Welcome back to Books of
the Book and we are studying
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the book of Galatians and
we have been talking today
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about justification.
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It is the powerful and
beautiful core concept and
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it is the gospel.
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Justification is a
key part of the gospel.
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You have the role of
justification and sanctification
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which all comes through
faith in Christ of which
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we will be talking more about.
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We are talking about how
justification is needed because
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of the condemnation
that the law brings.
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Justification is for the
purpose of bringing our hearts
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into harmony with that
law and with the will of God.
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Which is expressed in that law.
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We have been talking
about the need of justification
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and I want to look
at the gospel of Luke.
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We are going to Luke 5
and find a passage here in the
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words of Jesus that
really draw out this issue,
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the importance of sensing
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the need of the
justification of Christ.
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You will find in
Luke chapter 5:30 with me.
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Matthew, Mark, Luke chapter
5:30 and it says in there,
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"And the scribes and the
Pharisees complained against
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"His disciples saying,
why do You eat and drink with
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"tax collectors and sinners?"
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We will comment on
that in just a moment.
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"Jesus answered and said to
them, those who are well have
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"no need of a physician,
but those who are sick.
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"I have not come
to call the righteous,
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"but sinners to repentance. "
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The point that Jesus is making
here is that the ministry,
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His ministry was not to
those who didn't need help
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but to those who did.
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Not only to those who
didn't need help per se,
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because
everybody needed His help.
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His ministry was to those
who sensed they were sick,
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who sensed their need.
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I want to appeal to the
viewers about the beauty of
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God justifying the ungodly.
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It is not uncommon for
people to think, well I am so
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wretched, I'm so sinful that
I couldn't ask God, I couldn't
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expect God to accept me,
He would never accept me.
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That's exactly, exactly
who Jesus came to serve.
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That's why we see Him and
it is the reason they are so
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upset because He was with
tax collectors and sinners.
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In their mind He was hanging
out with the type of people
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that were the worst of the
worst and you would never be
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found in the a company
of these lowlife people.
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But those were the very people
that Jesus was always with.
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They sense their need of Him.
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That's right, that's right
and you know when you think
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about that, there are two
ditches that we can fall into.
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The one is thinking that
we are not worthy of that
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justification, that
somehow we are not able to bring
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ourselves into the presence
of God because we cannot
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imagine Him seeing all our
flaws and not recognizing we
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must be brought into the
presence of God in order to have
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those flaws
removed in order for Him to
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cover us with His blood.
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Having said that, there is
another subtle deception of
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our heart that
sometimes happens when it
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comes to justifying ourselves.
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That is that we recognize
we are guilty, we admit that
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we are guilty and we
are proud we are guilty.
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It makes us feel humble
sometimes and if we are not
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careful we cannot look
at this in the right light.
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One of my favorite passages
is where David says when
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he is writing after his
own sin, a very serious sin.
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About his
repentance when he says,
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"I acknowledge my trans-
gressions" there in Psalm 51.
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Well the point that I would
like to make is David did not
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just acknowledge his
transgressions, he acknowledged
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his transgressions
to be transgressions.
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In other words, it's
one thing to know what
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you are doing is wrong
because God says it's wrong.
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It is another thing to
believe and understand in your
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heart why it is wrong, to
believe in your heart that it
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is wrong, if you only
believe it is wrong because
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God says it's wrong
and you try to fix it,
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you are not going to
understand why and you won't put
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your whole heart into it.
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In other words if
you only think that
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God thinks it's wrong.
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So God things it's wrong
and I know God thinks is wrong
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so I won't do it, but in
your own heart if it wasn't
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because of what God said
He would say that it really
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isn't that big a deal to me
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but I guess it's
a big deal to Him.
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That's right for an example
like as a parent if I tell
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my daughter don't ride
out where the cars are, so she
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takes her bike and instead
of riding right where the cars
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are she rides
right next to where the
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cars are and where they park.
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She's thinking I don't
know why they don't want me out
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there but I can be here
because she does not fully
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understand the danger
I'm trying to tell her about.
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So because she
doesn't understand that
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she pushes the envelope.
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A lot of times people
push the envelope in terms of
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the will of God because
they don't really acknowledge
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their transgressions
as transgressions,
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they don't really accept
God's will and I think about
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justification
through faith in Christ.
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We are talking
about the cross of Christ
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that justifies us.
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It is our substitute, Jesus
has taken our penalty for us.
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At the same time we are
acknowledging that, that penalty
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He is taking for our sins,
we are also accepting His will.
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The act of acknowledging our
sin crucified the Son of God,
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at the same time if we
truly are acknowledging that
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we are going to accept His
will as expressed in His law.
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We are going to accept
that to be a new way of life
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otherwise we are
not really acknowledging
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that sin was sin.
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That's right, that's right
it reminds me of the parable
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of the Pharisee
and the tax collector.
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It's in Luke 18 and
again you have it in
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the context of justification.
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Luke 18:9 that "Jesus
spoke this parable to some who
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"trusted in themselves
that they were righteous
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"and despised others. "
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The idea is when God says
something is right or wrong and
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I feel at liberty to do
something different, in essence
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I'm trusting in
myself that I am righteous.
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This is a hard concept
to get through as Christians
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Because as
Christians we are taught
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a lot of cliche religion.
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We know we are not supposed
to say we are righteous.
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Christians, no, no I'm a sinner
we say, but it is possible
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for the mouth to
confess the poverty of soul that
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the heart does not
recognize. - right, right!
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Here is the case with
this Pharisee who he trusted in
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himself, the root word
of righteousness is right.
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He might not have felt he
was perfect, but he thought he
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had some good ideas, good
enough to at least put him
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above this tax collector.
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And that is what we
find in the parable.
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as they go up to pray.
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The Pharisee prays and he says,
thank you God that I am not
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as bad as other people, but
the tax collector it says in
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verse 13, "standing afar
off, would not so much as raise
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"his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast, saying,
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"God be
merciful to me a sinner!"
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I think of that, why does
a person beat their breasts?
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But he really feels a soul
anguish over his unworthiness.
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And Jesus responds to these
two and says in verse 14, and
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"I tell you, this man" the
one who beat his breast, the
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tax collector, "went down
to his house justified rather
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"than the other; for
everyone who exalts himself
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"will be humbled,
and he who humbles
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"himself will be exalted. "
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- Amen, Amen, it sounds
a lot like another story in
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the Old
Testament, Cain and Abel.
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I always think about that
story because Cain and Abel
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were the sons of Adam and
Eve and they both were taught
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to worship God.
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They both did worship God,
God had already given them the
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instruction on sacrifice,
animal sacrifices that would
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point forward to
the death of Christ.
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So they were already in the
process of erecting an altar,
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worshiping and we have the
story in Genesis 4 were they
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both worshiped God, they
both set up an altar but Cain
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instead of offering a
lamb as God had prescribed,
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he decided to offer
the fruit of the ground.
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He was a farmer and thought
that was as good as the other
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after all he was worshiping God.
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He was for the most part,
as it were we might say today
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a good person, but it said
that God did not accept or have
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respect unto his offering,
only on to Abel's offering.
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So here we have a perfect
picture of this idea that as
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long as I do most things
okay, that is really okay.
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It is the same thing
that the young lawyer tried to
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justify himself said, he
said hey as long as I consider
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these people my neighbor
do I really have to consider
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everybody my neighbor?
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So the idea of justifying
ourselves is we weave into
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our own element the
worship of God or into obedience
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to God, being clearly obedience
might seem as a sign of
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weakness almost rather
than following God faithfully.
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- Well obedience is
treated by some to be something
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that is contrary to faith.
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In other words if you obey
strictly you must not believe
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or something of that nature.
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What we see is the belief
prompts this trust that what
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God says is right.
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Justification comes to
the man like the tax collector
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who can accept that what
God says is right and yield his
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own desires, or his own
concepts of what is right.
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We find that where we
looked at Romans 4:5 where
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it talked about God
justifying the ungodly.
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Again in Romans 4:5, "but
to him who does not work but
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"the believes on Him who
justifies the ungodly, his faith
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"is accounted
for righteousness. "
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It is talking about Abraham
two verses earlier Romans 4:3
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says, "Abraham believed
God and it was accounted
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"to him for righteousness. "
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Abraham accepted God's
assessment of his own condition
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and God's
assessment of the remedy.
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He didn't try to
ultimately manufacture that.
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He ultimately came to the
point where he accepted what
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God said and he acted
on it, and he obeyed it.
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Because of his
attitude of obedience to God,
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his allegiance to God,
the Bible says his faith
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was counted as righteousness.
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I like that word
attitude that you used.
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It really describes well
the issue when it comes to
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justification because
there are many people who wonder
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if I am a sinner and Jesus
died for me to cover my sins,
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then why do I have
to worry about obeying?
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What makes the difference?
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How is one person
justified who is a sinner and
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another person is not?
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Well the issue has
everything to do with attitude.
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The example of Abraham was
perfect because if you look in
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Romans 4:20 it says
something very interesting.
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"He did not waver at the promise
of God through unbelief. "
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Now the idea there of not
wavering at the promise of God
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is a little bit funny because
we know he made mistakes.
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You can read them in the
book of Genesis where he made
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mistakes, so why did
he say I did not waver.
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Or why could he
say he did not waver?
00:12:00.15\00:12:02.28
Well the reason is because
Abraham never really looked
00:12:02.32\00:12:04.95
back, Abraham never gave up.
00:12:04.99\00:12:07.36
Abraham never
turned back on God.
00:12:07.39\00:12:09.72
Abraham always was
seeking to move forward and even
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though he was making mistakes,
those mistakes could be
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covered because he was pressing
and on in the work of God.
00:12:16.43\00:12:19.70
He was pressing on in
his efforts to follow God.
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That is right so whole
issue we are talking about
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justification, what
is key is the realization
00:12:25.67\00:12:28.74
of the need for it.
00:12:28.78\00:12:30.85
As Paul was pointing out
that a man is not justified
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by works of the law
but by faith in Christ.
00:12:32.88\00:12:35.12
The reality is this, a person
who trusts in the works of the
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law, does not see their need.
00:12:38.59\00:12:40.39
They feel the ability to
meet their requirements of God
00:12:40.42\00:12:44.13
in their own strength and
this is why verse 15 it says,
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"we who are Jews by nature and
not sinners of the Gentiles. "
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The challenge was because
Jews where religious felt that
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they were above the
Gentiles and they had some
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righteousness in themselves, the
way that too often Christians
00:12:56.24\00:12:59.51
today are tempted to
feel that they have something
00:12:59.54\00:13:01.68
they really don't have.
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Paul was trying to make a
point, you are as much in need
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of justification as the
most common ungodly sinner.
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But if we sense our need
and we sense our guilt then
00:13:09.58\00:13:13.09
Jesus is willing
and ready to justify us.
00:13:13.15\00:13:15.72
Absolutely right, it
all comes down to realizing
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our need of Christ.
00:13:18.56\00:13:19.89
Also Paul said in 1
Timothy 1:15, "Christ Jesus came
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"into this world to save
sinners of who I am chief. "
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If you feel like the chief
of sinners Jesus came for you.
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Accept Him today.
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