Latest / Grace Primitive Baptist Church - Houston, TX / 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 The Love of Christ Constraineth Us | Elder Mike Moseley | 07-12-2026

Transcript

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 The Love of Christ Constraineth Us | Elder Mike Moseley | 07-12-2026 · Grace Primitive Baptist Church - Houston, TX

• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: You all to continue to pray as we turn in God's word to uh something still on my mind.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was not here last Sunday, but where I was, this was on my mind.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that the of the Lord that it's still on my mind to share with you all here today.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um Paul's letter to the second letter to the Corinthian church, to second Corinthians, chapter five.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, as before we read in this text, there's a lot of backstory.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is the second letter to the church at Corinth, which certainly implies that there was a first letter to the church of Corinth.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the first letter to the church there at Corinth was uh a lot of rebuke.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: The church had a lot of issues that it needed to address within itself.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they weren't fighting with outside problems, they were fighting with inside problems.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um and not uh at any, we do not have time to discuss those issues, but Paul had a great love for that church, a love that was strong enough for that he would reach out to them and instruct them and try to pull them back from their errors into walking in a way that is pleasing to the Lord as a church body.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the second letter, which implies that Paul's love has not waned at all, that his love is still great, but it also, if you read it, it has a lot of joy because this letter talks about how they had corrected a lot of the problems that Paul had addressed, and he rejoiced in that correction.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: But at the beginning of the letter, he says something that when we get to the fifth chapter, I want to keep in mind as he gives his salutation at the beginning of the letter.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, I'm not reading all of his words here in the first of the salutation, but he says in the third uh second verse, I like to read this, this is always written in Paul's letters.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a worthy uh way to start any salutation or any comments to the church.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was mentioned in the prayer by Brother Owen that we would have grace and peace.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: We need the Lord's grace and we need peace as a church.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Then he says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all of our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now that it's beautiful, it's beautifully written.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: I love that language, but it also, I can understand, gets a little confusing.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I sit there and I read it and I'm go, okay, who's getting comforted here?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of comfort in that verse.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul is saying is that he has received comfort from God, not just for himself in all of his troubles, but that he would be able to provide comfort for others who are going through different troubles than he's gone through, but not because he has the ability to comfort them.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: He's not so smart or so experienced or that he's got within himself the ability to say, to make anyone comforted.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: But what he has is a God that has comforted him.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And he's able to point them, anyone who's going through any trouble, to the very God who comforted him through his troubles.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: See, this is a great comfort to me as a minister because I know my inadequacy.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know that I am not adequate to the task of ministering to God's people.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I do not have the ability, like the mind, I don't have the right ability to comfort someone except to point them only to the one who's been there for me through any of my troubles.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's very little comfort.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I recognize it's very little comfort for me to say, yeah, well, I I know where you've been.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually the opposite of comfort.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: And if someone ever says, you all some of you know this to be true, like when you say that you're going through something and they go, Yeah, I know, because I've been through stuff, does that help?
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't help.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, like, well, actually, and yeah, buts and and one upmanship is the worst thing to do to comfort somebody.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Paul's not saying that he's gonna tell them his troubles, so they'll think, well, my troubles aren't that bad.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Look at the Apostle Paul.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's not that's not helpful.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: What Paul is saying is, I've gone through troubles.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even gonna, he's like, I won't even have to get into what they were.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just telling you that God has delivered.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then God, the same God who's delivered me through my troubles, that's your God.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And pointing people to God who can deliver through any trouble is the comfort.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: So he's not comforting them with his own knowledge, he's comforting them with the comfort that he was comforted with of God.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, it's point always pointing to God.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and that is going to carry into the fifth chapter, because remember it's a letter, and there is no chapter really division.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of have to just read the whole thing, but we can't preach the whole thing in an hour.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So the fifth chapter, he um, well, I guess quickly in the fourth chapter, just to keep context, he talks in the first verse about therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: So he's still talking about his ministry.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm talking about my ministry, but each of you has ministry as well.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: See, we're all here to serve.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're here to serve, but primarily serving God, and then we serve each other, but how do we do that?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I hope we'll get to that by the end.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: How do we serve each other?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Words the foundation for our service for each other.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul is still talking about his ministry.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5 of the fourth chapter says, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus our Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: So you notice that the hierarchy, as it were, of his ministry.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: He says, It's not about me, it's about Jesus Christ.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, and I'm your servant, but for Christ's sake.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: So it's still pointing back to the sinner, Jesus Christ.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: As we move, um, he goes in the eighth chapter, or the that was the fifth verse.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: The sixth verse of the fourth chapter set talks about God, the same God who commanded light in the beginning, said, Let there be light.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: This is the same God who has shined the knowledge of Jesus Christ in your hearts.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you know about God, if you know about Jesus Christ, like the apostle Peter, you're a blessed individual.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: See, when when Jesus asked Peter, whom do men, or he asked all the apostles, whom do men say that I am?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And they, oh, men have all sorts of ideas, but he said, Whom do you say that I am?
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how did he know that?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says he's blessed.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Blessed art thou.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, the how he's blessed is that flesh and blood didn't reveal it, but my Father which is in heaven.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's the same way that if he shined it in your heart to give light of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, he it came from God, that you know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when Paul says the God who shined light out of darkness, he shined in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Then he says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power of the excellence or that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: So again, he's saying his ministry, your ministry, yes, it is true that you have this beautiful treasure of the light of the knowledge of Christ in an earthen vessel.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: That means we're flawed.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Every one of us has sin.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: There is no one that has no sin.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: There is no one that has that's perfect.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul himself in the Philippian letter would say that he was not perfect.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: He would say that he has not attained to the knowledge.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: He had attained to a lot of knowledge, even had it revealed to him from God directly.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: But he said, I press forward as though I had not attained anything.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna add that word in there for meaning.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I press forward as if I had not attained anything.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he was not going to sit back in his knowledge, he was gonna continue to press forward toward Christ.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said that I may win Christ and apprehend that from which I am also apprehended.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to reach out and lay hold on Christ, the one who had a hold of him.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hold that thought as we move forward.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, but we have this in an earthen vessel.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are flawed, we are not perfect, and on this life we never will be.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we can press toward the mark.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then he talks about some things that he's gone through.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: We are troubled.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is still the fourth chapter.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: We are troubled on every side.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's certainly something we can relate to.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says, yet not distressed.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are perplexed, but not in despair.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Persecuted, but not forsaken.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Cast down, but not destroyed.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: He puts some contrast, he's gone, we've gone, we're going through troubles, trials, tribulations.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not new.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something that this uh that the people of God have never faced before.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's not even worse than it's ever been before.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, don't ever think that the world is worse than it's ever been.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: It has always been.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Not a friend of God, not a friend of grace.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, ever since Adam fell in the garden, this world is not a friend to the people of God, but there's a place that He's given us as a refuge.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul's talking about this ministry that's centered on Christ, servants for others for Christ's sake, a place where we can comfort one another that in this, in these troubles, and he says that these troubles haven't gotten us defeated.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: They're not totally casting us down.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: We're cast down, but we're not destroyed.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: He says, always burying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so keep that in mind.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: We'll move to the fifth chapter because in the fifth chapter, he starts with this beautiful thought about what's waiting for the child of God.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: For if we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were resolved, we have were dissolved.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: We have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's the promise you have of what is awaiting you someday.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now I don't want that's so beautiful I could just spend the whole time on that.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I want us to move into the verse I'd like to talk about in the 14th verse.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: But notice that he has an upward look.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, remember that we have something waiting for us where all of these troubles, all these trials, all of these distresses, all the perplexings, all of these things cast down, that's going to be over.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: There's something waiting for us someday.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: And keeping that in view helps you to look forward.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: When you look up, you can look forward, right?
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um then he talks about groaning in this body, longing to be free and to be with the Lord.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the next few verses talk about how we're confident that while we're at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but we're confident in verse 8 saying, willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he's saying there's something we desire, but then he's going to bring it back to here, right?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's saying that's waiting for us, and we long to be there.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: But there's something beautiful that we can enjoy right now if we remember something.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes, wherefore, verse 9, we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So now He's bringing it back here.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, we don't live with, we can't live this life without a heavenly view.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we can't.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: You want to be cast down but not destroyed?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do that if you're not remembering that heaven is your home.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: But we also can't live there and not remember what we have from the Lord here.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: So he talks, brings it back to his ministry.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: But in doing so, he says, verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now I want to point out real quick that this is not talking about a future judgment that you're gonna face.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is talking about a daily judgment.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And thanks be unto God, it's by the judgment seat of the one that loves you and died for you.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Don't ever forget that.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: We're not talking about a judge who is distant.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a judge who's your near kinsman.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking about a judge who loves you and gave himself for you.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: But make no mistake, it's still a judgment seat.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: We must all appear before a judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that which he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Then he says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So he it is a warning.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Don't take it lightly.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's not an eternal judgment you're gonna face someday.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is talking about an everyday thing.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like when you were in your father's house and he told you to do that which you should do, you're gonna receive from him, whether good or bad, whether you pleased him or not.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: But this father never does wrong.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like I do wrong.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell them to do something, I'll say to do it this way.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: They won't do it that way.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe my way was the wrong way.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I readily admit that.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: But Christ has never told you to do a thing that wasn't good for you and good for others.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's search the scripture.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just test it out.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is there anything in the scriptures that God has told you to do?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not talking about what people did do.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of sin recorded in scriptures that people did that did not please God.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm talking about anything God actually told us to do.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Has it ever been bad?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's never been bad.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's always been for our good.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because God said, I know my thoughts toward you.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: The thoughts I think toward you.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: God knows, and He's told us, and we know, that they're thoughts of good and not of evil.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: When God is, what has God told us to do?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: He says, What have I required of thee, O man?
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he says, but that thou doest good, love mercy, love judgment.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the things that God's told us to do.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when he says we know the terror of the Lord, there is something to be feared in God, but not that he would cast you out of his presence forever, but that you would receive the chastisement that a loving father gives his child for their good and their correction.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it is not a pleasant deal.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: I do not recommend that we would do that.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also made manifest in your consciousness.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: So if you if you get what he's saying there, he's saying that how he lives matters before God and the example it sheds, it sets for others.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: It matters.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: How we behave ourselves in this world is a reflection on who we say that we are and whose we say we are.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: So he goes, We commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, and whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: That what he's saying is there's people out there that think he's crazy.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'll just put it in plain language.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: There are people out there that thought he was mad.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, in Acts, when he goes before Agrippa and Festus, what he's saying what that he's preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: And Festus is like, Thou art mad.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's like, You're crazy, Paul.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Much learning hath made thee mad.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what he said.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of God in truth and soberly.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: So he's saying, if we are beside ourselves, it is to God.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, I don't care what people think about me, I am living to God.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, but if we be so if whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, in other words, he's going to keep himself in subjection and stay in a uh what uh the right frame of mind.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what soberness means, is like a clear frame of mind for the sake of the church.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Then, verse 14, so finally got to where I wanted to be.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, we're talking about a ministry that's Godward and then it benefits others.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's the gist of this.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, verse 14, for the love of Christ constraineth us.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: I always I found that to be such an interesting word.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because constraineth seems a negative thing.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my first read of it seems negative, right?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to be constrained.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we all like to be free.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I like to wear, I mean, I wear a suit to church because of my appearance, you know, I don't want anything to distract from uh what I'm trying to talk about, but I'd rather wear like a loose-fitting shirt, you know, and and uh be free.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like to be constrained.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: But this word constraint, it does mean that.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: So like I don't want to give you a false, I'm not gonna be like, oh, it doesn't mean that.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: It definitely means what you think it means.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: But let's look at why it means them.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, one thing about the word constraint that um, like in the dictionary, in the definition, kind of brings about the idea of a child safety seat.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about the young, we all wear seat belts.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: I hope every one of you had a seatbelt on in the car.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not only the law, it is for your good.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: But a child safety seat, right?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Those things, the best ones, have those three-point harnesses.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they are, and then you pull them tight, they are constrained.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: They are held fast, and that's what the word has a meaning of is hold fast.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as the love of God constraineth us.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then he's gonna, I'm gonna read the next bit and come back to that thought.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, for we thus, or because we thus judge, so because we have reckoned this, we thought about this, this is the truth of the situation.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: We thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: So what he's saying there is we've looked at this truth of God, we see the situation, and the love of Christ has brought about his death for his people.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: We know that when he was born into this world, the angels declared that he would, well, it's the angel told Joseph, he says, Fear not to take unto thee thy wife Mary.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: He says, for that which is conceived of in her is of the Holy Ghost.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says, You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we know what he came into this world to do was to save his.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: His people from their sins.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: But there's more to that.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: How is he going to save this people?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be saved from their sins?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we find throughout scriptures an explanation of what sin does to man.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: What sin did to man in the first place.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sin did not make man sick.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sin made man dead.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll read in Romans chapter 5.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And in verse 12, and I will go up in a minute above this, thanks, and be thankful for the words above this, but verse 12 says, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so he's saying that when Adam, not only by one man, but by the man, the first man, the man that from whence all human beings, save Jesus Christ, would come from, that one man, sin entered the world.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sin did not enter the world.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, sin did not enter the world by the woman.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: The woman was in the man.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sin didn't enter the world by the devil, though the devil himself came and tempted the woman.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: The blame for sin came only and squarely on the head of the man who was given the law of God and disobeyed.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: He was told, of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden thou shalt not eat, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as soon as he did eat of that tree, he died.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: God did not, he didn't exaggerate, he didn't lie, he told the truth.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now you might read in Genesis and you say, well, he lived for like 900 something years after he did that.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: My friends, God was not talking about that your body will cease to have life in it.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: The word death means more it doesn't just mean a body ceases to have life in it.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know this just from the usage of the word that something can be dead and still alive.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, somebody who has crossed you in such a way that you might say that person is dead to me.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: They're not dead.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: You just don't want to ever be connected with them anymore.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: You use the word that way.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know that it's ever right for you to say someone's dead to you, but you we use the word that way.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: So we understand that the word dead doesn't mean void of a life, it doesn't mean only that the body falls down and life is not in it anymore.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: It means a separation.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when the body does lay down in death, it is separated from its life.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's why that word is used for that.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's dead.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not the only time.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can be, if someone's dead to you, they're separated from you.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Paul or Adam, when he sinned, he did surely die.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: He God told the truth.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't fall down dead at that moment, but he began to die.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I think that the best like uh interpretation of the thou shalt surely die, I've heard is that in dying thou shalt die.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, people tell me that, and I'm like, well, that still doesn't make sense to me.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what that means.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, what it what it means is his body immediately began to start the dying process.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, but we can't understand what it was like before that because we live in a world that's dying.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: The moment we are born, as the poet in one poet said, we all begin to die.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: I might say, well, I don't begin to die.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my natural life was an increase before it starts.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on the I'm starting to be on the downhill side now.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I can I know it and I feel it and everything, but I'm still way up here.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: I I know, I know.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still young, but I feel older every day.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am older every day, in fact.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: But quite frankly, from immediately, from birth, from conception, I guess you'd have to say, even though you're starting a growing process, you are also dying.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're dying because your cells die.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, biologically, we are in a constant state of dying.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because sin entered the world, and death, it says, by sin.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, death entered the world by sin.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the world before Adam sinned, there was no death.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: There couldn't have been, because death entered the world by sin.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it says death passed on all men for all have sinned.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now you must, it does not say death will pass on all men because all will sin.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say death passes on all men that do sin.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't say that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: It says death has passed on all men, for all have sinned.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why does it say it that way?
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: It says it that way because when the one man Adam sinned, he died in sin.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: He was separated from God.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And in Ephesians chapter 2, it would say it this way: You had the quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's the death you were in.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's the separation from God.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: That he was in trespasses and in sins, and now he was in that death.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: But that death passed on all men, for all have sinned.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, in Adam we sinned.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: We were in Adam, so we sinned.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: So we were in a state of death before we were ever conceived.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: And David would write it this way, he'd say, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: David understood not that there's a sinfulness in conceiving a child, but that a child, when it's conceived, is conceived in a state of sin, of death.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the world today, there's some that would like you to think that we're all born neutral or maybe even good, and you have to sin to become a sinner, but that is not how the scriptures teach.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: It is not that we are a sinner because we sin.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: What he proves out in this chapter is that we sin because we are sinners.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's our nature.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: We are dead in sins by nature.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to talk about how death is the wages of sin.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's what sin earns, it's what it rightfully deserves, and it's what it works in us.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And sin even brought death in this world before there was a law spoken by God to Moses on Mount Sinai that would lay out things that pleased God.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, but what so what happened in that interim time?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Was anyone a sinner?
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because they hadn't broken any verb, any law of God that they were told?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, they were sinners.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: They died.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: The proof is in the evidence, the death reigned from Adam to Moses, it says.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we're still in Romans chapter 5.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Death reigned from Adam to Moses.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Death happened constantly.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: You just read in Genesis how Adam was such and such years old, and he had Seth, and he lived a little, he lived this many years longer, and he died.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then it says Seth was certain years old, and he had his son Enoch, or Enoch, I forget what his son's name was, but then he lived longer and he had sons and daughters, and he died.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's throughout the entire lineage laid out in Genesis, all the way up to chapter 5, the end of 5, and going into 6 when Noah comes on the scene.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: Every one of them died.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: None of them had had a law written in stone that they were judged against.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: They just had sin in them, and sin brings forth death.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone was dead in sins.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul says in our text that we judged the fact that if Christ died for all, then all were dead.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is we were all in the same boat, the same condition, and we needed the same salvation.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: There is no difference in how you get saved and how Abraham got saved.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: There is no difference in how King David was saved and how a baby that is just now born gets saved.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: The all were dead.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Christ had to die for all.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that Christ came into this world, he did not come to provide a way for us to get saved.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: He came to save his people.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he did it by dying because we were dead.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: See, he didn't, he came and he healed a lot of sick.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: He came and he had compassion on the multitudes, and he fed them and he healed them, but that's not what he came to do.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: That was something that he did while he was here.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: But his purpose in coming, his hour, as he would say, his reason for coming was to do the will of the Father, which was that he would give eternal life to everyone the Father gave him.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he says that he, of all that the Father gave him, he would lose nothing but raise it up again the last day.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: He came to save his people from their sins.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that sin brought death, so he must die for our sins.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if he died, that's the next part of that text, that we judge that he died for all because all were dead.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to find the chapter again.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's right after Romans, too.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's 2 Corinthians.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um five.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: We judge that if he died for all, then all were dead.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: Then he says, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: So, again, he says, that there's a result that comes out of his dying for us.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: That he died for us because we were dead.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: But then he says, and that he died for all that day, or so that day, to the end that here's the result of it.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: He died for us because we were dead, but he lives, so we live also.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Christ would say, Because I live, ye shall live also.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: But we are not to live unto ourselves, he says, but unto him which died for them and rose again.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: So the love of God that holds us like it, like in a child seat, that holds us safe and secure in his arms, brought him to this world to die for us.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: So back to Romans chapter 5, and we'll go above the verses that I said we should read.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going all out of order here.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: But we under we're trying to judge it like Paul did.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: He says, if Christ died for all, then all were dead.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we've looked at the fact that we were dead in our sins, but Christ died for every single person that God gave him to die for.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: But now he lives, and we live unto him.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So in Romans chapter 5, it says, and I don't start at the where do I want to start?
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I am going to start with the first verses.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: I just won't speak on it much.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom by Christ also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then it says, Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that without strength, you might read that and say, Yeah, when we were weak, when we were, you know, needed a little help.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: That is not what without strength means.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is not that when we were of little strength.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's not when we were just, we needed to be like trained up.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: I am of little strength.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: I have not the strength I had when I was at high school and working out all the time.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't have the strength of people that work with their hands and like, I mean, I work, I type on a keyboard, my fingers might be strong, but that's it, right?
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a lot of strength, but I'm not without strength.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: There is a difference.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: Without strength means zero strength.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's a word for that.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: Dead.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_00: A dead person is without strength, absent of any strength.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not saying when we were sin sick, it's when we were dead in sins.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: When we were without any strength at all, without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, he says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, because when we were in this condition, Christ died for us.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then he goes on to explain something we should all understand.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: Scarcely for a righteous man will one die.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, look, you wouldn't even die, like you probably wouldn't die for a really good person.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, maybe.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, scarcely.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: That means like, sometimes, sometimes you might die for someone that you think is worth dying for.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not gonna stand up here and tell you.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would I will I will stand up here and tell you, I hope if it came to it that I would protect my loved ones, even if that means I would die.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: But it would be bold, and and quite frankly, I don't know that I could back it up for me to guarantee I would.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: I thank God I've never been faced with that situation, and I pray that I never am faced with that situation.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: I know there are people who have laid down their lives for others.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: Soldiers have gone to war and died and been awarded a medal of honor.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Maddie, this morning on my little calendar.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: Turns out today was the day in 1862 that they uh instituted the Congressional Medal of Honor.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right, Maddie?
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because those people they died, or they would have died, or they did die.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of Medal of Honor winners get it after they died, posthumously, you know.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: They laid down their life for others.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know what they laid down their lives for?
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: Their brothers in arms.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: They laid down their lives for their friends, they laid down their lives for their compatriots or compilers, or someone might lay down their life for their spouse, for their wife, or for someone they love dearly.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is not what the case was with Christ.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: What he's saying is that might be, maybe, you might die for a good person, but God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is putting it mildly.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: Do we understand that when we were dead in sins, we were so separated from God by our nature that we were enemies of God, haters of him, but his love was commended to us.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: God does not love those that love him.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: God loved those that hated him.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_00: Haters of God and, Paul would say, and of one another.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even love each other by nature.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the only thing that the sinful, dead in sins, man loves self.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's by nature.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: You might say, oh, but I know so many good people.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: You what you know?
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know someone that the light of God is in.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: And don't judge the nature of man by seeing the nature of God in people.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: What you know, what I know of you, is the Christ in you.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I know.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: I know someone that God has already touched.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know someone that God has already quickened who were dead.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: See, you're not dead in sins now.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: See, our text is he that died, he died that we that live might live for him, toward him.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're alive now.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: We are alive in Christ because he has come and made us alive.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: He has quickened us by his spirit, and we're not dead in sins anymore because he has died.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the love of God that was commended to us while we were yet sinners, it has strapped you in.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: It strapped you in the car seat, as it were.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's constrained you.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: Constrained you to where you're not going to be lost.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're not going to be separated.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: He goes on to say in verse 9 of Romans chapter 5, much more than, he's already made you alive by his love, he died for you when you were a sinner, but much more than, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he lives, we will live also.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: The love of God has strapped you in, and you're not going to be lost.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not all that the love of God constraineth us means.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: It does mean that you're safe and secure.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're constrained like in a car seat.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the word also means to like squeeze forward, as it were, like in a strait.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: A strait is, if you know anything about like sailing, or like the Strait of Horm, I can't even say it, I don't know where it is called Hormez, or the Strait of Gibraltar, or there's all these straits.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you go read a map or do any uh reading about sailing, the the great age of pirates, Brody, right?
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um the great age of like sailing ships.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: They would be on the vast ocean and then they'd come to a place that that constrains, that constricts, that gets narrower and narrower to the point that it gets tight, and the ships would go in there and they'd go through.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Also, if you're ever working cattle, and I don't work cattle, but I did it one time, so I only know this one thing, that they would bring them from the pasture into another place through a cattle squeeze or a chute.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you would actually constrain the cow to give it medicine so it would stay in that place so you could help it, but then it's to direct it, it's to push it toward, right?
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: So this word constraints also carries a directional meaning.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just to hold fast, but also to point in the right direction.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul would use this word to say not only does the love of Christ hold us secure, because we judged that we needed it, like we needed death, the death of Christ.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was necessary that he die because we were dead.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: But but since he lives, we that live also should live not for ourselves, but unto him that died for us and rose again.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, the love of Christ points you to how you should live in this life.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: And this life that we live now, Paul would say in Galatians, he would say this I am crucified with Christ.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: I died when he died.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Nevertheless, I live.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yet not I, but Christ that liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the I live through by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, the life you live now is meant to be pointed to and directed to and dedicated to the one that died for you and rose again and is alive right now, interceding on your behalf.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're to live unto him.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, how do we do that?
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: How do we live unto him?
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first thing is we have to understand that we're not our own.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: You don't live unto yourself.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: You live unto him, so you're not your own.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul would say, you're not your own.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: You are bought with a price.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: You're his.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_00: He owns you.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think we should recognize that.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: We should embrace that.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: We should be thankful for that because I don't want to be my own.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want a life that is out there lived unto myself.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: A life out there lived unto myself.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: I know what that has gotten me every time.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: It has not brought me joy, it has not brought me peace, has not brought me happiness.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: We are told we have access into the grace wherein we stand in Romans chapter 5.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: We have access into that grace.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: That means you can live a life now in grace, in the grace of God.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: But we don't do it by living unto ourselves.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: But what else does it mean?
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean is following the Lord Jesus Christ and His commandments and His statutes, it's for my good.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like being in the cattle guard and getting the proper medicines I need instead of just wandering free out there in the wilderness.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, constrained.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: But it also points me to a life of service to others.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can serve Christ by serving one another.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: Christ would tell us this in multiple places, but just for one thing, he uses it in Matthew chapter 25, when he says at the end of time when he comes again, he's going to separate his sheep from the goats.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's going to separate his people that he came and died for from those that he did not come to die for.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: The ones that he came to die for, his people that he saved from their sins, he's going to say, Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_00: And you know why we get to do that?
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because we inherit it.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know why?
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because we're his children, and he died for us, and we're not our own.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: He bought us.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then he's going to tell us something that he thought we did.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not how we got into heaven, but it's just an evidence of things that happened in this life.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For when I was hungry, you fed me.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: When I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: When I was naked, you clothed me.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I was wounded, you healed up my wounds.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: I forget all the words that he said.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: But they said, Lord, when did we ever do that to you?
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, In the least, you've done it under, or in that you've done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you've done it unto me.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what I want, two things I want to point out.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: One, that's not how anyone comes and inherits the kingdom.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: Inheriting the kingdom is because you're a child.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_00: You're a child of God because God loved you and He and Christ died for you.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you inherit.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that is, it's in the, if you'll let me say it this way, it's in the DNA of the child of God.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: Once you're born again of the Spirit, God resides in you.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: And not all the time, but you will do things like that.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um I say, I don't, I don't, I don't see that in me.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know what?
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: Neither did anyone that he says in Matthew chapter 25.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: They all said, When did I do that?
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: When did we do it?
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: The fact is, anyone who says, Yeah, I did that, is already talking from the wrong spirit.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: You don't know the good you do.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: You don't.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like so often, the good I see all of you do, you don't even recognize it.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I see it, and it's Christ working in you.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: The point is not to prove yourself by all you do, the point is to live under Christ, and those things will happen by the fact that you're living under Him.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_00: We sang a song this morning that has a verse in it that when I was younger I didn't understand, and I think I understand better now.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh the song, Lord, Let Me Praise Thee in the Morning.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_00: The last verse says, um, the poet writes, Lord, we know that thou didst tell us that the poor are always with us, and that thy love is jealous, let us love thee more.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now I've always wondered, what's it talking about?
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then you read in the scriptures where uh the woman comes and anoints Jesus' feet with her, the and the head with the alabaster box, and she's doing all that, and Judas and the other disciples, they were like, Why didn't she sell that and give it to the poor?
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, The poor you have always, but me you have not always.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then she has done this under my burial, and she's done what she could.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what was Jesus saying?
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus was saying, There is a need for each of us to do good unto others, but that is not the primary goal of the child of God to do good unto others.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_00: It is what we should do as a child of God, but the ultimate goal is to live under Christ.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it is impossible to live under Christ and not do good unto others.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's impossible.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_00: But it is possible to do good for others and not live under Christ.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: If we focus on living under Christ, it will translate into good works among people.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_00: But if we focus on good works, that's not going to automatically be living under Christ.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know what that ends up doing?
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's living under self.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_00: How many times have I done something that was good and then I recognize how good it was, and then I'm thinking about how good I am?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: How many times?
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: Too many times.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because every time I do that, I'm focused on me.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: What have I done?
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_00: I like to tick off the checklist and tell people about how good I've done things.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's not living under Christ.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_00: But if we focus on Christ, we will it will be living for others.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_00: But if we focus on living for others, that doesn't mean we're living for Christ.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, as I close this, Paul is saying that the ministry of the church and each of our lives will be for the sake of others.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: But first and foremost, we are to live to the one for the one that died for us and rose again, who we live in.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_00: And remember that he has um he's with us always.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: He's never gonna leave you, he's not gonna forsake you.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know if the way I close that has any coherence whatsoever.
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I haven't done justice to the thoughts on my mind, but I pray that it's of some blessing to you.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: And if any um if there is any blessing, of course, give that all to the Lord as we stand and sing a hymn before we're dismissed.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um is there any uh thank you.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: Number two ninety-one number two ninety-one.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: If you'd like to stand, we'll sing number two ninety-one.