Welcome back, you know
right before our break Jim, you
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were talking in Galatians
5:5 of how it talks about how
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we eagerly wait for the
hope of righteousness by faith.
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- yes! - You know it's powerful
about this is we had talked
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just before the break about
how the Bible says there is
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no one good, no not one.
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The tendency, especially in
our culture today is to feel
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demeaned when it happens.
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We have a hard time saying
what do you mean if no one is
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righteous, if no one is
good then that means that
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I am not a good person.
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That is exactly right,
but here's the beauty of it.
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That is exactly who God
offers righteousness to.
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The whole idea is, all
have sinned, there is none
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righteous so we are all
on the same playing field.
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God says to us if you could
recognize that, if you will
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realize that, I have
righteousness for you.
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The only righteousness
that you can find comes from Me
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and I have it for you.
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It says here, for we eagerly
wait for this righteousness.
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In other words it becomes
the all-consuming desire of the
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person who realizes their
need because it is the only way
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out. - that's right and
just because we don't have
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righteousness does not
mean we are not valuable to God.
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He paid everything, all
of heaven for us, so He is
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helping us to see here
that we are bankrupt of what we
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need and He is trying to
rescue us by giving us that
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very thing that we need.
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I think of the story -
well let me interject for
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a moment, I think of a
kitten caught up in the tree and
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you are trying to get
the kitten out of the tree.
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Will that poor kitten doesn't
always realize you're trying
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to help it, right?
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In the same way this is
the picture that God is giving.
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He wants us to see a condition,
He didn't make the condition,
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the condition exists.
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This is the condition
that we in, we're unrighteous.
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We do not have the righteousness
we need to continue and
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so God is trying to make
that condition known to us.
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We don't necessarily perceive
His goodness in making that
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known, just as a kitten doesn't
realize we're trying to help.
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God is trying to bring us
into an understanding that
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this is for your good.
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I'm just telling you condition
that has already existed
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if you will accept it
and receive that, and then
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you can receive
My righteousness.
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Amen, you know He had to
deal with this along the way
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during His earthly life.
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I remember the story in
John 6 when He was telling the
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people that you need Me.
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Unless you eat the flesh
and drink the blood of the
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Son of Man, you
have no life in you.
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No righteousness, and many
of them walked away because
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it was too offensive to them.
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But Peter, there was an
interesting story that happened
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with Peter because
Jesus had asked His disciples,
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"Will you also go away?"
Peters said, to whom shall
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we go? You have the
words of eternal life.
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Peter was essentially
saying there is no other place
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that we can go, there
is no other place to find
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righteousness, there is
no other place where eternity
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can be found or
discovered or obtained.
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So Jesus was being revealed
to Peter and through Peter
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as the only way.
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That is right and so this
is what starts to lead into
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what we are dealing with here.
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This offense of the
cross, this offensiveness of the
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cross, the root word there
or Greek word is 'scandalon'.
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It's where we get our
English word scandal from.
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You know a scandal is
something that is a disgrace.
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It is something shameful
and this word appears other
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places in Scripture instead
of offense as stumbling block.
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And I think you are going
to go to one of those places.
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One of those places is 1
Corinthians 1:20 to start with.
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The apostle Paul says, "where is
the wise? Where is the scribe?
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"Where's the disputer of
this age? Has not God made
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"foolish the wisdom of
this world? 21 For since, in the
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"wisdom of God, the world
through wisdom did not know God,
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"it pleased God through
the foolishness of the message
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"preached to save those
who believe. For Jews request a
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"sign, and Greeks seek after
wisdom; but we preach Christ
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"crucified, to the
Jews a "stumbling block. "
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So there's the cross, Christ
crucified which is an offense,
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it is the same word.
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Right it's an offense it's
a scandal, it's a stumbling
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block, "and to the
Greeks foolishness, but to those
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"who are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power
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"of God and the wisdom of God.
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So we have this idea
here that the scandal
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is something shameful.
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Why is it that
the Jews would see the
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cross as so offensive?
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Well when you think about
the Jews took a lot of pride
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in their position
as God's chosen people.
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To think that Jesus was
claiming to be the King of the
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Jews, claiming to be the
Messiah, their leader, their
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ruler, the representative
and that He would be someone
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who has died on a cross.
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The most shameful, the
most disgraceful of any possible
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death that could be
imposed upon someone.
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That was so unreal to them,
they could not fathom why we
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would want to believe in
someone who had only brought
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shame and reproach upon them.
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Absolutely, and that's
where we find in Romans 9 where
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the same word appears again
as stumbling block, translated
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stumbling block, Romans 9
and we have looked at this one
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before Romans 9:30
we will start there.
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The apostle Paul
writes, "what shall we say then?
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"That Gentiles, who did
not pursue righteousness,
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"have attained to righteousness,
even the righteousness
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of faith. " You see this
is the whole thing that we see
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here in Galatia is that they
were pursuing righteousness.
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The only problem is they were
pursuing it in all the wrong
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places, instead of the only
place that righteousness can
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come, which he will
flush out here in a moment.
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They sought righteousness
by other means, they sought
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to be good and
become just by other means.
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And so it says, "That
Gentiles, who did not pursue
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"righteousness, have attained
to righteousness, even the
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"righteousness that comes
by faith; but Israel, pursuing
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"the law of righteousness,
has not attained to the law of
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"righteousness. Why?" Because
they were trying to keep the law
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That's not what it says is
it? You see their whole issue
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wasn't about trying to be
good and whole issue was they
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did not seek it
by faith in Christ.
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There is nothing wrong, in
fact there is everything right
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with seeking to obey the
requirements of God, but we have
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to realize that we
must have Christ to do it.
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We need that transformation,
so he says, "why? Because
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"they did not seek it by
faith," why didn't they seek it
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by faith? Notice! "But as
it were, by the works of the
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"law. For they stumbled
at that" scandalon, at that
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offense, "stumbling
stone. As it is written: behold,
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"I lay in Zion a stumbling
stone and rock of offense,
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"and whoever believes on
Him will not be put to shame. "
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Which is interesting, the
word is a word about shame and
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whoever believes on Him
it will be just the opposite,
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he will not be put to shame.
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So we come to Chapter 10 -
it's almost an encouragement
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to them that think it's
shameful to believe on Him and
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if you believe on Me you
will not be put to shame.
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That's right, it's absolutely
right so notice again in
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verse 3 of
chapter 10 where it says,
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"for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness. "
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The fact God's righteousness
can only come from God.
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"In seeking to establish
their own righteousness. "
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See they were obeying
and people will say the Jews
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obeyed the law, they
obeyed their own idea of law.
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The Bible doesn't call
it God's righteousness.
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Up here before we
read it being called the
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Ten Commandments the
law of righteousness.
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It's a righteous law
but "they sought their own
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"righteousness, and
have not submitted to the
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"righteousness of
God. " And notice verse 4
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"For Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to
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"everyone who believes. "
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That word end means the
outcome, that the end justifies
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the means in that kind of sense.
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In other words, if you
are looking for righteousness,
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the final place for
righteousness is Christ.
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The end of the law, in other
words, the outcome of the law
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when you look at the law
of God is a picture of God's
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righteousness, but it is
not the actual righteousness.
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Where do you find
that? In the person
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of Jesus Christ alone.
- Amen, that is powerful.
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You know I think we
need to go back to Galatians
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for just a moment, it addresses
a question here that we
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haven't fully answered.
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It is back in
Galatians 5:11 and it says,
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"and I, brethren... if I still
preach circumcision, why do
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"I still suffer persecution?
Then the offense of the
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"cross has ceased. "
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Something about preaching
circumcision would cause the
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offense of the cross to cease.
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What is that? What is it
about circumcision and the
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gospel of circumcision,
they were promoting, that would
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cause the offense of the
cross to no longer be there?
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I think the answer is in
what we have been talking about.
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That Christ is the only way.
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The Bible says, Jesus
Himself says that I am the way,
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the truth and the
life. I am the door.
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There is no other way to come
to the Father except through
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Me and so Jesus makes it very
clear that there is only one
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way and that is through Him.
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When you preach circumcision
now you are preaching you do
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not need to go through Christ,
you don't need the process
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of confession and contrition
of heart and all that is
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involved in coming to Christ.
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Instead you can very
cleanly do something else, maybe
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it's external behavior, in
this case circumcision, and
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that replaces and becomes
another way there for the cross,
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you can still believe in
the cross but it is no longer as
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offensive if you
give me another way.
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That's right, it reminds
me Jim of that thing I hear
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from some people where
Christianity is a crutch
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for weak minded people.
00:09:58.89\00:10:00.34
Christians believe in creation
and they have this big God
00:10:00.37\00:10:03.72
because they are narrow
minded, or what ever the case
00:10:03.76\00:10:07.53
may be and what it really
is vaunting of human pride
00:10:07.57\00:10:11.31
and human righteousness.
00:10:11.34\00:10:12.71
I feel that I don't need
Christ because I am better than
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that, and that may be an
outside Christianity aspect of
00:10:16.25\00:10:19.69
this, but an insight
Christianity aspect is this.
00:10:19.73\00:10:22.39
When the Word of God says
something, and this is becoming
00:10:22.43\00:10:26.46
more and more common.
00:10:26.49\00:10:27.46
We say well that is
your interpretation and not
00:10:27.50\00:10:29.68
necessarily my interpretation
and we start to make
00:10:29.71\00:10:31.86
leeway for doing
exactly what God says.
00:10:31.90\00:10:35.13
What we are doing
is making another way.
00:10:35.16\00:10:38.32
I know what God says but I
don't think it applies to me.
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We are making another way
and that is our circumcision.
00:10:40.94\00:10:43.57
Suddenly the offensiveness
of Christianity isn't so
00:10:43.60\00:10:46.17
offensive anymore, hey I can
become a Christian if I don't
00:10:46.20\00:10:48.39
have to be completely Christian.
00:10:48.42\00:10:50.81
That's right, and the
Bible says we can only serve one
00:10:50.84\00:10:53.11
master, we can't
serve two masters.
00:10:53.14\00:10:54.49
If you allow them to have
many masters then there is a lot
00:10:54.53\00:10:57.65
more adherence to Christianity.
00:10:57.68\00:10:58.83
This idea of the offense
of the cross, it really has to
00:10:58.86\00:11:03.92
do with the fact that
the cross is about me being
00:11:03.95\00:11:06.85
crucified with Christ and
there is a statement out of
00:11:06.88\00:11:09.74
a book I want to share.
00:11:09.77\00:11:10.98
It's called 'The Great
Controversy' on this point.
00:11:11.02\00:11:13.21
I thought I would read
that to our viewers in closing.
00:11:13.25\00:11:16.39
"A religion of externals is
attractive to the un-renewed
00:11:16.43\00:11:19.54
"heart. Thousands who
have not an experimental
00:11:19.57\00:11:22.25
"knowledge of Christ will
be led to accept the forms
00:11:22.28\00:11:25.11
"of godliness without the
power. Such a religion is just
00:11:25.15\00:11:28.07
"what the multitudes
desire. To him who loves self-
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"indulgence it is more
pleasing to confess to a fellow
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"mortal then to open
their soul to God. It is more
00:11:34.10\00:11:37.07
"palatable to human
nature to do penitents than to
00:11:37.11\00:11:40.50
"renounce sin. It is
easier to mortify the flesh by
00:11:40.53\00:11:43.73
"sackcloth and nettles
and galling chains than to
00:11:43.76\00:11:46.93
"crucify fleshly lusts.
00:11:46.96\00:11:48.95
"Heavy as the yoke
which the cardinal heart is
00:11:48.99\00:11:51.41
"willing to bear rather than
bow to the yoke of Christ. "
00:11:51.45\00:11:54.20
They were willing to be
circumcised, even though that
00:11:54.24\00:11:56.93
was a difficult thing, they
were willing to do anything as
00:11:56.96\00:11:59.95
long as they didn't have to
surrender their cardinal heart
00:11:59.98\00:12:03.24
and crucify the fleshly
lusts, the cherished sins that
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perhaps for more
precious to them than Christ.
00:12:06.54\00:12:10.06
That's right, there are other
experiences where everybody
00:12:10.10\00:12:16.42
follow some of what God says.
00:12:16.45\00:12:18.07
I believe that, everybody
follow some of what God says.
00:12:18.11\00:12:22.03
But there are areas that
especially tend to be areas
00:12:22.06\00:12:25.92
where we say well I have given
up most of the big sins and
00:12:25.95\00:12:28.65
I only have a
couple little ones left.
00:12:28.68\00:12:30.21
I would suggest to you that
those little ones, those are
00:12:30.24\00:12:33.04
the big ones and that is
why you can't give them up.
00:12:33.08\00:12:35.94
What happens is those are
the areas where the flesh still
00:12:35.97\00:12:38.80
holds us in its grip.
00:12:38.83\00:12:40.46
Where the fallen nature,
our sinful nature still has
00:12:40.49\00:12:43.96
dominion over us and
we are slaves of sin.
00:12:44.00\00:12:46.76
What the Lord is trying to
do here, what Paul is trying to
00:12:46.80\00:12:49.76
do with the Galatians and
the Lord is trying to do for us
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is address that need of a
thorough submission to the will
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of God, the accepting of
God's will above my own will.
00:12:58.19\00:13:02.10
A total surrender to Christ.
00:13:02.13\00:13:06.10
I want to appeal to you who
are watching, lay those things
00:13:06.13\00:13:09.54
aside, lay them at the
feet of Jesus and receive
00:13:09.57\00:13:11.91
Him completely into your heart.
00:13:11.94\00:13:14.24