They're
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Speaker 1: lost as a lizard, but they're preachers and so they
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Speaker 1: got righteousness because they've been preaching a good book. And
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Speaker 1: then you got some who become, oh, missionaries, so they're
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Speaker 1: fore feet of righteousness. And in God's eyes, none of
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Speaker 1: it works there. It is absolutely worth less. Why because
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Speaker 1: we've all sinned, we all fall short of the glory
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Speaker 1: of God. We all fall short of his standard. Have
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Speaker 1: you ever worked hard enough to be as righteous as
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Speaker 1: God is? You can't. They were sacrificed enough to really
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Speaker 1: earn your way into heaven, like the sacrifice of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: You can't. How about really gutting it up in hard
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Speaker 1: times and really standing firm? Is that enough? It's never enough.
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Speaker 1: It's never enough. You talk to any religion and ask
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Speaker 1: the crucial question, how much is enough? They can never
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Speaker 1: answer the question why, because works never get you there.
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Speaker 1: You never know when you've done enough. You ask a
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Speaker 1: person who bases his salvation or her salvation on works,
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Speaker 1: and they're near death, and you say, are you sure
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Speaker 1: now you're going to go to heaven? I hope so? Oh,
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Speaker 1: I really hope. So I've just been working so hard.
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Speaker 1: God bless them. They don't know. You ask a person
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Speaker 1: who's taken a gift, they die with a smile on
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Speaker 1: her face. There's nothing to fear, there's no worry, because
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Speaker 1: they don't get there on their own. Is Jesus in
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Speaker 1: God's heaven? If I'm in Jesus, do I get in
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Speaker 1: God's heaven with him? Absolutely? Absolutely? We have a transfer
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Speaker 1: of righteousness. Look at how he puts it. It's so
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Speaker 1: clear in verse twenty four, being justified as a gift,
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Speaker 1: the Greek has just one word. It's the term for
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Speaker 1: freely being justified, freely, freely said a good word. Jesus said,
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Speaker 1: on one occasion they hated me without a cause, same
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Speaker 1: Greek word as here being justified without a cause, without
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Speaker 1: one thing that we had in ourselves. Then it's by
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Speaker 1: his grace through the redemption in Christ. Jesus. Oh, we've
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Speaker 1: got to understand the word redemption. That's a great, great word.
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Speaker 1: Back years ago, slaves were put on blocks and they
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Speaker 1: stood up above the crowd to be sold to the market.
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Speaker 1: It was called in cities like Rome, a slave market.
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Speaker 1: Slave owners would show up and they would bid for
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Speaker 1: the slave. The highest bidder would get the property a
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Speaker 1: slave in chains. Occasionally a slave owner would have a
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Speaker 1: change of heart and would cut the chains free and
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Speaker 1: let the slave go free. He would say, we would say,
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Speaker 1: he has redeemed the slave. It means to liberate by
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Speaker 1: the paying of a price, to set free by the
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Speaker 1: paying of a price. You and I do not pay
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Speaker 1: one cent for our eternal home. The one who gives
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Speaker 1: twenty million dollars a year is no closer to heaven
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Speaker 1: than the person who gives ten dollars a year. It's
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Speaker 1: not a matter of money. You and I had nothing
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Speaker 1: in ourselves to earn salvation. The person who forty years
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Speaker 1: on the mission field lives a sacrificial life is no
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Speaker 1: closer to heaven the individual who never gets out of
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Speaker 1: his own backyard. You don't earn this. You and I
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Speaker 1: could not possibly work hard enough to win God's favor.
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Speaker 1: Look across the page of chapter four, verse four. This
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Speaker 1: is as clear as it can be. Romans four to four.
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Speaker 1: Now to the one who works, that refers to your employment,
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Speaker 1: talks about your job. To the one who works, his
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Speaker 1: wage is not credited as a favor. But it's what
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Speaker 1: is due. Now, that's true, isn't it. At the end
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Speaker 1: of your pay period, you receive an envelope from your employer.
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Speaker 1: When the envelope is given to you on your desk
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Speaker 1: or handed you in your hand, you take the envelope
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Speaker 1: and you never say thank you for this gift. Your
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Speaker 1: boss would look at you like you know you're from Mars.
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Speaker 1: Gift you earn that, you say good. That's if it's
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Speaker 1: the right amount. It's your wage you earned it. Look
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Speaker 1: at the next verse, but there's another one of those
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Speaker 1: great butts. But to the one who does not work
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Speaker 1: but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, why his
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Speaker 1: faith is credited as righteousness? That is so good? I
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Speaker 1: want to shout. Let me tell you why. Here I
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Speaker 1: am lost, absolutely sinful, depraved, nothing in myself to please God, nothing,
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Speaker 1: And Christ comes in my place. Christ dies to pay
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Speaker 1: the penalty of on my behalf. And as I believe
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Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ and his death for me, where he
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Speaker 1: paid the complete payment for sins, I am now in Christ,
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Speaker 1: and I am seen as righteous as God's own son
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Speaker 1: is righteous. Is that good? Or what nearer? Still? Nearer?
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Speaker 1: Nearer I cannot be, For in the person of his son,
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Speaker 1: I am as near as he say Creed. If the
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Speaker 1: Son of God is in the presence of God, and
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Speaker 1: I am in the Son of God by faith having
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Speaker 1: received the gift, I couldn't be nearer. I couldn't have
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Speaker 1: a relationship more connected or secure than that. Now back
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Speaker 1: to the verse. Through the redemption that is in Christ
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Speaker 1: Jesus verse twenty five, whom that's referring back to Christ Jesus,
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Speaker 1: whom God publicly displayed as a satisfaction in his blood
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Speaker 1: through faith. What does that mean? All right? Now? Listen carefully,
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Speaker 1: Listen carefully. When Adam sinned, exactly as God told him,
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Speaker 1: Adam died. He instantly died spiritually, he began to die physically.
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Speaker 1: In fact, the Lord said, the soul that sins will
26:38
Speaker 1: surely die. In order for sin to be taken care of,
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Speaker 1: there must be death. So when it comes to the
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Speaker 1: sins of the whole world, which we have inherited from Adam,
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Speaker 1: how can we possibly pay that kind of payment? We
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Speaker 1: can't because sinful sacrifices don't work in God's eyes. It
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Speaker 1: takes aus sinless sacrifice. That's why the Lamb of God
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Speaker 1: is the sinless lamb of God in the scriptures. And
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Speaker 1: the sinless Lamb of God was sacrificed, and the sacrifice
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Speaker 1: of his death satisfied the demands of the Father on sin.
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Speaker 1: How great is that? So by blood death, by Jesus
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Speaker 1: death on the cross, his blood washes away our sins
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Speaker 1: and satisfies the Father. So two things happen in this
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Speaker 1: display of love. First of all, it satisfies the Father's
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Speaker 1: demand on sin, that sin must be paid for with death.
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Speaker 1: So jesus death satisfies the Father, and second it silences
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Speaker 1: the scandal against God. In the Old Testament, God was
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Speaker 1: seen as one who suspended judgment, and his holiness was
28:00
Speaker 1: called into question. In fact, that's why it reads like
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Speaker 1: it does. This was to demonstrate his righteousness, because in
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Speaker 1: the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed,
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Speaker 1: and some said in those days he doesn't care. God
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Speaker 1: must not be holy. And therefore in the Cross God
28:19
Speaker 1: publicly displayed his judgment on all sin, past, present, and future,
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Speaker 1: thus clearing his name in the minds of those who
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Speaker 1: said he was not holy and was not just. Now
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Speaker 1: there's a declaration of faith in the middle of all
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Speaker 1: of this verse twenty six, the demonstration I say, of
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Speaker 1: his righteousness at the present time, so that he would
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Speaker 1: be just, and that he took care of the sin
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Speaker 1: issue in his son and the justifier of one who
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Speaker 1: has faith in Jesus. In other words, in order for
28:50
Speaker 1: you and me to benefit from this offer of eternal life,
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Speaker 1: we must act in faith and accept it. I can
29:00
Speaker 1: hand you the gift all day, but if you don't
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Speaker 1: take it by faith, it does you no good. It's
29:06
Speaker 1: yours to take as if I were giving you a gift.
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Speaker 1: And when you take the gift, grace happens. You the
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Speaker 1: unworthy and undeserving one, are now declared righteous in God's eyes.
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Speaker 1: That's grace. D Martin Lloyd Jones has left us thirteen
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Speaker 1: volumes on the Letter to the Romans. It is not
29:31
Speaker 1: bedside reading, let me assure you, But on occasion he
29:35
Speaker 1: puts his finger on a particular truth and just articulates
29:39
Speaker 1: it like you'll read it nowhere else. Listen to what
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Speaker 1: he says on grace. There is no more wonderful word
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Speaker 1: than grace. It means unmerited favor or kindness shown to
29:52
Speaker 1: one who is utterly undeserving. It is not merely a
29:56
Speaker 1: free gift, but a free gift to those who deserve
30:00
Speaker 1: the exact opposite. And it is given to us while
30:06
Speaker 1: we are without hope and without God in the world.
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Speaker 1: I love that. Not only is it a free gift,
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Speaker 1: it is a free gift to those who deserve just
30:18
Speaker 1: the opposite. We deserve in ourselves the opposite, and the
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Speaker 1: Lord God in grace gives us his his righteousness. Three
30:35
Speaker 1: questions emerge in the text and in the mind of
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Speaker 1: any thinking person verse twenty seven, where then is boasting.
30:45
Speaker 1: I illustrated earlier what it would be like if we
30:48
Speaker 1: had heaven full of people that were full of themselves,
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Speaker 1: walking around with their thumbs under their suspenders, talking about
30:54
Speaker 1: how they had earned their way here or they had
30:57
Speaker 1: gained this favor with God. No, he says, boasting as excluded.
31:02
Speaker 1: You see, when you take this gift of eternal life
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Speaker 1: by faith, you give all the credit and glory to
31:07
Speaker 1: the one who gets the credit, and that's God himself.
31:11
Speaker 1: You didn't earn your way in. You came in by
31:14
Speaker 1: the grace of God. Years ago, as I was finishing
31:18
Speaker 1: my years in the Marine Corps, I mustered out at
31:21
Speaker 1: Treasure Island, which is an area near the Golden gate Bridge,
31:26
Speaker 1: just off the coast of San Francisco. I'll never forget
31:29
Speaker 1: our ship sailing under the Golden gate Bridge, and we
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Speaker 1: men who had been away about sixteen seventeen months in
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Speaker 1: Southeast Asia were now coming to the States to be discharged,
31:40
Speaker 1: and my mind was filled with the memory of my
31:44
Speaker 1: time on the island. I had spent my months there
31:48
Speaker 1: on the quantset Hut that each one of the Marine
31:51
Speaker 1: Corps quantcet Hut had fifty men in them, and it
31:54
Speaker 1: had been my joy to lead about seven of them
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Speaker 1: to Christ. It doesn't sound very pressy, but seven of
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Speaker 1: fifty marines is a revival, folks, It's a revival, And
32:05
Speaker 1: by the grace of God, I had the privilege of
32:07
Speaker 1: building into the lives and some of them. Back then
32:10
Speaker 1: we called it discipleship. Today we called it mentoring. One
32:13
Speaker 1: of them was an outstanding trumpet player who today is
32:16
Speaker 1: the master trumpeter of the San Francisco Symphony, a marvelous
32:21
Speaker 1: musician who played in the Marine Corps band. As I
32:24
Speaker 1: did over there, and he said to me, when you
32:26
Speaker 1: get to the States, and want you to look up
32:28
Speaker 1: my folks. Now I knew that his folks were going
32:31
Speaker 1: to a liberal church, because I knew from his background
32:34
Speaker 1: as he told me of his religious life, I knew
32:38
Speaker 1: that he had never heard the truth of the Gospel.
32:41
Speaker 1: So I said, I'd love to meet them. He said,
32:43
Speaker 1: I want you to tell them what you've been telling me.
32:45
Speaker 1: And I said, well, i'll see. At the door opened,
32:48
Speaker 1: he said, you open it, you tell them what you've
32:50
Speaker 1: told said, wait, okay, let me see how. So Sunday
32:53
Speaker 1: comes and they invite me to their church, and just
32:56
Speaker 1: lovely people. Liberals are all lovely people. And we were
33:01
Speaker 1: just we had just a great time together. And we're
33:04
Speaker 1: driving a church. They said, we really want to show
33:05
Speaker 1: you something at our church, and I said, great. I
33:08
Speaker 1: won't name the denomination, it's it's immaterial right now. The
33:12
Speaker 1: point is the gospel had probably never been preached there.
33:15
Speaker 1: And you walk in and there's a lobby full of
33:17
Speaker 1: beautiful paintings, and I mean magnificent, large paintings, all of
33:24
Speaker 1: them framed original oils. And and here was a picture
33:29
Speaker 1: of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. And Abraham Lincoln,
33:38
Speaker 1: George Washington, Jesus of Nazareth. It's nice he's there too,
33:44
Speaker 1: and and three or four other I mean the whole
33:48
Speaker 1: it was kind of a concave as you walk into
33:51
Speaker 1: the into the worship area. But right here, all these pictures,
33:55
Speaker 1: what caught my eye was the the bronze lettering at
33:59
Speaker 1: the bottom of all the pictures. You know what he said.
34:05
Speaker 1: It read, you are all the children of God. Dot
34:11
Speaker 1: dot dot. Don't forget the dot dot dot. Okay, don't
34:15
Speaker 1: forget the ellipses, because it's what wasn't there that revealed
34:21
Speaker 1: what was missing. It's a half verse out of Galatians.
34:28
Speaker 1: So my friends' newfound friends are standing there saying, we
34:31
Speaker 1: just love to look at these pictures and just think
34:35
Speaker 1: of ourselves as a part of the children of God
34:41
Speaker 1: and uh and literally they saw themselves at someday maybe
34:46
Speaker 1: attaining a frame where they'll be there. So that turned
34:52
Speaker 1: around in me. You know, evangelicals can ruin great art
34:56
Speaker 1: quicker than anybody. And so I'm thinking during the service
35:00
Speaker 1: as I listen to this guy say nothing beautifully, and
35:03
Speaker 1: when he finishes, and when he finishes, I'm walking out
35:09
Speaker 1: heartsick because I saw it was almost packed and nobody
35:13
Speaker 1: heard of Jesus Christ death, nobody heard of the Plan
35:16
Speaker 1: of salvation, nobody heard the Gospel. And we stopped again
35:20
Speaker 1: at the pictures and I said, by the way, mister
35:23
Speaker 1: so and So, I said, you see this ellipsies here?
35:27
Speaker 1: He said yeah. I said, you know what the rest
35:31
Speaker 1: of the verse says, He says, do you know? And
35:35
Speaker 1: I said I do. The rest of the verse says
35:40
Speaker 1: you were all the children of God by faith, which
35:43
Speaker 1: is in Christ Jesus. Have you ever placed your faith
35:51
Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus? And he said, would you like to
35:57
Speaker 1: go to lunch, and that was kind of the end
36:02
Speaker 1: of it. He didn't want to go there. You know why,
36:07
Speaker 1: because the cross is offensive to your pride. If you're
36:13
Speaker 1: working to get there and you're one of these numbered,
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Speaker 1: one of these admired great souls, and there's nothing wrong
36:22
Speaker 1: with being admired, and nothing wrong with the works they've done,
36:26
Speaker 1: he just won't get them to heaven. But if you're
36:28
Speaker 1: working on that and someone has the audacity to say,
36:31
Speaker 1: you know what it takes. It takes humbling yourself like
36:34
Speaker 1: a child, admitting you're just lost as you can be,
36:37
Speaker 1: and you trust Jesus to be a child of God.
36:43
Speaker 1: It's insulting to my pride. That's good for us. That's
36:50
Speaker 1: where faith comes in. Nearer I cannot be in the
36:53
Speaker 1: person of his son. I am as near as he.
36:57
Speaker 1: I need grace. I don't need another bill block because
37:01
Speaker 1: I can't step long enough, high enough, far enough to
37:04
Speaker 1: get good enough. Will you let that sink in. It's
37:11
Speaker 1: based on grace, not works. There's no place for boasting.
37:18
Speaker 1: In fact, God isn't partial Verse twenty nine. Is God
37:22
Speaker 1: the God of the Jews only? Is he not also
37:24
Speaker 1: the God of the gentiles. Yes, gentiles. Also doesn't matter.
37:27
Speaker 1: What your color is, doesn't matter, what your background is,
37:29
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, what your gender is, doesn't matter, what your
37:32
Speaker 1: age is, doesn't matter, what your religion is doesn't matter.
37:35
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. What matters is that you see yourself
37:38
Speaker 1: as a last center and you take the gift, and
37:44
Speaker 1: when you do, he gets the credit. Well, then verse
37:48
Speaker 1: thirty one, does that mean we just tear the Old
37:50
Speaker 1: Testament out of our Bibles and get rid of the law. No, no, no, no,
37:54
Speaker 1: God forbid doesn't nullify the law. On the contrary, it
37:59
Speaker 1: establishes the law. What's the law's role? It tells me
38:02
Speaker 1: I'm a sinner. The law has that long bony finger
38:06
Speaker 1: bumping up against my sternum, telling me you can't keep
38:11
Speaker 1: this law. You can't keep this standard. You aren't able
38:16
Speaker 1: even to keep the ten Commandments, to say nothing of
38:19
Speaker 1: living a life of purity like God expects of his son.
38:24
Speaker 1: While the law brings me to the place of absolute
38:27
Speaker 1: awareness that I'm lost, And when it does that, it
38:32
Speaker 1: has done its job. How greed is that? You see,
38:38
Speaker 1: the main emphasis of salvation is that it is a gift,
38:42
Speaker 1: not a wage, not a reward. It is a gift.
38:48
Speaker 1: And second, the major subject of salvation is God, the Father, God,
38:54
Speaker 1: the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, God's plan of salvation Jesuz.
39:00
Speaker 1: This implemented the plan, and the Spirit of God empowered
39:04
Speaker 1: the plan so that it's complete. No questions asked, no
39:09
Speaker 1: help needed. You just take it by faith. Listen to
39:16
Speaker 1: a story you may have heard, but maybe haven't heard recently.
39:21
Speaker 1: John Newton was raised in a Christian home in which
39:25
Speaker 1: he was taught many great verses of the Bible, but
39:28
Speaker 1: his mother died when he was only six, and he
39:31
Speaker 1: was sent to live with a relative who mocked Christianity.
39:36
Speaker 1: One day, at an early age, Newton left home and
39:39
Speaker 1: joined the British Navy as an apprenticed seaman. He was
39:44
Speaker 1: wild in those years, and he became exceedingly immoral. He
39:50
Speaker 1: acquired a reputation in the navy of being able to
39:54
Speaker 1: swear for two hours without repeating himself. Eventually, Newton deserted
40:01
Speaker 1: the navy off the coast of Africa. Why Africa Well.
40:06
Speaker 1: In his memoirs, he wrote that he went to Africa
40:08
Speaker 1: for one reason only, that he might send to the full.
40:15
Speaker 1: In Africa, he fell in with a Portuguese slave trader
40:20
Speaker 1: in whose home he was cruelly treated. The man often
40:23
Speaker 1: went away on slaving expeditions, and when he was gone,
40:27
Speaker 1: the power in the home passed to the trader's African wife,
40:31
Speaker 1: the chief woman of the Harem, the woman who hated
40:34
Speaker 1: all white men. She took out her hatred on John Newton.
40:41
Speaker 1: He tells us that for months he was forced to
40:44
Speaker 1: grovel in the dirt, eating his food from the ground
40:47
Speaker 1: like a dog, and being beaten unmercifully if he touched
40:51
Speaker 1: his food with his hands. For a time he was
40:55
Speaker 1: actually placed in chains. At last, then, and emaciated, Newton
41:02
Speaker 1: escaped through the jungle and reached the sea, and there
41:06
Speaker 1: attracted a British merchant ship making its way up the
41:09
Speaker 1: coast to England. The captain of the ship took Newton
41:14
Speaker 1: on board, thinking he had ivory to sell. When he
41:17
Speaker 1: learned the young man knew something about navigation, he placed
41:24
Speaker 1: him in charge of the ship and made him a
41:27
Speaker 1: ship's mate. Even then, Newton fell into trouble. One day,
41:32
Speaker 1: when the captain was ashore, Newton broke out the ship's
41:35
Speaker 1: supply of rum and got the entire crew drunk. He
41:39
Speaker 1: was so drunk himself that When the captain returned, he
41:42
Speaker 1: struck him in the head, and Newton fell overboard and
41:45
Speaker 1: would have drowned if one of the sailors had not
41:48
Speaker 1: grabbed him and hauled him back on the deck in
41:51
Speaker 1: the nick of time. One account says that the harpoon
41:55
Speaker 1: saved him and he was brought back. Not sure of that,
41:58
Speaker 1: but it could have happened. The end of the voyage,
42:01
Speaker 1: as they were approaching Scotland, the ship ran into bad
42:04
Speaker 1: weather and was blown off course. Water poured in and
42:07
Speaker 1: she began to sink. The young profligate was sent down
42:11
Speaker 1: to the hole to pump water. The storm lasted for days.
42:15
Speaker 1: Newton was terrified, sure the ship would sink and he
42:18
Speaker 1: would drown. But there in the hold of the ship,
42:22
Speaker 1: as he pumped water desperately attempting to save his life,
42:27
Speaker 1: the God of Grace, whom he had tried to forget
42:31
Speaker 1: but who had never forgotten him, brought to his mind
42:34
Speaker 1: Bible verses he had learned in his home as a child.
42:39
Speaker 1: Newton was convicted of his sins and of God's righteousness.
42:45
Speaker 1: The way of salvation opened to him there in the
42:48
Speaker 1: hold of the ship, and he was born again and transformed.
42:54
Speaker 1: Later When the storm had passed, he was again in
42:56
Speaker 1: England and he began to study theology, eventually became a
43:01
Speaker 1: distinguished evangelist, preaching even before the Queen. Newton became a
43:07
Speaker 1: poet as well as a preacher, writing some of the
43:11
Speaker 1: best known hymns, and his best one, Amazing Grace, How
43:16
Speaker 1: sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I
43:20
Speaker 1: once was lost, but now I'm found. It twas blind,
43:25
Speaker 1: but now I see. I love that hymn mainly because
43:30
Speaker 1: it calls us a wretch, and that's a compliment. We're
43:36
Speaker 1: worse than wretches, and ourselves were no better than the
43:40
Speaker 1: profligate drunken in the hole of that ship. We're no
43:44
Speaker 1: better than the worst person you know. But by God's
43:48
Speaker 1: grace he declares us righteous in his son, who paid
43:55
Speaker 1: the penalty for our sin in full, leaving us with
44:00
Speaker 1: the gift to accept by faith. I cannot make it
44:05
Speaker 1: clearer than that it's yours to believe. Bow your head
44:10
Speaker 1: with me, please, let's close our eyes. If there's never
44:18
Speaker 1: been a time in your life when you trusted the
44:21
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ is your own savior, my friend, there's
44:26
Speaker 1: no time to waste. Do so now believe on the
44:31
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. There is
44:37
Speaker 1: one God and one mediator between God and men, the
44:41
Speaker 1: man Christ, Jesus. He paid the ransom for you, and
44:50
Speaker 1: he waits for you to take the gift by faith.
44:54
Speaker 1: Do that, now, do it right now, right this moment.
45:01
Speaker 1: Our ministry exists for the purpose of helping folks following
45:05
Speaker 1: our services, and they're available. They will be glad to
45:08
Speaker 1: stand and talk with you, or sit in the prayer
45:11
Speaker 1: room over here to your right. Whoever came with you
45:15
Speaker 1: will be happy to wait. Just come today. Don't put
45:19
Speaker 1: that off. Pray with me, will you. Father, Thank you
45:23
Speaker 1: for the gift of eternal life. Thank you for Jesus.
45:28
Speaker 1: Thank you for his life, his death, his resurrection, and
45:34
Speaker 1: today his prayer for us from one day to the next.
45:39
Speaker 1: Thank you, Father for your love for us. How great
45:43
Speaker 1: it is, and you proved it in that while we
45:45
Speaker 1: were still sinning, your son died for us. We accept that,
45:51
Speaker 1: we believe in him, and we trust him for eternal life.
45:56
Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus. We pray with great praise,
46:02
Speaker 1: and everyone said amen.
46:07
Speaker 3: The preceding message unwrapping the gift of grace was copyrighted
46:11
Speaker 3: in two thousand and six, twenty ten and twenty twenty five,
46:14
Speaker 3: and the SOUB recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty five
46:18
Speaker 3: by Charles R. Swindall Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide.
46:23
Speaker 3: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited