Latest / Brandon Fogal Evolution / #236 - Romans: The Letter Your Church Still Can't Stop Talking About

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#236 - Romans: The Letter Your Church Still Can't Stop Talking About · Brandon Fogal Evolution

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  Hello, my name is Brandon Fogel. This is evolution, the only legitimate evolution there is.
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  Today, we are going to be diving into the book of Romans.
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  We're going to be taking a journey through the book of Romans.
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  I want you to picture this.
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  Imagine you were in the first century in the city of Rome, and you receive a
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  letter from the apostle Paul.
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  It gets brought to you by a sister in the faith named Phoebe,
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  and she brings it to you, and they read it before the congregation.
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  Read it before the gathering of believers, and you're in that gathering.
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  So imagine imagine this you're hearing it
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  for the first time we're going to be going through the entire letter
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  and i'm going to be giving commentary and analysis as
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  we go through i have a special announcement i have
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  with me my two daughters they're here sophie and bonnie so they're going to
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  be in the background they're sitting around listening to this and they have
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  microphones as well so you might hear them chatter or you might hear them ask
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  any questions so also drop a comment leave any questions that you have in the
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  chat and we can maybe address those as we go through as well All right,
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  let's dive into this chapter one of the book of Romans.
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  Here we go. Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus,
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  called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand
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  through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures,
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  concerning his Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,
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  who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead,
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  according to the Spirit of Holiness,
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  Jesus Christ, our Lord, through whom we have received glory.
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  Grace and apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles
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  for his namesake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ.
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  To all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints, grace to you and peace
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  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is
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  being proclaimed throughout the whole world.
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  For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of his Son,
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  is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making requests.
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  If perhaps now at last by the will of God, I may succeed in coming to you.
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  For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you,
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  that you may be established, that is, that I may be encouraged together with
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  you while among you, each of us by the other's faith, both yours and mine.
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  I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often have planned to come
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  to you and have been prevented so far, so that I may obtain some fruit among
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  you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
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  I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
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  So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
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  For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation
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  to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
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  For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is
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  written, but the righteous man shall live by faith. That's Paul's introduction.
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  Every verse. So I want to throw this out.
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  Have you ever felt like that something in your life is just not going right?
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  Something didn't happen the way you wanted it. I just want to call this as a
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  reminder, Paul, the apostle who was in Corinth, who often wanted to go to Rome
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  was prevented from going there by God's will and why that happened.
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  And what was a result of that? We have the book of Romans, this amazing theological
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  treaties that we can look at and have for the rest of our lives.
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  If God wouldn't, if he would have just let him go to Rome, we would never have the book of Romans.
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  And that's for a lot of the letters in the new New Testament,
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  that Paul is prevented from going to somewhere, so he has to write a letter,
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  which is amazing when you think about the providence of God.
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  If things are going exactly the way that you want, there might be a reason for it.
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  And I didn't get Bonnie or Sophie to say anything. Did you all want to introduce
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  yourself to say hey before we go any further? Hello.
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  Sophie, that was Bonnie. Oh, hi. Okay. Sophie, there. Okay, we'll just keep moving along.
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  All right, so Paul's gonna deliver the bad news.
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  He just gave his introduction. Now he's gonna deliver some bad news because
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  the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is good news, it's not really good news until
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  you understand the bad news. Chapter one, verse 18.
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  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
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  of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known
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  about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them.
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  For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes,
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  his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood
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  through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
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  For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks,
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  but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
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  Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible
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  God for an image in the form of corruptible man, and of birds,
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  and four-footed animals, and crawling creatures.
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  Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,
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  so that their bodies would be dishonored among them.
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  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the
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  creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
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  For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions, for their women exchanged
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  the natural function for that which is unnatural. and in the same way also the
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  men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another.
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  Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the
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  due penalty of their error.
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  And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer,
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  God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper,
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  being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil,
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  full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice.
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  They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant.
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  Boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. You hear that,
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  girls? Disobedient to parents?
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  Without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.
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  And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things
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  are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval
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  to those who practice them.
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  And you see what I just did there? I just said, did you hear that girls?
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  Disobedient to parents. It's whenever we hear a message or even read the Bible,
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  it's always easy to project onto others and say, hey, this person might need
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  to hear this, as opposed to really taking it to yourself, what do I need to hear?
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  Because the Bible is God's mirror to our soul, and it shows us something that's
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  wrong, something that we need to work on and get better at.
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  I did skip over this in the very beginning of the first chapter,
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  where it said, the righteousness of God is revealed.
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  We kind of went past that pretty quick, and I did point that out.
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  When you get into Romans, the whole thesis of Paul's point in writing this letter
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  is from beginning to end, he is driving home that thesis point.
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  The righteousness of God is revealed, and we're going to see what that even means.
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  Because that's very, it seems very just nebulous and out there.
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  What does it concretely mean?
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  What does that even mean? We're going to get into it. All right, chapter two.
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  Therefore, you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment.
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  For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who have
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  judged practice the same things.
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  And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.
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  But do you suppose this, oh man, when you pass judgment on those who practice
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  such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?
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  Or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness, intolerance,
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  and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
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  But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath
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  for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
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  God, who will render to each person according to his deeds.
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  To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor in immortality, eternal life.
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  But to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth,
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  but obey unrighteousness, wrath, and indignation, there will be tribulation
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  and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek.
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  But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
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  For there is no partiality with God. For all who have sinned without the law,
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  will also perish without the law.
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  That's because you always hear, well, what about somebody who's never heard
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  of God, who's never heard of Jesus? This is the answer.
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  All who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law,
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  and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
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  For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God,
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  but the doers of the law will be justified.
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  For when Gentiles who do not have the law do instinctively the things of the law,
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  these not having the law are a law to themselves, and that they show the work
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  of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness,
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  in their thoughts, alternately accusing or else defending them.
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  On the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.
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  And you see him say, my gospel. Paul had a unique gospel, and it was specific
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  to the Gentiles, that you are all being brought into the faith.
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  There was a kind of a different nuance when you preach the gospel to a Jew,
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  as opposed when you preached it to a Gentile.
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  And Paul's primary mission was to the Gentiles, So that's why he refers to my gospel.
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  It was hard for even some of the apostles at times to hear it,
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  and that's why they had to have the whole Jerusalem council and really iron out some things.
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  But also, he brought up the Gentiles.
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  They have this law on their hearts. Everyone understands this.
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  I understand this deeply, that every day I'm doing things, and my conscience
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  is either justifying or excusing or just condemning me.
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  It's going back and forth, and I'm trying to do what's right.
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  But I feel something in me that's always telling me, oh, you're doing it wrong or just condemning me.
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  We all go through this battle. Do you girls ever go through that?
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  Sometimes. Bonnie, you do? Yeah. Sophie, do you ever go through that feeling? Not really.
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  Okay. Okay. Well, sometimes. You do sometimes?
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  You'll get more and more. The more you read God's word, the more you are in
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  tune with God's spirit, you're going to feel that more and more.
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  But if this is a verse 17 of chapter two, but if you bear the name Jew and rely
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  upon the law and boast in God and know his will and approve the things that are essential,
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  being instructed out of the law and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind,
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  a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish,
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  a teacher of the immature,
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  having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth.
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  You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself?
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  You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?
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  You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
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  You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
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  You who boast in the law through your breaking the law, do you dishonor God?
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  For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, just as it is written.
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  For indeed, circumcision is of value if you practice the law.
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  But it is you, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has
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  become uncircumcision.
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  So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the law,
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  will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
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  And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the law,
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  will he not judge you who though having the letter of the law and circumcision
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  are a transgressor of the law?
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  For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.
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  But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the
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  heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.
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  And his praise is not from men, but from God.
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  This is the conundrum, the issue that the apostles faced in the first century.
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  We really aren't facing it as much because most churches are primarily just Gentile.
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  It's like Gentiles have completely taken over.
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  And Jewish people, often they might be sprinkled in, but we've kind of run with
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  the faith and we've taken it.
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  But this would have been a real issue. And Paul's making the point that it doesn't
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  matter how much knowledge of the Bible or knowledge of the law or Jesus or what's right.
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  The whole point is that you actually do what's right.
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  And it's easy to say you're going to do something as opposed to actually doing
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  it. Chapter three, then what advantage has the Jew?
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  Or what is the benefit of circumcision?
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  Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God.
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  What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness
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  of God, will it? May it never be.
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  Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar,
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  as it is written, that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.
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  But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?
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  The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? I am speaking in human terms. May it never be.
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  For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie,
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  the truth of God abounded to his glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?
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  And why not say, as we are slanderously reported, and as some claim that we
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  say, let us do evil that good may come.
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  Their condemnation is just. So Paul's not physically writing this letter.
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  He's speaking it into somebody. He's talking to somebody and they're writing it out.
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  I just see Paul pacing back and forth. And this is not just like he comes up
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  with this amazing masterpiece of a work, but this would have been his basic theology.
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  He would teach at times, long periods of times.
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  So him just regurgitating this and saying this is something that he would have constantly be saying.
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  But so he's just, but God putting him down and having him put pen to paper or
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  this person that's writing it for him,
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  put pen to paper, who we find out later is a man named Tertius,
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  that we actually, or we see God's
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  just unfolding redemption plan and salvation just be recorded for us.
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  But Paul, he'll be like talking and he'll be anticipating someone's argument
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  or what they're going to say to what he's saying.
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  And so he'll raise questions because he is anticipating the person is going
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  to have a question based on what he says.
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  And then he'll ask the question and then he'll answer it.
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  Verse nine of three of chapter three. What then? Are we better than they?
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  Not at all for we have already charged that
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  both jews and greeks are all under sin as it
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  is written there is none righteous not even one there is none who understands
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  there is none who seeks for god all have turned aside together they have become
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  useless there is none who does good there is not even one their throat is an
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  open grave with their tongues they keep deceiving the poison of asps is under their lips.
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  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.
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  Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not
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  known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.
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  Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the
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  law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable
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  to God, because by the works of the law,
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  no flesh will be justified in his sight.
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  For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. This is where we're going to
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  get to the very heart of the matter.
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  And he's going to make very precise theological points of how we get right.
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  He's demonstrated that we are in this very terrible situation,
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  that we are under God's wrath and everything we do, Do we just keep storing
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  up more and more of God's wrath? How do we get out of it?
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  And he said that both Jews and Gentiles, everyone, the whole world is under
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  this slave master of sin, that we are all just condemned to death.
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  We have no chance. We're on a highway to hell. We're all going there.
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  This is the point. And that's all the human condition.
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  Everyone is on this highway to hell. But then he's going to open it up to the good news.
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  But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested,
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  being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through
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  faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.
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  For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory
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  of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which
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  is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
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  This was to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God,
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  he passed over the sins previously committed.
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  For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time,
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  so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
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  Well, Bonnie, can you turn off the heat? Yeah. All the way.
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  She's like, it's cold in here. My feet are cold. And I'm like,
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  okay, you can turn it on, but it gets extremely hot. And we forgot to turn it off.
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  And you could say the Bible can actually heat you up if you're being serious.
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  If you're reading, the Bible often heats me up as in like it makes me uncomfortable.
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  Comfortable i'll read the bible and you'll feel squeamish a
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  lot of the times because it's just pointed out things it's a reflection
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  of yourself and you just i i it just shows
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  your own heart at least for me it shows my heart like how
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  wrong i'm doing things a lot of the time but he said that the righteousness
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  of god that was the beginning thesis how is it manifested through faith through
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  faith through belief where then is boasting it is excluded by what kind of law
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  of works no but by a law of faith.
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  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
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  Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also?
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  Yes, of Gentiles also. Since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by
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  faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.
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  Do we then nullify the faith through faith?
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  I butchered that.
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  Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be.
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  On the contrary, we establish the law.
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  So he's made the point, we are saved uniquely or specifically only by faith.
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  Jew and Gentile is saved by faith. You do nothing.
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  But believe. It's faith that saves you. And now he's going to get into.
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  People would have arguments.
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  Sometimes Jewish people would have arguments. So what does Paul do?
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  He's going to take it back into history and he's going to prove scripture with scripture.
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  He's going to prove his point by scripture and he's going to go to the patriarch
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  of their faith, Abraham.
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  What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh has found?
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  For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about,
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  but not before God. For what does the scripture say?
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  Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
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  Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.
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  But to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly,
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  his faith is credited as righteousness.
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  Just as David also speaks of the
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  blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works.
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  Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered.
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  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.
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  Is this blessing then on the circumcised or on the uncircumcised also?
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  For we say faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.
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  How then was it credited? While he was circumcised or uncircumcised?
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  Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of
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  circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith, which he had while
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  uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believed without being circumcised.
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  That righteousness might be credited to them, and the father of circumcision
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  to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps
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  of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had while uncircumcised.
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  That's a lot of circumcision right there, and a lot of people back and forth.
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  The whole point is Jew and Gentile.
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  Abraham was a Gentile. He was a person, he was a pagan, and he was saved when he believed.
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  God said, I'm going to, I promise you all this, And it says that Abraham believed
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  God, believed his promise.
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  And at that specific moment, God justified him. He was credited righteousness.
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  All his sins were washed away. He came into God's paradise, into God's arms,
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  into God's family at that specific moment.
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  But then later he received circumcision. So it wasn't based on what his works
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  of doing the circumcision act, but it was based on his faith that happened previously.
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  For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be the heir of
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  the world was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
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  For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified.
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  For the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.
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  For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace,
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  so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants,
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  not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith
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  of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
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  As it is written, A father of many nations have I made you.
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  In the presence of him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead
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  and calls into being that which does not exist, and hope against hope he believed
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  so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken.
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  So shall your descendants be. I love this part.
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  Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body now as good as
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  dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb.
• 22:29
  Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief,
• 22:33
  but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully assured that what
• 22:37
  God had promised, he was able also to perform.
• 22:41
  Therefore, it was also credited to him as righteousness.
• 22:45
  Now, not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him,
• 22:49
  but for our sake also to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in him
• 22:54
  who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
• 22:56
  He who was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification.
• 23:03
  There's a lot there, a lot there.
• 23:06
  But just kind of just sum it up that Abraham, it's faith. He believed,
• 23:12
  and that was the only thing.
• 23:13
  Everything in the world, everything in his life told him not to believe God's promise.
• 23:18
  Do you ever feel that? That like God says that you're forgiven in Christ,
• 23:22
  that you don't have to worry about death because when you die,
• 23:26
  you will go to be with him.
• 23:28
  And you feel like, I need to keep working. I need to keep reading my Bible.
• 23:33
  I need to keep trying to do good works and do good things and do all this.
• 23:36
  And you're doing those things out of wrong motives and out of a wrong understanding.
• 23:41
  No, rather God has accepted you. And that's the faith that we should have.
• 23:45
  God accepts us when we place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
• 23:49
  He fully accepts us. There's nothing we need to do. We are saved.
• 23:54
  We are in his family and we're not going to leave his family.
• 23:57
  It's like once you're in, you're in.
• 23:59
  But it's like you fully surrender to him. but you always feel like I need to
• 24:04
  keep doing something to keep this going.
• 24:07
  I need to make, every day I get up, I need to make God like me somehow.
• 24:10
  I need to do something rather understanding he likes you.
• 24:14
  He loves you now more than he's ever going to like you or love you.
• 24:18
  So it's like, you don't need to appease him or please him to make him like you more. I love you more.
• 24:24
  You're there, but then you do things out of gratitude. You do the things that
• 24:28
  he's called you to do based out of love for him and i think that's something
• 24:33
  i've struggled with in my life you know you always feel like you need to keep
• 24:36
  doing something you girls ever have that yeah you do yeah anything you want
• 24:41
  to say about it or like i don't really know what it's,
• 24:43
  But you do feel that sometimes, that you got to keep making God love you for some reason.
• 24:52
  I just know, and I go back to this Abraham situation. It says that everything
• 24:57
  was against him, but he believed.
• 25:00
  Against all hope, he continued to believe. Because it looked like God's promises
• 25:04
  weren't really going to come to fruition.
• 25:06
  It looked like what God had said would happen.
• 25:08
  It didn't look like it was going to come true. but it says Abraham believed
• 25:13
  and he refused to fall back into unbelief.
• 25:18
  So, and that's the thing, a true living faith will not shrink back.
• 25:22
  A true living faith will ultimately persevere because the one who is doing it is ultimately God.
• 25:29
  I mean, we are exercising faith, but the one who is behind the veil,
• 25:33
  who is applying the oil of the Holy Spirit and enlivening the flame and won't let it go out is God.
• 25:40
  So your, your faith ultimately will never go out once you, and that's how God
• 25:44
  shields us and he protects us.
• 25:46
  And it's like, we are guarded by that faith to bring, to bring us into the next
• 25:50
  life, into his presence.
• 25:51
  That's, what's going to get us through this life into a.
• 25:54
  The final, you know, crossing the Jordan into God's presence.
• 25:57
  All right. Chapter five.
• 25:58
  Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
• 26:03
  Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith
• 26:08
  into this grace in which we stand.
• 26:10
  And we exult in hope of the glory of God.
• 26:13
  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations,
• 26:17
  knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance,
• 26:21
  proven character and proven character hope, and hope does not disappoint,
• 26:25
  because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy
• 26:29
  Spirit who is given to us.
• 26:31
  For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
• 26:36
  For one will hardly die for a
• 26:38
  righteous man, though perhaps for a good man some would dare even to die.
• 26:43
  But God demonstrates his own
• 26:45
  love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
• 26:50
  Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
• 26:54
  the wrath of God through him.
• 26:56
  For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of
• 27:00
  his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
• 27:04
  And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
• 27:08
  through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
• 27:11
  Now he's going to get into how sin actually was inherited, how we actually came
• 27:16
  into this condition. It all stemmed back to our first parents, Adam and Eve.
• 27:21
  Therefore, just as sin through one man.
• 27:25
  Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world,
• 27:29
  and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
• 27:34
  For until the law, sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed where there is no law.
• 27:40
  Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not
• 27:45
  sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who was a type of him who was to come.
• 27:50
  But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression
• 27:54
  of the one, the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the
• 27:59
  grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
• 28:03
  The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned.
• 28:06
  For on the one hand, the judgment arose from one transgression,
• 28:09
  resulting in condemnation.
• 28:11
  But on the other hand, the free gift arose from many transgressions,
• 28:15
  resulting in justification.
• 28:16
  For if by the transgression of the one death reigned through the one,
• 28:21
  much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
• 28:25
  will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
• 28:29
  So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men,
• 28:34
  even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
• 28:39
  For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners,
• 28:43
  even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous.
• 28:47
  The law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased,
• 28:52
  grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death,
• 28:56
  even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 29:02
  What do you girls think so far? Kind of cool. Sophie, any thoughts?
• 29:05
  It's good. It's good. It's good. Okay. All right.
• 29:09
  So when we get into this, so people say like, it's not really fair.
• 29:14
  Why was I born into this world? And why was I?
• 29:18
  Because we're born with a sinful nature and we're also born in judgment.
• 29:22
  We have a judgment on us, but it's an inherited guilt that we received from
• 29:27
  our first parents, Adam and Eve, which doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem right,
• 29:31
  but it is right, because it's like, what is right?
• 29:34
  What God says is right, and that's what God says, so that is ultimately what is right.
• 29:38
  But in our mind, it doesn't feel right, that we are judged based on our parents' actions. But we were.
• 29:44
  But it also goes into the representative nature of, they represented us when
• 29:50
  they were given that test, and they failed, and then we received the condemnation,
• 29:55
  you know, and our inherited guilt.
• 29:56
  But also based on the representative nature of Jesus Christ,
• 30:02
  he is the second Adam that what his act, living the perfect life and dying on
• 30:07
  our behalf, that we can be justified.
• 30:10
  So it's like it almost bounces out. It's like Adam, they send him,
• 30:15
  we got screwed, we got messed up.
• 30:18
  But what Jesus did, we got what we don't deserve at all.
• 30:21
  So it almost works itself out and it bounces out in God's mind Cause that's how he views people.
• 30:27
  He sees people either in the first Adam or the second Adam.
• 30:31
  Y'all know what I'm talking about? You girls at all. You know what I'm saying?
• 30:34
  Like Jesus Christ is called the second Adam. Yeah. He's called the second Adam
• 30:38
  because he's like the new humanity.
• 30:40
  God made the first humanity in our first parents, Adam and Eve,
• 30:43
  and then they failed and they sinned and did what God said don't do.
• 30:48
  And then, so that's this lump of, of humanity. That's all like in,
• 30:53
  in condemnation and guilt.
• 30:54
  But then out of that humanity, he, God recreates a new humanity,
• 30:58
  but the head of it is jesus christ and so
• 31:01
  everybody is either in adam the first adam or in
• 31:04
  the second adam which is jesus christ the first
• 31:07
  adam all of those people deserve judgment and
• 31:10
  will get judgment but once you trust in jesus christ you
• 31:13
  he's paid the judgment so you get eternal life it's
• 31:16
  kind of how the god's reckons accounts yeah
• 31:19
  does that make sense at all yeah how many
• 31:22
  names does jesus have how many names he
• 31:25
  has a lot of names he's called a lot by a number
• 31:28
  of different things i mean you could go through like i've
• 31:32
  i've seen lists of them where it gives like things that reference
• 31:34
  to the messiah to jesus who he is and all
• 31:37
  of them i yeah i've i've seen actually lists of like all of them out like wonderful
• 31:42
  counselor mighty god everlasting father prince of peace like those are all titles
• 31:46
  and names lord son of god the christ messiah all this so he has yeah he has
• 31:51
  a lot of like titles and and names like that are refer to him like Like,
• 31:56
  so when it all comes down to like everything is all of human history.
• 32:01
  Even things on heaven and on earth are all wrapped up in and are tied together through Jesus.
• 32:06
  God, it says he's going to consummate all things under his son.
• 32:11
  Everything, like everything that he's made, it's all going to come underneath Jesus Christ.
• 32:15
  And he's going to be the one that kind of brings everything together.
• 32:18
  And it is, if that makes sense. Yeah. All right.
• 32:22
  Chapter six, we're going to keep powering through.
• 32:25
  What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be.
• 32:31
  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
• 32:34
  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have
• 32:38
  been baptized into his death?
• 32:40
  Therefore we have been buried with him through faith into baptism,
• 32:43
  so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
• 32:47
  so we too might walk in newness of life.
• 32:51
  For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death,
• 32:55
  certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection,
• 32:59
  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body
• 33:03
  of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.
• 33:07
  For he who has died is freed from sin.
• 33:10
  Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him,
• 33:15
  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again.
• 33:18
  Death no longer is master over him. For the death that he died,
• 33:22
  he died to sin once for all.
• 33:24
  But the life that he lives, he lives to God.
• 33:27
  Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• 33:32
  Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its lusts.
• 33:36
  And do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness.
• 33:42
  But present yourselves to God
• 33:45
  as those alive from the dead and your members as
• 33:48
  instruments of righteousness to God for sin
• 33:51
  shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace so there's
• 33:57
  a lot so this is where he brings up the the two masters the and the two it's
• 34:03
  either you're under sin which is a slave master or you're under grace and you
• 34:08
  can't choose You can't say,
• 34:10
  I'm in this part some days, I'm in this part some other days.
• 34:13
  You're either in one always.
• 34:17
  And everybody is born under this sin master that is controlled by the sway of the devil.
• 34:23
  This is the devil's playground, this world that is controlling all of humanity right now.
• 34:30
  But then God is the one who's coming in and unplugging certain people and saying,
• 34:34
  no, come out of the matrix, come into the real life.
• 34:39
  And once you've been unplugged, you can't go back. You won't go back.
• 34:42
  And if you tried to go back, you really weren't unplugged.
• 34:45
  You know what I'm talking about? It's just that kind of metaphor.
• 34:48
  All right. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law,
• 34:52
  but under grace? May it never be.
• 34:54
  Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience,
• 34:58
  you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death or
• 35:02
  of obedience resulting in righteousness?
• 35:04
  But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient
• 35:09
  from the heart to that form of teaching to whom or to which you were committed.
• 35:14
  And having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
• 35:17
  I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.
• 35:20
  For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness,
• 35:25
  resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness,
• 35:32
  resulting in sanctification.
• 35:34
  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
• 35:38
  Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you
• 35:42
  are now ashamed. For the outcome of those things is death.
• 35:46
  But now, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit,
• 35:51
  resulting in sanctification and the outcome eternal life.
• 35:55
  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• 36:01
  Chapter 7 Or do you not know, brethren, for I am speaking to those who know
• 36:05
  the law, that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives.
• 36:09
  For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living.
• 36:14
  But if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband.
• 36:19
  So then, if while her husband is living, she is joined to another man,
• 36:22
  she shall be called an adulteress.
• 36:24
  But if her husband dies, she is freed from the law, so that she is not an adulteress,
• 36:29
  though she is joined to another man.
• 36:31
  Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the law through the body
• 36:35
  of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from
• 36:39
  the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
• 36:42
  For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the
• 36:46
  law were at work, and the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
• 36:50
  But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we
• 36:53
  are bound, so that we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
• 36:58
  So it's a different metaphor. it's not just a slave master, but he takes it
• 37:02
  to marriage that just like when, if a person in God's law, what he described,
• 37:06
  if two people are married, they're supposed to remain married for life.
• 37:10
  But if one person dies, they are released from that obligation.
• 37:14
  So in the same way, when we trust in Christ, in a sense, we died to our previous
• 37:19
  person that we were joined to, which was the Satan, the devil,
• 37:24
  that slave master, sin, all that evil stuff.
• 37:26
  When we trust in Christ, all of that died. and we are joined to Jesus Christ.
• 37:32
  And now we are married to Jesus Christ.
• 37:35
  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be.
• 37:39
  On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the law.
• 37:42
  For I would not have known about coveting if the law had not said, you shall not covet.
• 37:47
  But sin taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kind.
• 37:53
  For apart from the law, sin is dead. I was once alive.
• 37:57
  So this is what we're gonna get into. where Paul is going to describe this event,
• 38:01
  and this is, over the millennia, people have disagreed. What is he talking about?
• 38:05
  Is he talking about his current life, his previous life before he became a Christian,
• 38:09
  when he was trying to advance in Judaism, or is he just giving this kind of like.
• 38:14
  Out there hypothetical condition of a general man.
• 38:19
  I lean towards that he's talking about his present reality, that I do,
• 38:24
  but I know a lot of people don't.
• 38:25
  But see where you all land on this. He says, I was once alive apart from the
• 38:30
  law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died.
• 38:34
  And this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death
• 38:38
  for me. For sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment,
• 38:42
  deceived me, and through it killed me.
• 38:44
  So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good.
• 38:49
  Therefore, did that which is good become a cause of death for me?
• 38:54
  May it never be. Rather, it was sin in order that it might be shown to be sin
• 38:58
  by effecting my death, through that which is good, so that through the commandment
• 39:02
  sin would become utterly sinful.
• 39:04
  For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
• 39:10
  For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I am practicing, I am not.
• 39:15
  Let me start this over. For what I am doing, I do not understand.
• 39:19
  For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
• 39:24
  But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the law,
• 39:28
  confessing that the law is good.
• 39:30
  So now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
• 39:35
  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.
• 39:39
  For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
• 39:43
  For the good that I want to do, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
• 39:50
  But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing
• 39:54
  it, but sin which dwells in me.
• 39:56
  I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
• 40:02
  For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different
• 40:07
  law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind,
• 40:11
  and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members.
• 40:15
  Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
• 40:20
  Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 40:23
  So then, on the one hand, I myself, with my mind, am serving the law of God,
• 40:28
  but on the other, with my flesh, the law of sin.
• 40:32
  We are halfway through the book of Romans, everyone. So him reading that,
• 40:36
  or him, I'm not reading it, him
• 40:38
  saying it, I think he is giving his real description of his present life.
• 40:42
  Because before someone actually, I mean, there was, our situation right now
• 40:47
  is different than Paul's in that day, because there was like a transition that
• 40:52
  happened in human history.
• 40:53
  It wasn't about just believing and trusting in the promises of the God of Israel,
• 40:58
  but the Messiah had actually come.
• 41:00
  And now everything is kind of switching a little bit and it's not just looking
• 41:06
  forward to that God is gonna save us, but rather God has saved us because he sent his son.
• 41:12
  It is now a rear view mirror thing that we're looking back at.
• 41:16
  And it's now specific, it's to trust in this one man who proved who he was.
• 41:21
  He didn't just say these things and then die and not be raised from the dead.
• 41:27
  He died and was raised from the dead. God raised him from the dead.
• 41:31
  So it's like, if you deny the fact that he died or that he was raised from the
• 41:35
  dead, you were calling God a liar.
• 41:36
  And you were saying that God didn't do what he did.
• 41:41
  And that's the whole point. So it's like, you're either all in or you're not in at all.
• 41:47
  That's the thing. You have to be either all in on Christ, all in on Jesus, or you're not in at all.
• 41:53
  And that was the struggle because, and I think real faithful Jews would have
• 41:57
  embraced Jesus. They would have ultimately embraced him, even though it didn't
• 42:02
  look exactly like they thought it would happen.
• 42:05
  Maybe there was still room for the Messiah would come and do those things.
• 42:09
  But he was challenging so many of the things that their preconceived notions
• 42:13
  that they had, their biases, he was just throwing everything to the wind.
• 42:16
  You know, he was challenging them in all certain ways. So he didn't look exactly how they thought.
• 42:21
  But if they knew the scriptures, that's how he was going to look.
• 42:24
  And a lot of times it's just, we don't, we don't fully understand God.
• 42:27
  We don't know what to really expect.
• 42:29
  And we just, we want to throw on what it should be, as opposed to what in God's mind, it really is.
• 42:34
  And I think that right here, that he would not have, Paul, like given this description
• 42:40
  of this person, I think it's himself that he's saying that I want to do good.
• 42:44
  You're not, if you're not a Christian, if you haven't been made alive by the
• 42:48
  God spirit, truly in your heart of hearts, you really don't care about doing good.
• 42:52
  You might want to do good so other people think you're doing good or that you're
• 42:57
  maybe calling on some good fire insurance in case there is an afterlife and
• 43:01
  there is a God and I don't want to go to hell or whatever, but you really aren't
• 43:05
  concerned with it at all.
• 43:06
  You care more about just your own life, the only thing that's in front of you.
• 43:11
  Feeding your appetite, just taking care of yourself, looking good in front of
• 43:14
  everybody. You really don't care about God.
• 43:16
  You really don't care and you don't have a love of God in your heart.
• 43:20
  That's the difference between the people that are going to be saved are the
• 43:22
  people who love God truly.
• 43:24
  And the people that aren't saved and aren't going to be saved are the people
• 43:27
  that don't love God. And God's the one who gives us that love.
• 43:31
  And once we have that love, we are going to want a desire to do good.
• 43:34
  But then we still are just, we have that desire in us, but then we are just still corruptible.
• 43:41
  We're still in this corrupt, sinful nature and this body and appetites that
• 43:45
  we have that just wants to call us to do these things that aren't holy,
• 43:49
  that aren't things of God, that we get drawn to.
• 43:53
  We're like in this constant battle of the new man and the old man that's now
• 43:57
  just waging war against itself.
• 43:59
  And it's like, I wish it's like, I almost wish that when God made me a Christian,
• 44:05
  I would have been called out of this world.
• 44:07
  Because it's like I'm left here and I feel like all I'm doing is just terrible
• 44:10
  things one after the other. I'm not actually making a difference in this life.
• 44:15
  And all I'm doing, I feel like all I'm doing is storing up wrath.
• 44:18
  I feel like all I'm doing is sinful because I think the closer you get to God,
• 44:22
  the closer you read his word or the closer that you're familiar with him,
• 44:25
  you start seeing how evil you are.
• 44:31
  And I think that was representative of the prophet Isaiah because when he was
• 44:36
  encountered by the God of Israel, he saw him in the temple. He saw God.
• 44:42
  He was like one of the most holy men at that time in history.
• 44:46
  He says, I'm a sinful man. It's like, I am undone.
• 44:51
  He recognizes his unholiness and how wretched he is.
• 44:56
  That's why the apostle Peter, when he met Jesus or Jesus called him,
• 45:01
  he said, depart from me. I'm a sinful man.
• 45:03
  He recognized the holy before him. And when you recognize the holy that's before
• 45:08
  you, you realize how just awful we are and how wretched we are.
• 45:14
  Like a skunk might think he smells great, but because he's a skunk or he's a
• 45:20
  pig, a pig just wallows in the mire,
• 45:23
  wallows in the mud, and he doesn't realize he smells like
• 45:26
  trash and he's terrible he's he doesn't smell good but
• 45:29
  like comparative like that's our condition to god god is perfect holiness hope
• 45:35
  that all makes sense all right do you girls want to read it all okay all right
• 45:39
  chapter eight so he's whenever now the next word we're going to hear is therefore
• 45:44
  and whenever you hear therefore you need to ask yourself what is it there for.
• 45:49
  Because the therefore is based
• 45:52
  on everything that I've said in light of everything that I've said, this.
• 45:56
  So based on everything he's said up to this point, he's going to go into it. Here we go.
• 46:00
  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• 46:06
  I'm going to read that one more time because that is a beautiful verse for every
• 46:09
  Christian, and you need to be reminded of this every day.
• 46:13
  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• 46:17
  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
• 46:22
  For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh,
• 46:26
  God did, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin.
• 46:31
  He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled
• 46:35
  in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
• 46:38
  For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the
• 46:42
  flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
• 46:45
  For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.
• 46:50
  Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject
• 46:54
  itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.
• 46:58
  And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
• 47:01
  However, you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.
• 47:07
  But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
• 47:12
  If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin,
• 47:15
  yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
• 47:18
  But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
• 47:21
  he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal
• 47:25
  bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
• 47:28
  So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh,
• 47:32
  to live according to the flesh.
• 47:33
  For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die.
• 47:37
  But if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
• 47:41
  For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
• 47:46
  For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again,
• 47:50
  but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba, Father.
• 47:55
  The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God,
• 48:00
  and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
• 48:05
  If indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
• 48:10
  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be
• 48:13
  compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
• 48:16
  For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
• 48:21
  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him
• 48:27
  who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from
• 48:32
  its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
• 48:36
  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.
• 48:42
  And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit,
• 48:46
  even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as
• 48:50
  sons, the redemption of our body.
• 48:52
  For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope.
• 49:00
  For who hopes for what he already has, for what he already sees?
• 49:05
  But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for
• 49:09
  it. In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness.
• 49:13
  For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes
• 49:17
  for us with groanings too deep for words.
• 49:20
  And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is,
• 49:23
  because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
• 49:27
  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who
• 49:32
  love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
• 49:35
  For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image
• 49:40
  of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.
• 49:45
  And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified.
• 49:50
  And these whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?
• 49:55
  If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son,
• 50:00
  but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?
• 50:05
  Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies?
• 50:09
  Who is the one who condemns?
• 50:11
  Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right
• 50:16
  hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
• 50:18
  Who will separate us from the love of Christ?
• 50:21
  Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
• 50:26
  Just as it is written, for your sake we are being put to death all day long.
• 50:32
  We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we overwhelmingly
• 50:36
  conquer through him who loved us.
• 50:40
  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
• 50:43
  nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
• 50:48
  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate
• 50:51
  us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
• 50:55
  He touched on the idea of those who, that God, we have nothing to worry about
• 51:01
  because God, everything that we do and go through, God's causing it to work together for our good.
• 51:07
  And that doesn't seem real at times. That seems like it's pie in the sky.
• 51:12
  Like everything I'm going through, God somehow like weaving it together to work
• 51:17
  out for my good and his glory.
• 51:19
  That's where the faith needs to kick in. And whatever you're going through,
• 51:22
  say you like you go through terrible thing, you lose your job or you lose a
• 51:26
  family member or someone you love.
• 51:28
  It's like God is going to comfort you in those times. But also all of that is
• 51:33
  going to be worked together.
• 51:34
  And it's not like it caught God by surprise. i i heard somebody i i love and
• 51:39
  was my friend and for a long time and i remember him saying.
• 51:43
  Like and he talked he shared about his father and
• 51:46
  has said that his dad just said well just sometimes just a tire goes off your
• 51:49
  car and you know just things happen and i i and i i disagree with that i don't
• 51:55
  think that just things randomly happen i mean god could keep whatever work together
• 52:01
  that he could cause that tire not to go off, you know?
• 52:04
  And him that it does, he's allowed it to happen. And there's always a reason behind it.
• 52:10
  Whatever happens, God is in control of it, even if it seems chaos and out of control.
• 52:15
  And I mean, I'm just thinking about if you're in the people in war that are
• 52:18
  in the fog of war and things are just terrible and things seem so chaotic,
• 52:22
  how can you know, how can you feel that God is in control of that?
• 52:26
  People have seen some crazy stuff throughout time.
• 52:29
  And it's like how is God in control of that well he
• 52:32
  is and that's where we have to embrace it and trust that he
• 52:35
  isn't in control but also that whatever
• 52:39
  happens if you're in Christ it's going to work out for your good it's going
• 52:43
  to work out for your good and but if you're not if you're not in Christ God
• 52:47
  hasn't promised that it's going to work out for your good he the only people
• 52:51
  this promise applies to is the people that have put their faith and trust in
• 52:55
  Jesus you all ever feel like that, like that you just like,
• 52:58
  What do you all think? Are you all thinking about this?
• 53:03
  About this? Sometimes it feels like this world is just chaotic.
• 53:08
  Do you feel like that? It's just like, I think it comes with age.
• 53:11
  I think when I was at your age, I wasn't thinking about any of this stuff.
• 53:13
  And I don't know if you all are.
• 53:16
  Being honest, not thinking about it. I just know as you get older,
• 53:19
  you start just seeing that things just come off the rails.
• 53:23
  And things can turn terrible quickly. I can be doing this, like going through
• 53:28
  the Bible and then just lose my head in the next room.
• 53:32
  And, and I, and it's like, how do I go that quickly to flipping and,
• 53:38
  and things just turning and things just that quickly, your life seems like it's just gets upended.
• 53:44
  I don't know if you're, if you ever feel like this, but I, I know that things
• 53:47
  can turn on a dime. They just, just switch.
• 53:50
  And I think as you grow closer to Christ,
• 53:54
  you become a person that you, you don't want that you
• 53:57
  you want to start putting up walls so that you don't just
• 54:00
  flip and things go terrible and i i
• 54:03
  just know for me like i struggle with anger i struggle with
• 54:06
  i lately i've really struggled with anger i
• 54:08
  have a lot of just like i get upset and i i lash out and i when i and i'm like
• 54:13
  why did i why did i immediately react like that why was i not able to control
• 54:18
  myself why was i not able to when something something happened unexpectedly
• 54:22
  and it's like you i almost have to I have to be in a position of,
• 54:27
  I'm always gonna be expecting the unexpected.
• 54:30
  That whatever happens, whatever comes across my face, that I'm gonna be like.
• 54:33
  Somehow don't immediately react. Because in the fog of war, in the chaos,
• 54:40
  I don't know, my world feels like chaos.
• 54:42
  I don't know about you. My world feels like chaos. And it's like,
• 54:45
  I need to cleave to these promises.
• 54:47
  I need to cleave to this idea that what God says that all this is going to work out for my good.
• 54:53
  And it's something you can tell somebody that isn't Christ.
• 54:57
  Even though it does seem cliche, and it feels cliche, and it feels pie in the
• 55:01
  sky, it's not. because it's biblical.
• 55:04
  It's what the Bible says. It's what God said. And if God said it, that's it.
• 55:10
  There's nothing more that needs to be said. All right, chapter nine.
• 55:13
  This is where we're going to kind of switch gears into election,
• 55:16
  predestination, and Israel and the nation of Israel and what their future entails.
• 55:22
  Chapter nine. Paul, he gets very personal right here.
• 55:26
  I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying.
• 55:29
  My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow
• 55:33
  and unceasing grief in my heart.
• 55:35
  For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the
• 55:40
  sake of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh, who are Israelites,
• 55:45
  to whom belong the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants,
• 55:49
  and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises,
• 55:52
  whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ, according to the flesh, who is overall God,
• 56:00
  blessed forever, Amen.
• 56:02
  But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for they are not all Israel
• 56:07
  who are descended from Israel, nor are they all children because they are Abraham's
• 56:11
  descendants, but through Isaac your descendants will be named.
• 56:16
  That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God,
• 56:19
  but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
• 56:23
  For this is the word of promise. At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.
• 56:27
  And not only this, but there was Rebecca also, when she had conceived twins
• 56:31
  by one man, our father Isaac.
• 56:33
  For though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad,
• 56:38
  so that God's purpose according to his choice would stand, not because of works,
• 56:42
  but because of him who calls, it was said to her, the older will serve the younger.
• 56:48
  Just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
• 56:53
  It's very, very stark. And you could say that Jacob, I have chosen.
• 56:57
  Jacob, but Esau, I have not chosen. Jacob got this amazing blessing.
• 57:02
  Esau did not. And a very strong language of love and hated because God's love is an eternal love.
• 57:09
  And the same thing with his judgment is an eternal judgment.
• 57:13
  What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there?
• 57:17
  May it never be. So that's the question that he anticipates when he brings that up.
• 57:22
  He anticipates the people that are listening are going to say, well, that's not fair.
• 57:26
  What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be.
• 57:31
  For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
• 57:34
  and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
• 57:37
  So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
• 57:42
  For the scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up,
• 57:46
  to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.
• 57:50
  So then he has mercy on whom he desires and
• 57:53
  he hardens whom he desires you will say to
• 57:56
  me then why does he still find fault for
• 57:59
  who resists his will on the contrary who are you oh man who answers back to
• 58:04
  god the thing molded will not say to the molder why did you make me like this
• 58:09
  will it or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same
• 58:13
  lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use.
• 58:17
  What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known,
• 58:22
  endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
• 58:26
  and he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy,
• 58:31
  which he prepared beforehand for glory?
• 58:34
  Even us, whom he also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
• 58:41
  As he says also in Hosea, I will call those who were not my people,
• 58:46
  my people, and her who was not beloved, beloved.
• 58:49
  And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them,
• 58:52
  you are not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living God.
• 58:57
  Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel
• 59:01
  be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.
• 59:04
  For the Lord will execute his word on the earth through thoroughly and quickly.
• 59:08
  And just as Isaiah foretold, unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity,
• 59:15
  we would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.
• 59:19
  What shall we say then, that Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness attained righteousness?
• 59:24
  Even the righteousness which is by faith. But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness,
• 59:30
  did not arrive at that law.
• 59:32
  Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works.
• 59:36
  They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written,
• 59:40
  Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
• 59:44
  and he who believes in him will not be disappointed.
• 59:47
  That's the righteousness of God that he talked about at the very beginning,
• 59:51
  and he fleshed out in chapter three, that how we receive it by faith.
• 59:56
  And he says that Gentiles, and that's like these Jewish people that are just
• 1:00:01
  following him along and trying to discredit Paul and trying to condemn him and
• 1:00:04
  trying to throw him in jail and to kill him.
• 1:00:07
  Because he's preaching this message of inclusion to Gentiles.
• 1:00:12
  You can be a part of God's family. You don't have to become Jewish.
• 1:00:15
  You just have to believe in Jesus. And that was extremely controversial in the first century,
• 1:00:20
  extremely and that's why they hated paul so
• 1:00:23
  much and why why he said i am a i'm in i'm in chains because of you gentiles
• 1:00:28
  that's why i'm in chains because i tried to that this my gospel the gentiles
• 1:00:32
  you don't need to become jewish solely by trusting in jesus and that's what
• 1:00:36
  landed him in prison girls have anything do you what are you thinking bonnie
• 1:00:40
  anything you want to say no,
• 1:00:43
  oh oh if you are going to say we sit into the thing remember all right here
• 1:00:47
  we go chapter 10 Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.
• 1:00:53
  For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. Amen.
• 1:01:00
  Or did she say that? For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to
• 1:01:04
  establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
• 1:01:09
  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
• 1:01:13
  For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based
• 1:01:16
  on law shall live by that righteousness.
• 1:01:18
  But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows. Do not say in your heart,
• 1:01:23
  who will ascend into heaven?
• 1:01:25
  That is, to bring Christ down. Or who will descend into the abyss?
• 1:01:28
  That is, to bring Christ up from the dead.
• 1:01:30
  But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,
• 1:01:35
  that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with
• 1:01:38
  your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from
• 1:01:42
  the dead, you will be saved.
• 1:01:44
  For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness,
• 1:01:48
  and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
• 1:01:52
  For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.
• 1:01:56
  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord
• 1:02:01
  of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him.
• 1:02:04
  For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
• 1:02:07
  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
• 1:02:10
  How will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?
• 1:02:16
  How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written,
• 1:02:19
  how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things.
• 1:02:23
  However, they did not all heed good news.
• 1:02:26
  For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So faith comes from hearing
• 1:02:31
  and hearing by the word of Christ.
• 1:02:33
  But I say, surely they have never heard, have they?
• 1:02:38
  Indeed, they have. Their voice
• 1:02:40
  has gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.
• 1:02:44
  But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they?
• 1:02:47
  First Moses says, I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation.
• 1:02:51
  By a nation without understanding will I anger you. And Isaiah is very bold
• 1:02:55
  and says, I was found by those who did not seek me.
• 1:02:58
  I became manifest to those who did not ask for me. But as for Israel,
• 1:03:02
  he says, all the days long, I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.
• 1:03:09
  So that's the thing. Paul is primarily zeroing in on Israel.
• 1:03:13
  Now that this has happened, that Jesus has come, salvation is being made to all the world.
• 1:03:19
  Gentiles can just become saved just by trusting in Jesus.
• 1:03:23
  Well, what was the point of Israel? What was the benefit of being Jewish?
• 1:03:28
  And he's laying it out like God has plans for Israel.
• 1:03:33
  Just because they've rejected the Messiah, and primarily in that day,
• 1:03:37
  the majority of them had.
• 1:03:39
  Overall, the majority had not embraced the Messiah, had not embraced Jesus,
• 1:03:44
  but some of them did embrace them, as the apostles were the foundation of the
• 1:03:48
  church, of the foundation of this new movement, this new sect of Judaism.
• 1:03:54
  So it was very, very, it wasn't like God completely did away with him.
• 1:04:00
  And we're going to see that there is a partial blindness, a partial hardening
• 1:04:03
  that is in God's divine plan.
• 1:04:07
  It did not just come unexpectedly. God planned for this, that they would reject him.
• 1:04:13
  And then, but there is going to be a time where they're going to embrace their
• 1:04:18
  Messiah. And we, we have not seen that yet.
• 1:04:21
  We, we, right now, if Israel, the, the, the prominent huge leaders of Israel
• 1:04:27
  are not saying Jesus is the Messiah.
• 1:04:29
  There are certain Jews, Jews today that believe that Jesus is the Messiah.
• 1:04:33
  Little by little, they're coming, they, they, they believe that he is.
• 1:04:37
  And they're embracing him. But the most, the major majority of them have not.
• 1:04:42
  But Paul says that they will. And we're going to get into that in this chapter.
• 1:04:47
  And this is the future prophecy of the book of Romans, chapter 11.
• 1:04:51
  I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be.
• 1:04:55
  For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
• 1:05:00
  God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the
• 1:05:06
  scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
• 1:05:10
  Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars,
• 1:05:14
  and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life. But what is the divine response to him?
• 1:05:19
  I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
• 1:05:24
  In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant
• 1:05:29
  according to God's gracious choice.
• 1:05:31
  But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works.
• 1:05:35
  Otherwise, grace is no longer grace.
• 1:05:38
  What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained. But those who were chosen
• 1:05:42
  obtained it, and the rest were hardened, just as it is written.
• 1:05:46
  God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.
• 1:05:53
  And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap and a stumbling block
• 1:05:59
  and a retribution to them.
• 1:06:01
  Let their eyes be darkened to see not and bend their backs forever.
• 1:06:05
  David was a harsh man at times. He was very poetic, sometimes brutal, but he killed Goliath.
• 1:06:13
  He wasn't a huge guy. He was a beautiful man, though. It does say he looked good.
• 1:06:17
  But he was at times, his psalms, you read through the psalms,
• 1:06:21
  they are vicious at times.
• 1:06:24
  Like he wore his religion on his sleeve.
• 1:06:28
  You see a guy that did not have a filter. He let it all out.
• 1:06:34
  And he danced before the Lord. He was not ashamed. But also he would say things
• 1:06:40
  like this, bend their backs forever.
• 1:06:45
  Like those are those i think they're called deprecatory psalms
• 1:06:48
  or it's like something like that where you're calling down curses on people
• 1:06:51
  so that was the thing that in israel like the psalms
• 1:06:54
  there were times where they would call down curses of god on certain groups
• 1:06:58
  they would call them on them and we're going to see as we get further along
• 1:07:01
  in the book of romans why paul's going to say do not curse he's going to say
• 1:07:06
  but bless i almost like there's this change this change in posture that since Jesus has come,
• 1:07:12
  that brutality and that harshness that happened in the Old Testament leading
• 1:07:18
  up to where we got to the Messiah, it's almost something has switched a little bit.
• 1:07:22
  Jesus changed the mindset a little bit.
• 1:07:26
  And it says that there's this time where it's like, we're flinging open all the doors.
• 1:07:31
  Everybody get in, get in, get into this because judgment is coming.
• 1:07:37
  This is the time that you can be saved.
• 1:07:39
  And there's going to be a time where it's going to, the door is going to shut.
• 1:07:42
  And once it shuts, it's, it's over.
• 1:07:45
  And that's why we're in this, this time, this in-between time from Jesus's first
• 1:07:50
  coming and the Messiah's first coming and second coming.
• 1:07:52
  And he's like, it's just like, let's, let's not be too harsh.
• 1:07:56
  Everybody get in, get on the boat, get in the ark now.
• 1:08:00
  No more, no more like disputing over these minor things, these minor infractions
• 1:08:04
  that you have against people or whatever.
• 1:08:06
  Let's make peace. Get in, get into Christ, everybody. All right. Verse 11.
• 1:08:12
  I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be.
• 1:08:16
  But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.
• 1:08:22
  Now, if their transgression is riches for the world, and their failure is riches
• 1:08:27
  for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be?
• 1:08:30
  But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles, inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles.
• 1:08:39
  I magnify my ministry, if somehow
• 1:08:41
  I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.
• 1:08:46
  For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance
• 1:08:50
  be but life from the dead?
• 1:08:52
  If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also.
• 1:08:56
  And if the root is holy, the branches are also, are too.
• 1:09:00
  But if some of the branches were broken off and you being a wild olive were
• 1:09:04
  grafted in among them and became partaker with them in the, of the rich root
• 1:09:10
  of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.
• 1:09:13
  But if you are arrogant, remember that is not you who supports the root,
• 1:09:17
  but the root supports you.
• 1:09:19
  This is a message, a word that I would say for every, for a lot of Gentiles
• 1:09:25
  right now, because there is a lot of.
• 1:09:27
  Condemnation on Jews and anti-Semitism and condemnation on Israel and just hating
• 1:09:33
  Israel, where it's like, they're not perfect and they have rejected the Messiah,
• 1:09:37
  but they're the ones that are our foundation. They are.
• 1:09:41
  And we are, this is, Paul is like, he was like speaking to this 21st century audience.
• 1:09:47
  Do not be arrogant above these people. I know his message was to that first
• 1:09:51
  century and all the centuries since then, but it's the same message.
• 1:09:53
  Don't be arrogant against these Jewish people that have rejected the Messiah
• 1:09:57
  and say that, oh, we got the Messiah. The Christ is ours.
• 1:10:00
  Jesus is ours. He's rejected you. He's ours. He's saying, no, no, no.
• 1:10:06
  Otherwise, God is able to cut you off. Be aware of that.
• 1:10:10
  He says, you will say, you will say then branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.
• 1:10:15
  Quite right. They were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.
• 1:10:20
  Do not be conceited, but fear for if God did not spare the natural branches,
• 1:10:25
  he will not spare you either.
• 1:10:27
  Behold then the kindness and severity of God, to those who fell,
• 1:10:31
  severity, but to you God's kindness, if you continue in his kindness,
• 1:10:35
  in his kindness, otherwise you also will be cut off.
• 1:10:39
  And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in,
• 1:10:43
  for God is able to graft them in again.
• 1:10:45
  For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree,
• 1:10:49
  and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree,
• 1:10:53
  how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their
• 1:10:57
  own olive tree? It's about Israel.
• 1:11:00
  God's covenant community, we as Gentiles, we get to join along with this.
• 1:11:05
  And this was in God's ultimate plan, that he was going to save people from all
• 1:11:09
  the nations, but his covenant relationship was with Israel.
• 1:11:14
  But what he saw was going to happen and what he planned, it's not that God just
• 1:11:17
  sees in the future. He planned everything.
• 1:11:21
  The nations were all going to come under the banner of Israel as well,
• 1:11:25
  but they're not going to become Jewish.
• 1:11:27
  They're going to remain distinct members of the nations, but they're going to
• 1:11:31
  be under the head of Jesus Christ. We're joined to the Messiah, the King.
• 1:11:35
  For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery so that you
• 1:11:40
  will not be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened
• 1:11:44
  to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
• 1:11:48
  And so all Israel will be saved.
• 1:11:50
  Just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.
• 1:11:55
  This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.
• 1:11:58
  From the standpoint of the gospel, they are enemies for your sake.
• 1:12:01
  But from the standpoint of God's choice, they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.
• 1:12:05
  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. for just as you were once
• 1:12:11
  were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience.
• 1:12:15
  So these also now have been disobedient that because of the mercy shown to you,
• 1:12:20
  they also may now be shown mercy for God has shut up all in disobedience so
• 1:12:25
  that he may show mercy to all.
• 1:12:27
  This is where he lays, he's laid out all this theology and now he's going to erupt.
• 1:12:33
  And doxology. And if your theology doesn't lead you to just praising God,
• 1:12:38
  you need to check your theology.
• 1:12:40
  You need to check your understanding of God. Oh, the depth of the riches,
• 1:12:44
  both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.
• 1:12:46
  How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.
• 1:12:50
  For who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor or who has
• 1:12:54
  first given to him that it might be paid back to him again for from him and
• 1:12:58
  through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever amen what
• 1:13:02
  do you think girls that's good and it's,
• 1:13:05
  selfie they just give the sunday school answer jesus bible
• 1:13:09
  jesus god is good all the time all the time god is good it's but it paul that
• 1:13:16
  it ain't just all the time god is good he's like how unsearchable are his judgments
• 1:13:21
  oh the depths of the the the glory of god you know and he's like he can't even,
• 1:13:26
  he can't contain himself.
• 1:13:29
  And that's like how we should be, that we should be just overflowing,
• 1:13:32
  like of this God that is out there that is sustaining us.
• 1:13:36
  You know, I think we were just so conditioned in this, this mindset of,
• 1:13:39
  of, of this world that of modernity and evolution that people just think,
• 1:13:44
  oh, we just came here. We're just in a cosmic accident.
• 1:13:47
  Rather, no, that's the lie. That's the lie of the devil. Let's get that under control.
• 1:13:52
  It's God who has given us breath and who is sustaining us, who is orchestrating
• 1:13:56
  all human history together.
• 1:13:58
  You didn't just come to this. You weren't just a second thought on God's radar.
• 1:14:02
  No, he brought you to this world for a specific purpose. And it's so that he
• 1:14:07
  can save you and that he can conform you to Jesus's image, who is his son.
• 1:14:12
  So he's given all this theology up to this point.
• 1:14:15
  Now he's going to, like in all of Paul's letters, he gives this understanding
• 1:14:21
  to the people he's writing to, but then he gives practical application.
• 1:14:25
  And that's where this switch happens. In chapter 12, he switches it to going
• 1:14:30
  into practical application of what all this means. Okay, Paul, now what?
• 1:14:35
  And now he's going to tell you, now what? All right, here we go. Let's go. Let's roll.
• 1:14:40
  Chapter 12. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God,
• 1:14:43
  to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God,
• 1:14:47
  which is your spiritual service of worship.
• 1:14:50
  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
• 1:14:54
  your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good
• 1:14:58
  and acceptable and perfect.
• 1:15:00
  For through the grace given to me, I say to every one among you,
• 1:15:04
  not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so
• 1:15:08
  as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith,
• 1:15:12
  For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have
• 1:15:17
  the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ,
• 1:15:21
  and individually members one of another.
• 1:15:24
  Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,
• 1:15:28
  each of us is to exercise them accordingly.
• 1:15:30
  If prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, if service in his serving,
• 1:15:36
  or he who teaches in his teaching, or he who exhorts in his exhortation,
• 1:15:40
  he who gives with liberality, He who leads with diligence,
• 1:15:45
  he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.
• 1:15:47
  Let love be without hypocrisy.
• 1:15:50
  Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another in brotherly
• 1:15:54
  love, give preference to one another in honor, not lagging behind in diligence,
• 1:15:59
  fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
• 1:16:02
  Rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer.
• 1:16:05
  That's a tough one for me. I don't know about you.
• 1:16:08
  Contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.
• 1:16:12
  Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse.
• 1:16:15
  Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
• 1:16:18
  Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind,
• 1:16:22
  but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
• 1:16:26
  Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.
• 1:16:29
  Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends
• 1:16:33
  on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own vengeance.
• 1:16:37
  No, or no, never take your own revenge, beloved,
• 1:16:40
  But leave room for the wrath of God For it is written Vengeance is mine I will
• 1:16:45
  repay Says the Lord But if your enemy is hungry Feed him And if he is thirsty
• 1:16:51
  Give him a drink For in so doing You will heap burning coals on his head Do
• 1:16:57
  not be overcome by evil But overcome evil with good,
• 1:17:00
  That's always been a tough one for me is like when he says in doing good,
• 1:17:05
  like, because you do feel that like if someone like does something evil to you,
• 1:17:09
  wrongs you in a certain way, and you just, you just, you don't retaliate and
• 1:17:14
  you just respond in kindness and love.
• 1:17:17
  It almost is going to, it's going to make them boil a little bit.
• 1:17:21
  They're like, oh gosh, I'm so mad, but I can't do anything about it.
• 1:17:25
  But it's like, but that's the right response. And then they're going to be like
• 1:17:29
  convicted. They're going to feel convicted and they're like.
• 1:17:32
  Maybe I shouldn't have done that. That was a bad idea. That was a bad idea.
• 1:17:34
  All right. Chapter 13, Paul is going to kind of switch gears a little bit and
• 1:17:38
  he's going to go into government authorities and that we're to obey our government.
• 1:17:44
  Which can be difficult at times, and this is very controversial throughout the
• 1:17:47
  ages. When does it become a point when you are not to obey your government? We'll see.
• 1:17:51
  Chapter 13, every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities,
• 1:17:56
  for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.
• 1:18:03
  Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God,
• 1:18:07
  and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
• 1:18:11
  For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.
• 1:18:16
  Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
• 1:18:21
  For it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil,
• 1:18:25
  be afraid, for it does not bear the sword for nothing.
• 1:18:29
  For it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
• 1:18:35
  Therefore, it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath,
• 1:18:39
  but also for conscience sake for because
• 1:18:42
  of this you also pay taxes for rulers
• 1:18:45
  are servants of god devoting themselves to this very
• 1:18:48
  thing render to all what is due them tax to
• 1:18:51
  whom taxes do custom to whom custom fear to
• 1:18:54
  whom fear honor to whom honor sometimes this is gonna have it's like that's
• 1:18:58
  right in the bible it's like you almost want to pick and choose what i want
• 1:19:00
  to follow what i want to hear because sometimes it doesn't always feel right
• 1:19:03
  it doesn't sit well and we all have those we all like differently and it's like
• 1:19:09
  i just want to skip past that part i want to just focus in on this.
• 1:19:12
  But we got to take the Bible as a whole. Oh, nothing to anyone except to love
• 1:19:16
  one another. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
• 1:19:19
  For this, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder.
• 1:19:23
  You shall not steal. You shall not covet.
• 1:19:25
  And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying,
• 1:19:28
  you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
• 1:19:31
  Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.
• 1:19:35
  Do this knowing the time that it is already the hour for you to awaken from
• 1:19:39
  sleep. For now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.
• 1:19:42
  The night is almost gone and the day is near.
• 1:19:45
  Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
• 1:19:49
  Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness,
• 1:19:53
  not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality,
• 1:19:56
  not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision
• 1:20:02
  for the flesh in regard to its lusts. That's one of my favorite verses in the Bible.
• 1:20:06
  And that was the verse, that last little, what we just read that converted St.
• 1:20:11
  Augustine. He heard some kids reading this, or some kids playing a game in the
• 1:20:16
  other yard and they were, and they, and they were.
• 1:20:18
  Saying this phrase over and over, take up and read, take up and read.
• 1:20:22
  And he went over and grabbed a manuscript of the book of Romans.
• 1:20:26
  And that's the verse he read.
• 1:20:27
  And that's what converted him that we just read and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Chapter 14.
• 1:20:32
  Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing
• 1:20:36
  judgment on his opinions.
• 1:20:38
  One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.
• 1:20:44
  This isn't about unclean and clean laws of the Old Testament.
• 1:20:47
  I'm just going to point that out because a lot of people use that.
• 1:20:50
  This is not about the clean laws and unclean foods.
• 1:20:53
  Now, I'm not a person that says that Gentiles need to abide by those laws,
• 1:20:57
  but what he's talking about is specifically about the meat that was sacrificed
• 1:21:04
  to idols. It has to do with idol worship.
• 1:21:07
  And the person that is weaker in the faith, they don't want to eat.
• 1:21:11
  They don't even want to take a chance of doing anything wrong,
• 1:21:13
  so they eat only vegetables, to avoid the possibility that that food could have
• 1:21:19
  been sacrificed to an idol.
• 1:21:20
  The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat.
• 1:21:24
  And the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats,
• 1:21:28
  for God has accepted him.
• 1:21:30
  Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or
• 1:21:34
  falls, and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
• 1:21:38
  One person regards one day above another, another person every day alike.
• 1:21:42
  Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.
• 1:21:46
  He who observes the day observes it for the Lord, and he who eats does so for the Lord.
• 1:21:52
  For he gives thanks to God, and
• 1:21:54
  he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.
• 1:21:58
  For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself.
• 1:22:02
  For if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord.
• 1:22:06
  Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end,
• 1:22:10
  Christ died and lived again, that he might be the Lord, both of the dead and of the living.
• 1:22:15
  But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt?
• 1:22:22
  For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. So he's talking to two
• 1:22:26
  different people, and we can all relate to this.
• 1:22:29
  Are you a person that is a strong in the faith person?
• 1:22:32
  And it's not really strong in the faith. It's the stronger brother versus the weaker brother.
• 1:22:36
  And Paul doesn't say that one is better than the other. He's just pointing out a fact.
• 1:22:41
  If I had to categorize myself, I would call myself a weaker brother,
• 1:22:45
  because in the sense that,
• 1:22:47
  things trouble my conscience more than probably normal Christians that I would
• 1:22:53
  say probably are stronger Christians.
• 1:22:55
  It's kind of like some people have, they have certain things like,
• 1:22:58
  I don't even want to take a chance of like, I don't want to celebrate Halloween
• 1:23:02
  because what if God doesn't like it?
• 1:23:05
  And I, or what, or that's just an example, right? I don't want to eat.
• 1:23:08
  I don't want to drink something or that might, what if God doesn't like it?
• 1:23:12
  Or I just have a very sensitive conscience.
• 1:23:14
  And I think some, some Christians have a very sensitive conscience and they're,
• 1:23:18
  they want to go over, over and beyond to, so they don't offend God and they
• 1:23:23
  want to do everything in their power to not do that.
• 1:23:24
  Whereas a stronger one in the faith or just a stronger brother.
• 1:23:29
  They, they understand that God's cool. I mean, I don't know if that sounds so weird.
• 1:23:34
  God's good. He's like, they, they understand they have this,
• 1:23:37
  this understanding with God and their conscience isn't constantly condemning them.
• 1:23:43
  And Paul is not saying that one is better than the other. It's just a natural
• 1:23:46
  fact that we're in this and both are to live in harmony together.
• 1:23:50
  And it's like when the weaker brother is not to say to the stronger brother
• 1:23:55
  and say, you can't be celebrating Halloween.
• 1:23:57
  You can't be doing that. God doesn't like that. Or whatever.
• 1:24:01
  Pick and choose whatever issue is.
• 1:24:03
  God only likes this type of music. You can't be listen
• 1:24:06
  to that god only loves the organ you know he doesn't not oregon but the organ
• 1:24:10
  that type of music and then like the stronger brother is just like they they
• 1:24:14
  understand that everything's not they have a more like it's not even like a
• 1:24:18
  closer relationship but it's just like it's just a different wavelength and
• 1:24:21
  i i don't and i'm speaking almost from that weaker brother perspective,
• 1:24:25
  because i think that i fall more towards that,
• 1:24:28
  I would say like a person that has the stronger brother in the faith or sister would be my wife.
• 1:24:34
  She is not a person that necessarily feels the weight of certain things that I do in certain things.
• 1:24:43
  If anyone's been around me, I have a very nitpicky personality,
• 1:24:46
  and that's something I've had to really work on in my life.
• 1:24:49
  And I don't know about you, if you're one or the other, but the whole point
• 1:24:52
  of the matter is that neither one of us is better.
• 1:24:55
  And God has made you the way that you are and we're to live at peace with each other and work it out.
• 1:25:02
  And, you know, and that's what he's going to get into. Okay, right.
• 1:25:05
  I want to just make sure I'm on the right page. Okay. Verse 10.
• 1:25:08
  But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt?
• 1:25:13
  For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written,
• 1:25:17
  as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.
• 1:25:22
  So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
• 1:25:25
  Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this,
• 1:25:30
  not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.
• 1:25:33
  I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself,
• 1:25:39
  but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
• 1:25:44
  For if because of your food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love.
• 1:25:49
  Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died.
• 1:25:53
  Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil.
• 1:25:58
  For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace
• 1:26:02
  and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• 1:26:04
  For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men.
• 1:26:09
  So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another.
• 1:26:15
  Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food.
• 1:26:19
  All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives
• 1:26:23
  offense. It is good not to eat
• 1:26:26
  meat or to drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.
• 1:26:29
  The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God.
• 1:26:33
  Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
• 1:26:37
  But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith.
• 1:26:42
  And whatever is not from faith is sin. What do you girls think about that?
• 1:26:46
  Why is it crazy? Why is it crazy?
• 1:26:49
  Okay. It's not crazy, Bonnie. Or no, why do you think it's crazy?
• 1:26:54
  I don't know. It's just cool. It's cool. Okay. I like stuff.
• 1:26:59
  Yeah, it's, I love that where he talks about happy, if your conscience doesn't
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  condemn you, if you don't feel, then it's not sin to you.
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  It's not sin to you, you know? But that's why you do, but you do got to rightly
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  inform your conscience with the word of God.
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  And I think if you have the spirit, the spirit will lead you in the right way, you know?
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  But some things are sin to others that aren't sin to other people because you
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  just don't have a right informed conscience.
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  And I think I suffer through that a lot. I just have a very sensitive conscience.
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  I think sometimes I have a condition. I feel like I got a condition and it's
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  just that I struggle with things that other people don't.
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  I'm sure other people struggle with things that I don't. All right, chapter 15.
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  Now, we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength
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  and not just please ourselves.
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  Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.
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  For even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written,
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  the reproaches of you, or sorry, the reproaches of those who reproached you.
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  I'm butchering this. This is where I kind of start losing myself a little bit.
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  Verse three, for even Christ did not please himself, but as it is written,
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  the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.
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  For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction so
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  that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.
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  But now the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of
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  the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,
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  so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  Therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
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  For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of
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  the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers.
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  And for the Gentiles to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written.
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  Therefore, I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name.
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  Again, he says, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again,
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  praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him.
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  Again, Isaiah says, There shall come the root of Jesse, and he who arises to
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  rule over the Gentiles. In him shall the Gentiles hope.
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  Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
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  so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
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  And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves
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  are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another.
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  But I have written very boldly to you on some point, so as to remind you again,
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  because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.
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  Ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles
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  may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
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  Therefore, in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining
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  to God, for I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me,
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  resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed,
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  in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit,
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  so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Ilicrium, I have fully preached
• 1:30:14
  the gospel of Christ, and thus I aspired to preach the gospel not where Christ
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  was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation, But as it is written,
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  they who had no news of him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand.
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  So he's writing to this church. He's not been there. He's not been to Rome.
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  And so he's given his, like, just his message.
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  And he just wants to, like, just speak to them and describe to them that he's
• 1:30:40
  wanted to come to them. But God's been preventing him to come to them.
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  But he's really desiring to.
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  For this reason, I have often been prevented from coming to you,
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  but now with no further place for me in these regions.
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  And since I have had for many years a longing to come to you, whenever I go to paint.
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  Whenever I go to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing and to be helped on my way there by you.
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  When I have first enjoyed your company for a while, but now I am going to Jerusalem,
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  serving the saints, for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution
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  for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.
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  Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them,
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  for if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted
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  to minister to them also in material things.
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  Therefore, when I have finished this and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs,
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  I will go by way of you to Spain.
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  I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.
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  Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit,
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  to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,
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  that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea,
• 1:31:49
  and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints so that
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  I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.
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  Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
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  That's end of chapter 15. And then 16, this is where he's, he's kind of summed it all up.
• 1:32:07
  Now he's just going to send his greetings to the people there.
• 1:32:10
  And he's going to by name, just mention a lot of people that he knows there, knows who are there.
• 1:32:15
  I commend you. I commend to you, our sister Phoebe, who was a servant of the
• 1:32:20
  church, which is at Centuria, that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy
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  of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matters she may have need of you.
• 1:32:29
  For she herself also has been a helper of many, and of myself as well.
• 1:32:33
  Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my sake,
• 1:32:39
  or for my life, risk their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks,
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  but also all the churches of the Gentiles.
• 1:32:45
  Also greet the church that is in their house, Greet Epineas,
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  my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.
• 1:32:53
  Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junius,
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  my kinsmen, and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles,
• 1:33:01
  who also were in Christ before me.
• 1:33:03
  Greet Ampelius, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in
• 1:33:08
  Christ, and Stachys, my beloved.
• 1:33:10
  Greet Apollos, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
• 1:33:16
  Greet Herodian, my kinsmen.
• 1:33:19
  Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.
• 1:33:23
  Greet Trympanea and Tryphosa.
• 1:33:26
  Workers in the Lord, greet Persis, the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord.
• 1:33:30
  Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother in mind.
• 1:33:35
  Greet Escrinitus, Philegian, Hermes, Petrobos, Hermas, and the brethren with them.
• 1:33:41
  Greet Philogius and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympus,
• 1:33:46
  and all the saints who are with them.
• 1:33:48
  Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.
• 1:33:52
  Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eyes on those who cause dissensions and
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  hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.
• 1:34:02
  For such men are slaves not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites.
• 1:34:07
  And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.
• 1:34:12
  For the report of your obedience has reached to all.
• 1:34:16
  Therefore, I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good
• 1:34:19
  and innocent in what is evil.
• 1:34:22
  The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
• 1:34:27
  Timothy, my fellow worker, greets you, and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.
• 1:34:33
  I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord.
• 1:34:36
  Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you.
• 1:34:41
  Erastus, the city treasurer, greets you. And Quartus, the brother.
• 1:34:44
  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
• 1:34:47
  Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel,
• 1:34:50
  and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of mystery,
• 1:34:54
  which has been kept secret for long ages past,
• 1:34:57
  but now is manifested and by the scriptures of the prophets,
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  according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations,
• 1:35:05
  leading to obedience of faith to the only wise God through Jesus Christ be the glory forever.
• 1:35:11
  Amen. All right. That's the book of Romans.
• 1:35:15
  All right. So I hope you all have a blessed Sunday.
• 1:35:19
  I hope you have a great day. I hope it's to give you food for thought and just
• 1:35:22
  dwell on all that the Apostle Paul, what he left us and him writing that message, sending that.
• 1:35:27
  And it's just a reminder that even though God might keep you from doing what
• 1:35:32
  you are wanting to do, he might have a bigger plan than you might not,
• 1:35:36
  that you might not know of.
• 1:35:37
  And just to trust in his promises for you. So we'll leave it at that.
• 1:35:40
  But girls, you want to say bye?
• 1:35:42
  Bye. All right. All right. Have a great rest of your day. See y'all.