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Romans 7:4-6 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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So we've been working our way through the book of Romans, which has been truly a pleasure.
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And we have really seen this developing case for justification by faith alone.
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! Paul is hammering this point, because if you miss this point, you miss Christianity really in its entirety.
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Justification by faith alone, we can't be seen as right before God, as righteous before Him, apart from faith.
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It's not from the law. It's not from morality. It's not from showing up on Sunday morning to church.
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All those things we think are good, it's from faith that we are justified.
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And he begins to make this argument for us here in chapter 7 that we've actually been released from the law.
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And he uses a fairly simple analogy, simply just to say, as far as this analogy goes, we shouldn't try to pull out of it, divorce doctrine.
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And he's simply saying, if a woman is married to a man and he dies, she's not married to him anymore.
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That's the simplicity of the analogy that he gives us.
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And he goes on in verse 4 to say, likewise, my brothers.
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We're going to talk about verse 4, 5, and 6 today.
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And I want to point out that he says, likewise, my brothers.
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Those who have placed their faith in Christ is who he's referring to.
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Those who have placed their faith in Christ.
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We see in verse 5 who we once were if we have not.
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Excuse me, let me correct myself.
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Who we once were if we have.
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Who you may be if you have not.
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Verse 5, for while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
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Our sinful passions, that very nature that we inherited from Adam, was at work within us.
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And when the law came into place, we knew those things that were wrong.
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It aroused in us all kinds of fruit for death.
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It's who we were if we placed our faith in Christ.
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It's who you may be if you have not.
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And then verse 4 and verse 6 are fairly reflexive.
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And I want you to see that.
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In verse 4, you have died to the law.
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Verse 6, we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive.
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So in Christ, in his death, we have also died to the law.
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To what end?
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Notice the similarities again.
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Verse 4, to belong to another.
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That is Jesus Christ.
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To bear fruit for God.
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This is the end of verse 4.
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To belong to another in order to bear fruit for God.
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And in verse 6, to serve in the new way of the Spirit.
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So we have died to the law in order that we might live in the Spirit.
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I want you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 3.
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We're going to give the binding of your Bible a workout today.
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2 Corinthians chapter 3.
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We're going to read together verses 4 through 6.
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Paul writes to the Corinthians,
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You're seeing our connection there.
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Back to Romans 7, 6.
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The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
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And because of the work of Jesus Christ, we have been made competent or sufficient to be ministers of what?
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A new covenant.
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He says a new covenant.
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There must have been an old covenant.
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Right?
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If there is a new one, there must have been an old.
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And the old covenant that he's referring to is the covenant of the law.
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The Mosaic covenant.
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We're not talking about the Abrahamic covenant.
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We're talking about the Mosaic covenant.
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That covenant that came by the law and God said to his people,
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If you live by these rules, we're okay.
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Everything's going to be okay between us.
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That's the old covenant.
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But we've been now set free from that.
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Right?
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We've died to that old covenant to live to a new covenant.
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A new covenant that's not of the law.
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It's of the Spirit.
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This is so important that we wrap our minds around what this means for our living.
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I am a sinful person.
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And in my flesh, I so want a new law.
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I so want just another set of rules.
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Just give it to me plainly.
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Tell me exactly what a Christian should look like.
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And let me just march along following those little rules.
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I will not be justified before God.
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Because of anything that I do.
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But simply because of my faith.
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And we must understand this together.
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Turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 31.
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We're going to work out that binding all over the place.
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Jeremiah the prophet brings to us the words of God speaking of this new covenant.
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So we see already here in Jeremiah speaking to what would be accomplished in Christ.
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Jeremiah 31, 31.
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Chapter 31, verse 31.
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Jeremiah wrote the words of God.
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Now behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
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And let's pause there for a second.
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I don't have time to explain it to you today.
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But those who are found in Christ is who he's talking about.
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The house of Israel and the house of Judah is the church.
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But the house of Israel and the house of Judah, verse 32.
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Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
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My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.
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But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.
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I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts.
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And I will be their God and they shall be my people.
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And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me.
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From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.
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For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.
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So here we see God speaking through Jeremiah, talking already of the covenant, the new covenant that is to come,
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the covenant of the spirit that comes by faith.
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I will put my law within them and I will write it.
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On their hearts.
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How is it that we live the Christian life?
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By the spirit, by our hearts that have been changed from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh that can worship our God.
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This is a treasure.
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This is something that ought to be immensely awesome to us.
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But it isn't always, is it?
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I'm not even sure we totally comprehend what it means.
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I think that for us to live that Christian life, we must have further unfolding revelations of Christ.
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We must see him fresh and new every day.
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I must remember that in my greatest effort, I fall so short.
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But because of what Christ has accomplished, I have been set free to live and to worship him.
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As such, I hope to give you a fresh revelation of Christ this morning from the book of Hebrews.
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You ready?
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One more time.
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Hebrews chapter 7.
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And I promise we'll get back to Romans.
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I did not anticipate how much time it would take to flip.
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I bookmarked mine.
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It's not very fair.
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I'm sorry.
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Hebrews chapter 7.
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We're going to go to verse 18.
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Hebrews chapter 7.
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Hebrews chapter 7.
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Hebrews chapter 7.
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Hebrews chapter 7.
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Hebrews chapter 7.
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Hebrews chapter 7.
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Hebrews 7.
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Hebrews 7.
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For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness.
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For the law made nothing perfect.
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But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God.
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We've died to the law.
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It's the same language the writer of Hebrews is using.
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We have died to the law that we might belong to another.
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Verse 20.
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And it was not without an oath.
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For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath.
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But this one, being Christ, was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him,
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The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.
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You are a priest forever.
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And the rest of that, which you can see up in verse 17, after the order of Melchizedek.
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Verse 22.
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This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
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Now, this is key.
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It's not just that we have a new promise that has come to us that was like the old,
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that depended on this Levitical line of priests that failed in their offering as they were charged to make atonement
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and to make intercession for the people of God.
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And they failed in this.
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It wasn't the same.
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It came with an oath.
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An oath from who?
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From God.
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This is a quote from Psalm 110.
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Psalm 110.
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It's a psalm of David.
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And it's an exploration, if you will, of some oracles of God.
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There are two oracles given to us in Psalm 110.
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You're welcome to look there if you want, but I'll just explain it to you.
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Okay?
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Psalm 110, verse 1.
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He's speaking to Christ.
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The Lord says to my Lord, God says to Jesus, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
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Speaks to the kingly attributes of Jesus Christ.
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And then in verse 4, he says this,
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The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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And that's all we get in 110 about verse 4.
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There's an explanation.
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Following verse 1, there's two verses of explanation.
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Some expansion on what David is being inspired to write there.
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And then there's verse 4.
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And he goes right into verse 5 to speak more about Christ's kingly attributes.
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He doesn't speak about him as priest in that case.
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David and all the kings of Jerusalem were commanded upon becoming king to write down a fresh copy of the word of God.
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You know that?
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No printing presses.
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They were commanded to write down a fresh copy, a copy that was theirs to study through and meditate on.
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And they were told to do so every day.
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So it can be assumed, and I will say that, certainly I'm making an assumption,
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but it can be assumed that David was studying the Old Testament.
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And as he was studying through it, he came to this character Melchizedek.
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And he was moved by the Spirit to pen this oracle from God that Jesus would be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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So who is this guy?
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He's not mentioned often in the Bible.
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Twice in the Old Testament.
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Once in Psalm 110.
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The other place in Genesis chapter 14 for three verses.
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In Genesis chapter 14, Abram is now sojourning in the land that God was to give to him.
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And he has gone to war.
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Five kings, which were essentially kings of towns, kind of mayors, five kings, had risen up against the city of Sodom and had taken captive his nephew Lot.
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So Abram gets with three other kings.
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Four of them go after.
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They pursue this army, which was led by a guy named, if I can remember his name properly.
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I always call him Cheddar.
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His name's Keterlororum or something like that.
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I might have written it down.
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Let me see.
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I'll flip my notes over here.
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Oh, I did.
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Good for me.
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Keterleomer.
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Keterleomer is his name.
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But I call him Cheddar.
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But they pursue him and they're victorious.
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They're victorious.
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And Abram goes back then to the king of Sodom.
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And as was the custom in those days, to return all the captives.
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He was bringing back the people of Sodom to give them back to the king of Sodom.
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And he would have been able then to keep the spoils of war.
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So we see in Genesis chapter 14 this story going on.
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But then there's this insertion.
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There's three verses that are inserted in the middle of the story and don't seem to have much bearing on the rest of it.
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And that's the story of Melchizedek.
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Melchizedek was the king of Salem.
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The king of the city of peace.
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And it's proposed and probably true that he was actually the king of Jerusalem.
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Here in this area, there are many cities called Salem in the region.
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But because of where they were, he probably was the king of Jerusalem.
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And his name means king of righteousness.
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So here we see this man who's both a king and a priest.
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And he comes to Abram in the valley.
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He brings all of his men bread and wine to nourish them.
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And he blesses Abram for what he's done.
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And Abram gives to him a tithe.
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Ten percent of the spoils of his war.
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And here it is kind of inserted in there.
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Now, in this case, the silence about Melchizedek is deafening.
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And the reason for that is if we're careful readers as we read through the book of Genesis,
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we will see that everyone in the book of Genesis with significance has a lineage given to us.
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We understand who they were, where they came from, who they begot, so to speak.
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There are characters in there that that doesn't happen with, but they're pretty insignificant.
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Here we see Melchizedek doesn't seem to have a lineage.
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Not saying that he didn't.
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It's not reported for us.
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It's incredibly significant to our understanding of who he was and who Jesus is in the book of Hebrews.
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So we have then, quite some time later, David writes,
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You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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Why is that substantial to us?
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Jesus Christ is our prophet, priest, and king.
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You know what the Levitical law?
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Forbid a king from also being a priest.
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Did you know that?
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It's pretty significant.
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Forbid a king from also being a priest.
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How then can Christ come and be that type of priest?
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Because he can't be our king if he's that type of priest.
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If he serves under that covenant, it's not possible for that to happen.
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He's not after the Levitical line.
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I've got a great example of God's seriousness about such a law.
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Remember when Saul was ousted as king and David took his place?
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Do you remember why that was?
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He was a king who tried to do the duties of the priest.
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That was the sin that God turned him out for.
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We're trying to be a king priest.
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So it's very significant that Jesus is after the order of Melchizedek.
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Not after the Levitical line.
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Not after Aaron.
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And that helps us understand that we serve in a new covenant.
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Alright?
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Back to Hebrews.
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Chapter...
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Or, excuse me.
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We're in chapter 7.
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Verse 22.
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This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
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Verse 23.
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The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office.
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They were finite, right?
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They died.
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At some point, they no longer could carry out their duties.
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But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.
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Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him,
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since he always lives to make intercession for them.
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You're catching the significance now?
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Why he's a priest at the order of Melchizedek and not of the Levitical line?
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He always lives to make intercession for us.
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For us.
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For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest,
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holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.
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He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily,
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first for his own sins and then for those of the people,
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since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
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For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests,
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but the word of the oath, which came later than the law,
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appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.
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I hope that your mind is lifting toward the person of Jesus Christ.
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He was unlike the Levitical priests in varying ways.
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He was a priest forever.
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He's a priest king, which none of them could be.
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But he's like them in some ways as well.
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There are many of typologies throughout the Old Testament
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that are meant to help us understand who Jesus was coming to be on our behalf.
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The Levitical priests were given very careful instruction about everything that they did.
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There was nothing left to guessing.
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Even what they wore, the high priest wore, was very carefully explained to him.
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And when we see that in Exodus chapter 28,
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the high priest wore two garments that were of significance to our conversation this morning.
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One was called an ephod,
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and it was fabric that hung on the front and the back of his body,
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and it was connected at the shoulders by stones.
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The second that I'm discussing this morning was a breastplate that he wore.
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And on it were twelve stones.
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And these stones are really significant because the stones on his shoulders
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had six of the tribes of Israel on one shoulder
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and six of the tribes of Israel written on the other,
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on these stones on his shoulders.
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And the breastplate had twelve stones, all of different type,
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each with the name of a tribe of Israel written on his chest.
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He was meant to go into the presence of God
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with his strength,
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bearing those names on his shoulders,
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and with the names of Israel close to his heart,
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and make atonement for them and intercede for them.
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That was the job of the priest, the high priest,
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was to make atonement and to intercede for the people of God.
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It's a particular group of people, wasn't it?
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He had a group of people that he was charged to do this for.
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The Israelites.
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Their names were written here and here.
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A particular group written for him.
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In the same way,
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Jesus Christ intercedes on our behalf
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and makes atonement for our sin.
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Who is us, the church.
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Those who place their faith in him.
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Look back at the end of Hebrews chapter 7.
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I want you to see the two things there.
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The very end of verse 25.
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He always lives to make intercession for them.
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If that word is new to you,
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Jesus Christ stands between us and God.
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He allows us interaction with God.
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He is praying on our behalf,
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even now as we sit here,
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sitting at the right hand of the Father,
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interceding, that's what that word means, for us.
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And in verse 27, he's made atonement.
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Doesn't have to do it continually, does he?
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Very end of the verse.
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Since he did this once for all,
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when he offered up himself.
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Jesus Christ,
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the perfect, spotless sacrifice,
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has made atonement for the sins of the church forever.
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The things that you have done,
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the things maybe even that you're doing now,
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and anything that you will do
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has been atoned for,
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blows my mind.
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That is incredible.
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So why did I tell you all this?
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Why did I tell you all this?
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How does that connect back
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into Romans chapter 7?
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I'm not Mark now,
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so I've got to turn it back with you.
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Here we go.
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What's the point
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of all of this?
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What is Paul trying to communicate to us
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in these three verses?
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Four, five, and six.
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You do not have to sin.
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If you have placed your faith in Christ,
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you have been delivered
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from it and the consequences of it.
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You do not have to continue in sin.
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You've been liberated from it.
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You've been set free from it.
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We still do, though, don't we?
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Paul goes on to say
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in the rest of chapter 7
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that it's not an easy task.
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There's a war waging within him.
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But you don't have to sin anymore.
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How do we do that?
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We make God big in our lives.
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We see Jesus Christ as immense.
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And if we do that,
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sin seems really small
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and really trivial.
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I'll give you a,
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I hope it's a good example.
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I started a new diet
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last Sunday.
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And,
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not really like a fad diet.
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I'm not
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doing anything crazy.
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I'm not like drinking
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cucumber juice and that's it
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or anything like that.
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I have had some health issues
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for a decade
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and I've felt fairly convicted
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that I need to eat a
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plant-based whole foods diet.
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I won't get to all the particulars,
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but it means I'm limiting
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animal protein in my diet.
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I'm not drinking anything
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or eating anything
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with high fructose corn syrup
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or stuff.
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I'll kill you.
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I'm eating very,
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very little sugar.
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Like,
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I had some peanut butter
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that's got some sugar in it,
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but that type of thing.
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So,
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I'm trying to eat much healthier.
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And I've been doing that
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for the past week.
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So far,
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I'm still fighting that good fight.
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But,
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it is so hard.
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It is so hard to do.
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Because,
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I'm not the kind of guy
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that eats that way.
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And I know I'm twiggy.
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That's genetics.
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I love sugar.
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I absolutely love sweets.
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I'm a type 1 diabetic
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and at some point
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I had a doctor say,
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don't worry about the sugar,
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just take insulin for it.
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And I said,
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okay.
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And,
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I love it.
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I will down a couple of sodas a day,
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bring on the candy.
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My wife makes fun of me.
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I mean,
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she can't open up something
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at the house that's sweet
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without it being gone that day.
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I'm bad.
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I'm bad about that.
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So,
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I now have this conviction,
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this understanding in my mind,
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really,
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that I need to change that
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and I need to live a different way
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with what I ingest.
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And I have a very big picture goal
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in my mind,
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which is to be healthier than I am
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and to live to the end of my days
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in a healthier state
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and to be there for my family
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and those types of things.
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Are you catching the similarity here?
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I'm trying to live not for today,
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but I'm trying to live for what will come.
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Right?
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We have a little,
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Wes and I share an office
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at Troop McConnell College
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and we host people.
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So,
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we have a little fridge
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in our office
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and it's glass front
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and we stock it with Cokes
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and things like that.
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So,
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when people come tour to the campus,
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they say,
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hey,
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can we get you anything to drink?
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Okay.
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So,
26:53
every time I walk to my desk,
26:54
I walk right by this fridge.
26:57
It's been tough.
26:58
It's been really,
26:59
really tough.
27:00
The campus store is downstairs
27:02
so I can walk downstairs
27:03
and buy any kind of candy bar I want
27:05
anytime right there.
27:08
It's been very challenging.
27:10
So,
27:11
how do I not do those things?
27:13
How do I not eat the things
27:14
that I'm trying not to eat?
27:17
I remember what I'm trying to accomplish.
27:22
The other day,
27:23
I was having a particular crummy afternoon
27:25
and Wes was out
27:29
and so I got up
27:30
and later realized
27:32
that this was great
27:33
for this analogy
27:34
but I got up
27:35
and I walked down the hall
27:36
to a co-worker
27:36
and I began to tell her
27:38
all about my diet.
27:39
So,
27:39
literally,
27:40
I walked in her office
27:40
and said,
27:41
hey,
27:41
Hannah,
27:41
how's it going?
27:41
She said,
27:42
good.
27:42
I said,
27:42
I'm having a really hard time
27:43
not eating sugar right now.
27:44
She said,
27:46
okay.
27:46
I said,
27:47
you see,
27:47
I'm doing this diet
27:48
and I told her all about it
27:48
and before I knew it,
27:51
I was telling her
27:51
all the reasons I was doing it,
27:53
why I cared so much
27:55
to do what I'm doing
27:56
and you know what?
27:59
I didn't want sugar anymore.
28:00
The coat could stay in the fridge.
28:03
No big deal anymore
28:04
because I remembered
28:05
why I'm doing what I'm doing.
28:09
And the same is true for us here.
28:11
This is what Paul
28:12
is trying to show us.
28:15
That because of Jesus Christ,
28:16
because of what He has done,
28:17
because of His death,
28:19
His perfect sacrifice
28:21
on our behalf,
28:22
we've been set free.
28:25
We can now live
28:27
in Him.
28:28
And our minds are just so,
28:34
I'm just,
28:34
I can't believe how idiotic I am.
28:36
I forget it all the time.
28:41
All the time.
28:42
I need to hear the Gospel
28:43
constantly.
28:46
I need to see grander,
28:48
more expanding views
28:50
of Jesus Christ.
28:52
I hope this morning,
28:53
the connection to Melchizedek
28:54
did that for you.
28:56
It did it for me this week.
28:56
I hope it did it for you.
29:00
Jesus Christ has made
29:02
a grand sacrifice
29:04
on our behalf.
29:05
And if we treasure that,
29:07
if we actually understand
29:09
what He's done
29:10
on our behalf,
29:11
not like the typical
29:13
Southeastern Christian
29:15
who grew up moral,
29:19
but we actually get
29:20
the weight of our sin,
29:21
we understand that
29:22
we've offended a holy God,
29:24
that He could actually
29:25
have nothing to do with us
29:27
apart from the atoning work
29:29
of Jesus Christ.
29:31
If we could just understand
29:33
that every day
29:34
and let that be big
29:36
in our lives,
29:37
sin,
29:39
it's trivial.
29:40
Why would I do
29:41
this little silly thing
29:43
that brings to me death
29:45
when I can live
29:46
to Christ?
29:48
I wonder where that
29:51
leaves you this morning.
29:54
If you're not a Christian,
29:55
if you've never placed
29:56
your faith in Jesus Christ,
29:57
if you have thought
29:58
that you can maintain
29:59
and get to God
30:01
by works,
30:03
you're wrong.
30:03
Your soul's in a desperate state.
30:07
Great time to deal with that.
30:09
No time like now
30:10
to repent and believe
30:12
that Jesus Christ
30:13
is the way
30:14
to God.
30:15
You might be feeling
30:18
this morning
30:18
the burden of your sin
30:20
as a Christian.
30:24
God doesn't see you
30:26
the way you feel
30:29
right now.
30:30
God sees you as a son
30:32
because Christ
30:34
sits eternally
30:36
with His right hand
30:38
making intercession
30:39
and He has made
30:40
atonement for you.
30:42
One of my favorite parts
30:44
of my day
30:44
is when I get home
30:45
from work,
30:47
Cade is always
30:47
very excited to see me.
30:50
It's usually short-lived
30:51
but for some moments
30:52
he's really excited
30:53
that I'm home
30:53
and I put down my bag
30:55
and I squat down
30:56
and he runs
30:58
full force.
30:59
It's kind of scary even
31:00
into me
31:01
and gives me a hug.
31:02
So,
31:03
I squat down,
31:03
Cade,
31:04
and he,
31:04
boom,
31:05
bolts at me
31:05
and I kind of have to
31:06
cradle him
31:06
so he doesn't
31:06
knock himself out.
31:07
He runs into me
31:08
so hard.
31:09
There is nothing
31:11
Cade could do.
31:13
Nothing.
31:13
Sam could report
31:15
that he did
31:15
the most terrible
31:16
things that day
31:17
and nothing
31:18
is going to stop me
31:19
from embracing him
31:20
when he runs
31:21
from me that way.
31:22
Right?
31:24
Come here,
31:24
son,
31:25
because he's my son.
31:26
Your sons and daughters
31:28
are the Most High God.
31:30
Run to His arms.
31:33
Enlarge in your vision
31:34
of who He is
31:35
and you'll begin
31:37
to see
31:38
the sin
31:39
work out
31:40
of your life.
31:41
of your soul.