00:00 Introduction and Overview of Romans 3:27-31

01:41 The Ongoing Role of Faith in Christian Life

03:25 Faith and Salvation: Making It All About Jesus

04:37 Boasting Excluded by Faith

06:39 Faith as an Admission of Inadequacy

08:47 Faith Focuses on Jesus, Not Us

13:14 Universal Salvation Through Faith

16:37 Understanding Grace and Salvation

19:32 Faith and Obedience

22:09 Living by Faith

27:31 The Role of God's Commands

32:43 Concluding Prayer

All right, we're finishing Romans three, Romans 3 27 to 31.

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Romans 3 27 to 31.

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So, um, one of the things that I didn't

like about math in high school was

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that math, um, you think you're like

done with a math class, but really

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you're not done with that math class.

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You know what I mean?

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Because the next year you're gonna be

using everything you learned from that

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math class in the next math class, right?

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You like, oh, geometry was the worst.

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Then you're like, oh, wait, now I'm doing,

you know, trigonometry or Algebra two or

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Pre-Calc, and you're like, this is all

the stuff from geometry, just harder.

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Or then you do algebra two and you're

like, I thought I was done with algebra.

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I took Algebra one, I was algebra two.

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And then you learn about all these

different functions and all this stuff.

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And then, and then you do

more and you're like, oh wait,

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this is actually preparing me.

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And then if you're, if you're lucky, you

get to calculus and you're like, oh man.

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This is just everything I've ever learned

in math, but on steroids and way harder,

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and it all builds on itself, right?

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And if you're thinking, oh, once I just

passed this unit test, right, once I just

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passed the the sign, co-sign, tangent

test, or once I just passed the test

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on Hyperbola, or once I just passed

the test on on the Y axis, then I'll be

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done with it and I can just put it away.

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You unfortunately are

sorely mistaken, right?

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If you think you can just take

your math knowledge, put it in a

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box and forget about it for the

rest of your school career, I'm

27

sorry, that's not the case, right?

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You don't just get to pass the

test and then forget about it.

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You have to use it for the rest

of your school career, right?

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The rest of your math, and you

probably didn't wanna hear a sermon

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starting with a math illustration.

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But the point is that you can't

just put your math knowledge

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into a box and forget about it.

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And I think sometimes.

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Christianity.

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We think that's how faith works.

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We think faith, well, I use it to become

a Christian and I trust Jesus and I get

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saved and then I put it in a box and I,

and I move on, and I just go and, and then

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I do the rest of my Christian life by,

you know, reading the Bible and praying

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and obeying God, and, and listening

to sermons and doing these things.

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And we, we kind of think we can just

put, do our, pass our faith test to

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get saved and then forget about it.

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And that's actually not the

case with the Christian life.

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Faith isn't just something you do once.

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To get saved.

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Faith is the ongoing lifestyle of

the Christian life, and so in our

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passage tonight, we're gonna see

that faith makes both salvation

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and obedience about God, not us.

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Faith is the ongoing posture of the

Christian for the rest of the Christian

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life, not just to get you justified.

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Right?

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We talked a lot about

justification by faith.

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Right, that we're made right with

God by trusting Jesus' work on the

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cross to take away our sin, to give us

righteousness, and that he rose from the

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dead to give us hope for life forever.

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That's what we trust in to be justified,

but also we keep on exercising that faith.

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We keep on trusting God as a Christian

for the rest of your Christian life.

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So.

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There's two things here, right?

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You see, faith makes both salvation

and obedience about God, not us.

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So art sermon is, it's

gonna be really simple.

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The first thing is gonna be how

does faith make salvation about God?

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And then the second thing is, how

does faith make obedience about God?

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So super simple.

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So our first, for our first

point, how does S, how does

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faith make salvation about God?

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Well, simple, simply put, faith completely

relies on Jesus to make us right with God.

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And hopefully you got

that last week right?

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Faith completely relies on Jesus.

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To make us right with God, not

anything else We've talked about

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throughout the book of Romans, right?

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There's, there's nothing else that we

can rely on to make us right with God.

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We, when we saw in the, in the context,

we talked about how the Jews would

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rely on their Jewishness or their

outward religious signs to make them

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right with God, and we said that,

that that's not gonna work, right?

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Just like going to church or being

baptized or doing the church things or

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having Christian parents, that doesn't

make us right with God in the same way.

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We, that's not what we rely on.

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So faith.

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We have to rely on Jesus to do that.

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So for our first point tonight,

make salvation all about Jesus.

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Make salvation all about Jesus.

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And once you've got that down,

look with me at verse 27.

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We're gonna get into our passage

and see how it makes salvation

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all about Jesus and not about us.

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Okay?

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Alright.

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Verse 27.

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So we just talked about how God

makes us righteous through Jesus.

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God uses Jesus to make

us righteous, not us.

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So then verse 27, Paul asks the

question, what becomes of our boasting?

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Now that's weird.

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Why is he talking about boasting?

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Well, let's see.

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He says it's excluded.

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It's shut out.

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That's that what that word means

by what kind of law or what kind

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of like, how does that work?

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How does faith shut out?

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Boasting.

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Is it by the law of works?

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No.

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It's by the law of faith for we

hold that someone is justified by

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faith apart from works of the law.

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So what Paul's saying here is, well

then if, if we're justified by faith,

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can we take credit for anything?

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Right?

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When you're boasting about something,

you're, you're, what you're doing

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is you're saying, look at me.

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Do we have any right to

draw attention to ourselves?

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If we're justified by faith?

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No, not at all.

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It's shut out.

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It's like we, we took all of the

credit that you think you deserve

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and we locked it outta the room.

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When we talked about

justification by faith, and it's

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not because of works, right?

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It's because of faith.

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Faith is what excludes.

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Boasting not works, right?

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Because if, if you worked for

just salvation, you could say,

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yeah, I deserve credit for it.

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Right?

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If you contributed even 5%

of your, your salvation, you

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deserve 5% of the credit, right?

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If you, right, if you're, let's say you

have a friend who's, who's an LDS, right?

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A Mormon and, and their salvation,

how they think it works is

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you do your part and then God

makes up the difference, right?

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You do your best and God takes care

of the rest, so they get credit

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for what they did, and then God

makes up the difference, right?

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If the, if they got 60% of

the way there, then God makes

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up the 40% and that's great.

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That's not what the Bible teaches.

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The Bible teaches that you did 0% of

the work, so you get 0% of the credit.

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That's because of faith, right?

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If it was by works, you could boast.

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You could say, well, look what I did.

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Look what I contributed to this.

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Maybe I didn't do all of

it, but I did some of it.

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So faith is what eliminates boasting.

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Faith is the opposite of boasting.

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That's what these verses

are telling us because.

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Faith is depending on someone else, right?

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Faith is the admission of inadequacy.

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To have faith in Jesus to depend on Jesus.

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You can't say, well, I

helped by trusting Jesus.

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You're, you're admitting

that I'm not good enough.

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The act of trusting Jesus is

admitting that you don't measure up.

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And so.

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When you think about even where

faith has to come from, right?

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It has to come from the fact that,

oh, I don't deserve salvation and I

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can't do anything about it, right?

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It's the, it's the

admission of helplessness.

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Even think about the way that

the Bible talks about Christians

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before they became Christians.

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What are some of the words, right?

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You think, uh, we were

dead in our sin, right?

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That's a very helpless person, right?

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Dead people can't do anything to make

themselves alive, or you think about.

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We're blind, right?

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We're, we're unable to see

there's inability there.

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Or you think about being

slaves to sin, right?

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That's, we, you can't do

anything about it, right?

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A slave couldn't free themselves.

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Or you think about the idea of having

a, a heart of stone and needing it

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to be changed to a heart of flesh.

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That's something that the,

the heart can't do to itself.

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So all of these pictures

of what it's like to to be.

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Apart from Jesus.

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Ha.

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You, you start with the admission

that I can't do anything about my sin.

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I'm stuck.

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And that's what has to happen for faith.

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Faith is the admission that I,

I can't do anything I'm unable.

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And even what he talked about a

couple weeks ago, unwilling, we said

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that no one seeks after God, right?

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It's not just that you couldn't, it's that

even if you could, you wouldn't want to.

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So that's where faith starts.

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But then also, um, faith draws

attention to Jesus, not to us.

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Right?

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The whole, the whole point of faith is

once you say, okay, I can't do anything

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about this, someone else can, and

that's who I'm gonna rely on, right?

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If you don't bring anything to the table,

you don't get any credit for it, right?

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It's kind of like.

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How Right.

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Imagine.

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Right.

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Revival Black team, we won.

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Right?

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We definitely did.

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Did I play any of the games?

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No.

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Right.

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I was not participating

in any of the games.

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Actually, Morgan was at Revival for like

less than half the time I was, and he

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participated more in the games that I did.

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If I started bragging

about how I won Revival.

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Not a good look.

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Right.

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Not a, not a good look.

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If I'm like, oh yeah, look what I did.

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I did all this stuff, I did nothing.

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Right.

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I just maybe yelled at

Pastor Evan to stop cheating.

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Right.

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That's pretty much all I

contributed to my team.

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All I have to say is.

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I would have no right to draw any

attention to my, like imagine if after we

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played Steal the Bacon and after or after

we played, um, that, what was that game

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on the tarp with the big beach ball thing?

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Kenneth's favorite game?

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Kenneth.

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Uh, imagine like after, you know

how, like imagine after Naya like

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totally dominated that round.

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If I went out there and

was like, look at me guys.

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I did so good.

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Right?

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That would be terrible.

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That would be awful.

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There's, I had have no right to do that.

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That's what it looks like if we try to

take credit for God's work to save us.

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Right?

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If we try to, to, to draw

attention to, oh, well look

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at, look at me in my salvation.

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Look at all the stuff that, that I do.

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Imagine if, if we had baptisms right.

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Not too long ago.

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Imagine if, if you're hearing

someone share their testimony

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from the tank and they're just

talking about how, oh, well, like.

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I did all this stuff and I started

going to church, and I started reading

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the Bible, and I really am, I was

really smart so I could understand

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the gospel, and I was, I was just

a really, you know, wise person.

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So I made these really good choices

and put myself in this great

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position, and then I realized

that I should stop sinning.

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And so I tried really hard and I

studied a lot, and I stopped sinning.

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And then I, you would be

like, what are you doing?

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Like you, you're talking about yourself.

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You should be talking about God.

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This is, this is God's

work in you, not your work.

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So when you talk about if, if you're

professing Christian and you're

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talking about salvation, right?

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You're sharing your testimony.

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You, if someone asks you, Hey,

how did you become a Christian?

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I, I hope that the star of

your testimony is Jesus.

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I hope the star of your

testimony is what God did to you.

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All the things that God did to

draw you in to show you your sin.

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I hope your, your

testimony is not well, I.

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Fill in the blank.

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Did this, right?

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I started doing this.

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Look at me.

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Look at me.

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Look at me.

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I hope your testimony is, look at God.

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Look what he did.

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Look how patient he was with me.

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Look how merciful he was

to forgive all of my sin.

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That's why when we become a Christian,

that's why we don't shy away from

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saying, yeah, I, I was a sinner.

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Right?

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We don't want to necessarily, if

you think about, um, when we did,

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when we studied Matthew, right?

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Matthew always calls himself

Matthew, the tax collective.

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Why do you think he does that?

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He does that.

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'cause he wants you to

know, Hey, guess what?

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God saved a tax collector like me.

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God saved a corrupt, selfish, unjust

person like Matthew, and he wants

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you to know that that's who I was.

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'cause he wants you to

see, look what God did.

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Look what God did to me.

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Right?

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Paul talks about this all the time.

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You see this in a lot of Paul's letters.

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First Timothy, first Timothy chapter one.

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He says, I was the worst sinner.

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The reason that he wants to tell

people that he was the worst sinner

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is 'cause he wants you to see how

patient God is and how good God is.

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So I hope when you talk about your

salvation, if you're a Christian,

280

that you're not talking about you

and you're talking about God, right?

281

It's, it's, it's your

testimony about God's work.

282

It's not your testimony about how

awesome you are for having all this

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cool stuff happen to you, right?

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Faith is inherently other focused.

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Faith is inherently Jesus focused.

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That's who you're depending on.

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That's who you're trusting in.

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It's not you focused.

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And then we also see that in the rest

of these verses, if you keep reading

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29 and 30, so Paul keeps going or

is God the God of the Jews only?

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Is he not the God of Gentiles?

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Also.

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Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is

one who will justify the circumcised by

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faith and the uncircumcised by faith.

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So what Paul is saying here is that

every single person, right, because

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the Jews he, he's been talking with,

he's going back and forth with the

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Jews, this whole letter so far, and

he said how the Jews, they were, they

298

were relying on their outward signs to

show that we have God's favor, right?

299

We're special to God.

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We have an advantage with God because.

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Of the the law or the things that we

do or the signs of the covenant, right?

302

They're saying that we

have an advantage with God.

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We've got like extra credit before God.

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We don't need as much of God's grace

because we have all this stuff, or

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we even are already accepted by God

because of all this stuff that we have.

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What Paul is saying is that's not true.

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There's only one way that

people get saved through faith.

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There's one way of salvation and

that eliminates boasting, right?

309

The whole point of this paragraph

so far has been that faith

310

gets rid of boasting, right?

311

If, if you believe that God saves

people by faith, you have zero reason

312

to boast because there's nothing

about you that makes you more or

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less eligible for God's grace.

314

There's nothing about you

that makes a difference in

315

whether God saves you or not.

316

God doesn't save you because you

have the right parents or because

317

you're from the right area or

because you know the right things.

318

God saves you because he wants to.

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God saves you because he's

kind and because he's generous

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and because he's merciful,

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you aren't more or less likely to

be saved because you didn't do.

322

X, Y, and Z when you were a kid, or

because you learned, you know these Bible

323

verses growing up, that doesn't make you

more or less deserving of God's grace.

324

'cause otherwise it

wouldn't be grace, right?

325

If you deserved it, it's not grace,

because grace inherently is unwinnable.

326

It has to be free.

327

'cause if you worked for it,

then God owed it to you, right?

328

If you did something to deserve it,

then you should get it, and that then

329

it wouldn't be grace anymore, then

it would be something you earned.

330

So I think it's, it's easy sometimes

even right as a Christian to look

331

back and, and think, oh yeah,

and now it makes sense that God

332

saved me because well, look at me.

333

I started growing, I started serving,

you know, all this stuff happened to me.

334

I now, I'm doing all these

great things for God.

335

And it's easy to look back and be like,

oh yeah, I could see why God saved me.

336

'cause look at all this

stuff I brought to the table.

337

Or think about Paul.

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Right?

339

Okay.

340

Yeah.

341

I think I know why God saved me.

342

'cause I, I wrote these books to the

Bible and he's gonna do all these

343

great things through me and preach

the gospel to all these places, right?

344

That, that didn't make Paul more

deserving of salvation just because God

345

used him for bigger things down the road

346

even, right?

347

You don't wanna look down on other

people who aren't saved and say, well,

348

there must have been something about

me that makes me different than them.

349

I don't want you to look at the, the

people at school who maybe don't,

350

you know, they, they don't listen to

their parents the way you do, or they

351

don't know the Bible the way you do.

352

Or they say those things that

you know you're not supposed to

353

say or they watch those things.

354

You're, you know, you're not supposed

to watch or they talk about those things

355

you, you know, you're not supposed to

talk about or they go to the places

356

you know you're not supposed to go.

357

I don't want you to look down on them.

358

'cause the only difference between

you and them is God's grace.

359

I remember one time, um.

360

I went on a mission trip to Utah, um,

and we met these Mormons and I realized

361

the only difference between me and these

people who believe this false religion is

362

that God put me in a place where I would

hear the gospel and respond to the gospel.

363

'cause I didn't pick where I was born and

they didn't pick where they were born.

364

But God loved me and put me

in the way of the gospel.

365

And that isn't because of me,

isn't 'cause anything I did.

366

It isn't because of anything

that I would go on to do.

367

It's, it's all of his grace.

368

It's not because I deserved it more.

369

So salvation is all about Jesus.

370

And that's what faith has to acknowledge.

371

Faith has to acknowledge

that that salvation is 100%

372

God and 0%, 0% us, right?

373

Um, God does all the work in salvation.

374

You think about it, God.

375

Plan to save you before you even existed.

376

God put you in a place where

you would hear the gospel

377

and be able to respond to it.

378

God gave you the desire

to respond to the gospel.

379

You don't even want to be saved, right?

380

You probably have friends, maybe even

in this room who don't want to be saved.

381

They don't want God.

382

They'd rather have

everything else but God.

383

The only reason that you don't

feel the way they do is because

384

God did something to your heart.

385

God does all this stuff

in salvation, right?

386

Even your trust in God comes from God.

387

'cause you wouldn't be able to

trust God if God didn't give

388

you the desire to trust him.

389

So God does everything in salvation.

390

That's why he gets all the credit.

391

So when you talk about salvation,

if you're a Christian, when you

392

talk about salvation, I hope that,

that you make it all about Jesus.

393

I hope that you don't try

to add yourself in there.

394

Take any credit for it.

395

And if you're not a Christian,

I hope that you realize that it

396

doesn't matter how much you know, it

doesn't matter who your parents are.

397

It doesn't matter what you've done.

398

It doesn't matter what you've

thought, how you felt God can save

399

you because it doesn't, your sin isn't

too big for God to overcome, right?

400

Or your lack of interest in God

isn't too big for God to overcome.

401

Or maybe there's that person, you

know, you're like, oh, there's

402

no way they'd become a Christian.

403

The only difference between

you and them is God's grace.

404

So God can definitely save them too.

405

But when you think about this, when

you think about salvation being,

406

being completely God's work, it's easy

for us to maybe ask that question.

407

Well, if the way I live doesn't

really matter, then can't

408

I just do whatever I want?

409

Right?

410

If Jesus paid for my sin and you

know, God's grace is, is enough to

411

save me and cover me, then I can

just do whatever I want, right?

412

Well, I'm glad you asked because

Paul asked the exact same question,

413

the last verse of our paragraph.

414

Do we then overthrow the law?

415

Do we just say, okay, well let's get rid

of all of God's commands because we can

416

trust in Jesus to forgive us by no means.

417

That's the strongest way.

418

Paul can say no in his language.

419

That's like definitely

not, not gonna happen.

420

On the contrary, right, the opposite.

421

We uphold the law, we

support it, we, we affirm it.

422

We still care about God's commands.

423

What Paul is getting at here is if you

think about the question of like, okay,

424

well if it doesn't matter if I'm a Jew

or a Gentile, then what's the point of

425

all of all of the Old Testament, right?

426

What's the what?

427

What about the 600 commands

that God gave the Jews?

428

Why do, what's the

point of all that stuff?

429

What's the point of, of all the

commands in the Bible if, if it

430

doesn't really matter how I live?

431

Well, here's what.

432

Paul is saying, and he doesn't

really explain it as much

433

here, but he explains it later.

434

And so I'm just gonna kind

of pull some stuff into this.

435

But, um, what Paul is getting at

is that faith-filled obedience is

436

the only type of real obedience.

437

If your obedience to God

doesn't have faith in it,

438

you're not really obeying God.

439

You're not really keeping the law.

440

Unless you're doing it from a heart

that trusts God, a heart that doesn't

441

trust God isn't really obeying God.

442

Right?

443

The, the whole point of all of those

commands, all the stuff in the Old

444

Testament was to show you here's

what it looks like to live for God.

445

It was like building a car with no engine.

446

Faith is the engine.

447

Faith makes it all work, but we, we showed

you the car, just so you know, okay,

448

this is what it looks like, the, the law.

449

You're like, okay, well I'm not that.

450

I can't do that.

451

I can't live up to that.

452

I can't do what God asked me to do.

453

I can't live up to God's standard.

454

And so for all of us, we don't

have the ability to do that.

455

We can't keep up.

456

And so we see, okay, I'm not good enough.

457

I'm a sinner.

458

That's what the law does for people

who aren't saved, but for people

459

who are saved, the law shows us,

here's how I'm supposed to live now.

460

Here's what it looks like now for me

to trust Jesus actively and obey him.

461

So how does faith make

obedience about God?

462

Well, faith gives all the credit to

God for empowering us to live for him.

463

Faith gives God all the credit for

our obedience because he gets all the

464

credit for not just our salvation, but

our continued life following Jesus.

465

So point to make

obedience all about Jesus.

466

So we wanna make our salvation

all about Jesus, and we wanna

467

make obedience all about Jesus.

468

So just like how faith in salvation

takes all the attention away from

469

us and puts it on God, we do the

same thing with our obedience,

470

because our obedience is just as.

471

Up to God.

472

God empowers our obedience 100%.

473

It's all dependent on him because

it all has to do with faith.

474

Faith is not just the key for salvation.

475

It's the key for continued life.

476

As a Christian, all real

obedience to God as a Christian

477

has to come from faith in God.

478

So to put it simply, this is what

Paul says later in Romans, whatever

479

doesn't come from faith is sin.

480

It's pretty simple.

481

If you're not trusting God, if it's not

an act of trust in God, you're sinning.

482

That's pretty crazy.

483

Right?

484

That's maybe a different definition of sin

than, than you would've probably written

485

out if someone asked you What's sin?

486

Well, Paul would say it's doing

something without trusting God.

487

That's really interesting.

488

What faith does is it

transforms our obedience.

489

It doesn't make our obedience useless.

490

It changes our obedience into

what it's always supposed to be.

491

It's all of our obedience is an

expression of trust in Jesus.

492

All of our obedience is saying,

God, you're smarter than I am.

493

You're better than I am.

494

You are more loving than I am you.

495

Matter more than I do.

496

That's faith, right?

497

Faith is is telling God you're

better, and that's what obedience is.

498

All obedience is telling God, I trust you.

499

The reason you obey God

is because you trust him.

500

You trust that his plan is better.

501

You trust that his way of living is better

than anything you could come up with.

502

You trust that what he values

is better than what you value.

503

That's where all obedience comes

from and that's how you live as a

504

Christian The rest of your life is.

505

Powered by faith.

506

That's what Paul started

off this letter with, right?

507

Remember he said that the righteous

person, the person who's who's made

508

righteous by God, lives by faith.

509

They don't just get saved by faith.

510

They keep on living by faith.

511

Same thing here.

512

I realize I shouldn't have highlighted

this in blue, but that's okay.

513

The life I now live, I live in, I left.

514

I now live in the flesh.

515

I live by faith, not by effort,

not by knowing the Bible better.

516

Trusting God.

517

That's the key to living for God.

518

I think a good example, we see

it in Hebrews, right by Faith.

519

Abraham obeyed when he was called to go.

520

So God appeared to Abraham and said, Hey

Abraham, you're gonna have to move all

521

the way across the desert, um, because I'm

making a promise to you that you're gonna

522

be the father of many nations and one day.

523

I'm gonna basically save the

world through you, right?

524

I'm gonna give you all this land and

all these descendants and whatever.

525

God made a promise to Abraham

and Abraham's obedience was

526

the result of him trusting God.

527

The same thing is true for you.

528

Anytime you obey God, it comes

down to do you trust God?

529

Think about when you decide not to, right?

530

To tell the truth instead of lying.

531

That's an act of trust in God.

532

Because if you don't trust

God, you're gonna try to

533

figure out your way out of it.

534

And so you're gonna try to,

maybe you'll try to lie, you'll

535

try to make up something, you'll

try to avoid the situation.

536

You'll try to only tell

part of the truth, right?

537

But if you trust God, you

can say, you know what?

538

I know that telling the truth honors

God, and that's better than maybe

539

something bad that might happen

to me if I do tell the truth.

540

So I'd rather honor God and tell

the truth, and maybe have some

541

consequences that go with that than

try to escape the consequences and lie.

542

And you trust God and you say, God,

I'm gonna honor you, even though

543

this might put me in a bad spot.

544

That's an act of faith

that's trusting God.

545

Or when you choose to use your time

in a way that honors God, right?

546

When you choose to wake up and read

your Bible instead of snoozing eight

547

times, that's you trusting God.

548

You're saying God, your word

is what it, you say it's you.

549

Say your word is sweeter than honey.

550

You say your word is more

precious than gold, right?

551

We talked about your word is

better than in and out, right?

552

We talked about that.

553

I believe that.

554

And so I'm gonna get up

and I'm gonna read it.

555

Even if I don't understand all the words,

even if it doesn't always make sense, even

556

if it's not my favorite book right now,

I'm gonna trust you that your word is what

557

you say it is and I'm going to read it.

558

That's trust, that's faith in God.

559

And see, that's why obedience

has to be with faith.

560

So we talk about the law a lot in Romans.

561

The law is a burden without

faith, the law doesn't.

562

Help you without faith,

it just weighs you down.

563

It's kind of like, have you ever tried to

ride one of these without the power on?

564

They had light work because these, these,

right, these e-bikes, they go really

565

fast when they're actually like electric.

566

But if you're just trying to ride

it like a regular bike, especially

567

like uphill, it's heavier.

568

It's harder, there's

more resistance, right?

569

If you have one of those

pedal assist bikes, right?

570

It's actually harder to ride it, even

though it's more powerful, right?

571

Because it's heavier.

572

It weighs you down, it tires you out.

573

That's like trying to obey

God without faith, right?

574

Imagine, imagine like riding up

a hill with one of these without

575

the electricity on, without the,

without the power on, right?

576

It's.

577

It's gonna wear you down and

it's gonna help you realize

578

like, oh, I'm not gonna make it.

579

I'm not gonna make it up

this hill on my own strength.

580

That's what God's law does for

you before you're, you're saved.

581

And some of you, that's what all

these sermons and Romans have

582

hopefully been doing for you,

showing you I'm not good enough.

583

I don't measure up to

God snare, I'm guilty.

584

I stand before God condemned,

guilty deserving of his wrath.

585

You're trying to get up the

hill and you're not good enough,

586

you're, you can't make it.

587

But then you know, if by God's

grace you become a Christian,

588

you say, I'm not good enough.

589

You admit, I can't make it.

590

I don't measure up to your standard

God, I need Jesus righteousness.

591

I need him to take away my sin,

and you trust Jesus to do that.

592

Then instead of the law, God's

commands being a burden for you

593

and weighing you down instead.

594

You live by faith and, and faith

empowers you to obey those commands.

595

And so then instead of weighing you down,

you see that God's commands are good.

596

You see that God's commands

help you truly live.

597

They help you find real joy, that

God's commands are the path to life.

598

They're not annoying,

they're not frustrating.

599

Instead, they're the best way to live.

600

So.

601

You're using it the way

it's supposed to be used.

602

When you use it the way it's not

supposed to be used, it weighs you down.

603

When you use it the way it's supposed to

be used, it, it actually works the way

604

it's supposed to and it's way better.

605

And it's, that's, that's what God's

commands are for therefore your joy.

606

But the problem is, is we

don't like the right things.

607

We like things that make us sad, right?

608

We like things that hurt us, that

kill us, we're addicted to to sin.

609

And we don't trust God

that his way is better.

610

And so we choose the wrong things, and

that's where God's, that's where faith has

611

to, is the key to empowering obedience.

612

So obedience is meant to

be powered by trusting God.

613

Um, so obedience, right?

614

If you're obeying without faith.

615

It's usually about you, right?

616

Because you're, it's almost

like you're trying to, you're

617

trying to get something from God.

618

You're trying to, to be good enough.

619

You're trying to feel good about yourself.

620

Whereas when you have faith, your

obedience is not to get something

621

from God, but it's because you

trust God, because you love him.

622

It's not about getting something from

God or measuring up to something.

623

You're free.

624

You're, you're free from that.

625

You don't have to worry

about that anymore.

626

You're already accepted.

627

So you don't have to do that anymore.

628

And it's also not just

outward focused, right?

629

It's inward focused because obedience

from faith is really, cares more

630

about what's happening in here, right?

631

It's, it's cares more about, okay,

what am I thinking about God?

632

What am I saying about

God with this action?

633

Not, well do I have to just

do the right things and check

634

the boxes and, and measure up.

635

But it's more about, okay,

do I, am I loving God?

636

What does God want from me?

637

How am I.

638

Worshiping God right now.

639

How am I loving God?

640

How am I serving him?

641

How am I?

642

How am I making him look good?

643

And that's the whole point

of the law anyway, right?

644

The whole point of the law, as Jesus

said, is to love the Lord your God

645

with all your heart, all your soul,

all your mind, all your strength

646

and love your neighbor as yourself.

647

The whole point of the law is for you

to love the way God wants you to love.

648

It's about internal things, not external.

649

So justification by faith doesn't

make God's commands pointless.

650

It actually.

651

Makes all of the things

in God's law about Jesus.

652

We don't measure up to God's law.

653

We need him to do it for us.

654

And then when we do live for

God, it shows us that the way

655

we live for God is by faith.

656

It's not by our own effort and

it's not trying to work for God

657

and earn something from him.

658

It's us living for God because we

trust him and because we love him.

659

So let's pray and we'll

head to small groups.

660

God thank you for.

661

Your word.

662

Um, your word says that your

commands are not burdensome.

663

And so I pray for all of us in this room.

664

Um, I know there's times where all

of us, I just wanna confess that we

665

feel like your commands are a burden.

666

Your commands feel like

they're weighing us down.

667

Your commands sometimes feel

like that they're we're just

668

putting rocks in a backpack.

669

Um, but I pray that we would believe

what you say and that we would trust

670

who you are, that you are a loving.

671

Father, a good shepherd, a

gentle king, and that your

672

commands for us are for our good.

673

You're smarter than us.

674

You know more than us.

675

You love us, you care about us, um,

and you want to help us obey you.

676

So I pray for the Christians in the

room that we would obey you because

677

we love you and because we trust you.

678

So help us to trust you more.

679

Help us to see how good

it is to trust you.

680

Help us to strengthen our trust in you.

681

I pray for the people in

this room who aren't safe.

682

I pray God that you would help them.

683

See, they don't measure up.

684

They're not good enough.

685

Um, and the only way for them to be free

of the burden of trying to measure up

686

is to trust you to do that for them.

687

Pray this in Jesus' name.

688

Amen