Latest / Crosswalk / Religion or Relationship — Romans 10:1–5

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Religion or Relationship — Romans 10:1–5 · Crosswalk

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Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow
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Him. You're listening to Crosswalk with Pastor
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Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio ministry
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of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities and it is our aim
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to lead you to the cross through the teaching
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of God's Word. We're in Romans chapter 10. I'm
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gonna read the whole chapters just so you have
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the whole context. It's not a big one. It says
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brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God
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for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear
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them witness that they have a zeal for God, but
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not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant
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of God's righteousness and seeking to establish
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their own righteousness have not submitted to
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the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
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of the law for righteousness to everyone who
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believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness
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which is of the law, the man who does those things
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shall live by them. But the righteousness of
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faith speaks this way, do not say in your heart
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who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring
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Christ down from above, or who will descend into
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the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the
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dead. But what does it say? The word is near
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you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is
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the word of faith which we preach. That if you
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confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe
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in your heart that God has raised him from the
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dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one
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believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth
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confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture
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says whoever believes on him will not be put
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to shame. For there's no distinction between
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Jew and Greek. For the same Lord over all is
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rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls
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on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
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shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?
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And how shall they believe in him of whom they've
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not heard? And how shall they hear without a
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preacher? and how shall they preach unless they
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are sent as it is written how beautiful are the
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feet of those who preach the gospel of peace
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who bring glad tidings of good things but they
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have not all obeyed the gospel for isaiah says
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lord who has believed our report so then faith
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comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god
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but i say have they not heard yes indeed their
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sound has gone out to all the earth and their
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words to the ends of the world but i say did
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israel not know First, Moses says, I will provoke
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you to jealousy by those who are not a nation.
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I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.
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But Isaiah is very bold and says, I was found
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by those who did not seek me. I was made manifest
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to those who did not ask for me. But to Israel,
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he says, all day long, I've stretched out my
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hands to a disobedient and contrary people. Let's
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pray. Lord, we love you. We thank you for the
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word. We thank you for the fact that you've made
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a way for us. And that way is the way into heaven.
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And there is none other. Lord, as we're going
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through and we're talking about these things,
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we're talking about the failure of the people
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of Israel. Lord, we pray that you'd help us not
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to be failures also. We wanna be people who come
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in the door that you've provided for us and the
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way that you've shown us. And we ask that you'd
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help us to do this. Lord, open up our eyes to
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what your word has to say and make us like you.
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And we ask that you do this all in Jesus' name,
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amen. You can have a seat. Okay, so again, we're
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in a section in Romans where Paul is talking
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about the issue of what happened to the Jews.
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I'm not going to go all the way through the book
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of Romans again, but when you're talking about
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verses or chapters one through eight, you're
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talking about Paul's gospel. In fact, that's
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what Romans is called, generally speaking. This
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is Paul's gospel, and he's thorough about it.
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And so he talks about Gentile guilt. He talks
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about Jewish guilt. He talks about the guilt
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of the planet. And he talks about the fact that
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the law is not going to make anybody righteous.
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It's there to shut your mouth and prove that
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you're guilty before God. That's the purpose
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of the law. And because all of humanity is in
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a situation where they can't exercise the righteousness
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of God, they can't be made righteous on their
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own, God had to do something. And so the Lord
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steps in. and that's when he sends Christ to
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the earth to be a sacrifice for our sin. All
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of this. as pointed out in the Old Testament.
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And when you get to Romans chapter 6 and 7 and
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8, it's basically all about how you take that
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standard, the standard of righteousness that
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God has, how you implement that into your life.
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And it's not an on -your -own thing. You didn't
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get saved on your own. You're not going to get
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changed on your own either. It all has to be
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a trust and a reliance upon Christ, and He begins
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making the changes inside of us. And it's a supernatural
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thing. The Jews missed that. And so Romans 9,
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10, and 11 is what happened to the Jews. In chapter
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9, you have the choice of God or the election
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of God defended. And one of the points that God
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makes in chapter 9 is not all who are called
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Israel are actually Israel. I'm not going to
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go back over that, but it's the same thing with
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us. Not all who go to Calvary Chapel are of Calvary
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Chapel in that sense. Calvary Chapel is all about
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having a personal relationship with Jesus and
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following the Lord and there are any number of
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people in the room right now and you don't know
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the Lord yet. And so the fact that you're in
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the building or the fact that you attend here
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doesn't make you part of the people of God. Being
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with God, having a real knowledge of Him makes
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you a part of the people of God. building doesn't
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matter, my teaching doesn't matter, the fellowship
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that we have doesn't matter in that sense. Not
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unless you have a real personal relationship
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with Jesus Christ. You're just going to church,
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and all that is is religiosity. The Jews had
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exactly the same problem. In chapter nine, he
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talks about the fact that God's election is based
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on mercy. Not on works. God didn't look down
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through the ages and see you and go, wow, you
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are going to be a great addition to the body
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of Christ. You know what? I really need Steve
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Winnery because he is so talented and good -looking.
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God was not doing that, right? And so God's election
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is based on mercy. God's election is sovereign.
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It's the idea that God gets to choose. God's
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the one who gets to, he's the creator, he's the
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one who made the universe, he's the one who knows
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all things from the beginning. He's the one who
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gets to choose, and it's not according to my
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will or my desire, but it's according to his
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and his desire. And so that's the sovereignty
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of God. And then God's election is open to the
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Gentiles also. And so you see Gentiles, Paul
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talks about the fact, look up in verse 25 of
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chapter 9, I will call them my people who were
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not my people, and her beloved who was not beloved.
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And it shall come to pass in the place where
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it was said to them, you are not my people, there
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they shall be called sons of the living God.
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And so this is again, that's out of the Old Testament
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in Hosea chapter 2 and verse 23. And so God predicts
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the fact that the Gentiles are going to be coming
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in too. That became a problem with the Jews because
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every time Paul preached the gospel in a Jewish
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synagogue, they were open to it until the Gentiles
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were mentioned. And when the Gentiles were mentioned
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as coming in, all of a sudden they started having
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fits. God made a separation between Jews and
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Gentiles, and he rightly did so because of the
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wickedness of Gentile worship. But God always
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had the plan to bring the Gentiles in, and the
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Jews missed it. In any case, God's election was
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open to Gentiles also. And so at the end of chapter
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nine, he talks about the Gentiles as a people.
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Many received Christ and then he talks about
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Israel as a people Many rejected Christ not all
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not all the Gentiles received Christ not all
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the Israelis rejected Christ But again, you have
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this turning away from Jesus by the vast majority
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of the Jews and the question is why? Why did
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these people turn away from the Lord? The first
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thing that Paul talks about, actually he talks
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about it in Chapter 9, is pride. Pride was the
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issue and the fact that these people were self
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-righteous. Now, the term self -righteous, In
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our culture means you're vain. You're focused
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on yourself You think you're more awesome than
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other people are and that's all part of self
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-righteousness But actually what I want to focus
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on is the term itself. It's the idea of my righteousness
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comes from me Self -righteousness and that's
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literally what the Jews had done with the law
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They thought that the righteousness came from
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them. And so in the keeping of the law They thought
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that they were keeping it in the first place,
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which Paul has already pointed out that you're
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not. But in the keeping of the law, they thought
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that's where they found their righteousness.
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And Paul says that they were ignorant of the
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righteousness of God. Look at verse 3, for they
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being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking
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to establish their own righteousness have not
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submitted to the righteousness of God. And so
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if you look back in verse 31, actually verse
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30 of chapter 9 just for a little context. What
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shall we say then? The Gentiles who did not pursue
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righteousness, they're just Gentiles out doing
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Gentile things. This is heathens doing heathen
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things. This is unbelievers doing unbelieving
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things. The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness
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have attained to righteousness even the righteousness
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of faith. But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness,
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has not attained. to the law of righteousness.
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Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but
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as it were by the works of the law, for they
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stumbled at that stumbling stone as it is written,
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Behold I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock
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of offense and whoever believes on him will not
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be put to shame. Okay, so they have an ignorance.
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They have an incomplete knowledge of the righteousness
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of God. And basically what's being spoken about
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is the contrast between gaining a personal relationship
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with the living God and religiosity. It's a difference
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between a churchgoer and a Christian. In fact,
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I don't even use the term Christian anymore when
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I'm talking to people because people think that,
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actually people in the world think being Christian
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just means being a good person. That is not what
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Christian means. It's never been what Christian
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means. The word Christian means small Christ.
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Somebody who looks like a Jesus. And so it was
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actually a term of derision at the Church of
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Antioch. That's where Christians were first called,
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believers were first called Christians. Before
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that point, they were called people of the way.
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Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
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No man comes to the Father except through me.
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As Christian was actually like a term of derision.
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Look at all the little Christ's running around.
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That's what the term means. And so Christian
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is somebody who has been changed to the point
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where they look like a little Jesus. And that
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is something that doesn't come from keeping outward
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commandments. It's something that comes from
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a change in the heart. And again, it's the difference
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between being religious or being a churchgoer
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and being somebody who actually knows Jesus.
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In the 70s, I was called a Jesus freak. People,
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when I was following Jesus in the 70s, people
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called you a Jesus freak because you had acid
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freaks and you had dopers and that kind of stuff.
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This guy is into Jesus. He's a Jesus freak. And
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again, a term of derision became a badge of honor.
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And that's again what you have. with the term
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Christian. So when you're looking at the Jewish
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nation, there's this incomplete knowledge of
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the Lord's righteousness. As a matter of fact,
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it says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness
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and seeking to establish their own righteousness
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have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
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Verse two, it says, I bear them witness that
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they have a zeal for God, but not according to
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knowledge. And that word knowledge is the word.
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epignosyn, and it comes from epignosis, and that's
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a term that means a full, correct, vital, experiential
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knowledge of God. Jesus said it this way, this
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is eternal life. They may know you, the only
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true God and Jesus Christ whom you've sent. And
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so it's a personal knowledge of God. So let me
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put it to you in these terms. I know President
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Trump, but I don't know him. So I know about
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him. He's always in the news. I know about the
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things that he says I know about his hairstyle
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Because that's always in the news. I know about
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him picking on people. That's always in the news
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I know a lot of things about President Trump.
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I know things like he doesn't take a salary That's
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never in the news There's all kinds of things
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that I know about President Trump, but I don't
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know the guy and he doesn't know me And so there
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are a lot of people, including the Jewish people,
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who knew about God, knew things about God, knew
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all about his laws, that kind of stuff, but they
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did not know him. They did not know him personally.
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And Jesus makes this point when he's talking
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to the Pharisees all the time. If you knew God,
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then you wouldn't be living this way. You wouldn't
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be whitewashed tombs. If you knew God, you wouldn't
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be seeking to kill me. As a matter of fact, at
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one point they said, Abraham is our father. And
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he goes, you're not sons of Abraham. If you were
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sons, Abraham would not have done what you do.
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You're seeking to kill me. You're of your father,
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the devil, is what he says to him. And that's
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at the end of his relationship with these guys.
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He doesn't start off with that. He doesn't walk
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up to him and go, hey, Pharisees, you're all
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of the devil. You're all going to burn in hell
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forever. And so would you like to get saved?
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He didn't do that. It's not a great witnessing
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tool. In any case, as they get more rowdy, he
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gets more rowdy with them. And basically, he's
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using his intensity to try to reach these guys.
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They had an incomplete knowledge of God. All
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they knew was stories about him. All they knew
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was commandments that he'd laid down. It's kind
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of a Sunday school knowledge of God. A lot of
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people in church have gone to Sunday school.
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They know all the Old Testament stories. They
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don't necessarily know what they mean. They don't
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necessarily know how they apply to their lives.
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They know some verses in the New Testament. They
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know of the story about Jesus going to the cross.
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I knew that and I had no religious upbringing
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to speak of at all. I knew that stuff. And I
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never had a relationship with Christ until I
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actually received him as my Lord and Savior.
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Lots of people in this world that are just like
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the Jews in exactly the same position. And what
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they're doing is they're thinking that they are
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people who are made righteous and they are righteous
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because of the difference between their lifestyles
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and people that they're comparing themselves
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with. And so with the Jews, The difference is
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between their lifestyle and the lifestyle of
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the Gentiles. And we've talked about this as
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we've been going through Romans. Gentile worship
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was radically wicked. And so whether you're talking
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about the ancient Near East, or whether you're
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talking about Greece, or whether you're even
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talking about Rome, many times, not specifically
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with the Romans, they were a little bit more
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stoic, but they still did some of the same stuff.
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Gentile worship was caught up in sexual immorality.
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And so whether you're talking about the Canaanites,
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or whether you're talking about the Phoenicians,
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or whether you're talking about the Babylonians,
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these people were into, they literally, part
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of their tithe, actually their tithe was coming
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in, sleeping with a temple prostitute, and then
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paying her, and that was their offering to their
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gods. This is something that God kept the people
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of Israel away from and the Israelis looked at
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the rest of the pagan world and just saw degradation
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and corruption and filth and License these were
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wicked people and they were right. They were
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wicked people They were doing what unbelievers
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do and so they're comparing themselves with those
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people and we're like a cut above We're good
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people and they were missing the point of the
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Old Testament law. They thought that they were
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being made righteous by the law. Paul, in the
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midst of that, and they continued to do this
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whole thing, this is why when they're looking
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at the Gentiles, they're having such a problem
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with this. This is a problem that a lot of people
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have with the gospel also. We live in a post
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-Christian world and it's been actually since
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I was a kid. When I was a kid going to public
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school, it was in the 60s. when I was in elementary
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school. It was just after they took prayer out
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of the schools. And so when I went to public
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school, every year we had a Christmas play. And
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it wasn't a winter play. It was a Christmas play.
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And it was Mary and Joseph and the whole story
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of Jesus being born. We had Christmas vacation.
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There was no such thing as a winter break. It
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was Christmas vacation. And when you get to Easter,
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It was not spring break, it was Easter vacation.
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And so literally, it's like around Christmas
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time, we're having plays, like in Charlie Brown
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Christmas, exactly like that. It was exactly
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like that. And we're having these plays about
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who Jesus is and why he came, all that kind of
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stuff, quoting from the Bible, those kinds of
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things. And what's happened over time is we've
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turned away from that. And now it's become winter
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break. I don't allow our school to call it winter
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break. It's not winter break. It's Christmas
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vacation. And this is what we will call it because
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I hate winter break. We've done it with all kinds
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of other things. Now it's not Easter vacation.
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Now it's spring break. And you never hear Jesus
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mentioning those whole things. We can't even
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get the presidents right. You have president's
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day. Which president? Jimmy Carter? Richard Nixon?
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Which president are we talking about? And it
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was Lincoln's birthday and was Washington's birthday.
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We did the little silhouettes of Lincoln and
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Washington and all of that kind of stuff and
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we're moving away culturally from the things
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that grounded us as believers. So this is what
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I'm saying. People come out of that cultural
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background. They think that Christianity is cultural
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and then they think that they're a good person
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because they believe the things that the Bible
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says. And what they're doing is they're comparing
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themselves with others, with those who don't
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believe. For example, what the Bible says. So
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you come up to them and you start talking to
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them about salvation and say, first off, here's
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our problem. We're all sinners. Every one of
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us is sin. We've fallen short of the glory of
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God. Another passage out of Romans. And they
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go, I'm not a sinner. Because they've redefined
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sinner. And now sinner is not somebody who hasn't
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kept the standard that God set up. Sinner is
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somebody who's really awful and over the top
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doing wicked things. And again with the Gentiles,
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you did have that. And that is sin also. But
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sin is failing to do the things that God said.
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The word sin itself literally means missing the
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mark. and it comes from a game that they played
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in the Middle Ages. They put a ring up in a tree
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and you had bows and arrows and you tried to
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get the arrow through the ring hanging in the
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tree and if you didn't hit it, if you didn't
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get through the arrow, you sinned. It was missing
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the mark. That's literally what the word means,
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to miss the mark. And then we took that whole
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idea of a ring in a tree and we made that a bullseye
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on a piece of paper and then we graded. out from
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there to show how close you got to the mark.
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When God looks at sin, it's not how close you
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get to the mark. It's the fact that you miss
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the mark completely. And it doesn't matter if
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you're one ring outside or five rings outside,
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you miss the mark. That's all that sin means.
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And so when we come and we talk to people who
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don't understand that and go, you know what,
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the Bible says that we're all sinners, they start.
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protesting against that because they think that
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you're talking about murderers. They think that
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you're talking about drunkards. They think that
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you're talking about people who commit adultery.
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Those are sinners. Are they? Yes, absolutely.
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A person who does not do the will of God, knows
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to do right and decides to not do it is a sinner.
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You know that you're supposed to be kind to somebody
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and you decide to keep your mouth shut. You just
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missed the mark. You know that God says not to
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do something and it doesn't have to be a huge
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thing. But God has said not to do something and
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you do it anyway. You've not only missed the
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mark, you've transgressed. Now you did it on
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purpose. And so when you're looking at the standard
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in the Bible, the standard isn't comparison among
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ourselves. In fact, Paul in another place says,
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those who compare themselves among themselves
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are not wise. And we can do that all day long.
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I can find all kinds of people who are less,
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have a lower standard in their life than I do.
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People who when I compare myself with them, I
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look awesome in comparison to them. For example,
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murderers. And this is one of those things that
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I hear all the time when I'm sharing with non
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-believers. I've never murdered anybody. I'm
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not a sinner. I've never murdered anybody. See
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where their standard is? Their standard's not
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up here. Their standard's way down here. And
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so you guys, if half the people on the planet
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murdered somebody, all the rest of us would be
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dead. That's not a high standard. That's that
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God's not looking at that going. Oh, wow, what
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self -control you never killed anybody Okay,
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come on head buddy. And again Jesus doesn't allow
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that Jesus when you get to the Sermon on the
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Mount for example, actually, you don't want I
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don't want to go there first I want to go to
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the Old Testament law and so These guys are saying,
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they're pursuing the law of righteousness, it
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says in verse 31 of the last chapter, they have
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not attained to the law of righteousness. Why?
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Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as
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it were by the works of the law. When you look
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over in verse five of chapter 10, he says, for
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Moses writes about the righteousness which is
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of the law, the man who does those things shall
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live by them. And we talked about this before
23:33
because Paul quotes from this routinely in the
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New Testament. It's the idea of if you keep the
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law and you keep it perfectly, then you will
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live by those things. And it's the idea of having
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eternal life. You will have eternal life if you
23:47
can keep the law perfectly. And again, that's
23:50
a problem because built into the law is the fact
23:54
that you can't keep it. You've been listening
24:05
to Crosswalk with Pastor Steve Winnery. Crosswalk
24:08
is the radio ministry of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities
24:10
in Kennewick, Washington. If you're wanting to
24:12
know more about what it means to follow Christ,
24:15
then please contact our church office by phone
24:17
at 509 -736 -2086. You can also look us up online
24:22
at calvary -tricities .org. Calvary Chapel Tri
24:26
-Cities is offering two in -person training courses
24:29
for those seeking to serve in missions or ministry.
24:32
The School of Missions starts with 12 weeks of
24:35
classroom -style learning and local outreach
24:37
in the Tri -Cities, Washington, followed by a
24:39
10 -week cross -cultural mission outreach. The
24:42
School of Ministry, this course is 18 weeks of
24:44
in -person learning environment followed by a
24:47
four -week mission trip. Find out more at calvarytrainingcenternw
24:51
.com.