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A-Flyover-Glance-at-Guilt-and-Grace · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: It was Jeremiah the prophet, who said, your words were found,
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Speaker 1: and I did eat them. They were to me the
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Speaker 1: joy and rejoicing of my heart. Or I'm called by
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Speaker 1: your name, O, Lord of Host. So wonderful moment when
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Speaker 1: we can assimilate the word of God in such a
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Speaker 1: way that the analogy of eating the scriptures applies. It
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Speaker 1: is our privilege, week after week to do so in
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Speaker 1: a land that's free, in a church where the scriptures
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Speaker 1: are honored and read and hopefully through the week obeyed.
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Speaker 1: We're looking together at Romans Chapter five. I want to
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Speaker 1: read for you just a few verses at the end
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Speaker 1: of the day chapter which serves as a bit of
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Speaker 1: a prologue for the great chapters six, seven, and eight
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Speaker 1: of this Letter of Paul to the Romans. The section
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Speaker 1: is a section that focuses on our relationship with Christ
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Speaker 1: that is based on grace. It is a grace relationship
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Speaker 1: that is free of guilt, it is free of shame,
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Speaker 1: It is victorious over the grave and death. However, it
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Speaker 1: is a relationship that is, for some strange reason, rarely
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Speaker 1: entered into by God's people. It's almost as if we
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Speaker 1: either haven't heard about it or we're afraid of it,
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Speaker 1: as if we were to take advantage of it, But
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Speaker 1: in fact grace is to be lived out. Since we
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Speaker 1: have been rescued through Christ at the Cross and now
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Speaker 1: live in the realm of grace before our God. We
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Speaker 1: have no fear in the sense of fright before God.
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Speaker 1: We know He is holy and we respect that, but
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Speaker 1: we live freely before Him, and our great hope in
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Speaker 1: life is to help others become free rather than live
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Speaker 1: under the shackles of guilt and defeat and sin. Paul
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Speaker 1: sets us up for that in these verses that we're
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Speaker 1: looking at. I'll be reading from the New Living Translation
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Speaker 1: out of Romance five, beginning at verse eighteen through twenty one.
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Speaker 1: Because of our respect for our God, the God of
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Speaker 1: the Scriptures, as well as the Word of God that
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Speaker 1: speaks of him, we stand together for the reading of
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Speaker 1: his word. Please stand and locate Romans Chapter five, verse eighteen.
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Speaker 1: Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one
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Speaker 1: act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and
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Speaker 1: new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many
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Speaker 1: became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many
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Speaker 1: will be made righteous God. God's law was given so
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Speaker 1: that all people could see how sinful they were. But
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Speaker 1: as God's people's sin more and more, God's wonderful grace
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Speaker 1: became more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all
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Speaker 1: people and brought them to death, now God's wonderful grace
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Speaker 1: rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting
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Speaker 1: in eternal life. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, it will
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Speaker 1: be my privilege in the weeks to come to announce
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Speaker 1: to you the grace that is ours to claim in Christ.
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Speaker 1: I urge you to be open to the message, regardless
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Speaker 1: of what you may have been taught in other circles
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Speaker 1: or from other sources. Let's allow the word of God
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Speaker 1: to speak to us that is designed to set us
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Speaker 1: free and through us, to set others equally free. Join
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Speaker 1: me in prayer, will you, as you remain standing, Thank you,
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Speaker 1: our Father for the freedom there is in your son Jesus,
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Speaker 1: that he came to give us not simply life, but
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Speaker 1: life on another plane, life abundance, life that frees us
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Speaker 1: from the shadows and the shackles of guilt and shame.
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Speaker 1: Give us hearts that are open to receive this truth.
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Speaker 1: Remove from us any reluctance or fear we may have
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Speaker 1: of it. Show us in your word the value of
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Speaker 1: walking in this wonderful realm of freedom. Through Christ. May
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Speaker 1: we remember that it is a freedom to obey Christ,
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Speaker 1: not a freedom to do as we wish. And show
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Speaker 1: us that legalism is a slavery. But your freedom gives
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Speaker 1: us the ability to fly like the birds of the air,
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Speaker 1: free and enjoying the liberty there is. And the Savior
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Speaker 1: direct us. We pray into the truth, relieve us from
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Speaker 1: a knowledge of error, so that we might know personally
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Speaker 1: what it is to walk as Christ walked, to live
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Speaker 1: a life as he lived. Use our gifts, which we
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Speaker 1: give now gratefully and generously for the cause of Christ,
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Speaker 1: in whose name we pray. Everyone said Amen. Guilt and
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Speaker 1: grace have been battling it out forever, just forever, each
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Speaker 1: one demanding obedience, sort of requiring us or, at least
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Speaker 1: on guilt's part, requiring us to fall under the shadow
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Speaker 1: of its control. But there is grace. Unfortunately, with most people,
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Speaker 1: it seems as though guilt wins out for some reason
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Speaker 1: I can never quite figure out. It seems like people
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Speaker 1: prefer to feel guilty rather than to embrace grace. On
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Speaker 1: top of that, they seem to love to make other
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Speaker 1: people feel as guilty as they feel, and they will
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Speaker 1: do everything to bully them or manipulate them so that
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Speaker 1: they fall under that same shadow. And Christians can be
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Speaker 1: the worst at this. Take Mildred, the consummate church gossip,
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Speaker 1: the self appointed monitor of church morals. She kept seeking
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Speaker 1: her nose into other people's business, and most members resented
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Speaker 1: her extracurricular activities, but they were afraid of her enough
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Speaker 1: to maintain their silence until the day. Mildred made a
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Speaker 1: major mistake when she took on George. George was a
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Speaker 1: new member of the church, rather crusty guy from a
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Speaker 1: tough background. She accused him of being an alcoholic after
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Speaker 1: she saw his pickup parked in front of the only
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Speaker 1: bar in the town, and so the next chance she got,
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Speaker 1: she confronted him and several others standing by as she
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Speaker 1: spoke loud enough for them to hear that everybody knows
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Speaker 1: what you're doing there. George, a man of few words,
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Speaker 1: stared at her for a few moments. He didn't bother
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Speaker 1: to explain that his truck had broken down there and
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Speaker 1: he had to fix it. He didn't try to defend
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Speaker 1: himself or deny anything. He simply stared for those few
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Speaker 1: moments and then walked away, saying nothing. But that afternoon,
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Speaker 1: after fixing his truck, he quietly parked his pickup in
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Speaker 1: front of Mildred's house for the rest of the night
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Speaker 1: and left it there. You gotta love George. You know
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Speaker 1: what's amazing, seems like there are always more Mildred's than George's. Surely,
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Speaker 1: by now in your Christian life, you've encountered a few,
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Speaker 1: whatever his name or her name may have been, who
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Speaker 1: seemed to take your life into their affairs and tell
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Speaker 1: you how to live it. And regrettably, they seem to
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Speaker 1: get their way as they push and bully their way
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Speaker 1: through the ranks of most churches. We'll get into all
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Speaker 1: of that stuff later on, but I just want to
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Speaker 1: say that my desire is to dig deeply into Romans
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Speaker 1: chapters six, seven, and eight, so that you come to
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Speaker 1: the place where you no longer hear what the church
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Speaker 1: gossips have to say to you are about you. The
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Speaker 1: wonderful thing about these chapters is that they provide freedom
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Speaker 1: that many of you don't even realize you have, and
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Speaker 1: so you willingly bow to the bondage of those who
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Speaker 1: try to make you as miserable as they are, and
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Speaker 1: as negative and as nosy. But when you really understand
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Speaker 1: the grace as taught in Roman six, and the balance
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Speaker 1: of it as it appears in chapters seven and eight,
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Speaker 1: you will discover a joy and a freedom that you've
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Speaker 1: missed throughout life, and finally have found it. I have
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Speaker 1: questions like, where were so many like that church gossip?
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Speaker 1: Where did all of our guilt originate? What causes it?
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Speaker 1: How did it get such a grip on us? And
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Speaker 1: why don't we surrender to guilt so easily? Why don't
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Speaker 1: we have the temerity to stare a few moments and
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Speaker 1: then just walk away. Romans five twelve through twenty one
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Speaker 1: will answer many of those questions, if not all of them.
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Speaker 1: We have a problem that we're born with. We were
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Speaker 1: ruined from the start. We got a bad beginning in life.
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Speaker 1: If you will, you understand theologically that Adam and Eves
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Speaker 1: sinned in the garden, and when Adam sinned, he sinned,
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Speaker 1: as Theologians referred to it as our federal head, meaning
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Speaker 1: he acted in our behalf. Whereas through one man Adam
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Speaker 1: sin entered into the world and death through sin, so
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Speaker 1: a deathlike existence passed upon all humanity, for all have sinned.
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Speaker 1: We discover soon in life that were centers by nature,
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Speaker 1: by birth, by choice. Deep down inside there is this
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Speaker 1: let me use the word, there is this pollution, this
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Speaker 1: pollution in our system that is fed by the sewage
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Speaker 1: of sin, and the result is the disease of guilt
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Speaker 1: and fear and shame. We lived that out and in
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Speaker 1: our ruined state which Romans twelve, which Romans five twelve
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Speaker 1: through fourteen describes as our ruin it's like we're in
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Speaker 1: an abyss. We're sunk in that condition from our birth
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Speaker 1: until we are rescued. And in Romans five fifteen to nineteen,
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Speaker 1: the rescue was announced. Christ took his place on the
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Speaker 1: cross and died in our behalf, liberating us, freeing us
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Speaker 1: from the control of sin that has plagued us all
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Speaker 1: our lives. Oh, we're still sinful. You don't lose the
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Speaker 1: nature until you are taken to heaven. But you can
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Speaker 1: actually live above the drag of sin. You can live
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Speaker 1: beyond the shackles of guilt and shame because you've been rescued.
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Speaker 1: We have triumph over these things. Through the death of Christ.
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Speaker 1: And because he died for us and we believe in him,
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Speaker 1: he liberates us from that domination of sin. That's the
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Speaker 1: beauty of this life called the Christian life. And then
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Speaker 1: the magnificent reality that there's a new ruler controlling us.
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Speaker 1: It's no longer the devil in his demons, it's no
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Speaker 1: longer Satan his emissaries. It's no longer our old nature
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Speaker 1: dominating the way we think and the way we act,
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Speaker 1: and the way we talk and the way we react.
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Speaker 1: We now have a new ruler. His name is Jesus,
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Speaker 1: and he delivers us from the control of the old
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Speaker 1: nature within us. Now that fight goes on, but if
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Speaker 1: we know how to handle it, we can claim that
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Speaker 1: triumph we have in Christ and get this, we can
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Speaker 1: live at another plane, another level, another realm. Will never
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Speaker 1: be unsinful, will never be sin less as long as
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Speaker 1: we're on the earth. So there'll always be the battle. However,
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Speaker 1: we're not victims any longer Without Christ. No hope, no hope.
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Speaker 1: You're not only lost, you're defeated. You make New Year's
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Speaker 1: resolution and before the fifteenth of January you've already broken them.
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Speaker 1: You meant well, you just don't have any power to
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Speaker 1: pull it off. All you've got is your own nature,
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Speaker 1: and that old nature is rather pathetic. Listen to your situation.
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Speaker 1: I was brought forth in a state of iniquity. My
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Speaker 1: mother was sinful who conceived me? And I too am sinful?
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Speaker 1: Where's that from? Psalm fifty one, verse five. As good
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Speaker 1: a woman as my mother may have been, she was sinful,
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Speaker 1: And because she bore me from her nature, I also
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Speaker 1: was a sinful human being. Like my brother, and like
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Speaker 1: my sister, and like all brothers and all sisters, and
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Speaker 1: all mothers, and all dads, and all grandmothers and all granddads,
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Speaker 1: we all have the same problem. We have this pollution
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Speaker 1: that begins with Adam as the sewage flows through all
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Speaker 1: the bloodstream of humanity called a sinful nature. Humpty Dumpty
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Speaker 1: set on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
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Speaker 1: All the kings horses and all the kingsmen couldn't put
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Speaker 1: Humpty Dumpty together again. Remember learning that little nursery rhyme.
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Speaker 1: You know why they couldn't put him together because they
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Speaker 1: too are chaf They too are broken. Broken people can't
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Speaker 1: put broken people together. It takes someone who isn't broken
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Speaker 1: to give us the ability to live above the shattered
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Speaker 1: condition of our original nature. Did you hear that his
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Speaker 1: name is Jesus. The beauty of Jesus Christ is not
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Speaker 1: only the promise of eternal life living forever in heaven,
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Speaker 1: but eternal kind of life living under the rulership of
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Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus while we're on this earth. The Psalmist
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Speaker 1: also writes, the ungodly are perverse and estranged from the womb.
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Speaker 1: They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking
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Speaker 1: lies some fifty eight verse three. You know that was
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Speaker 1: in the Bible from the very beginning. You and I
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Speaker 1: know how to lie. I never had to teach our
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Speaker 1: children how to lie. I had to teach them how
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Speaker 1: to tell the truth. Because the old nature is the
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Speaker 1: nature of lying and greed and selfishness and rage and lust.
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Speaker 1: That's why there are so many fights in the sandbox,
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Speaker 1: which by the way, goes on in congress as well,
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Speaker 1: like children in a sandbox fighting for their way. Why
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Speaker 1: because that's the only way they know, and the old
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Speaker 1: nature says, fight for it. You get what you fight for.
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Speaker 1: People lived their lives fighting in the flesh to get
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Speaker 1: what they want. And when they get it, they're not
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Speaker 1: satisfied because the old nature will never satisfy. That's Roman seven,
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Speaker 1: but it's preceded by Roman six that says, you don't
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Speaker 1: have to live like that. You don't have to live
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Speaker 1: under the control of that old nature that has dominated
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Speaker 1: you all the way through your pre Christian years. When
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Speaker 1: you came to Christ, he took up Get this, he
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Speaker 1: his spirit took up his residence in your life, and
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Speaker 1: he booted out shame. He took the fangs out of death.
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Speaker 1: He took away all that selfishness and ugliness that always
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Speaker 1: dominated you, and he now lived leaves you with a
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Speaker 1: new nature. You actually have a new nature waiting to
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Speaker 1: take charge so that you don't have to yield to sin.
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Speaker 1: The passage before Us tells it all beginning at verse fifteen.
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Speaker 1: Look at that with me Romans five point fifteen. There
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Speaker 1: is a great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious
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Speaker 1: gift for the sin of this one man. Adam brought
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Speaker 1: death to many, But even greater is God's wonderful grace.
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Speaker 1: Did you see the word greater? Did you hear it?
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Speaker 1: Even greater than the drag of sin and its power
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Speaker 1: over you. Is this wonderful grace and his gift of
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Speaker 1: forgiveness through this other man's Jesus Christ. And the result
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Speaker 1: of God's gracious gift is very different from the one
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Speaker 1: from the result of that one man's sin. For Adam,
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Speaker 1: sin led to condemnation. There's the pollution, there's the sewage.
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Speaker 1: It led to condemnation. But God's free gift leads to
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Speaker 1: our being made right with God. Even though we are
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Speaker 1: guilty of many sins, we still are sinful. We can't
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Speaker 1: come to the place where we are sin free, but
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Speaker 1: we can come to the place where sin no longer dominates.
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Speaker 1: Here's the good news. You don't have to say yes
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Speaker 1: to sin. You say yes because you want to. As
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Speaker 1: one of my friends used to say years ago, we
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Speaker 1: have a deep, settled, abiding love for sin until we
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Speaker 1: realize we don't have to drink that polluted sewage. We
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Speaker 1: don't have to feed on that nature. We can meet
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Speaker 1: the sin and all of its temptation with Lord Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: Your power is at work in me. I can't fight
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Speaker 1: this on my own. You can do this for me,
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Speaker 1: and I turn it over to you. I give you
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Speaker 1: the controls of my mind and my will take over,
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Speaker 1: and because Jesus Christ never once yielded to a sin,
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Speaker 1: when he takes over, there's conquering, there's victory, there's triumph.
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Speaker 1: In fact, it says so right here in verse seventeen.
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Speaker 1: The sin of the one man Adam caused death to
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Speaker 1: rule over many. But even greater, he repeats, is God's
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Speaker 1: wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness for all who
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Speaker 1: receive it. Listen, will live and triumph over sin and
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Speaker 1: death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Don't answer out loud,
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Speaker 1: but this last week, did you live in triumph? I
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Speaker 1: don't mean this to be in any way negative or condemning,
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Speaker 1: but chances are good you didn't. So you know where
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Speaker 1: you spent your time. Where I used to spend my
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Speaker 1: time before I was taught Romans six, seven and eight.
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Speaker 1: You spent your time at first John one nine. It's
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Speaker 1: a wonderful promise, but it's after the fact. What does
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Speaker 1: it say? Most Christians have it memorized because we use
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Speaker 1: it so often. If we confess our sins, there they
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Speaker 1: are again, after the fact. If we confess our sins,
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Speaker 1: he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
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Speaker 1: and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How grateful we are
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Speaker 1: that he will do that, But we don't have to sin.
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Speaker 1: There's a way to live before that that will never
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Speaker 1: even take you to First John one nine? Ever heard
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Speaker 1: of Roman six twelve through fourteen. I doubt that there
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Speaker 1: are twenty believers hearing me right now who can quote
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Speaker 1: from memory Roman six twelve through fourteen versus a victory.
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Speaker 1: We all seem to know First John one nine because
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Speaker 1: we were programmed to sin, and this is the way
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Speaker 1: you get your life cleaned up after sin, and it
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Speaker 1: is a wonderful cleansing. But you don't have to go
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Speaker 1: there if you haven't committed sin. Look at Roman six
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Speaker 1: twelve through fourteen, because I see some of you looking
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Speaker 1: at me like, are you out of your mind? Look
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Speaker 1: at it for yourself. Look at Romans six verse twelve.
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Speaker 1: Do not let sin control the way you live. Now,
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Speaker 1: that's a command. I'm going to break in the command
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Speaker 1: and add this. If that were not possible, that would
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Speaker 1: be a mockery. That would be dangling in front of us,
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Speaker 1: a hope that will never be realized. But God doesn't
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Speaker 1: do that. That's a command that can be obeyed. Look
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Speaker 1: at the do not that you make a decision. I
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Speaker 1: will not let sin dominate me. When it comes knocking
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Speaker 1: at the door, Christ answers the door for me. When
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Speaker 1: it rears its ugly head demanding obedience, Christ puts it down. Or,
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Speaker 1: to use George's style, it blinks and walks away without
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Speaker 1: a word, unfazed by what it's faced with. And read on,
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Speaker 1: do not let sin control the way you live. Do
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Speaker 1: not give in to sinful desires. If that were not
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Speaker 1: a possibility, he wouldn't command it of us. Do you
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Speaker 1: know that you can live facing sin's desires saying no
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Speaker 1: and never once yield at that moment? Read on, do
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Speaker 1: not let any part of your body become an instrument
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Speaker 1: of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God.
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Speaker 1: For we were dead, but now you have new life.
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Speaker 1: You see, when you were lost without Christ, before the Cross,
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Speaker 1: you were sunk. The only thing you could do when
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Speaker 1: you face sin was yield. If not now, soon, if
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Speaker 1: not soon later. There's no such thing as holding back
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Speaker 1: and restraining. In fact, you even convinced yourself after a while,
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Speaker 1: why bother, Because that's the only lifestyle you knew. That's
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Speaker 1: the way life is in the polluted realm. But when
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Speaker 1: Christ comes to take over. Wait, you have a new life,
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Speaker 1: So use your whole body as an instrument to do
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Speaker 1: what is right for the glory of God. Now the
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Speaker 1: next line I've loved for years, Sin is no longer
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Speaker 1: your master. You hear the new ruler. There's a new
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Speaker 1: ruler in town. There's a new authority in your life.
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Speaker 1: Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer
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Speaker 1: live under the requirements of the law. Instead you live
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Speaker 1: under the freedom of God's grace. Really live in the
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Speaker 1: realm of freedom, whether you know it or not. The
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Speaker 1: truth is, even though the slaves were freed, and I'll
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Speaker 1: get into this next my next message, many of them
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Speaker 1: continued on as slaves. In some ways it was too
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Speaker 1: good to be true. In other ways, there was no
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Speaker 1: one around them saying you're really free. You're no longer
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Speaker 1: under the dominant denomination or the domination of a master.
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Speaker 1: The old master has lost his control over you. Walk free.
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Speaker 1: Some did, most didn't, because if you have been enslaved
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Speaker 1: all your life, that's all you know, and habits being
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Speaker 1: what they are, you quickly look for First John one
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Speaker 1: nine to clean up the mess you've made. You don't
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Speaker 1: have to make messes. This is a beautiful, beautiful statement
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Speaker 1: of hope to all of us. We are able to
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Speaker 1: live in triumph over sin and death. Romans five seventeen
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Speaker 1: tells us we're able to live above where we have
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Speaker 1: been born and the nature within us. Now, let me
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Speaker 1: add this. There are always legalists, there are always pharisees.
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Speaker 1: There will always be those who will want you to
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Speaker 1: be as miserable as they are. They've never known victory,
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Speaker 1: they've never known freedom. So what right do you have
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Speaker 1: have to walk as though you're free to park your
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Speaker 1: pick up wherever you wish without explaining it to anybody.
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Speaker 1: Where do you get off doing that? You do that
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Speaker 1: because you are operating under grace. And when you operate
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Speaker 1: like that, you don't do it out of pride, You
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Speaker 1: do it out of great gratitude. I'm just so grateful
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Speaker 1: Christ has set me free, and I'm able to obey
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Speaker 1: him without becoming the doormat of every legalist and pharisee
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Speaker 1: in the church. I don't have to live like that.
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Speaker 1: I like the way ron Holdneber or the theologian once
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Speaker 1: put it. Hear these words, you may be able to
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Speaker 1: compel people to maintain certain minimum standards by stressing duty.
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Speaker 1: But the high moral and spiritual achievements depend not upon
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Speaker 1: a push but a pull. People must be charmed into righteousness.
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Speaker 1: But you love that. I love that last line. When
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Speaker 1: you are a believer living in freedom, you're charming. You
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Speaker 1: charm people into righteousness. You're not frowning. You don't seem
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Speaker 1: them into religion or or looking as though you're holy.
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Speaker 1: In fact, when you walk in the spirit, you really
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Speaker 1: are not a slave to people. You're in slave to
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Speaker 1: your Savior. And rather than slave and slavy you, he's
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Speaker 1: freeing you as you obey him. You walk in the
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Speaker 1: light as he is in the light, and you love
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Speaker 1: one another. There's no push in that. It's all the
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Speaker 1: pull of grace. When we conduct our lives according to guilt,
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Speaker 1: choosing legalism, we will attempt to shame people, and bully
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Speaker 1: people and manipulate people, using fear and guilt and criticism
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Speaker 1: to push them in line. The reason is we see
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Speaker 1: ourselves as victims of sin. And who do you think
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Speaker 1: you are to live above that realm? In this series
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Speaker 1: of messages I'll be bringing I'll have the joy of
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Speaker 1: telling you again and again have to live like a
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Speaker 1: lost sinner. Because you are not a lost sinner. You
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Speaker 1: are a saved saint. You have been set apart for
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Speaker 1: God's purposes in glory, and therefore you don't have to
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Speaker 1: live under the thumb of shame and guilt. I'm going
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Speaker 1: to make a statement that will make some of you squirm.
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Speaker 1: That's okay, I make people squirm sometime. You can actually
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Speaker 1: spend periods of your life without sin. Did I really
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Speaker 1: hear that? Right? Well, I'm going to get emailed this week.
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Speaker 1: Oh please please save your email. Just take it by
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Speaker 1: faith until we get into Romans six, seven and eight.
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Speaker 1: You don't have to sin. You don't have to spend
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Speaker 1: your day every day ending with first John one to nine.
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Speaker 1: You don't have to keep a list of the things
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Speaker 1: you did wrong. You can live a day without doing
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Speaker 1: something wrong. That sounds like a dream you had one time,
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Speaker 1: doesn't it. It's a fact. Neither yield yourselves as members
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Speaker 1: of unrighteousness, unto sin, but yield yourself unto God as
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Speaker 1: those who have been alive made alife to God, and
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Speaker 1: yourself as a free person in Christ. You are free
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Speaker 1: to live in the realm of righteousness, not a I
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Speaker 1: say again, not a proud living, but a humble, grateful living.
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Speaker 1: I'm so thankful I'm able to live like this. Sin
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Speaker 1: no longer can dominate need dominate your life. Now let
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Speaker 1: me add something. It can, and it will if you
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Speaker 1: do not turn it over to Christ. All these years
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Speaker 1: you formed habits of responding to sinful temptations, and if
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Speaker 1: you're not careful, you'll fall right back into those same habits.
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Speaker 1: But when you realize that you don't have to, you'll
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Speaker 1: break that habit. Sin is a terrible master. I have
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Speaker 1: on my he's a copy of printer printer. I have
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Speaker 1: it on my printer at home, next to my computer.
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Speaker 1: This little statement. Sin will take you farther than you
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Speaker 1: want to go. Sin will keep you longer than you
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Speaker 1: want to stay. It'll cost you more than you want
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Speaker 1: to pay. Sin will keep you longer than you want
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Speaker 1: to stay. Does it ever, it'll cost you more than
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Speaker 1: you want to pay. Oh my, I'm just thinking of
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Speaker 1: times when I yielded to it and the horror that
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Speaker 1: followed it. You can go there, but you don't have to.
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Speaker 1: That's the beauty of grace, Lord, because I am now
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Speaker 1: under grace and no longer under the burden of living
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Speaker 1: in this polluted realm of my life. I ask you
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Speaker 1: to dominate me at this moment. Take charge, turn my
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Speaker 1: mind away, yield from this temptation, no matter how attractive
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Speaker 1: it is, no matter how appealing it may be. Give
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Speaker 1: me the strength to say no. Say it through me, Lord,
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Speaker 1: and he will. And when he does, it is the
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Speaker 1: most magnificent moment when you can turn and walk away,
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Speaker 1: just like George walked away from Mildred, just like that.
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Speaker 1: I need to close this. My time is up, but
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Speaker 1: I want to do it with a true story. It's
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Speaker 1: about grace. When I went to Dallas Seminary, I began
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Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty nine. The founder died in nineteen fifty two,
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Speaker 1: so I never knew him. His name was Lewis Sperry
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Speaker 1: Chaffer Chafer. Doctor Chafer founded the school in nineteen twenty four.
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Speaker 1: He was the president until he died in fifty two.
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Speaker 1: They named the chapel after him, but he never worshiped
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Speaker 1: in the chapel. It was finished the year he died,
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Speaker 1: so I never studied under him. However, the men I
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Speaker 1: studied in those days. It was an all men's school,
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Speaker 1: so I'll refer to men only here though thankfully it
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Speaker 1: is now a co ed school. But in those days
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Speaker 1: all men and the men I studied under all studied
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Speaker 1: under him. So I heard stories about Chaffer. Often they
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Speaker 1: were wonderful stories, often about grace. His favorite subject to
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Speaker 1: teach was grace. This story comes from a man who
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Speaker 1: was a student later became a professor. He taught me
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Speaker 1: and told his story of his experience. He said, we
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Speaker 1: were in the classroom Doctor Chaeffer was teaching by now
41:19
Speaker 1: at age eighty two from a wheelchair. He had finished
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Speaker 1: his last lecture on grace, favorite subject. And when he finished,
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Speaker 1: everybody in the classroom realized. As we sat in that hot,
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Speaker 1: humid room without air conditioning in Davidson Hall, we sat
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Speaker 1: there realizing this may be the last time we'll ever
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Speaker 1: hear doctor Chaeffer in class. And when he reached over
41:52
Speaker 1: to turn off the overhead projector remember those, the class
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Speaker 1: burst into an applause that that that was resounding. Schaefer
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Speaker 1: stopped in his right there, held his hand up and
42:10
Speaker 1: about his.
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Speaker 2: About his head to silence, and then uh this the
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Speaker 2: silence was deafening, and he said, with a gentle smile.
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Speaker 1: And soft words, I quote gentlemen for over half my life,
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Speaker 1: I've been studying this truth. I'm just beginning to discover
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Speaker 1: the depth of the grace of God. Then he added,
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Speaker 1: and gentlemen, it is magnificent his last words. He rolled
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Speaker 1: toward the door. Someone over from the door for him,
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Speaker 1: and he rolled out of the classroom. As they sat
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Speaker 1: pondering the magnificence of the grace of God, I will
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Speaker 1: tell you I didn't have the mind of a chafer.
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Speaker 1: I didn't have the privilege of knowing him. But I
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Speaker 1: have gotten into the depths of grace, and I agree,
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Speaker 1: and I live for the day you will see it
43:33
Speaker 1: fully and live in the light of it. That grace
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Speaker 1: will be your guideline for life. That grace will will
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Speaker 1: be your marching orders, your way of life, your way
43:49
Speaker 1: of thinking. That when someone asks you what you really
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Speaker 1: believe about Christ, you can't explain it without inserting frequently
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Speaker 1: the word grace, the grace of God that delivered you
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Speaker 1: from your pollution and lost condition and brought you before God,
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Speaker 1: declaring you righteous. And now that you are, in God's
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Speaker 1: eyes declared righteous, you're able to live in a realm
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Speaker 1: you never could have known without Christ enthroned in your life.
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Speaker 1: You no longer fear the devil, You no longer fear death.
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Speaker 1: You no longer are bullied by those who walk in
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Speaker 1: step with that way of thinking. You now live in
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Speaker 1: a plane of freedom. That is Chafer's magnificent. I want
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Speaker 1: that for you as much as anything for this new year.
44:55
Speaker 1: May it become a reality in all of our lives.
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Speaker 1: We've come acquainted with Roman six, seven and eight. Please
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Speaker 1: bow your heads with me, sit quietly before the Lord.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps you're still enslaved. No one can tell by looking.
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Speaker 1: We all look the same externally, But down inside you
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Speaker 1: know if your life is marked by constant defeat, you
45:30
Speaker 1: can't seem to live above the drag of your old nature.
45:35
Speaker 1: It may very well be you've never come to Christ.
45:39
Speaker 1: You know of him, you may even sing some of
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Speaker 1: the songs about him, but you've never given Christ control
45:49
Speaker 1: of your life. You've never trusted in the Savior. Do
45:54
Speaker 1: that now, don't wait any longer. When you do, one
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Speaker 1: of those many benefits that will come your way will
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Speaker 1: be the joy of taking the elements that remind us
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Speaker 1: of our Savior's death, the bread representing his body, and
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Speaker 1: that little bit of juice in the cup representing his blood.
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Speaker 1: Given for us, and because of his magnificent grace, he's
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Speaker 1: made it possible for us to remember his death in
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Speaker 1: this way time and again. We've been doing this in
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Speaker 1: the church for centuries. Thank you, dear Father, for the
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Speaker 1: privilege of this amazing grace. How sweet the sound that
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Speaker 1: saved your wretch. Like me, I once was lost, but
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Speaker 1: now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see.
47:00
Speaker 1: And because I see and we see, we come to
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Speaker 1: your table full of gratitude. Thank you for your grace,
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Speaker 1: your forgiveness, the hope we have in time and throughout
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Speaker 1: eternity of knowing you personally. We worship you now in
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Speaker 1: the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen. The preceding message,
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Speaker 1: A Flyover Glance at Guilt and Grace, was copyrighted in
47:36
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and twenty twenty three, and the sound recording
47:40
Speaker 1: was copyrighted in twenty twenty three by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
47:44
Speaker 1: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
47:49
Speaker 1: commercial use is strictly prohibited.