Latest / Scripture Central / Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Aug 14 - Aug 20) Romans 7–16

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Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Aug 14 - Aug 20) Romans 7–16 · Scripture Central

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  Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to Come
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  Follow Me Insights with Taylor and Tyler presented by Scripture
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  Central. We use a lot of visuals in our
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  videos, so if you want to see the visuals, we invite you to
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  find us on YouTube. Thanks for listening and enjoy.
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  I'm Taylor and I'm Tyler. This is Scripture Central's
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  Come, Follow Me Insights Today Romans Chapter 7 through 16.
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  Now before we start, till you mentioned something a few
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  minutes ago to me that I hadn't realized.
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  This is, this is the come follow me lesson with the most chapters
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  this year with what you mentioned.
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  No, I think that's true. I actually looked at Revelation.
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  There might be even more there, but we got 10 chapters that
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  we're going to be dealing with. Before we dive into Chapter 7,
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  I'm just ask a simple question. Have you ever woken up in the
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  morning and thought to yourselves?
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  I have. I have too much to do.
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  I have too much. That's being expected of me.
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  I I I'm involved in too many things, and none of them is
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  getting my my full treatment. I I'm doing a million things
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  poorly, or feeling a little disjointed in your relationships
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  with loved ones or with heaven, feeling like you're starting to
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  lose grip on hope and feeling anxious or anxiety increasing.
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  This section of of chapters from Paul's Epistle to the Romans is
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  going to help people who struggle with these kinds of
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  things to let go of some of the the tension and some of the
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  anxiety and some of the feelings of scrupulosity or or spiritual
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  perfectionism. I'm not good enough for all.
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  Never be good enough. That that's actually more
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  important. Like, I have so much to do and I
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  just never be able to get it done.
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  And Paul deals with this because he had people in his time who
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  felt overwhelmed with feeling like they had to do everything
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  for God, and they often forgot that God already done everything
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  for them. Yeah, so, so today's lesson.
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  As we go through these scriptures, we would hope that
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  you keep a prayer. That we all keep a prayer in our
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  heart. That we can find ways to not
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  just talk about having more faith in the Savior and more
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  hope in His power and in His mercy and in His grace, but
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  ideas, specific inspiration for how to actually embrace more of
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  that faith in the Savior and and feel of His loving arms around
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  us as we move forward on the coming path.
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  So we begin in Chapter 7 with Paul using one of these these
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  literary techniques that he is very famous for, which is asking
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  this rhetorical questions or using some object lessons,
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  usually based in an understanding of the Old
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  Testament, the Law of Moses, or Old Testament characters and
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  stories to then repurpose them, repackage them in a New
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  Testament setting with Christ being at the center.
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  To say, see, the Savior fulfills all of those those stories and
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  those prophecies and those revelations that you've you've
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  known and loved for generations as faithful Jews.
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  And this is one of the reasons why Paul is so crucial.
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  If you consider this without Paul, we might wonder how well
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  Christianity may have spread early in the Roman Empire.
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  And one of the great things that we get from Paul is this
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  inspiration of helping us. To see Jesus in the Old
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  Testament. Because the Old Testament does
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  not always just forefront and say, hey, we're talking about
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  Jesus here. And Paul helps remind us all we
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  should be reading these stories. So we started verse one.
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  Know ye not, brethren, For I speak to them that know the law.
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  There's the the parenthetical statement to say I'm looking at
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  you good practicing Jews who have been born and raised on the
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  Law of Moses, the Torah. How that the law has dominion
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  over a man as long as he lives. For the woman which has an
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  husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he lives.
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  But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her
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  husband. So he's using this Old Testament
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  law of marriage that as long as he's alive, she is bound to him
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  in marriage. But the moment he dies, there is
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  no more marriage for her. She is now free to go and be
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  married again. And he's using this beautiful
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  analogy to say the law of Moses used to be your spouse.
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  You were you were covenantally bound to it.
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  But guess what? That law is now fulfilled or put
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  his way, now dead in Christ so that you can live in Christ.
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  Don't live your life bound down by these long lists of
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  expectations that others from the past have put upon you.
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  Find freedom in this new covenantal connection, and this
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  new relationship with Jesus Christ.
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  Is is his opening invitation here in Chapter 7.
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  And remember, we have to read these in context.
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  So if you look at verse four, we'll talk about how it could be
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  potentially misread and likely what Paul is trying to convey
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  here. He says, Wherefore concluding
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  this metaphor of the marriage, my brother and he also become
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  dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be
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  married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
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  that you should bring forth fruit unto God.
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  Now Paul is not saying you need to be physically dead right now,
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  but he is seeing these laws that were these guideposts for you.
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  These were the schoolmaster to Christ.
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  Christ is now here. You can now go directly.
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  To him, let's use another metaphor.
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  You're familiar with the Book of Mormon, and we have the story of
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  the tree of life with the rod of ardor and the iron rod.
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  So imagine the iron rod being the word of God, all these laws
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  that take you to the tree where the fruit of the Talmud is
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  available. But once you hear the tree,
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  there's nowhere in that story. It tells you drop the fruit of
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  the tree of the end of the tree and go back and just hang out at
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  the iron rod. And I see this is what?
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  Paul is trying to say the Iron Law was super helpful.
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  Now you're at the tree. Stay there.
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  Stay committed to Jesus. Don't get lost in all these past
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  words. So beginning in verse 5, this is
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  one of those footnotes that ought to be marked for clarity.
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  Chapter 7, verse 5, footnote. A.
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  If you go down to the bottom of your scripture page, it says
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  Joseph the translation Romans 7, five through 27, clear the back
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  here in the appendix. It's one of the longest of the
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  Joe Smith translation editions in the Bible.
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  And it's because there are so many things in this little set
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  of verses coming up that are easy to to read in a very
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  negative context or connotation. It it makes Paul, quite frankly,
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  sounds sound terrible, sound very wicked, almost the way it's
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  worded in the King James Version.
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  And so it's it's beautiful to read this whole section in the
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  Joe Smith translation to see how he compares Paul's life
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  previously under the Law of Moses compared to his life now
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  under the Savior Jesus Christ and under the law of the gospel.
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  Or the the higher law that the Savior has fulfilled from that
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  Old Testament and all of the upgrades that He gave to His.
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  Law and the basic overview So we don't get totally lost in Paul's
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  words, which anciently would have been really meaningful to
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  his audience. We sometimes at times can get a
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  little lost. It's just that Christ liberates
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  us, that our past lives are refreshed through him.
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  So as you're reading Paul, just listen for that.
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  Where is he talking about what his past life was like before he
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  encountered Jesus? And what is his life now, now
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  that he has Jesus? And back to what, Tyler?
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  Mentioned earlier, every day we wake up and there's challenges
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  of things that we have to deal with and we have to ask
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  ourselves, can I remember song of Redeeming Love?
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  There have been moments our lives we have fully encountered.
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  Jesus, how can we experience that again?
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  What can we do today to feel that hope and joy so we can
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  endure to the end? Even though life is difficult on
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  a daily or weekly basis, another thing that Paul does here is he
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  he'll often teach a principal, or he'll try to give notice.
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  His intent with writing these letters isn't to say, okay, I'm
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  going to teach you the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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  That's not what he's doing with these letters.
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  He's giving corrective feedback as needed.
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  He's giving encouragement. He's teaching little vignettes
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  about the gospel, but he's not trying to give them the fullness
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  of the gospel in one letter to one location, in this case to
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  Rome. So he's he's giving them this
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  this insight about the law. But then he'll often make sure
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  that they don't swing the pendulum too far to the other
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  opposite extreme. So he'll do that using different
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  techniques. The one he prefers most often,
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  it seems, is by asking again these rhetorical questions.
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  So after having given this corrective, listen to his crash
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  question to make sure they don't swing the pendulum too far.
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  Verse 7 What shall we see then? Is the law sin?
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  Is the law bad? Should I?
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  Should I now be denigrating the law and speaking really evil of
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  the law? Is answer God forbid may I had
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  not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust except
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  the law had said, Thou shalt not covet, he's saying, look the the
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  law makes me aware of all of the things I can do wrong.
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  But the law itself isn't sin. It's just making me aware of all
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  the sin. So stop looking to the law to
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  save you, because quite frankly, the law only makes you guilty
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  when you break it. Look heavenward.
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  Look unto Christ. Look to God for your salvation.
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  Look heavenward for the mercy and the grace.
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  You don't look to the law for the mercy.
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  The law delivers justice and judgment.
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  They remember the word law in the Old Testament means
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  instruction. So again, think about.
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  Instructions can lead us to Jesus Christ, but the
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  instructions themselves don't save us.
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  Once you've arrived at the tree, once you arrived at Jesus, you
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  stay there. The instructions had played
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  their important role. You don't look back on them
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  negatively. You see them as this school help
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  that have led you along. Just like the rod of iron or the
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  iron rod. And this is what Paul is trying
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  to deal with, is how do I teach people the value that
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  experience? But once you now reached Jesus
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  or reached the tree, it's OK to no longer be bound by those
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  things that you had in the past. So now notice we taught the
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  doctrine. We tried to make sure that we
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  didn't over swing that pendulum to the other extreme, and then
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  he comes back to this middle ground and let's make sure we
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  don't swing it back too far this other way.
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  He's he's zeroing in on this sweet spot here in the middle.
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  Look over 12 Wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy
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  and just and good. So don't don't badmouth them was
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  then that which is good made death unto me.
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  God forbid that sin that it might appear sin working death
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  in me by that which is good. And now it starts to get really
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  difficult, really complex. So if you look in the Joseph
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  translation for this next section, instead of reading
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  things like in verse 15, it says for that which I do, I allow not
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  for what I would that do, I not, but what I hate that do I.
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  It makes the whole sound like I know exactly what I'm supposed
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  to do, and I don't do it, and I know what I'm not supposed to
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  do, and that's what I do all the time.
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  It's a little more nuanced than that.
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  It's a little more complex than that.
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  And as a good teacher, he's making.
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  Very clear instruction. He's using good, clear
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  metaphors. When I was reading this again
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  recently, I thought about this phrase many of us are familiar
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  with. The spirit is willing, the flesh
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  is weak. And if we hit Paula here today,
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  we might, he might say, yeah, that's what I was trying to get
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  across, that I have my spirit desires to what's right.
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  But sometimes in my fallen nature, I struggle and I don't
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  do what I should. So it's one way of looking at
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  this. And that comes out in the Joseph
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  translation, this idea that when I was under the law, that's how
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  I felt. I I never felt good enough.
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  I never arrived. There was always more I could
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  have and should have done. And the expectation list was
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  always bigger than my energy source and my capacity and so I
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  was always falling behind. But in Christ, we can let go of
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  that, that impossible expectation list, and we can
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  move forward. I love how he says in verse 23,
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  but I see another law in my members warring against the law
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  of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin,
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  which is in my numbers. So he creates this, this
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  metaphor for us of it's this battle, this internal war that
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  is being waged to try to get this, this soul of ours to do
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  and to think and to feel and to desire the things that God wants
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  us to, to think and feel and desire and do.
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  And yet it's the reality. I can't do it.
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  I am not good enough. I can't do this.
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  That's why I need a savior. That's where Jesus Christ comes
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  in. Because he can do it.
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  He did it with himself, and he has an infinite abundance of
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  that goodness to help me with my battle, with my list of
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  expectations, with my To Do List, with my emotional, mental,
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  physical, spiritual struggles. He's got enough, and to spare,
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  if I'll stop focusing outward on my problems and downward on my
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  opposition, and instead turn my gaze heavenward and look unto
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  him in every thought. It sounds like what we're
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  talking about Tyler here is that it's we have to get to the point
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  of abandoning our personal quest to save ourselves.
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  In this next phrase we see in verse 24, we also see Nephi
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  using very similar phraseology. Let's read it and then talk to
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  us a bit about how we too to let go of having to try to feel like
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  we need. To do everything and save
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  ourselves. And instead when we finally get
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  to that deep moment of humility where we realize we cannot save
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  ourselves, we realize there is salvation.
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  And all I need to do is reach out except Jesus.
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  And by the way, this is the Ena story as well, who prays all
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  night and then realizes I have Jesus and he can do all things.
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  And what do we hear from Paul and from Nephi when they
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  recognize their own fall of nature?
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  Verse 24. Oh wretched man.
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  That I am, and I've had moments of my life where I have seen the
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  reality of my own incapacity. And yet the honesty of that
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  moment allows me to honestly accept Jesus, who that empowers
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  me to live in Him, to accomplish the things that he can empower
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  me to do, instead of me doing it all my own.
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  Which now brings us to the unfolding of how Paul overcomes
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  this, this wretched man feeling, this depths of despair.
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  This I'm I don't feel very good. I don't feel worthy.
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  I I don't know if I'm ever going to be good enough.
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  Kind of a feeling. It is followed up by Romans
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  chapter 8, Romans chapter 8. Ironically, in the front of my
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  scriptures I have a little label that says on a bad day read and
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  I've got 5 chapters. I'm not going to tell you what
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  they all are because it's better if you come up with your own.
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  But I will tell you what two of those five chapters are, one of
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  them a second E5 four, and one of them is Romans chapter 8.
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  They are exactly the same kind of an idea of how to shore up my
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  faith, how to reassure me in my hope in Christ.
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  I'm just going to say it. My opinion Romans chapter eight
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  was Paul's finest moments. In all of his pistols, in all of
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  his machinery journeys. Romans 8 is my favorite.
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  And it's back to we went to this before the two sides of the
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  coin. One side of the coin is we all
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  have fallen nature. We've talked about Paul
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  addressing it head on. The wretchedness that we live in
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  a fallen world. It is wretched at times mean by
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  experiences it. But what's the opposite of that?
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  What's on the backside of that coin?
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  The hope? That we are children of God.
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  We have His spirit to be with us, and therefore we are not
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  left permanently alone in the wretched state if we choose the
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  free gift that he has offered of his son.
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  And we are then enveloped in that covenantal, nurturing
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  relationship. Which is why, if you're having a
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  tough day, perhaps we stop focusing on the wretchedness of
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  life and we turn the coin over and say.
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  There is hope. There is goodness.
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  There is a larger reality that God is in charge of that I can
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  participate in right now. And one of the things that helps
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  to turn that coin over as you're talking through this Taylor, is
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  to count your blessings. That's what B5 does.
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  The second I four, that's what's going to happen.
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  Here is this acknowledgement of wait a minute, wait a minute,
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  I'm looking at the wrong thing. I'm putting my focus on the
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  wrong thing. I need to keep my focus fixed on
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  the Lord Jesus Christ, on the solution, not the problems.
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  And all of a sudden the problems don't go away, but they become a
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  lot more bearable. They become a lot more
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  manageable as we move forward. So notice how he opens chapter
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  8. And remember these chapter
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  breaks, they're artificial. They're added later on.
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  So he's just gotten through talking about his struggles with
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  his, with his mortality and with his imperfection, and he follows
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  it up with. There is therefore now no
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  condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
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  after the flesh but after the Spirit.
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  Did you see that? There's no condemnation.
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  Yes, you're imperfect. Yes, you have weakness, you're
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  filled with flaws. So are we.
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  Everybody is. But there's no condemnation if
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  you are in Christ Jesus. That word in signifies
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  something. That that's code.
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  For something, it's not just this fancy imagery of being in
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  Christ, it's covenantal. It's a connecting, a connecting
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  point with the Lord so that you can tap into His power, His
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  mercy, His grace, His knowledge, his truth, everything that He
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  has to offer. It is so powerful if we only pay
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  attention to use a metaphor again to one side of the coin,
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  and we only. Participate or pay attention to
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  the wretched state of our lives we are not acknowledging.
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  We are refusing the other side of the coin, that fuller truth
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  of reality and that that phrase of being in Christ, his infinite
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  atonement. When you're in there, there is
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  nothing that can then hurt you permanently.
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  It's interesting that we all get pains and wounded.
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  But when you're with. Christ.
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  And in that relationship, there is not anything in this life
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  that will do any permanent damage to you.
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  What wasn't that President Howard W Hunter used to say?
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  When you when you have the singer at the center of your
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  life, nothing will permanently go wrong.
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  That's a powerful concept that there will be things going wrong
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  like you said. But nothing will permanently go
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  wrong. Look at look at verse 2.
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  For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me
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  free from the law of sin and death.
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  And in our world today we could probably add a whole bunch of
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  additional things to that list of what we're free from.
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  We can literally become freed war every day from the anxieties
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  and the ills of our world and the anxieties that that come
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  from from self loathing or too much pressure for me to perform
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  to everybody else's expectations.
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  But rather stop focusing there and figure out what the
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  expectations the law from God is for me now.
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  Verse four says that the righteousness of the law might
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  be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the.
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  Spirit, right? So it's a conscious choice.
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  I'm no longer allowing my life to be dictated by the fallen
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  nature, but instead I am being guided by the example of Jesus
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  Christ. And notice the agency here.
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  It is a choice. Is it easy to fall into the
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  patterns of fallen nature? Yes.
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  But ultimately we have a choice to choose.
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  Will we choose to practice following the footsteps of Jesus
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  or the footsteps of fallen nature?
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  And with practice, we get better and better.
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  That steam aligned with Jesus. So some of you probably think to
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  yourself at this point. All right, I'm, I'm in.
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  I I agree. But how do I do this?
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  The the practical aspects of discipleship are often
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  overlooked, and it leaves us even more frustrated, because
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  now we see more clearly what we're trying to get to and we
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  can't see the path of how to do it.
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  So look at what he does here, verse 5.
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  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the
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  flesh, but they that are after the spirit, the things of the
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  spirit. So one of the how techniques
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  here would be pause. When you feel that anxiety, when
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  you feel that pressure, that stress building, that, that
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  mounting perfectionism coming into your heart, increasing your
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  blood pressure, pause for a moment, tap the brakes and say
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  wait a minute. What is it that I'm really
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  getting nervous about here? Are they physical things or they
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  things of the spirit, things of eternity?
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  And even just to to pause and say a prayer.
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  Heavenly Father, help me make sense of these things that are
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  bothering me and help me know how to order them.
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  Because the fact is, you will probably, if you wrote out all
• 24:31
  the things that are bothering you and all the things you're
• 24:33
  trying to work on and accomplish that day, chances are you don't
• 24:37
  have enough time and energy and money and resources to do all of
• 24:40
  that. So then you take that list to
• 24:42
  the Lord and you mind the things of the Spirit and say, Heavenly
• 24:45
  Father, help me know what do I keep and what do I cut today.
• 24:50
  I can't do it all and I don't want to live my life filled with
• 24:54
  anxiety about what I'm not doing.
• 24:57
  I want to feel the freedom that comes in Christ in relationship
• 25:01
  with the Savior, in coming into a relationship with Him.
• 25:04
  To say I want to be on thy errands today.
• 25:08
  I don't want to just do the things I wanted.
• 25:10
  What of all of these or others that I don't even have on my
• 25:12
  list yet would thou have me do? Let him Shape your day to the
• 25:17
  help of the Spirit and see if that helps overcome some of
• 25:22
  these these stresses and anxieties that we normally face.
• 25:27
  This idea of pausing again, that's using your agency instead
• 25:31
  of you being acted upon by life circumstances, you choosing to
• 25:34
  act. And somebody once taught me this
• 25:37
  interesting principle that aligns with this.
• 25:39
  It's called the 10/10/10 rule. I guess I could write it up, but
• 25:44
  you pause, right? Use your agency and stop and say
• 25:48
  you count the 10, you give yourself 10 seconds just to kind
• 25:50
  of slow down. And then you say in 10 minutes,
• 25:55
  is this still going to be a problem in 10 weeks?
• 25:59
  Is this still going to be a problem?
• 26:03
  How about in 10 years? And sometimes we just have to
• 26:09
  give ourselves perspective that there are things we're done with
• 26:12
  in our lives. We just pause and say, is this
• 26:15
  an issue that really is going to be a problem in 10 minutes or 10
• 26:19
  weeks or even 10 years? And if it is, you might say
• 26:21
  okay, that is probably a higher priority thing.
• 26:24
  If this is if this is going to be a problem I might have to
• 26:27
  deal with for a while, that's going to be a high priority
• 26:29
  thing and I need to spend some more time with Jesus.
• 26:32
  Getting strengthened to endure to the end on this one, but
• 26:35
  there's some issue that's not going to last for 10 minutes.
• 26:37
  I think most of us can handle that.
• 26:39
  And so the invitation here is to not let our agency be
• 26:44
  compromised because of the realities of life, but to use
• 26:47
  the agency, this job given gift, to act for ourselves and in that
• 26:52
  process find ourselves more aligned with Jesus and hence
• 26:55
  finding the joy that has been designed for this life.
• 26:59
  I love that now if it were 6/4, to be carnally minded is death,
• 27:05
  but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
• 27:10
  Such a powerful little verse here in chapter 8.
• 27:14
  This idea don't focus on the things of the flesh because it
• 27:19
  just leads to death. Focus on those those things of
• 27:24
  the Spirit. And now let me just point out
• 27:26
  here this like I've said before, this is my favorite chapter.
• 27:29
  Paul I I love Romans 8 because it is just dripping with
• 27:34
  doctrine surrounding hope and faith in Christ and liberating
• 27:41
  and peace giving kinds of doctrines.
• 27:43
  So we could take hours just going verse by verse through
• 27:48
  chapter 8. Didn't we have a friend we were
• 27:50
  talking to recently? He went to a conference with a
• 27:53
  Really. Phenomenal New Testament
• 27:55
  scholars or faithful Christian. It was a four day conference all
• 27:59
  on Romans chapter 8. Now, I don't think anyone of us
• 28:03
  need to go give four days away to Romans 8, although that'd be
• 28:07
  kind of interesting. What we're trying to convey here
• 28:10
  is that what we do in these lessons is trying to give you a
• 28:13
  taste of what God's trying to invite us to experience and
• 28:16
  invite you to go spend the time to dig more deeply.
• 28:21
  Exactly. So you're going to see this
• 28:22
  repeat pattern through this first column, verse 7 through
• 28:27
  13. He's going to repeat this idea
• 28:30
  of don't focus on the flesh, don't focus on the things of
• 28:33
  this earth, focus on heaven and the things of the spirit.
• 28:37
  And then you get over to verse 16.
• 28:40
  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we
• 28:46
  are the children of God. Now we need to pause there.
• 28:50
  This is that there's so much theological significance in that
• 28:54
  one verse that the spirit is going to come and bear witness
• 28:59
  to our spirit directly. And the spirit doesn't usually
• 29:02
  appear to people in a in a spirit form that you can see
• 29:05
  with with your eyes. We're here with your eardrops.
• 29:10
  But when the Spirit comes, pure intelligence, Pure truth is
• 29:15
  transmitted spirit to spirit. And what is the most important
• 29:19
  truth that the Holy Spirit is going to teach you?
• 29:23
  It's your identity. If you know who you really are,
• 29:28
  then all the rest is going to be details.
• 29:30
  You you're going to figure out everything else.
• 29:32
  If you truly understand your identity and what is it?
• 29:36
  You are a child of God. It's it's the most profound
• 29:43
  identity possible that the the ruler of the universe, creator
• 29:48
  of worlds without number, the heavens and the earth and all
• 29:51
  things that in them are He's not just your creator.
• 29:56
  Because we can create things, we can fashion, we can build things
• 29:59
  with our hands. But there's a big difference
• 30:02
  between something I've created and something that I've helped
• 30:07
  to procreate. Something that is a child of
• 30:13
  mine, that individual has life. It has part of my being inside
• 30:21
  of that child. It has the capacity to grow up
• 30:25
  and to become more likely. Now you take that in this
• 30:29
  context of verse 16 and Paul's teaching, these Roman Saints,
• 30:32
  who, by the way, happen to be living in a very decadent
• 30:37
  society there in Rome in the 1st century, filled with idolatry
• 30:41
  and adultery and all kinds of sins.
• 30:44
  They're being thrust upon them and he's reminding them you're a
• 30:50
  child of God. And this is really stunning
• 30:54
  doctrine. Now, you may be very familiar
• 30:57
  with this idea, but in the ancient Roman world, most Romans
• 31:01
  not right around saying I'm a child of Zeus or Farah or
• 31:05
  somebody else. If that was not very common.
• 31:07
  Some people did, and usually people were trying to get
• 31:09
  political authority to try to claim like Alexander the Great
• 31:12
  in the Greeks. He believed that he was a a
• 31:15
  child of one of the gods, so it was not a very common belief.
• 31:19
  So imagine how thrilling it was for these early Christians to
• 31:21
  realize that we know something that all these other people are
• 31:26
  missing, and it's about our identity.
• 31:30
  Now, it doesn't make anybody who happens to recognize that
• 31:32
  identity better, but that recognition of identity should
• 31:36
  be liberating and help put things in perspective that we're
• 31:40
  not simply here to suffer and die.
• 31:44
  Which ties in perfectly with President Nelson's 3 primary
• 31:48
  identities that he gave to all of us.
• 31:49
  You are a child of God, a child of the covenant, and disciple of
• 31:53
  Christ. Outside of that, all the rest is
• 31:58
  just details. Look over 17 and if you're
• 32:01
  children of God, then you're also heirs.
• 32:05
  Heirs of God and joint errors with Christ.
• 32:10
  Are you sensing some of the theological underpinnings of
• 32:14
  Paul's doctrine here of God the Father, his Son, Jesus Christ
• 32:20
  and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit in verse 16 and 17, and
• 32:24
  how they're all working together?
• 32:26
  God the Father willing to make you an heir of all that he has.
• 32:32
  Even a joint error with Christ, his only perfect son.
• 32:37
  I don't know about you, but I stand all amazed at the love
• 32:43
  Jesus offers me and and I'm confused at the graces so fully
• 32:46
  He proffers me because why would an infinite being who has so
• 32:50
  much power and so much perfection and so much capacity,
• 32:55
  be so infinitely interested in one so insignificant?
• 33:00
  Small as I, I can never repaint. I'm an unprofitable servant.
• 33:06
  I'll never catch up, have nothing really to offer him, And
• 33:10
  yet he still continually comes to try to work with me in my
• 33:16
  imperfection, in my sin, in my weakness.
• 33:19
  He keeps reaching out. He wants to share what he has,
• 33:23
  which is so counter to everything you see in the rest
• 33:26
  of the world's history of a king and a Prince, and that Prince
• 33:32
  wanting to get rid of all competition so that the Kingdom
• 33:34
  would fall only to him. And the fewer people to share
• 33:38
  with, the better. It's the total opposite with
• 33:41
  Jesus Christ and with Heavenly Father.
• 33:44
  They want to give away their abundance.
• 33:47
  It doesn't make them poorer. It actually makes them joyful
• 33:53
  and happy. It is their work and their
• 33:56
  glory. It's interesting to use that
• 33:57
  word joy. It's the word I've been thinking
• 33:59
  about as we're reading through these verses that God is a being
• 34:02
  of joy and it expands his joy. To help other people have that
• 34:08
  joy. So I grew up as a member of the
• 34:10
  church, and I'd heard all this stuff growing up.
• 34:13
  I had very good teachers. I think I wasn't always paying
• 34:16
  attention, but I had a good teacher, so it's not the
• 34:18
  teacher's fault. I remember being in the
• 34:21
  Missionary Training Center in Provo, about to head out of my
• 34:23
  mission and got talking with one of the teachers there.
• 34:28
  And it was this message finally sunk in.
• 34:31
  I had never paid attention to the fact that what God is trying
• 34:34
  to do. Is to help all of us become just
• 34:36
  like him and fully inherit everything he has.
• 34:39
  Somehow I'd missed that I was 919 years old and like, wait,
• 34:43
  what? Wait, what is the promise?
• 34:45
  It's not just like eternal light, but like we are going to
• 34:47
  become like God and then share in everything.
• 34:51
  I just remember like floating through the hallways of the
• 34:54
  Missionary Training Center for days after that, with finally
• 34:57
  realizing these very powerful, simple truths that are, I think,
• 35:02
  pretty plainly top. But we just want to reiterate
• 35:04
  that. Whoever you are, wherever you
• 35:06
  are, you are a child of God and you have full capacity to become
• 35:12
  like Him. It doesn't matter what the world
• 35:15
  or anybody thinks of you right now, in your current state, you
• 35:19
  will become like him if you continue to choose him.
• 35:24
  Now hold that thought, because there's a caveat here.
• 35:27
  We only read the first half of verse 17.
• 35:29
  That's right, there's a second-half.
• 35:32
  So after talking about being an heir of God and a joint heir
• 35:35
  with Christ, it says if so be if you circle that word, if it
• 35:42
  means that there's a condition attached to being a joint heir
• 35:47
  with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him that we may also
• 35:54
  be glorified together if you're experiencing suffering.
• 36:01
  Instead of shaking your fist at heaven saying why are you doing
• 36:05
  this to me? I don't deserve this.
• 36:07
  I deserve better. Look at all the things I've
• 36:10
  tried to do right. And look at the callings I've
• 36:12
  had and look at the service projects I participated in.
• 36:15
  Look at my tithing slips. Instead of taking that route,
• 36:19
  what if we gloried in the fact that we are experiencing some
• 36:25
  tribulation and instead of turning heavenward with a scowl?
• 36:30
  Bow our head in gratitude and meekness and humility and say,
• 36:36
  Heavenly Father, help me learn what I need to learn from this
• 36:40
  tribulation, from this suffering.
• 36:42
  Help me to become more like the Savior Jesus Christ through this
• 36:46
  shaping experience that I'm wrestling with right now.
• 36:50
  So in English, there's these two different prepositions, and I
• 36:53
  think this is what you're getting at Tyler.
• 36:55
  You can narrate your suffering as this is happening to me.
• 37:00
  And that is very non agency. Like something's happening to me
• 37:04
  and I have no agency or this is happening for me now your agency
• 37:09
  is alive. And what I hear being taught by
• 37:13
  Paul is this one. There are things that are
• 37:16
  happening for us where our agency is invited to be
• 37:20
  magnified. Sure it hurts, life is hard.
• 37:24
  But in that process of growth. We become more like God.
• 37:29
  We cannot become like God without suffering.
• 37:35
  And I gotta tell you, Tyler, I've known from my personal
• 37:38
  experience. I learned this very painfully
• 37:42
  and for a long time. I didn't want to ever share it
• 37:43
  in church because I thought it's just a tough doctrine that we
• 37:47
  have to be willing to endure suffering for the value of what
• 37:52
  it does to teach us how to love and empathize and to be more
• 37:56
  like God. Well, that's absolutely true,
• 37:58
  and Paul goes on to qualify that suffering in verse 18.
• 38:02
  Notice how he says, for I reckon, that the sufferings of
• 38:06
  this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
• 38:11
  which shall be revealed in us. He's basically saying you can't
• 38:16
  even compare the badness of this moment with the goodness.
• 38:22
  Of eternity as a joint heir with Christ.
• 38:24
  They're they're they're not even in the same league together.
• 38:29
  And so if you keep that perspective, then you're able to
• 38:33
  stay in a covenantal relationship with God instead of
• 38:37
  being offended that he's not making your life easier or pain
• 38:40
  free or making it just prosperous.
• 38:43
  Keep in mind as a child of God, he loves you more than he loves.
• 38:50
  Your sense of ease and contentment.
• 38:54
  We did not come down to this earth in order to experience a
• 38:59
  life of entertainment and pleasure and ease and peace and
• 39:04
  prosperity 100% of the time. That is not why we're here.
• 39:08
  We're here to be tried and tested and proven in all things,
• 39:12
  and to learn from our own experiences the differences
• 39:16
  between what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is
• 39:19
  wrong. And instead of instead of taking
• 39:23
  the poor me, which is the customer service mentality of
• 39:27
  life, always upset because I didn't get what I wanted, how I
• 39:30
  wanted it and when I wanted it. But to say, Lord, what am I to
• 39:36
  learn from this? How can I draw closer to the How
• 39:40
  can I rejoice in this struggle, in the suffering, rather than
• 39:45
  just getting through it? It's kind of the difference
• 39:48
  between going through trials versus growing through trials.
• 39:55
  Time's going to pass. Most of the trials are going to
• 39:57
  pass. They're going to go away
• 39:58
  eventually. But am I going to be different
• 40:03
  on they're going away or am I going to become bitter better or
• 40:08
  bitter because of having passed through that trial?
• 40:12
  Maybe we would be benefited to to pray more often.
• 40:16
  To have the Lord help us learn how to grow through trials
• 40:20
  rather than just hunker down and and white knuckle our way
• 40:23
  through them knowing they're eventually going to pass.
• 40:27
  Now skipping a whole bunch more verses, and I feel like I need
• 40:31
  to repent for doing that, let's go down to verse 24, for we are
• 40:35
  saved by hope. And then he clarifies, We're
• 40:40
  we're we're going to be saved from all these struggles because
• 40:43
  of our hope. And that hope is in Christ, of
• 40:45
  course. But hope that is seen is not
• 40:48
  hope for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope For it's that
• 40:51
  idea of if you can see it, if it's right here and it's in
• 40:55
  front of you, then you don't need hope.
• 40:58
  The real test of your of your discipleship in this context is,
• 41:04
  can you still hold on with the fingernails of faith to that
• 41:08
  rope of hope, if you will, even though you can't see the end
• 41:14
  from the beginning. And it says in verse 25.
• 41:16
  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience,
• 41:21
  wait for it, We're waiting on the Lord.
• 41:24
  And now one of the most incredible verses of all
• 41:27
  Scripture, in my opinion, verse 26.
• 41:31
  Likewise, the Spirit also help us our infirmities.
• 41:34
  For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the
• 41:38
  Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
• 41:42
  groanings which cannot be uttered.
• 41:46
  There have been many, many times in my life where in a in a
• 41:53
  moment of need I've gone to the Lord in prayer, and I've wanted
• 41:58
  to talk through what I'm experiencing and and how I'm
• 42:02
  feeling. And there have been a a handful
• 42:05
  of times in those experiences where I've had the impression
• 42:10
  don't talk, but I'm a fixer. I'm, I'm proactive, right?
• 42:16
  I want to, I want to explain this.
• 42:18
  And so I start trying to explain it.
• 42:19
  And then that feeling of shh, don't talk.
• 42:24
  Some of the most profound prayers I've experienced in life
• 42:29
  have had very, very few words associated with them.
• 42:33
  They've consisted more of a feeling of kneeling at the knees
• 42:40
  of the God of the universe, who happens to be our Father, and
• 42:45
  feeling that connection with him, and relying on this promise
• 42:50
  that the Spirit is now making intercession, these groanings,
• 42:56
  these signs of the Spirit communicating things that words
• 43:02
  can never touch. I can't come up with the words
• 43:05
  to describe that heartache or that frustration or that depth
• 43:10
  of of emotion that's going on. But what a profound experience
• 43:15
  when prayer becomes this, this beautiful connecting point
• 43:19
  between parent and child, this Heavenly Father and me who's
• 43:27
  struggling so much. And it doesn't always have to be
• 43:30
  something that can be written out or explained in words.
• 43:33
  In fact, most powerful experiences can't be explained
• 43:37
  in words. It's amazing how God sometimes
• 43:40
  just sits with us and he fully understands who we are, even if
• 43:49
  we can't fully express it. That's powerful.
• 43:53
  He's God is the best listener in all the universe, and he's
• 44:03
  always willing to listen, and he's always willing to just sit
• 44:06
  with you and mourn with you and comfort you.
• 44:10
  He's the essence of all those those baptismal covenants that
• 44:14
  we've been asked to make. Well, he embodies them all.
• 44:17
  There's nowhere he would rather have you weeping than at his
• 44:21
  feet. There's nowhere He'd rather have
• 44:23
  you upset and angry and sharing your frustrations than at his
• 44:29
  feet. He can take it.
• 44:31
  He's He's infinitely capable of taking whatever it is that we
• 44:37
  have to bring to him. Look at verse 27.
• 44:41
  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the
• 44:45
  Spirit, because he make a thinner session for the Saints
• 44:48
  according to the will of God. And we know that all things work
• 44:51
  together for good to them that love God to them who are the
• 44:56
  called according to his purpose. Did you catch that?
• 44:59
  We know that all things that wasn't just all pleasures, all
• 45:05
  successes, all wonderful experiences, It's all things
• 45:09
  work together for good to them that love God.
• 45:13
  So if you're struggling with spiritual perfectionism, if
• 45:16
  you're struggling feeling like you're never going to catch up
• 45:19
  with what you need to do, refocus here.
• 45:22
  Love God, and then let him be yoked with you.
• 45:29
  Let the Savior in this context take His yoke upon you as you
• 45:34
  now move forward to face those struggles and realize, even if I
• 45:39
  experience what seems to the world's perspective to be a
• 45:42
  failure today, it's not a failure I didn't lose because
• 45:47
  I'm connected with Christ. I'm focused on Heavenly Father
• 45:53
  and we move forward. Look at look down at verse 31.
• 45:57
  What then shall, or what shall we then say to these things?
• 46:01
  If God before us, who can be against us?
• 46:06
  Joe Smith changed the word to who can prevail against us?
• 46:10
  What a powerful question. You make your lists, you make
• 46:14
  your frustrations list them out. And if God before us, who and
• 46:19
  what can possibly prevail against us?
• 46:21
  And the answer, from Paul's perspective, is nothing.
• 46:24
  And now we finish off chapter 8 with these last few verses.
• 46:28
  Let's jump down verse 35. Who shall separate us from the
• 46:32
  love of Christ? What's going to get in and wedge
• 46:35
  you away from Christ? All of those things on your To
• 46:38
  Do List, all of those frustrations, those anxieties,
• 46:41
  those struggling relationships. Pick any combination or all of
• 46:45
  them together. Is that a big enough wedge to
• 46:48
  get between you and the Savior Jesus Christ?
• 46:51
  And unfortunately for for some people today, they allow those
• 46:56
  things to actually get in and separate them from their
• 47:01
  covenant with Christ. And they say it's just too hard.
• 47:05
  I can't do it anymore. I'm not even going to try
• 47:07
  anymore because it's just making me feel guilty.
• 47:10
  I don't like going to church because I feel like I'm never
• 47:12
  going to be good enough and I feel judged and I don't feel
• 47:15
  like I'm having spiritual experiences.
• 47:18
  Well, here's Paul saying. Nothing will separate you unless
• 47:24
  you allow it. Look at this list shall
• 47:27
  tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
• 47:30
  nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, for thy sake
• 47:34
  we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
• 47:38
  the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
• 47:41
  more than conquerors through him that loved us.
• 47:47
  None of those things are bigger and more powerful than the
• 47:50
  Savior. His infinite atonement is, well,
• 47:53
  infinite. And none of those things are, so
• 47:56
  we can't let them become these separating points.
• 48:00
  And now we finish with once again two of the most powerful
• 48:05
  verses of all scripture, in my opinion.
• 48:07
  For I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
• 48:12
  principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
• 48:17
  come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature.
• 48:21
  Shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in
• 48:26
  Christ Jesus our Lord. You're noticing for God so loved
• 48:33
  the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
• 48:36
  Remember that one back in our our famous John chapter 3, verse
• 48:44
  16. Here's Paul reechoing that exact
• 48:48
  same sentiment. How do we know that Heavenly
• 48:51
  Father loves us? How do we know that as a child
• 48:53
  of God, he actually loves me? Because he sent Christ Jesus,
• 48:59
  his Son to save me? That's how I know God loves me,
• 49:03
  and nothing can separate me from that.
• 49:06
  I can separate myself from those things, but no external force
• 49:10
  can force that upon us. So as we now turn the page over
• 49:14
  to Chapter 9, this is a section that is just again dripping with
• 49:20
  Old Testament doctrines that Paul is going to be repackaging
• 49:25
  and repurposing for his audience in the 1st century.
• 49:29
  So he takes him into the Old Testament to talk about Abraham
• 49:33
  and the original covenant. Then he talks about Jacob and
• 49:36
  Esau. Then he takes them over in verse
• 49:39
  24/25/26 to the story of Hosea and Gomer and this group in
• 49:46
  ancient Israel that is no longer considered my people.
• 49:51
  But then verse 26, those who were not my people now are
• 49:55
  called the children of the living God.
• 49:59
  Again, that's a big deal in Rome because you're surrounded by a
• 50:02
  whole bunch of dead gods, whole bunch of idols and and temples
• 50:06
  to dead gods, but your children of a living God, and nobody's a
• 50:09
  child of these dead gods. So that's significant, as he's
• 50:13
  pulling all of this Old Testament symbolism, including
• 50:17
  Moses, into Chapter 9. So we've talked before about two
• 50:21
  covenant types. One is the unconditional
• 50:23
  covenant. We see this in the Abrahamic and
• 50:25
  Davidic covenants where God himself declares the promises
• 50:30
  and he is the one who will fulfill them.
• 50:32
  So we talked about elections. Some people call it
• 50:34
  predestination. God has already decided that
• 50:39
  he's going to make salvation available to.
• 50:41
  Everybody and he will do his work.
• 50:45
  Now there's a conditional covenant.
• 50:46
  We first see this really represented at the time of Moses
• 50:50
  with the 10 commandments and actually later the 613 laws of
• 50:54
  Moses. There was a bunch of conditions
• 50:55
  that people needed to show covenant the love and loyalty so
• 51:00
  that they could maintain their access to God's unconditioned
• 51:03
  love and promises. So you're in this chapter.
• 51:05
  Look for Where is God acting in covenantal fidelity and
• 51:09
  faithfulness. And where do we see humans
• 51:13
  either accepting what he offers or rejecting it, what the
• 51:16
  consequences are? So these words are also
• 51:19
  important in covenantal context. Now when you see them in
• 51:23
  scriptures, you might remind yourself they're often as a
• 51:26
  covenantal meaning to these words.
• 51:28
  Mercy, love, Faith. Belief.
• 51:34
  These words often are saturated with this covenantal meaning
• 51:39
  about the mercy is God's doing all these things for us because
• 51:42
  he loves us. He is faithful in the covenant.
• 51:46
  Faith often means you trust God and he is trustworthy in the
• 51:50
  relationship. And the belief often can mean
• 51:54
  that you are choosing to be connected in that mutual
• 51:58
  obligation of a covenantal relationship.
• 52:00
  So as you read through these chapters, look for those themes.
• 52:03
  As Paul is retelling his Old Testament stories and upgrading
• 52:08
  the understanding for his New Testament audience, so you
• 52:12
  notice here towards the end of chapter nine, he now talks about
• 52:15
  Isaiah in verse 2729, then in verse 31.
• 52:20
  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath
• 52:23
  not attained to the law of righteousness.
• 52:25
  Wherefore? Because they sought it not by
• 52:28
  faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.
• 52:31
  For they stumbled at the stumbling stone, as it is
• 52:36
  written. Behold, I lay in Zion a
• 52:37
  stumbling stone and a rock of a fence, and whosoever believeth
• 52:40
  on him shall not be ashamed. Now let me just give you a
• 52:44
  really quick contrast to that, because in the Book of Mormon
• 52:48
  they come out of the same dispensation as Moses.
• 52:53
  Lehigh left under Moses's dispensation.
• 52:57
  They have the Law of Moses, but listen to their understanding
• 53:01
  because of the added prophetic insights that were given to them
• 53:07
  by Nephi and Jacob and Lehigh and King Benjamin and others.
• 53:12
  Listen to the way it describes this.
• 53:14
  I mean Alma 25, verse 15 and 16. Yeah, they did keep the Law of
• 53:19
  Moses, for it was expedient that they should keep the Law of
• 53:22
  Moses as yet, for it was not all fulfilled.
• 53:24
  And it wouldn't be fulfilled for these people, because this is
• 53:28
  7780 BC until Christ comes, it says.
• 53:32
  But notwithstanding the law of Moses, they did look forward to
• 53:36
  the coming of Christ, considering that the law of
• 53:39
  Moses was a type of his coming, and believing that they must
• 53:42
  keep those outward performances until the time that he should be
• 53:45
  revealed unto them. Now they did not suppose the
• 53:49
  salvation came by the law of Moses.
• 53:52
  But the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in
• 53:56
  Christ. And thus they did retain a hope
• 54:00
  through faith unto eternal salvation, relying upon the
• 54:03
  spirit of prophecy which spake of those things to come.
• 54:07
  It's this hope. They didn't see it, but they're
• 54:09
  holding on to it. Are you seeing how beautifully
• 54:11
  these scriptures can be read as one?
• 54:16
  The writings of Paul combined with Restoration Scripture to
• 54:19
  give us a more complete and full view of the gospel of Jesus
• 54:24
  Christ. I love it.
• 54:26
  I love how these scriptures speak together and and
• 54:30
  collaborate. The message that it's only in
• 54:34
  Christ and the Law of Moses, nor the Law of tithing, nor the law
• 54:38
  of consecration are going to save us.
• 54:41
  All of those laws simply point our souls to Christ and help us
• 54:46
  to connect with Him more fully. Which brings us to Chapter 10.
• 54:51
  Brethren, My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
• 54:54
  they might be saved. By the way, what a wonderful
• 54:58
  prayer to offer, probably more often than most of us do, which
• 55:02
  is to ask of Heavenly Father for that which we most desire, which
• 55:06
  is salvation, not just for ourselves but for our people,
• 55:10
  our loved ones, our families, our friends.
• 55:13
  And I love that he puts that out there, that it's his heart,
• 55:16
  desire, heart's desire and prayer that they might be saved.
• 55:21
  And then look at verse four. For Christ is the end of the law
• 55:25
  for righteousness to everyone that believesth.
• 55:27
  It's an interesting word, the word.
• 55:29
  And we often think, well, that's we've reached a conclusion, but
• 55:32
  sometimes the Greek can also mean the purpose or it's kind of
• 55:36
  the end goal. So you read it multiple ways and
• 55:39
  we're reading that you say for Christ is the purpose or the law
• 55:44
  points to him. Remember we talked about the
• 55:47
  iron rod? It leads you to the tree.
• 55:50
  It's not simply to stand there on the path holding on the rod,
• 55:53
  it's to take you to Jesus. So that's what this verse is
• 55:56
  saying here. So now we come over to verse 9
• 56:00
  and it says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
• 56:04
  Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
• 56:08
  from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
• 56:10
  This is a a verse that often gets used in isolation of other
• 56:16
  verses written by Paul to say see, all you have to do is
• 56:19
  confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Christ and then
• 56:23
  you're going to be saved. We don't disagree with verse
• 56:27
  nine. We don't need to Bible bash with
• 56:29
  people about verse nine. We love verse 9 and we see it in
• 56:33
  its context and in its flow of everything else that Paul is
• 56:36
  teaching here that that is a necessary step that the Greek
• 56:41
  word there to confess, homo logeo.
• 56:44
  It's that idea to assent, to covenant, to promise.
• 56:50
  We we don't just confess, yeah, Jesus the Christ, we actually
• 56:55
  covenant. We make a promise with with God
• 57:01
  that Jesus is going to be the focus of our life.
• 57:06
  It's powerful. Verse 10.
• 57:08
  For with the heart man believeth under righteousness, and with
• 57:11
  the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
• 57:15
  These these covenants are made with the mouth.
• 57:19
  And I do love the simplicity that Paul's trying to say.
• 57:22
  Yes, there are all sorts of things that you need to be
• 57:25
  doing, but let's just step way back and just get to the very
• 57:30
  fundamentals. You begin by declaring that you
• 57:34
  recognize Jesus as your Savior, and we think about the first
• 57:38
  principles and ordinances of the gospel are faith.
• 57:41
  And he is expressing in a very powerful way, this is what faith
• 57:46
  is about. And if you have faith, you
• 57:48
  repent and you prove repentance by getting baptized, and you
• 57:51
  prove baptism by receiving the Holy Ghost, and then you
• 57:54
  continue to do that every week at sacrament.
• 57:56
  So Paul is speaking very clearly about core initial principles of
• 58:03
  the gospel, but not in isolation from other things that we need
• 58:06
  to be doing to be on that ongoing covenant path.
• 58:09
  Yeah, let's read all of the scriptures that Paul produced
• 58:12
  and all of the scriptures that talk about Paul back in Acts and
• 58:15
  you're going to see him doing all kinds of things associated
• 58:18
  with all of the first principles and ordinances of the gospel,
• 58:21
  not just a a verbal confession with the mouth.
• 58:25
  Verse 12. There is no difference between
• 58:29
  the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord overall is rich unto
• 58:33
  all that call upon him. In other words, God is no
• 58:36
  respect of persons. He's not up in heaven saying
• 58:39
  look at that poor Pagan who's just trying to become convert
• 58:43
  into Christianity. He's nothing compared to this
• 58:46
  Jewish convert over here who has 25 generations of faithfulness
• 58:51
  to the law. All are alike under God.
• 58:55
  There is no difference to him. And in verse 13 it says For
• 59:00
  whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
• 59:03
  Now let's pause here. I'm actually going to do the
• 59:07
  opposite of this particular list, because what happens here
• 59:13
  is he says he. He starts out by saying,
• 59:18
  Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
• 59:25
  But now notice this. How then shall they call on him
• 59:28
  whom they have not believed? So before I can call, I have to
• 59:34
  believe that will lead me to call, which will result in a
• 59:40
  condition of being saved. And it says, How then shall they
• 59:45
  call on him and whom they have not believed?
• 59:47
  And how shall they believe in him of who they have not heard
• 59:51
  So before I can believe I have to have heard about him.
• 59:57
  And how shall they hear without a preacher?
• 1:00:02
  So this preacher has to say things that I can hear.
• 1:00:08
  And how shall they preach except they shall be sent as it is
• 1:00:14
  written. This is an amazing thing that
• 1:00:20
  when we find the Savior. When we find peace in Christ,
• 1:00:28
  it's not a terminal and unto itself it's a means to now
• 1:00:35
  spread it to others. Once you have that peace in
• 1:00:38
  Christ, then he calls you. He sends you the word here.
• 1:00:44
  For Apostle is to be sent one who is sent.
• 1:00:47
  You go out to preach these good things so that people can hear
• 1:00:51
  you, so they can believe, so they can call on God, so they
• 1:00:54
  can be saved. It's this beautiful interchange
• 1:00:58
  of how God spreads the gospel in each of the dispensations
• 1:01:03
  through human testimony through fulfilling.
• 1:01:06
  These the the ultimate fulfillment of love your
• 1:01:10
  neighbor as yourself. That means you go and you try to
• 1:01:15
  help them. Find the peace.
• 1:01:18
  Find the love. Find the joy that the Savior has
• 1:01:22
  given to you. So as we move into Chapter 11
• 1:01:25
  again, we see Paul using this rhetorical device.
• 1:01:27
  He's trying to simply, essentially provide his bona
• 1:01:31
  fides or his credentials for why he's teaching what he is
• 1:01:34
  teaching, he says. I say then have God cast away
• 1:01:37
  his people now because Paul has spent quite a bit of time
• 1:01:41
  talking about the Law and the Israelites, how they seem to
• 1:01:43
  miss the boat? And in case people think that
• 1:01:46
  somehow now the Israelites are condemned forever, Paul's saying
• 1:01:50
  God forbid for I also am an Israelite of the seat of Abraham
• 1:01:54
  of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his
• 1:01:58
  people which he for knew what ye not what the scripture sayth of
• 1:02:03
  Elias how he maketh intersection to God against Israel, saying,
• 1:02:07
  Lord, they've killed their prophets and dig down thine
• 1:02:09
  altars, and I am left alone and they seek my life.
• 1:02:13
  Now what goes on is Paul says in the time of Elijah, a lot of the
• 1:02:18
  Israelites had apostasized and Elijah felt like he was the only
• 1:02:22
  one left. And yet God said Elijah.
• 1:02:25
  It turns out there's actually a large group of people that still
• 1:02:29
  are faithful to me. Paul's trying to argue here.
• 1:02:33
  Even if we have examples of Israelites failing over time,
• 1:02:37
  God still knows that this chosen people still have people who are
• 1:02:40
  choosing him. And they still are experiencing
• 1:02:44
  the blessings of God. So we have to be careful here.
• 1:02:46
  We can learn from the lessons of failure of other people who've
• 1:02:49
  had God's promises, but not to condemn them and say that they
• 1:02:53
  have permanently lost out or that nobody in that group ever
• 1:02:55
  gets anything again. So Paul is speaking to this
• 1:02:59
  split audience, Gentiles and Jews, trying to say all are
• 1:03:03
  welcome at the table of God's holy supper, and it's powerful.
• 1:03:07
  How On this whole page, all of this Chapter 11 is literally
• 1:03:13
  rooted in this analogy of you have this this tree, the House
• 1:03:20
  of Israel with the roots being Father Abraham, Mother Sarah,
• 1:03:25
  Isaac and Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Jacob Israel.
• 1:03:31
  You have all of this covenantal structure behind you, and Jewish
• 1:03:38
  Christians in the 1st century in Rome are assuming, well, I'm,
• 1:03:42
  I'm fine, I'm going to be saved. Because look, look at my
• 1:03:46
  pedigree chart. And Paul in Chapter 11 is
• 1:03:50
  referring to gentiles who are being grafted in from foreign
• 1:03:56
  trees brought into the House of Israel tree, and he's saying
• 1:04:00
  they're going to produce natural fruit.
• 1:04:03
  This connects us back to Zenus's allegory in Jacob 5, and he's
• 1:04:07
  saying you can't claim that you're better branch than they
• 1:04:10
  are just because your family has been in here for 1500 years or
• 1:04:16
  2000 years. The idea being make room in the
• 1:04:21
  tree of the gospel for all of God's children who are willing
• 1:04:26
  to be grafted in and become a part.
• 1:04:30
  So notice he says here in verse 16 for if the first fruit be
• 1:04:34
  holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the
• 1:04:37
  branches. So we're good at the root.
• 1:04:41
  But then jump down to verse 20 because of unbelief.
• 1:04:45
  They were broken off and now stand us by faith.
• 1:04:48
  Be not highminded, but fear. There are people in the past who
• 1:04:52
  have been cut out of the tree because of unbelief, and they've
• 1:04:56
  withered, so be careful. Don't rely on your pedigree
• 1:05:00
  chart to save you. In fact, isn't it a beautiful
• 1:05:04
  thing in the restoration of the gospel that we don't look at our
• 1:05:07
  pedigree chart to find salvation from them?
• 1:05:10
  We do research in our family tree, in our roots of our
• 1:05:14
  family, to try to help the Lord in the work of salvation with
• 1:05:19
  them on the other side of the Ville.
• 1:05:21
  We're not trying to get things from our ancestors.
• 1:05:24
  Saviors on Mount Zion actually try to give things to their
• 1:05:29
  ancestors. And using this metaphor.
• 1:05:31
  In the spiritual pedigree chart, there should only be one single
• 1:05:35
  line, and it's us to Jesus that we should be a child of Jesus,
• 1:05:40
  child of Jesus Christ. So now you go to verse 33.
• 1:05:45
  Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
• 1:05:49
  of God. How unsearchable are his
• 1:05:51
  judgments and his ways past finding out.
• 1:05:54
  And then verse 36. For of him and through him and
• 1:05:57
  to him are all things to whom be glory forever.
• 1:06:01
  Amen. That's a pretty good closure to
• 1:06:04
  that chapter. Now we come to chapter 12, and
• 1:06:07
  we're going to just kind of grab a a few key verses in these
• 1:06:13
  remaining chapters for the sake of time.
• 1:06:16
  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
• 1:06:19
  that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly
• 1:06:22
  acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be
• 1:06:26
  not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
• 1:06:30
  of your mind. You may prove what is that good
• 1:06:34
  and acceptable and perfect will of God.
• 1:06:37
  I'll never forget a lesson that I once saw from Grant Anderson,
• 1:06:41
  a colleague, back when I was in seminars and institutes.
• 1:06:45
  He held up a balloon, and he said, watch what happens to the
• 1:06:49
  balloon. And then he pushed his finger
• 1:06:52
  into the balloon, and lo and behold, the balloon changed its
• 1:06:55
  shape completely. The balloon conformed to the
• 1:07:00
  outer pressure that was placed upon it.
• 1:07:03
  Keep in mind Paul's writing this letter to a group of Saints
• 1:07:06
  living in Rome. Oh my heavens, the outward
• 1:07:10
  pressures of that society and that culture to conform you to
• 1:07:15
  fit the shape that they have determined for you.
• 1:07:19
  It's intense. I wonder.
• 1:07:22
  I wonder if the 21st century world isn't terribly different
• 1:07:28
  than the 1st century Roman world when it comes to conformance and
• 1:07:33
  people trying to poke you and prod you into fitting a shape
• 1:07:37
  that they have predetermined for you.
• 1:07:39
  I had this experience a few some years ago.
• 1:07:42
  I happened to meet another scholar from another very fine
• 1:07:44
  university and when he found out that I was associated with
• 1:07:47
  Brigham Young University, which is sponsored by the Church of
• 1:07:50
  Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he said to me, Why
• 1:07:53
  doesn't BYU just become like all the other universities out
• 1:07:56
  there? I just thought to myself then
• 1:07:59
  what would be the point? Like if it's just like every
• 1:08:02
  other university, There's nothing of value
• 1:08:04
  distinctiveness, like when you go to a buffet, If it's just
• 1:08:09
  potatoes on every option, that is not a very good buffet.
• 1:08:14
  So this is what God invites us to do.
• 1:08:18
  He invites us to be different, which is to declare and live our
• 1:08:22
  full identity as His children. And that did not conform to the
• 1:08:25
  pressures of the world to be the children of other things.
• 1:08:29
  I I love this concept. Elder Clark Gilbert, who is the
• 1:08:34
  the commissioner of education for the Church for the Church
• 1:08:37
  Educational System. He wrote an incredible article
• 1:08:41
  called There to Be Different in the Deseret Magazine.
• 1:08:44
  You could Google it and look it up.
• 1:08:46
  It's this idea, exactly what you're describing here of
• 1:08:50
  there's this outward pressure for the BYU's and for the church
• 1:08:55
  to just conform, just be like everybody else, and it's this
• 1:08:59
  incredible article there to be different.
• 1:09:01
  This idea of there is a richness, there is a beauty,
• 1:09:05
  there is a depth that comes when the BYU's maintain their
• 1:09:10
  religious identity rather than just becoming like all the other
• 1:09:14
  secular universities out there. Let's add to this one more I
• 1:09:17
  have a friend who just shared this with me.
• 1:09:20
  Man named Dan Duckworth Who? Is involved a group called
• 1:09:24
  Leading Saints helping members of the church like upgrade how
• 1:09:27
  we teach and learn and lead. And he said it's interesting if
• 1:09:30
  you take a typical bell curve, right?
• 1:09:33
  The bell curve is like most people are kind of right here in
• 1:09:35
  the middle of like here's normal and in society that you have
• 1:09:38
  some negative deviance. People who are kind of off the
• 1:09:42
  end who create problems in society and we try to encourage
• 1:09:45
  those people like don't create problems for society, right.
• 1:09:48
  And sometimes they go to jail. Well, what happens if you're
• 1:09:51
  over here and you're positively deviant?
• 1:09:54
  What does society want? They want you back to be normal.
• 1:09:56
  And this is what we're talking about.
• 1:09:58
  God is asking us to be positively different.
• 1:10:01
  And the pressure of the world is like, don't be different, just
• 1:10:04
  be like everybody else. But you're going to experience
• 1:10:07
  in your life when you are trying to be positively different,
• 1:10:09
  you're going to feel deep pressure to be brought back here
• 1:10:13
  into the middle. So the the wording of Paul here,
• 1:10:17
  Don't you love this be ye transformed by the renewing of
• 1:10:21
  your mind. Notice the difference here.
• 1:10:26
  Here's our balloon that is going to conform to outward pressures
• 1:10:32
  that are placed upon it by the environment that's conforming
• 1:10:38
  but be transformed implies letting the inward forces shape
• 1:10:47
  you, letting the Lord work in you and through you.
• 1:10:54
  It's a it's a powerful paradigm shift when you stop trying to
• 1:10:59
  conform to what other people expect.
• 1:11:02
  But when you allow the Lord to change you from the inside,
• 1:11:06
  you're transformed. Which now brings us down to
• 1:11:09
  verse four. First, we have many members in
• 1:11:13
  one body, and all members have not the same office.
• 1:11:17
  So we, being many, are one body in Christ and everyone member
• 1:11:21
  one of another. Paul is going to pick up this
• 1:11:24
  motif and flesh it out, pun intended, later on with First
• 1:11:29
  Corinthians, and we're going to cover it in much greater detail
• 1:11:31
  there. It's that idea of the body of
• 1:11:33
  Christ has many members and they're all very different.
• 1:11:37
  So we'll pick that one up in a in a Future lesson, as well as
• 1:11:40
  the gifts that he starts to mention here in verse 6-7 and
• 1:11:44
  eight. We'll cover those as well later
• 1:11:46
  on in in the Corinthian letter, and he closes chapter 12 with an
• 1:11:49
  amazing concept. Verse 21, Be not overcome of
• 1:11:53
  evil, but overcome evil with good.
• 1:11:58
  You'll notice you don't overcome evil with evil, you overcome
• 1:12:03
  evil with good. And there's one person who
• 1:12:06
  showed us the perfect example of what that actually looks like,
• 1:12:09
  and that's the Savior of Jesus Christ.
• 1:12:11
  So we get to Chapter 13. What you're looking for, or
• 1:12:14
  actually what you're listening for, is how Paul is trying to
• 1:12:16
  teach his people this Christians in the realm, in the in the
• 1:12:20
  world of Rome, how to live in the world but not be fully of
• 1:12:24
  the world. And the reality is, we live in
• 1:12:27
  worlds full of policies and laws and different societies have
• 1:12:31
  different ways of doing things, and he's encouraging people.
• 1:12:34
  You can be good citizens and if you're living.
• 1:12:38
  What Christ asked you to do. You shouldn't typically have
• 1:12:41
  problems living the laws of the society you find yourself in.
• 1:12:46
  So we have help in this process. It's not just okay be good,
• 1:12:51
  there's actually help given to us.
• 1:12:54
  Verse 12. The night is far spent.
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  The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the
• 1:12:59
  works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light.
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  This is one of my favorite words in the Greek.
• 1:13:09
  This word enduo is translated as put on in English.
• 1:13:19
  The enduo is to endow, and if you look up in Strong's
• 1:13:25
  Concordance, you're in a Greek dictionary.
• 1:13:27
  You're going to find that enduo means to to sink into a sacred
• 1:13:32
  garment or to be encircled in in a sacred clothing item.
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  And endowment is a sacred clothing ordinance.
• 1:13:40
  We'll talk more about that when we get to Ephesians as well.
• 1:13:43
  But here he first introduces it to us in in in our flow through
• 1:13:49
  these lessons with this idea of put on the armor of light.
• 1:13:55
  So you're being endowed with power in the temple of our God.
• 1:14:01
  What are you putting on? What is the sacred garment, the
• 1:14:04
  sacred clothing that we're dressing in?
• 1:14:07
  It's armor. And it's not just medieval metal
• 1:14:12
  armor. It's actually armor of light,
• 1:14:15
  which is the biggest defense against the chains of darkness
• 1:14:21
  that the devil is waging his war with.
• 1:14:25
  So we put on notice in that verse it's, and I'll spell it
• 1:14:29
  with the British spelling as it is in our KJV, the armor of
• 1:14:33
  light. And he doesn't end there.
• 1:14:37
  He says let us walk honestly, as in the day, Not in rioting and
• 1:14:41
  drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife
• 1:14:44
  and envying, because that would be Eck duo that would be taking
• 1:14:49
  off our armor. We want to stay closed.
• 1:14:52
  Verse 14 But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
• 1:14:58
  provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.
• 1:15:02
  Did you notice this? Put on Christ, the enduo, the
• 1:15:12
  the endowment of power, that entire ordinance in the temple
• 1:15:19
  is all rooted in and symbolized by the embodiment of Jesus
• 1:15:25
  Christ himself. That's why I find it interesting
• 1:15:29
  that there are people in our world today who are encouraging
• 1:15:33
  people to remove their garments, to say they're not fashionable.
• 1:15:39
  They they're they're oppressive. You don't want to have to wear
• 1:15:44
  things that other people are telling you to wear.
• 1:15:46
  It's taking away your freedom and your agency.
• 1:15:48
  We're hearing these kinds of things today, and I just have to
• 1:15:52
  pause and scratch my head and say, wait a minute.
• 1:15:55
  You're encouraging people to take off the armor of light.
• 1:16:02
  You're encouraging them to take off this symbolic element of
• 1:16:07
  Christ that we get to put on every day.
• 1:16:10
  We get to be in Duoed every day in the garment, and people are
• 1:16:14
  encouraging you to take it off. I I marvel at the logic of you
• 1:16:21
  don't want armor, you don't want Christ.
• 1:16:24
  It reminds me of Hosea and Gomer.
• 1:16:27
  Don't wear his flax and his wool.
• 1:16:30
  Don't don't take the the covering the Hosea, or in this
• 1:16:34
  context, Jesus Christ offers you, but go put on the clothing
• 1:16:38
  of your lovers, your former lovers, your former life.
• 1:16:42
  I You lose power when you become unendowed in this armor of light
• 1:16:50
  in Christ that you have put on. So let's tie this into the story
• 1:16:53
  of Adam and Eve. When they are found naked in the
• 1:16:56
  garden, they eventually get clothed, and it is being clothed
• 1:17:00
  by God. They get these garments, and
• 1:17:04
  these garments are meant to be symbols of God's protecting
• 1:17:07
  power. And so the invitation for all of
• 1:17:10
  us is when we enter into covenant.
• 1:17:12
  It's like putting on Christ when you receive the gift of the Holy
• 1:17:15
  Ghost. It's like an endowment in the
• 1:17:18
  sense that you have this presence to be with you at all
• 1:17:22
  time, to protect you and to guide you.
• 1:17:26
  And isn't it beautiful that that covering that garment
• 1:17:30
  originally, even to Adam and Eve, was made out of a coat of
• 1:17:32
  skins, which means an animal had to die.
• 1:17:37
  An innocent animal had to die in order to cover their nakedness,
• 1:17:40
  in order to enduo them to to cover them.
• 1:17:46
  And what a privilege to be able to enter into that covenant and
• 1:17:51
  take upon us the name of Christ and put on his power.
• 1:17:58
  Now we go to chapter 14 and just covering a couple of verses
• 1:18:02
  here, verse 8, for whether we live, we live under the Lord and
• 1:18:06
  whether we die, we die under the Lord.
• 1:18:08
  Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lords.
• 1:18:13
  If you're struggling with health, or if you're working
• 1:18:15
  with a loved one who's struggling with health concerns
• 1:18:18
  or with accidents that have happened in your family or with
• 1:18:22
  your loved ones recently, this is a very comforting verse to
• 1:18:26
  say. All is not lost.
• 1:18:28
  If somebody dies, if they are in that relationship with the Lord
• 1:18:33
  it it's going to be okay in the end, even though it's very
• 1:18:37
  painful in the here and now. Look at verse 10.
• 1:18:45
  Why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou said it not thy
• 1:18:49
  brother? For we shall all stand before
• 1:18:52
  the judgment seat of Christ. In other words, Christ is the
• 1:18:56
  judge. So why are we judging each
• 1:18:58
  other, and quite frankly, judging ourselves pretty harshly
• 1:19:01
  sometimes as well? And then he says, For it is
• 1:19:03
  written, and now he's going to quote Isaiah 45.
• 1:19:07
  As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every
• 1:19:11
  tongue shall confess to God. So he's Speaking of Jesus Christ
• 1:19:16
  here, quoting Isaiah 45, which is referring to God of the Old
• 1:19:20
  Testament or Jehovah. And we take it for granted.
• 1:19:24
  But again, he's linking this up, that the day will come when
• 1:19:28
  every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is
• 1:19:32
  God. But it won't be a huge victory
• 1:19:37
  for you to bend the knee and confess when it's impossible to
• 1:19:42
  stand. Elder Maxwell taught that
• 1:19:45
  concept that the decision will be made for you.
• 1:19:48
  The trick is to bend the knee and confess with the tongue
• 1:19:53
  today. When you aren't being forced to
• 1:19:56
  your knees at his coming or at your death, it's it's a choice.
• 1:20:02
  It's a free will offering to him.
• 1:20:04
  And one of the things Paul teaches here and throughout his
• 1:20:07
  other passages, other epistles, is unity in the Christian
• 1:20:11
  community. Remember, in Rome, there are
• 1:20:14
  very different groups of people that are trying to be Christian.
• 1:20:17
  And there's a lot of, there's been a lot of conflict and
• 1:20:20
  people are debating and like, you eat differently than I do,
• 1:20:23
  and I don't like the way you wear your clothes.
• 1:20:25
  We never have conversations like this today, do we?
• 1:20:28
  We do, unfortunately. And Paul's saying, in the end,
• 1:20:31
  everybody's the same. We all die.
• 1:20:34
  We will all have to confess Christ.
• 1:20:35
  If we all have to be unified in those things, why can't we
• 1:20:38
  choose unity now? Because if those things matter
• 1:20:41
  the most, why are we being divided about things that just
• 1:20:43
  don't matter? So let's choose unity now around
• 1:20:46
  what matters most, and let everything else just go to the
• 1:20:49
  wayside. So now we go to chapter 15.
• 1:20:52
  I I love this chapter. He opens it by saying We then,
• 1:20:55
  that are strong, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and
• 1:20:59
  not to please ourselves. We go to help lift up burdens,
• 1:21:04
  to help the people who are burdened, not to get something
• 1:21:08
  for ourselves. And I think that this applies to
• 1:21:11
  both sides of the veil, our efforts to to strengthen the
• 1:21:15
  weak. Verse two, let every one of us
• 1:21:18
  please his neighbor for his good to edification, edification to
• 1:21:23
  build up, to lift up, to strengthen, to encourage, not to
• 1:21:29
  tear down. Not to take from them, but to to
• 1:21:34
  edify them, which now brings us to chapter 16, his closing to
• 1:21:39
  this letter, or his closing of this letter to the to the
• 1:21:42
  Romans. And it's interesting, because he
• 1:21:45
  opens with commending you, Phoebe, commending unto you
• 1:21:48
  Phoebe our sister, which is a servant of the church at
• 1:21:52
  Kentria. And then he gives greeting
• 1:21:55
  Priscilla and Aquila. And then he gives lots of
• 1:21:59
  additional names down here, and if you're not careful, you'll
• 1:22:02
  read the beginning 2/3 of chapter 16 and think it's just a
• 1:22:07
  list. It's just a list of names,
• 1:22:09
  random people. Keep in mind to Paul, this isn't
• 1:22:14
  just a list. These are relationships.
• 1:22:18
  These are people. He loves them.
• 1:22:20
  He's commending them. He's saluting them.
• 1:22:23
  He's reestablishing a connection with them the best way he can in
• 1:22:27
  the 1st century with their technology, which is through a
• 1:22:29
  letter because he can't get on a phone and and have a Zoom call
• 1:22:34
  with them or a video conference with them.
• 1:22:38
  He's expressing his love and I love the fact that Heavenly
• 1:22:44
  Father, every time he introduces the Son, he refers to him as the
• 1:22:47
  Beloved. This acknowledgement of your
• 1:22:50
  love for and your appreciation of and your regard toward people
• 1:22:57
  building and strengthening those relationships, this is an
• 1:23:00
  important part of the gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul is is
• 1:23:05
  modeling for us here in his closing to the letter.
• 1:23:08
  This is not just a list, this is this is relationship.
• 1:23:13
  This is loving your neighbor as yourself being modeled for us.
• 1:23:17
  And so we finish starting in verse 19, for your obedience has
• 1:23:21
  come abroad unto all men. I'm glad, therefore, on your
• 1:23:24
  behalf. But yet I would have you wise
• 1:23:27
  unto that which is good and simple concerning evil.
• 1:23:30
  So he's saying, people know in this Mediterranean region
• 1:23:33
  they've heard in Rome. You're doing a really good job.
• 1:23:37
  This is a strong branch of the Church.
• 1:23:40
  But be careful. Verse 20 It says And the God of
• 1:23:44
  peace shall bruise Satan under your feet.
• 1:23:47
  Shortly the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
• 1:23:50
  Amen. You'll notice the Greek word
• 1:23:52
  there for bruise. If you go down to the footnote
• 1:23:54
  20B it says break the power of or crush.
• 1:24:00
  So the God of peace shall crush Satan under your feet.
• 1:24:07
  It's pretty powerful imagery that the Lord is going to use
• 1:24:11
  you. To help push back that darkness
• 1:24:15
  as he endows us with that armor of light we are more able to
• 1:24:20
  crush under our feet. To overcome the works of
• 1:24:24
  darkness that are trying to spread and prevail and and wreak
• 1:24:28
  havoc in your family, in your neighborhood, in your ward, in
• 1:24:32
  your stake, and in our world that we don't need to be a
• 1:24:35
  victim of this. And then he finishes.
• 1:24:38
  Verse 24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
• 1:24:43
  Amen. And let's jump down to verse 27
• 1:24:45
  and finish with him saying to God only wise be glory through
• 1:24:52
  Jesus Christ forever. Amen.
• 1:24:55
  Do you find that interesting that it's to God be glory
• 1:25:00
  through Jesus Christ? Well, guess what?
• 1:25:05
  The only way you and I are ever going to hope to receive any
• 1:25:07
  glory is coming from God through Jesus Christ, the other
• 1:25:12
  direction, the Savior. Jesus Christ really is the
• 1:25:16
  Mediator, the intercessor, the Gobetween.
• 1:25:18
  He's the Advocate and He's the Gobetween both directions.
• 1:25:24
  We can do nothing without him, but we can do everything through
• 1:25:30
  Him and by Him and with Him, and that is our testimony.
• 1:25:35
  In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
• 1:25:37
  Know that you're loved and spread light and goodness.