Romans 1 part 2 MirrorWord Bible Study

We meet every Wednesday at 8:00 PM CST to explore the life-changing truths of the MirrorWord Study Bible by Francois DuToit. Each gathering begins with a 30-minute teaching by Patrick Emery, followed by breakout groups where authentic conversation and connection flourish. Friends join us from across the U.S. and around the world, and everyone is welcome. It’s a joyful, faith-filled community, and we would love for you to be part of it.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

All right. Uh we're back in the Romans, the first chapter. And I sometimes say this before I do the recording. When we go over the chapter, there's gonna be verses that pop out to you, and that's gonna be the Holy Spirit speaking to you individually. It's not the Holy Spirit's gonna bring things to life to you. It's the it's God's message. And so you think the Holy Spirit is the teacher, right? The Holy Spirit's using me, Holy Spirit's using you, the Holy Spirit's speaking to me through me, to you, through you, through all of us, right? This is it's a team sport. Christianity is not a one-man or one-woman sport, it's a team sport. So here we go. This is a I last week I just I want I went to 16 just because 17 is such a huge verse. It's kind of like, you know, in Hebrews, the 11th chapter is like the pinnacle of Hebrews. Now faith is, right? So here we go. In 16, it says, I love this. I have no shame about sharing the good news of Christ. And I love that. Sometimes we have shame about it, don't we? Because you know, the problem with, you know, I just the problem is God's got a bad name. Because we've legalized the gospel, so people are repulsed by legalism. They just are. I mean, so when you go to share the gospel, you know, it's you think about it. I'm not ashamed to share what? Good news? I mean, who wants to hear good news? Everybody. The good news of Christ with anyone. Why? It's the powerful, what, rescuing act of God. God's pro uh, God's rescuing act, not our rescuing ourselves. And a lot of times in I call it churchianity or in religion, we hear God's doing his part, I'm doing my part. No, God is the savior. Jesus Christ is the complete savior. You are never your savior. Nothing you do ever saves you. It's Jesus Christ. I don't care how good of a person you are, Jesus Christ is your savior forever. There's nothing you can do to save yourself. Period. Don't even think, don't even go there. It's an insult to God for you to think that anything you can do to save yourself. He says it's a rescuing act of God of us, persuades or gives faith or belief what to both Jews and Gentiles alike. In other words, the good news has got power. Okay, verse 17. Great verse, right? Herein lies the secret of the what, the power of the gospel. Now, I was cruising YouTube today, and I don't know, I got on some dumb page and they're talking about, you know, young women now. I don't know if this is true, you know, because there's a lot, it's just a lot of nonsense on YouTube. The biggest religion for young people now is not Christianity, it's witchcraft. You know, but I you can't blame people because they're looking for a spiritual connection, aren't they? And in Christianity, what do we give a bunch of nonsense? You know, last uh in the Bible study on Sunday morning, we were Joan had a great talk. It's spirit and truth. It's spirit because it's a it's a relationship, it's an experience, but it's also truth. And the truth transfigures you. I used to see this if truth sets you free, then non-truth puts you in bondage. So my greatest prayer for myself is always the truth. What, Lord, is the truth? The truth will always put us dependent on Christ and never ourselves. Anyway, herein lies the secret. This is huge. Don't you like secrets? Yeah, I do. Herein lies the secret of the power of the good news. You know, sometimes I always say religious words, gospels of religious words. It's a good word. But you know, we were oh, Southern gospel, we got this gospel, we got that gospel, and those are the gospel singers. It is good news. That's what it means. Baptism means to submerge. That's what it means. Oh, baptize, we're gonna baptize. No, you're gonna submerge your cookie all the way under the until it's dunked completely. He says, this is the secret of the power of the good news, the message. There is no good news in it until what? Now listen to this. The righteousness of God is revealed. Not our righteousness, his. Say, I do not have my own righteousness, I have his. Would you rather have your own or his? Until the righteousness of God is revealed. That's the he says, that's the power of the good news. That the gospel, that the the righteousness of God is revealed. Finally. From what? Faith to faith. I love how you put source, faith, Hebrews 12, 2. He, Christ, is the author and the perfecter of faith. God is the author and perfecter of faith. It says he's given us a measure of faith. He gave us a measure of faith. He's the author and the perfector. Faith comes from God. I said it last week. You know, in uh Romans 10, 17, it says, faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of not God, Christ. The word of Christ. The Messiah. His words bring faith. His words are in the Old Testament. There's a lot of other stuff that's in the Old Testament that do not bring faith. The law does not bring faith. Just so you're aware. It brings darkness. From the source of faith, which is God, to the recipient of faith. And what does that mean? Now, I just love I way, way before the mirror, I was a gracy guy. I was a greasy, gracie guy, greasy all over. And you know what? I used to tell people, I said, if you're righteous by faith, how can you improve on that? How can you improve on your condition right now? You can't. Your moral behavior is a good thing. I'm not I'm not saying it's not a good thing, and we should be have good moral character, but it does not improve your standing before God. Faith is the ultimate thing that receives the righteousness. That's what it is. You're righteous by faith. Now think about this. Abraham believed God, and it was credited to his count as righteousness. He figured it out. Isaiah 51:1. He says to the Jewish people, you who pursue righteousness. He didn't say look to Moses. He said look to Abraham, your father, and Sarah who gave birth to you when he was one person, one couple. I made him what? Many. Bigger than the stars of the seas or the sands of the seashore. It's believing what God believes. And earlier in the chapter talked about obedience by faith. Obedience is just in the new grace, it's not an action, it's just being an act of here, like believing what God believes. Believing stuff is powerful. If you believe that, you know, if you believe that if you're gonna get 21 virgins if you kill yourself, I mean people do that and they kill themselves. It's huge. Believe is that's why there's advertising. I was thinking about the other day, you know, advertising sitting, you know, got to have the shampoo. Really, it doesn't help me, but you know, how to have the shampoo. You hear it over and over. Next thing you know, you gotta have the shampoo. They know it. They keep barbarding you with all kinds of advertisement. It's just telling you a message that all of a sudden you start believing it. But hey, believe this message, this message will transfigure you. And don't complicate it. Just believe what God believes, the source, what God believes, just and you're the recipient of believing what God believes. That's all it is. That's pretty dang simple. Anyway, I love this. The dynamic or the power of the gospel is what? The revelation, the unveiling of God's faith. Pause. Calmly say, pause, calmly think, think about that. The dynamic, the power of the gospel is the revelation of God's faith as the only valid basis and source of our belief. In other words, what God believes. You know, we're gonna get to Romans a little later, and it says, even if nobody else believes it, God believes it. And you can't trump it. Just because you don't believe it, you can't trump it. From God's faith to our faith. And that's where the power lies. Here, faith happens. The prophets wrote, you know, the prophets, foretelling, wrote in advance about the fact that the fact, I love this, the fact, this is a fact, that God believes that righteousness reveals the life of your original design. Righteousness by God's faith defines life. Say it. God believes that righteousness reveals the life of my design. We're gonna get a little bit down here. It says righteousness is a relationship word, it's harmony with God. What is it? Is it, you know, we we've taught righteousness as a moral thing. And I'm and by the way, I am into moral character. Okay, I really am. But I know that that doesn't, that doesn't get me anywhere. It gets me somewhere on the earth. But but from God's point of view, what is it? It's me believing what God believes. What does God believe? He believes you're innocent, he believes you're holy, he believes you're an image bearer. He believes all your sins have been forgiven, past, present, and future, even the ones you're gonna do tomorrow. Already taken care of. I remember the old days when I used to sit at night and try to think of every sin so I could confess it so I wouldn't go to hell. I did that stuff. Confess your sins. Then he's faithful and righteous to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Yeah, because of my false believing, I'm believing I'm a sinner. Because I'm going back to that because I was taught that. Say I am not a sinner. I'm a righteous one. Because God says it. Am I gonna argue with God when he says I'm righteous? When he says I'm holy? Are you gonna argue with God when he says, hmm, you're included in Christ's death. You're in union when he died. Are you gonna argue when he said, hmm, you're resurrected with Christ already? Are you gonna argue when it says, Wow, you've been ascended and you have joy seating with Christ in the heavenly sphere? Are you gonna argue with him? You can go, you can scratch your head, that's why I don't have any hair because I've been doing a lot of scratching my life. Are you gonna scratch my head and go, I can't quite figure this out, but why don't I just believe it by faith? Keep marinating my mind of what God believes to be true. And you know what? It manifests. I love that for some reason that scripture in 2 Corinthians 9 talks about giving out of your heart, which I think is I'd love to do a teaching on that sometime, which is a great thing because the bottom line of giving, and this is a rabbit trail, but it's a quick one. It's not the amount you give, it's the obedience to the spirit. That's what you're blessed for. It's not how much you give. That's nonsense. But it says he will increase the harvest of your righteousness, which is the outward manifestation of what you're believing, is what we all want, right? Abraham's harvest of his righteousness was Isaac. In other words, and why is that, 2 Corinthians 9? Because you're hearing prompted by the Spirit. That's why you're blessed for being an active hearer, and then all of a sudden, when you believe, you actually tend to do something. Not always, and if you don't, guess what? God doesn't dislike you, loves you, he knows you're not gonna do it anyway. He's not dumb. He knows what you're gonna do before you do it, and he still loves you. Anyway, is that a good verse? Oh my god. And I just wanna I just wanna, I just love this. And most of you know this, but it doesn't matter. In uh Hebrews, the fifth chapter. I love this, you know, because it used to annoy the heck out of me when people said, Oh, we're really gonna get into the the meat of the gospel. Oh yeah. You're just gonna go down a rabbit trail and screw everybody up. So it says, let's see here. Verse 13, 513 says, the revelation of righteousness, the revealing of righteousness, which we're reading, it's by faith. Say I'm righteous because I believe. Done. Say, I cannot improve myself before God right now. It's impossible. He's made me righteous. In other words, Romans 3.23, all of sin falls short of the glory of the lot. Lord, verse 24 says, All have been made righteous as a free gift by Jesus Christ. Yes, you heard right. Law brings darkness. I mean the external law, not the one that's in your heart that's been written on your heart. Anyway, the revelation of righteousness is the meat of the of God's word. Wow. The simplicity of the good news is actually the meat of the word. And it's what most people in the church don't understand because they go back to the old testament and they start mucking it up in their mind. And the word Timothy says, one Timothy, I think it's 2.15. It says, sorry, I'm talking too fast, I'm getting too worked up here. It says, what? It says, Timothy, study and accurately accurately study the word and and divide it, right? He's dividing the old from the new. And in Hebrews 8, it talks about the new. It's it says nothing like the covenant I gave your people on Mount Sinai. Nothing like it. So quit mixing it. Anyway, I should get on. I should move on here. So this I'm gonna go over a little bit of the commentary, not all of it, because there's a lot of it. And if you're if you're looking at the scriptures and going through the questions, you'll hit a lot of it. It says, one, in the commentary, there's a number one. It says, the gospel, the good news is the revelation of the righteous righteousness of God, his righteousness. Say, I don't have my own righteousness, I have his. That's pretty impressive. It unveils how the Father, Son, Spirit succeeded to put you and me and everybody else right with themselves, in harmony with themselves. It is about what God did right, not what Adam did wrong. The good news reveals how God's righteousness rescued past tense, rescued past tense, the life of our design and redeemed our innocence, past tense, already done. Waiting for you to get the revelation of what's been done. Say, I am innocent. He's redeemed the life of my design already. I just need to wake up to the reality of what's already happened to me. Like, whoa, I'm a new creation. Not gonna be, I am. Mankind's futile efforts to justify themselves has failed them miserably. In other words, the works mentality has failed everybody and will continue to fail. The good news shifts the emphasis away from, this is good news by the way, the gospel, good news shifts the emphasis away from your and my failure and condemnation to highlight what what it was that God accomplished in Jesus Christ on our behalf. Hebrews 12, 2, looking away from the law of works onto Jesus, he is the author and finisher of faith. Hebrews 11 6. It is impossible to please God without faith. Faith pleases God. That's why I think he leaves everything a little bit mucked up here, so you have to believe. I always wonder why you just straighten everything up. Well, because then you wouldn't have to believe it, would you? You wouldn't have to look into the spiritual realm, and as I speak to you, believe what you can see in my spirit, even though it isn't manifest on the earth. And then it must be, right? Hebrew or Romans 4, 17. He speaks even though it isn't as it is, and it must take place, right? That's faith. And I'm not talking about the name and claim it, grab it, stab it stuff, by the way. I don't know if you I went through the faith movement too. I was I've been around since the 80s. So it is God's faith to begin with. God's faith defines you and not your good or bad behavior, neither your performance or your circumstances. You're saying my circumstances do not define me. My behaviors, good and bad, do not define me. Jesus Christ defines me. He is the perfect image bearer. You are an image bearer. He's the example of who you really are. He's the son of God, son of man, so are you, as no male, no female. I think that's good news. All right. The language of the old written code was do in order to become. How many have lived in that in Christianom? How many of you maybe were raised in the church and always do Jesus, whatever? I I was raised in the church and didn't have a clue who God was. But I came to conversion and I was so messed up when I came to the Lord, there was nothing I could brag about because I was a total mess. And which is a good position to be in, by the way. But of course, after a while, I got in there and everybody told me what I had to do to become. And my my joy dried up, my relationship dried up, my excitement dried up, and then I figured out that was dumb. Dumb dumb dumb dumb after I read Galatians 3. That was tongues. Anybody have interpretation? I'm just teasing. Anyway, it says this the language of the old written was do in order to become the language of the new is B because of what was done. B because of what Jesus and the Father, Son, Spirit accomplished on the death, resurrection, and ascension and Pentecost. B. Your starting point is face to face with the Father, not your end point. You were in union with Christ right now. It says, in the beginning was the word. The word was pros God. Face to face with God. You're in union with Christ, face to the face to face with the Father. That's your beginning. Everyone's face to face with the Father, they just don't know it. They're blind. Habakkuk, the just shall live by faith. And it says over in, it says, and if he draws back, my soul has no delight in him. Draw back from what? Faith. How could you draw back from faith? By trying to work the program again. Anyone done that? Or just me? In other words, you keep believing. Doesn't mean you don't do stuff. But it's faith. You're moved by what God believes to be true about you and what God believes to be true about everybody else. Defined in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the word manifest in the flesh. Alright. Let's see here. Holy man, there's so much here. I just wanted to go way down here. So the word righteousness comes from the Anglo-Saxon word right wisess. Wise and that which is right. The Greek word of righteousness is dikiosuni is from dike, that which is right. It is a relationship word referring to people. This is important. It is a relationship word and refers to two parties finding likeness in each other. It's listening to the Jesus and what he's accomplished and just believing it. And you are as he is. That's over in 1 John 4, 17. Faith, righteousness has nothing in common with pagan philosophies of karma and performance-based approval. In other words, I do this. This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by the way. If I do this and God loves me and blesses me, and if I do this, he curses me and doesn't love me and separates himself. That is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That's the law. That is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That messed Adam up. Don't go there. Believe what's been done on the cross and just walk and fix your eyes on Christ, which he's the author and perfect of your faith. He is the definition of who you are. You're an image bearer, you're perfect. When people see, when God sees you, he sees his image. He sees his sons and daughters. When you when I look at you, I see him. Because if he's you're an image bearer, then I if I want to see God, I just look at you. If I want to see Christ, I just look at you. You're an image bearer. You're never, it's not all of a sudden you're gonna reach. Oh no, I've done so many good things, and now I'm an image bearer. No, you're an image bearer. Period. Alright, the word Greek were Zadic, which means a be a balance beam of wood that's been uh straightened out. So there's you know, I I remember probably the only I never figured out till recently the only vision I ever had from God before I knew the Lord was I I was in church and I saw I saw the balance scale and the good and the bad. Here was the bad and here was the good. I said, boy, am I screwed? That's what I thought to myself. Anyway, but I had no idea about the love of God. Alright. We're in 18, right? Yep. There's so much commentary. All right, 18. Now this is because now he's gonna shift over into the separation mode here. God is not standing neutral to mankind's indifference. I would say this: God's not standing neutral to my indifference. Indifference is not caring. Who cares? I'm indifferent, right? This revelation of what God's belief in my and your redeemed righteousness say, God believes that I'm redeemed and righteous. You know, he actually believes that the cross worked. How dare he? How dare he believe that when Jesus said it is finished, he actually meant it. How dare he say if you try to add anything, you might as well just throw Jesus right out. Because if you have to add something, then he died for absolutely no reason. If you can help him, he wasted his time. God's belief, God's belief in your redeemed righteousness is at the same time unveiled in God's passionate desire from a what heavenly perspective towards a humanity who seemed to have lost touch with what? The romance of their Design and devotion. Oh my god. A romance. I'm saying I'm designed to have a romance and to be and have devotion with God. And God has devotion with me. God's devoted to you, by the way. I mean, I mean, how would he put up with you know however long man's been on the earth? Well, can we argue about that, right? And he's put up with us because he's devoted to us to bring us to back to himself. That's devotion. By the way, the word passion there, if you want to read the other translations, is the word wrath. God's wrath. You know, just in the amplified, it'll say, God's wrath is against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. Okay? What does that mean? We we just interpret that as he's mad at everybody that's not good. No, he's mad because I mean he's against pat because the word orgy is the word where we get the word orgasm and orgy. In other words, people are really passionate about something. That's what that word goes to, but it's passionate desire. He's passionately desire. And what he's saying there is against you believing falsely about yourself. Because if you're a son and daughter of God and you're an image bearer, you're godly. That's why you're godly. It's not because you did anything moral, you're godly because he said, because you're an image bearer. And you're righteous because you believe. He's against you believing falsely about yourself. That's what he's passionately against. I love this. Towards have lost touch with the romance of our design and devotion. Now, listen, by how do they do that? By suppressing the truth about themselves. Wow. Isn't it amazing that we can lose romance by losing perspective? Suppressing the truth about themselves. And I think he's going back to Adam and Eve here. He doesn't say that necessarily because, hey, other than, I mean, there are people through the centuries, you know, Hebrews 11th chapter is the faith chapter. And Moses is mentioned, it's all people that heard God believe what God said, and things happened, right? I mean, Abraham was made righteous by faith. There was no law then, by the way. It didn't come to Moses. And it was given to man to what? Be a tutor back to Jesus when he showed up. That's what it was for. Now listen to this. By suppressing the truths about themselves, image bears, Adam ate of the tree of the knowledge, good and evil, so he could be like God. He already was. He was face to face with the Father. He was having romance with the Father, Son, Spirit, relationship. He emulated whom he beheld. He understood until he turned his back and ate of that tree. And that tree was if you do this, God loves you, he's going to bless you, be more like God. And if you do this, you're less like God, and you're not an image bearer. And when he did that, he started believing falsely about himself. He didn't believe he was an image bearer anymore. He changed his mind about who he was. He suppressed the truth about himself. Him and Eve did, right? Whether it's an actual true story or it is, it doesn't matter if it's not a true story, it's just an analogy. It doesn't matter because it's the message is the truth. And when he did is he turned, and you heard me say this, he made God in his image and likeness, which is an ogre, mean, and trying to stamp you out like an ant. And one John Fourier says, God is love, and Christ is the very image of God, and says Christ is the same today, yesterday, forever. So Christ, God has always been love. And now this is they have, this is so cool. They have forgotten, this is Adam and Eve and everybody else since forgotten the delicate art to adore and be adored. No, isn't that interesting? Lost the well, I adore my wife and she adores me. No, we're talking about this romance with the Father, Son, Spirit, to adore and be adored. Oh, how scandalous. And now go back to, you know, remember in Genesis 126, let us make man in our image and lightness. And he made them male and female. Oh, you women, guess what? Your image bears too. You're not just an afterthought. That's so stupid, that whole last time. And then verse 28 says, Then he blessed man. And you've heard me say this before. People are new, so, and people listen to the recording, maybe not have heard this, but the word blessed as baruch means he knelt down and did adoration to man. Wow. God was adoring man, and man was adoring God right back. Remember in 1 John 4, 19, he says, we love him because what? He first loved us as a rabbit trail. When people say, I need I need to love God more, the only way you can do that is by getting in there and seeing how much more God loves you. That's the only way. You can't try and do it. You just get the revelation more and more of how much God loves you and loves you. And guess what? It reciprocates back. God was adoring mankind until that's what he was doing in the garden. He was adoring man and man was adoring him. He was doing adoration to man and man was doing adoration to him. And that happened until the go until the tree didn't stop. He did adoration. Just like when you have a baby, it's like, you know, it's baby. I delivered lots of babies. And man, all the pain women go through, and you know, and all of a sudden that baby's born and they go, whoa. Wow. And the first thing they say, wow, look at the hair. Anyway, but that's always the first comment, right? Oh, it's got a lot of hair. That's no hair. You know, anyway. My my point is it's something we can see. You know, the baby's done nothing but cause problems. To the woman, she can't eat, she or she's has heartburn, she can't breathe, she's sleeping on her side, she's miserable, and all of a sudden it comes out and bam, it's all gone. It's like, wow. So God was adoring man, and man was adoring God in the garden. That's what's going on. Adored and be adored. While they continue to hold what, now we're back to not, they forgot about it. While they continue to hold a what inferior reference of themselves, they're not image bearers, they're less than. They have to do to become, instead of just be because of who you are. Inferior reference of themselves by what? Being out of sync with their true likeness. Out of sync, there I think is uh unrighteousness or you know a you know, out of sync, it doesn't matter. Out of sync with their true likeness, instead of being in sync with it by believing it. Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father. He came to reveal you. The Father was not revealed until Jesus showed up. John 1 18, he says, He is in the bosom of the Father. He's reeled, he's revealed the invisible Father. Jesus revealed the Father and his person. It's amazing. He wasn't hamstringing horses, he wasn't doing genocide, wasn't killing all the Mobites and the Egyptians and everybody else. He was healing, setting people free, loving people, setting the forgiving sins, raising the dead. That's the God we serve. He's a restorer of all things, he's the redeemer. All right, and the commentary says God's belief in mankind's redeemed righteousness and innocence is endorsed in the heavens in sharp contrast to what? The counterfeit earthly reverence that blinds people by their own unrighteousness. What is unrighteousness? It's you trying to do something to become. That's unrighteousness. So or actually that's self-righteousness, is what it is. Righteousness comes by faith, so you don't have a faith. That's unrighteousness, isn't it? Think about that. Say, I believe. I believe God. You know, I have a song. Some of you heard it when you came to destiny last time. God says it, and that's good enough for me. Are you gonna argue with God? You know what? This week, for some reason, the Lord said to me, Yeah, look at the word Israel. What does it say? Wrestles with God. Righteousness is not wrestling with God, it's in harmony with God, it's a great dance. Like Baxter Kruger wrote a great book called The Great Dance. Wrestles with God, that's not harmony, that's fighting. Righteousness is a great dance of being in harmony in sync with the Father, Son, Spirit in your mind, in your belief system. And then it manifests effortlessly through your being. Alright. Verse 19: God is not a stranger to anyone. So he's not a stranger, he knows me. Whatever can be known of God is manifest in you. Why? Because you're an image bearer. You know, over in Hebrews, the eighth chapter, it says, in the new covenant, all will know me. Isn't that interesting? All will know me. From the greatest to the least. And Mirr it says it won't be from door-to-door evangelism or but or Sunday morning Bible studies. All will know me. God is manifest in human beings. And we know that there's a lot of crap that comes out of human beings, but he's also manifest in you. See, I am an image bearer. God has revealed it in the very core of our being, which bears witness with our conscience. He's he's written his laws, his ways on your heart and your mind. Which leads me to another scripture. I was just thinking about, hey, I'm almost there. That's cool. For once. You know, Hebrews 4.12, because this is the message of faith. Everybody knows the word is alive and full of power. But I love the amplified the message God spoke to us in Christ, just the message. That's it. Is the most life-giving, powerful, dynamic influence wherein us. And of course it says cutting like a soldier's scalpel, sharper than a uh uh surgeon's scalpel, sharper than a rather than a soldier's sword, because it goes into our deepest core being, that message. Because who's there? Or in John the 15th chapter, the second and last verses, the Holy Spirit will testify. Meaning Holy Spirit's been poured out on who? All flesh, all sarks, everybody. Holy Spirit's testifying in people right now. When you start testifying of the truth of the gospel, you're testifying, and the Holy Spirit's testifying. Now listen to this: piercing the deepest core of conscious. Now, listen to dividing the soul, which is the emotional realm, what we can see, hear, and feel, and spirit, ending the dominance of the sense realm. My smell, my hear, my eyes, I start walking in the spirit. The deep dominance of the sense realm, it is and it's neutralizing effect upon us. In other words, the sense realm, what we see and feel, the contradiction of what we believe and see, and we start trusting what we see versus what we what God believes to be true, neutralizes us, spirit. Ending the dominance of the sense realm, neutralizing effect on the human spirit. In this way, all of us, our our spirit is free to become the ruling influence again in our thoughts and intentions of our heart. Our spirit, which is given by who? God, which is probably the spirit of Christ and our spirit. There's two separate ones. I'm not sure, by the way. To be honest, I don't always think that we have to just have the spirit of Christ, but that's a different story or a different day. Anyway, isn't that wild? I mean, walking by the spirit didn't say Jesus was led by the Ten Commandments, says he was led by the Holy Spirit. Oh, he was controlled by the Holy Spirit. And it says, you possess the mind. Say I possess the mind right now of the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians or 1 Corinthians 2, 16. All right. I said I beat that one to death, didn't I? Verse 20. God is on display in creation. He's on display in you, by the way. He's on display in the clouds, he's on display in a mountain. Remember Jesus when he taught, he talked about the slower, so is the word, about seeds. He talked about the nature, didn't he? He says, God is on display in creation. In other words, these are physical things. I'm gonna go to Hebrews 11 really quick while I sit here. I think about it, I get over there. All right. Says, God is on display in creation, the very fabric of visible cosmos. What you see appears to reason. It clearly bears witness, the creation bears witness to the ever-present sustaining power and intelligence of what an invisible God. Made visible in Christ, by the way. Leaving you and me and anybody out without any valid excuse to ignore him. Remember up here it says they they're an indifference to him. He's not, he's but anyway. I'm just too wound up, sorry. Faith uh faith alone, it says, this is Hebrews 11, 3. Faith alone explains what is not apparent to the natural eye. Faith alone explains what is not apparent to the natural eye. How the ages were perfected and framed by the word of God. Now we understand that everything visible has its origin in the invisible. Isn't that interesting? The truth about this is a commentary in 20. The truth about God is built into our programming. See, the truth about God is built into my programming. It is our circus. The evidence smacks you in the face from the smallest micro microcosms to the biggest star. All trademark. It says God Rob Lacey, got to give him credit since I was speaking it here. All right. I love this Psalms, the message, Psalms 19, 1-4. He puts it in the in the commentary. God's glory is on tour in the skies, on tour. God craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madam Day holds class every morning. Professor Knight lectures every evening. Their words aren't heard, their voices aren't recorded, but their silence fills the earth. Unspoken truth is spoken everywhere. Isn't that awesome? So I mean, hey, next time you go out and you see a really cool cloud, say, Hey Lord, what are you trying to teach me? What are you showing me out of this visible manifestation of a mountain or a cloud or a piece of grass or a cow? What are you teaching me a spiritual principle that's a reality that I can see in this physical thing? Because it's hey, it's awesome. Jesus taught physical things all the time to teach invisible principles, right? The invisible is brought visible, and it's brought about by our creator. All right. Verse 21. Yet mankind, this is now we're talking about we just got to faith, and now we're going back to the separation. Yet mankind only knew him in a philosophical, religious way. In other words, mental, so I'm not gonna say the word, you know, thinking and also religious way. I have to do to become. From a distance, that's what the law does. That's what the tree of the knowledge of knowledge of good and evil does. It creates a distance. Say there is no distance. Say I and the Father are one. In fact, I'm gonna flip over to scripture because I just flipped my head right now. It hit me so hard between the eyes, I can't stop it. I think it's Hebrews or 1, John 2, 6. Listen, this it is in this place of consciously abiding in the awareness of our oneness with the Father. So this we're saying, I'm one with them. Wow, in this place of consciously abiding in the awareness. In my mind, I just wow, I'm one with God, that my conversation unveils the same fellowship, exact same fellowship, not any different, 100% the same with the Father that Jesus enjoys. Wow. Amazing. And results, I love things that have results in a daily walk that mirrors his one living my life in the full benefit of it. Wow. And here we have the opposite. They, because of their religious and philosophical ways, it made a distance. God is somewhere up there. That's what we were taught, right? Yeah, I asked Jesus in my heart, but he's never really there. No, I believe he's out somewhere, and someday I'm gonna go to heaven somewhere up by the stars, somewhere. It's a different dimension. In Colossians 1.27, it says what? Or 26? The mystery that's hidden from ages and generations? Christ in you. Colossians 3.11. Christ is all, and he is in all. Wow. Paul says, and he's doing mean things to Christians, he says, when God saw feel to feel fit to reveal fit to reveal. I'm sorry, I'm just really wound up. My mind's going way faster than my mouth. When God saw fit to reveal Christ, where in me he was there already, even though he was persecuting Christians, the Galatians, the first chapter. But now, but when we have this other religious nonsense, it causes distance. And what? Failed to give him credit. Credit as God. They're taking him for granted and lack of gratitude, thanksgiving, veiled him from them. Wow, it veiled God from them. The separation mentality. Isn't that interesting? They became absorbed in useless debates and discussions. There's lots of them that just go to YouTube, go to Facebook, which further, they're already darkened, but further darkened their understanding about themselves. Until you know the Father, you don't know yourself. And the only way you know the Father is to know Jesus. He's in the words of Scripture, brings him alive. He comes alive through other people. He is the incarnate word of God. He is the word of God in the flesh. And he says, if you see me, you have seen the Father. Colossians 1:15, it says, He's the very image of the Father. So you know the Father through the Son. And you know yourself through the Son. Because he's also like in the comment in uh 2 Corinthians 3.18, he says he's not an example for you, he's an example of you. He's a he's the image bearer of God, so are you. He's a son of God, son of man, so are you. You are the son of God, daughter of God, and the son and daughter of God. The son and daughter of man. You were born a man, we all know that. We have no problem with that. But you're born from above. An anathem. Anyway. I need to start taking a breath between there, huh? Verse 22. Their wise conclusions, now they're really thinking, they're smart, only confirmed their folly. They're losing sight of God made them lose sight of who they really were. This is look at Adam and Eve. This probably goes, it's probably talking about the garden. And then he's talking about the Jewish people and whatever. But he says that losing sight of God, they lost sight of themselves or who they were. But they just so you know, even though Adam didn't think he was an image bearer, he still was. Even if you don't think you're an image bearer, you are, because God says you are. In their calculation, the image and likeness of God became reduced to a corrupted, distorted pattern of themselves. Suddenly, a person has more in common with creepy crawlies than with their original blueprint. Say, my original blueprint is the Father, Son, Spirit manifest in Jesus Christ, the incarnation. That's your blueprint. He is the blueprint of your design. You are the design. He, first of all, he's the design, and so are you. Now, list this. I love this. Truth suppressed became twisted truth. Remember, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Who's persecuting Paul? Is it a bunch of like heathen people? No, it's the Jewish people that are persecuting Paul in different towns. And some Gentiles that are what? Most of them are like selling like, you know, like idols and stuff like that and losing money because Paul's taking them away. And the Jewish people, they're the ones. The legalists were the ones that persecuted. They were the Cains persecuting Abel. He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm gonna preach grace. Even though you think, oh, you're just saying uh that's a license to sin. Paul talks about that. Who can sin? I died to it. We'll get to that in a couple chapters. This is good stuff, isn't it? Okay, we're about here. Verse 24. It seemed like God abandoned mankind. It's it's the other version saying he abandoned. No, it seems like God abandoned mankind to be swept along by the lusts of their own hearts to abuse and defile themselves. Now listen this. Listen to this, brothers and sisters. Their most personal possession, their own bodies became worthless public property. Say, my most personal possession is my body, my physical body. That is the greatest gift you're ever gonna get. The next one is probably your spouse. And we treat our flesh pretty badly, don't we? But anyway, truth suppressed becomes twisted truth. Okay, it's this is now this is now the truth. You talked about the Bible. Some people, yeah, well, there's so many interpretations of it. Nah, not really. It's really one. It's the same interpretation. The gospel is simple. Like I said, you can really put the gospel, I'm sure I could put it down on one page. What you really need to know. You don't need to know all the Bible. I mean, the Bible's great. I mean, I found I find truth everywhere in the Bible. I do, as God leads me. But I mean, the basics of the gospel are not that difficult. Instead of embracing the maker as their authentic identity, you can't embrace somebody you're separated from in your mind, by the way. Pretty hard to separate, to embrace somebody that's way off. But when you understand your oneness, you can be embraced, can't you? They preferred the deception of a distorted image of their own making. In other words, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna change what I think about who I am now. Religiously, in other words, giving it their affection and worship. Their true God is the blessed God of the ages, and he is not defined by our devotion or our indifference. We don't define him, he defines himself, he is defined in Jesus Christ. And so are you. Some intense thing in us that we can't control. By confused about their maker, they become confused about themselves. So I I love to read the scriptures backwards because uh, you know, I have the upside-down cross. I'm just teasing. Says by confused, by me not being confused about my maker, I'm not confused about myself, which means I don't have any stupid obsessions. But most people are confused about God, which makes them confused about themselves, and they have all kinds of obsessions that are not good for them. Men and women alike became inflamed with perverted fantasies. This brought about an intense striving. Remember in Hebrews the fourth chapter, it says stop striving, strive to strive to rest. Remember, rest, you know, the Sabbath is basically the Sabbath is not a day, it's a lifestyle of the finished work, understanding that God did all the work. That's rest. It's the seventh day. You know, in other words, in Genesis, God rested. In other words, in Genesis, he did all the work, and then Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had, I used to quote this almost every Bible study in Hebrews, when he had past tense accomplished the riddles of sin and guilt for all time, he sat down, rested that Sabbath. We strive. We're not striving, we're resting in him. Says, this brought about an intense striving. This is a separation mode. This brought about an intense striving and most exhausting toil in the pursuit of what disillusioned identity. What's disillusion? Something letdown, a disappointment, something you're striving for, but you never strive for, you never wit, you never uh accomplish. Which clearly are the symptoms of what inferior estimation of oneself. Say I am the son of God, I'm the daughter of God. My sins have been forgiven, past, present, and future. God, Jesus has redeemed redeemed my image and lightness. I'm one with the Father. I'm the temple of God, the Father, Son, Spirit live in me. That's not, I don't think that's inferior estimation of myself. I think that's the opposite. The indifference to their God identity veiled God from them. Wow. Adam and Eve, the indifferent, the indifference to their God identity. In other words, God defined them in the garden. Jesus Christ comes down and defines us now. But when we don't believe that, it veils God from us. Sin snowball, remember the word sin, ha Matiya. Ha without Matiah. Base word meros, without form and a lot of portion, without form. In other words, you believe in falsely about yourself. And it's manifest in those things that usually people term sin now. It's man that outward manifestation are those things that we do. But it's real, that's not sin. Those are the manifestations, the fruit of it. Or I should say the weeds. It's believing falsely. Sin snowballed. It's spread like a disease. Like the flu, covet, whatever. Exhibiting his ugly symptoms in every possible form. Every possible form. This engages one in a weird this engages the person in a wearisome, exhausting lifestyle. Anybody like a wearisome, exhausted lifestyle? That's awful. Why would you like one with rest? Come to me, you're heavy laden, I'll cause you to rest. Take my yoke upon me for it is light. The amplified says recreation for your soul. Recreation. Fun. Occupied with a futile pursuit for a counterfeit fulfillment, a life opposed to the righteousness of God, which one is working the system, by the way. Remains stuck in the wilderness of a mindset filled to the brim with everything that is out of sync with one's design and redemption. Out of sync, not harmonizing, right? The problem is sin that is never satisfied. We're almost at the end here. Leaving the person victim, he calls it a victim, victim of sin, victim of false belief. Utterly unfulfilled and constantly craving more of the same deception. Vileness, jealousy, anger, and an unnatural obsession with self. Life is cheap. Murder doesn't matter. They are steeped in a constant quarreling, wickedness, the wickedness, their conversation has become reduced to slanderous gossip. Now, if you go over to the seventh chapter of Romans, which we'll get to in Galatians 5, it talks about I'm not gonna go there today. If any hint of law remains, it's a it's it says it's a recipe for disaster. Anything you're trying to do to become causes the sin principle to come out. That's just this. Paul says, you know, before coveting, before the law came, I was doing fine. Then the law says you should not covet. And I started coveting. And he says, the very thing I wanted to do, I didn't do. And the very thing I don't I don't want to do, I do. Oh, wretched man that I am. Some people read that and think, oh, I really relate to that. That's Paul in the pre-Christian realm. That's not him now, that was him not walking. He was just describing what it was like before. Now he understands grace. I'm not under the law. Remember, the law kills, by the way. The letter kills. Period. Kills. The spirit brings life. The law cannot bring life, and the spirit cannot bring death. It's impossible. They're opposites. Alright. Commentary there. I'm gonna get go on because we're oh I'm just gonna I'm just gonna flip forward. This is we're getting long here. Verse 30. No one is safe in their company. They think that by insulting people they can voice their hatred for God, proudly bragging about their latest invention of filth, they remain indifferent to any definition of parenthood, disregarding the fact that we do not invent ourselves. In other words, they're inventing themselves. Alright. They live dysfunctional, disconnected lives where no sympathy or mercy is shown. Wow. It just doesn't make any sense. No, I think he's talking about Adam and Eve here. They started off knowing the righteousness of God, yet by their lifestyle, they flirted with death. It is almost as if sin has become a fashion contest. He's talking about a lot of people, but I always think about they started off with the righteousness of God. Who did? I don't think people I can think of. I mean, that started off with Adam and Eve, and they lost it because they tried to work the program. All right, that's the end.