Romans 2 Part 1 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 0:02

Alright, welcome. We're gonna do the excuse me, the second chapter of Romans. Going to do the first half of the chapter, which is excellent. Remember the last chapter. And it's great, you remember chapter 17. Now, faith, you know, it's faith is the revelation of the is the revel, the good news is the revelation of uh righteousness based on faith. And remember, I I've said this for years, you know, you're righteous by faith. Okay, that's the best you can ever be. You cannot improve on that. No good work you ever do, or any good behavior or bad behavior will change that. Okay, so that that's good news because if it's based on our behavior, it's no longer good news. So righteousness based on faith, it's from faith out of God to us receiving what God believes to be true. And that's you know, and that's 2 Corinthians 3.18 where it says, you know, do you know you possess the mind of Christ? The mind of Christ is seeing things from God's point of view. And we wouldn't need faith if there were if everything was lined up, you know. In other words, we're believing what God believes, even though there's a contradiction, it's maybe not evident as of yet. Okay, so here we go. Now, first of all, he's he's addressing kind of Jew Gentile alike, and then towards the end of the chapter, which we're not going to do today, he bends over to more Jewish, to the Jewish people. Says, therefore, O fellow human, and fellow human, there's anthropos, which is the you know, anthropology, the study of man. Uh if you look down in the commentary, he says, male and female, human species, from upward character of life. In other words, it's in other words, he's addressing mankind here. He says, by taking what God did in Christ out of the equation, God's righteousness, there is remains no alternative way for you to defend your innocence. Think about that. The only way you can defend your innocence is by what God did. And I like to say this, you know, many of us, I mean, we came from different persuasions, maybe from atheism, maybe from Catholicism, Lutheranism, Pentecost, but it doesn't matter. We all received Jesus as Lord, and He became our Savior. And one thing, He's always your Savior. Today you're not your Savior. There's nothing you can do to save yourself. Tomorrow, no matter what you do, read your Bible, fast, pray, believe. All those are good things, and they're for you. They're not for God. They don't change God's mind about you. None of nothing changes mind about you. God's made his mind up in Christ. Okay? And so he's just remember, he's your savior every second of every day over the rest of your life of eternity. There's nothing you can do to save us. We're declared innocent by what Christ did by the cross. Remember, the last thing he said was, it is finished. Just like in Genesis and the last day, there was nothing left to do. So God rested. He wasn't tired after he made the creation. He rested. There was nothing else to do. Hebrews 1:3, which is one of my favorites, he said, when he had Christ accomplished, past sentence, the riddles of sin and guilt, he sat down. You've been declared innocent in Christ. Now you can look at your works and go, that can't be true. Yeah, it is true because God believes it. And that's what faith is all about. It's seeing it from God's perspective. He declared you innocent on the cross. In John, the first chapter, I think it's either 28th or 29th verse, it says, Behold the Lamb of God, John the Baptist says, who does what? Takes away the sin of the world. In God's point of view, sin has been dealt with. And over in Hebrews the 8th chapter of the 12th verse says, God has no remembrance of sin. That's not what you hear when you hear people preaching. Oh, of course he does. No, he doesn't. He's dealt with it. Okay, but we look at everything and go, yeah, because we haven't got a hold of what actually sin is, and I'm not, I might define it later. But the behaviors. And as soon as we come to the Lord, you know, our lives change, yada yada yada. Anyway, I love this. There's no alternative way to defend your innocence. The only way you can defend is by what God did, not by anything you did or didn't do. Your pres now listen, your presumed knowledge of what is right and wrong does not qualify you to judge anyone. Isn't that interesting? Anybody anybody guilty of judging, or is it just me? Your presumed knowledge of what is right and wrong does not qualify you to judge anyone, especially if you, the self-appointed judge, do exactly the same stuff you criticize others for. You effectively condemn yourself. Remember the scripture says if you're trying to live by the law, even if you don't do a little bit of the law, it's like you didn't do any of it. Pretty interesting. So in other words, people go to church on Saturday, well, this or a Sunday, the service, the Sabbath is actually Saturday. And I'm not advocating going to church on Saturday, by the way. I'm not going to explain that. But my point is, if you blow one bit of the law, you've blown it all. And you know, Jesus comes, you know, that's part when we're studying about Jesus, you gotta recommend He or you gotta we gotta recognize that He's speaking to the Jews about the law, pointing to the new covenant in parables and in kingdom teaching. So that's why he says to the guys, have you ever committed adultery? And they said no. He says, You ever thought of a woman you did it? He's making the law worse. Why? Is he actually making the theology there? No, he's not. He's burying them under see, well, I didn't commit adultery, therefore I'm good. I'm judging myself good. Well, he says, if you ever killed anybody, they said no. Well, if you ever called anybody stupid, you did it. Well, it kind of eliminates almost everybody, doesn't it? What's he doing? He's getting them to understand that their works could not save them. That's the point. Alright. In the commentary at the bottom says, by judging someone's behavior, by judging someone's behavior as defining them, defined by their behavior, you completely miss the point of the good news, which is based upon the unveiling of God's righteousness. Say, I am righteous because God believes I did. It says, Abraham was told to have a child by a barren woman, and he believed God, and was reckoned to his account as righteousness. That's the same kind of righteousness we have. We believe. Now, the scripture that naturally comes up is Matthew, the seventh chapter, like the first uh five verses, which says, you know, Jesus says, Judge not lest you be judged. Now, I used to think if I judge other people, God was going to judge me, but that's not in fact the case. He says, When I'm judging other people, I've set up a standard for myself and everybody else, and I'm judging everybody according to the standard, but I'm also judging myself according to that standard. And so when I mess up, guess what? I am in my own self-condemnation. That's why he says, remove the log. Which, why would it be a log? Because it's from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that blinds us. So you can remove the speck, the little bit of blindness in your brother's eye. Okay, so anyway, I just want to point that out. So he's saying the same thing here, but in contrast, so the opposite to the opposite to your judging one another, this is the opposite of judging one another. We have clearly perceived the content of what? God's righteous judgment. He says that three times up in the first half half of this chapter. God's righteous judgment. Wow. God's righteousness kind of thinking maybe I'll tackle that in a little bit, but the Lamb of God speaks of the most radical scapegoat language. This is God rescued the life of our design in his death and resurrection. Say this, you know, I'm the confessor. St. Patrick the Confessor said, God rescued the life of my design in his death and in his resurrection. And of course, Ephesians 2 is so central to all this. He says, while we were dead in our trespasses and sins, the first six verses. So, what did God do? God raised us up. What state were we in? Dead. Powerless to help ourselves. He raised us up with Christ, gave us the life of Christ. Who did this? God. And gave us joy seeding in the heavenly sphere by virtue of being in Christ. Who did that? He did. Over in 1 Corinthians 1.30 says, It is from God, not yourself. Is it from God that you have your life in Christ Jesus? Is God doing the choosing? And then we choose too, don't we, in a sense, because we receive it after a while. We come to faith and we believe. Alright. I'm gonna move on to chapter three. Okay. I love this. Again, fellow humans. That's who he's he's addressing Jew and Gentile. In the world, biblical world here, there's only two types of people. There's Jews and there's Gentiles. There's Jews and non-Jews. Again, fellow humans, anthropocs, why be so presumptuous? I'm gonna say that word presumptuous, which means assuming too much, taking liberties or what? Being overconfident. So you can say, again, fellow humans, why be so overconfident or assume too much? You're taking liberties in your reasoning, in keeping your what? Performance-based system alive in your hypocritical Jewish and Gentile judgments of one another. In other words, you're performance-based. If I do this, I'm good. If I don't do this, I'm bad. How many times you went to church and oh, I wonder if he went to heaven. People always say, Well, he was a good guy. He was a good person, so he went to heaven. Yeah, compared to what? Compared to what? I'm not saying people didn't go to heaven. My point is that's a performance-based system. And that's what we teach in church is a performance-based system. But God's not, God's done away with the performance-based system in Christ. You were included in his death. When Jesus Christ, when God looks at you, he doesn't look at your works and what you've done and haven't done. He looks at the cross. And I've said it a million times, but it's important. When here's the work, he saw all humanity from the beginning to whatever the end's gonna happen, whatever happens. Everybody in union with Christ when they died. When he died, you died. And so did everybody else in God's mind. When he was raised, you were raised. That's scriptural. When he ascended, you know, Ephesians 2, 6, you ascended. That's what that's what how God sees things. He's looking at the cross, he's not looking at you, and you should be grateful. I am. I am grateful. He's not looking at my actions. And so when I start doing nonsense, I start saying, ah, I mean, it doesn't mean I don't pay for my stupid things. I do. But I say, here's how what you see. You see me included in your death, in your burial, in your resurrection, in your ascension. That's what you're looking at. And I'm included. I was in union in Christ the whole time. That's the good news. Say, I am face to face with the Father in union with Christ right now. That's what God believes. God says it, and that's good enough for me. All right, again, fellow humans, why be so presumptuous in your reasoning, your thinking, in keeping, instead of throwing out what you should do, your performance-based system alive in your hypocritical Jew-Gentile judgments of one another. In the process, you are what? Fleeing away from your what redeemed innocence. Wow! Unveiled in the righteous judgment of God. Think about what he's saying. Fellow humans, why be so presumptuous? Taking liberty, overconfident in your reasoning and keeping your performance-based system, and so doing your fleeing away. It's causing you to flee away from your redeemed innocence, unveiled in the righteous judgment of God. So I might as well tackle it now. What is the righteous judgment of God? Good question, right? John the fifth chapter, it says, Jesus says the Father judges no one. He's given all judgment into the hands of his son so that everybody would honor the son. And actually, you're right, it is a redeemed innocence. That's his righteous act. It's anyway, but over in Well, I skipped over scripture already. That's good. I want to read it over here. I'm just gonna read out of the Amplified, just so you're aware. I'm I love the Mirror Bible, and it's my favorite Bible, but it's a message, it's a fitting, and it's in other Bibles, and sometimes the other Bibles have the you know, you have to do to become law, the law message in there. That's why sometimes it's not so good. But it says here, so this is I'm just gonna read the amplified because of time, but you can read it in your mirror. John 3 17. This is for God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge the world, but that the world might be saved and made safe and sound through him. He didn't come to judge, he came to save. Period. And forever. He is always savior and never judge. Wow. And it says this he who believes in him is not judged, he who does not believe in him is judged already. Why? Because he didn't believe. And what kind of judgment is it? Is it from God? No, it just said he didn't come to judge. No, it's self-condemnation. That's what it is. It's self-condemnation. And he and then uh it goes in, and this says, verse 19, the basis of the judgment lies in this. This is the basis of the judgment. The light, Christ, has come into the world, and people have loved the darkness rather than and more than the light, for their works were evil. Evil is prone, things causing toils, hardships, and sufferings, which comes from the knowledge of good and evil. Who were the people who didn't believe in Jesus, who shed from the light? They were the Pharisees and the religious. Why? That's the same reason Jesus and John the Baptist said called them brutal vipers, because they're pointing to the tree. The law is that tree. Now, the law tells us who we are by nature, but when we try to work it out in our flesh, it causes us Romans 7, it causes a sin principle. We'll get to that. Okay? That's you know, down the road. So we don't need to go there now because we're going to get to that in the future. That's the tree. The tree is the Adam and Eve tree that they they that blew them away was if I do this, I become like God, and if I don't do this, I'm not like God. And of course, they blew it, so they weren't like God, and they shrunk away with con because the same serpent, Ophis, was there to condemn them. And they shrunk away in fear. The same thing happens to us. When we're eating of that tree, we separate ourselves from God, even though God's everywhere. But when we start wrecking ourselves innocent, holy, well-beloved in Christ, included in his death, resurrection, and ascension, pure as he is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4.17. The same. However, God sees Christ, he is the prototype of the real you. He's the imprint of the real Father, and so are you. You just you were always that way. Adam and Eve, even after the fall, were still that way, they just didn't believe it. And so are you, and now he came to redeem your innocence, and he's done so. Jesus Christ didn't do a partial work like maybe I'll work it out. We have the stupid stupid nonsense in Christianity that he does his part and we do our part. No, he does his part and you don't have a part. And he did it without you believing, without your permission. That's the truth. And all of a sudden you woke up to what's already happened. You were blind to what happened. All of a sudden you went, Oh my god, it's real, it really happened. And then as we grow in what? The revelation of the knowledge of what God actually accomplished in Christ. This is a good stuff, right? And I'm just gonna read down here. She says, judgment means the decisive moment or turning point. I just want to read that in the commentary there. On to verse 4. Believe it or not, I love this. Do not underestimate God's kindness. Have you underestimated God's kindness? I have. You ever believe he's an ogre? Yeah. He says, the wealth of his benevolence, wealth. Look at the words being used. Don't underestimate God's kindness. The wealth is benevolence. Benevolence means his goodwill, his kindness, his desire to do good. The wealth of his desire to do good, and his desire to do good for you and to be kind to you and have goodwill. He says, and his resolute refusal to let us go. Say this. I'm not gonna underestimate God's kindness towards me. The wealth of his benevolence and his resolute refusal to let me go. Woo! Say he refuses to let me go. He's kind and desires to do good. He refuses to let me go. He's benevolent towards me and you. When John Fourier got his love, he loves you. He is so pleased. I don't care what you're doing, he's pleased with you. He sees you righteous and holy, well beloved. You were designed to host the Father, Son, Spirit. He's living in you. You possess his mind. You're anointed. You're not going to be. You are. That's what he believes. I love this. Is because he continues. Why? Why is this? Because he continues the echo to hear the echo of his likeness in this. Now think of the Grand Canyon. And you go, likeness, likeness, lightness, likeness, lightness. I mean it keeps going on. God's hearing the likeness, lightness, lightness, likeness. And I was thinking about the word, you know, maybe you need to be godly. And it's godlike. And are you godlike? Yeah, because you have his nature. Because you're his sons and daughters. You have his DNA. It's not something you're trying to get. It's something, it's your true nature. The true you. The true God's nature is love. It's your nature too. God's nature is benevolent. It's your your nature too. God is love. Your true nature is love. Your true nature is not judgment. It's forgiveness and love and seeing the best in every person. 1 Corinthians 13 is your nature. Alright. Thus his passionate, patient passion is to what shepherd everyone into what a radical mind shift. Wow. Which is what? Other word, the word that used in most verses repentance, which is a made-up word. Down here, I'm just going to read in verse 6 and then come back to it. This is the revelation of the goodness of the revelation of the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Repentance. It is not our repentance that leads God to goodness. The word repentance is a fabricated word from the Latin word penance and re. In other words, penance. I was raised Catholic. You went to your confession and they gave prayers to pray to get forgiveness for your sins, and you do it over and over. Repentance. It's metanoia. Meta. Together, a noise, to perceive with the mind, to understand what God did. Have a radical mind shift. Ooh. And then it talks, I'm not going to go over, it talks about Christos, which is really your title too. I mean, you're the benevolent one, the kind one, the anointed one now. Just like a little little Christ. Sorry. He's a big Christ, you're a little Christ. You're a little anointed one. God has measured you and I innocent. He is the blueprint of our design. Say he has measured me innocent. He is the blueprint of my design. Now this week I was reading Mark. And I was reading, and you know how it is, you just read over stuff like maybe it might be exaggerating, say a million times, but thousands of times for me would not be an exaggeration, because I'm a word lover. And it says, John the Baptist, I'm just gonna read it here. Mark. I just and I just looked at it finally and said, geez, why don't we just change change the words a little bit? I mean, or just interpret the words and see what he's really saying here. Mark the first chapter, I think it's the second verse or the third verse, third verse, I think. Fourth verse. It says John the Baptist, unless he's appearing in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance in order to obtain forgiveness of and release from sins. Why would he need to do that when they're forgiving sins already in the lost system? But no, let's change the words here. John the Baptist appears in the wilderness just like, and that's the kind of the law system, and actually Jordan, the baptism is actually going underneath in this metanoia moment into the promised land, which is total total remission of your sins. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Now listen, it says John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a submerging baptism of metanoia, being submerged in a radical mind change of thinking, in order to obtain the forgiveness of and release from sins. Wow, isn't that interesting the way that's said? A rat he's bat he's submerging, his symbolism was submerging people into a radical mind shift for the forgiveness and the what? Release of sins for all time. And that's Christ, isn't it? I just thought that was so cool. You start changing the go and look at the meanings and you go, my lord, isn't that pretty amazing? Alright. The last little commentary in forces Faith is not a decision, it is the discovery, which is pretty awesome. Alright, verse 5. Callous heart. Who had the callous heart? The Pharisees did. They refused to believe. The callous heart that resists change, resists the menanoia, the radical mind shift, accumulates cost for what? Self-destruction. Not God destruction, self-destruction. While God's righteous judgment, again, God declaring all humanity forgiven, God declaring all humanity uh innocent, forgiveness their sins, past, present, future, God calling all humanity Romans the third, tongues interpretation. In Romans 3.23, you know, all of sin falls short of the glory of the Lord. Chapter 4, he's made all righteous by as a free gift by Jesus Christ. In the fifth chapter of Romans, he says, because of one man's sin, the condemnation, all became condemned. Because of one man's act of righteousness, his righteousness all became righteous. Romans 4.25, he died because of our sin. He was raised because of our righteousness. The fact that he's raised from the dead declares all men righteous. He's declared you run right standing. Righteous, you can't be any better than that. I don't care what you do. It's good to have good behavior. And over in Colossians 2.5, it says, even though I'm absent with you in this uh flesh, I'm with you in the spirit, I'm so happy to see that your uh your practical uh disciplined lifestyle does not distract you from the simplicity of the gospel. What he's saying there, you a practical and disciplined lifestyle will get you a long ways on the earth, but we start patting ourselves on the back like we're actually getting karma. No, it's the simplicity of the gospel. He's the savior today, yesterday, forever. You were blessed because he blesses you, because he says so, because you believe. It's a promise, a gift, an inheritance. It's all on his side, not on your side. He's even the giver of your faith to believe. Anyway, by resisting him, in other words, be resisting the radical mind shift message in Christ, how he did a finished work, how he accomplished the riddles of sin and guilt, declared your innocence, redeemed your sonship, declared your inner, or redeemed your innocent or your image and likeness, which he did. By resisting him, you are on your own. Says, what? We can go to him and we're not judged. We can declare, we can define ourselves in him. In the garden, Adam and Eve were defined by the relationship with the Father, Son, Spirit. They weren't looking at laws. You did do this to be good. They were in relationship and they learn who they were and how to act by a face-to-face relationship. Your own deeds says will judge you. We went over that. Rejecting his goodness, and you tell me isn't the gospel good? When you realize that God did everything, this is a good gospel. This is like a wow gospel. It's God plus nothing. The rejecting his goodness keeps you what snared in a lifestyle ruled by sin consciousness and condemnation. That's what it does. If I have to do this to become, and if I do this, I'm bad and cursed. That's what that's the result of it. And it's not blessing, by the way. I like to read things back to us. Since rejecting his goodness, so I'm not rejecting his goodness, but I'm if I don't reject his goodness, I receive his goodness, I am no longer snared in a trap, and my lifestyle is not ruled by sin, consciousness, and condemnation. Praise the Lord. And which brings me over to Hebrews, the 10th chapter. Some of my favorite scriptures I like to preach on all the time because it's good set-free verses. I'm doing the amplified here just because of time saving. And it's verses 10, verses 1, 2, 10, and 14. For since the law was a mere shadow. Oh no, no, no, is that right? Okay, yeah. For the law was a mere rude outline of the good things to come instead of the full expression of it. It can never, and listen, the law, but it can never by offering the same sacrifices continually, year after year, make perfect, not forgive sins, make perfect those who approach its altars. Can't do it. Actually, the fact that they keep sacrificing keeps bringing sin up. But it says, for if it were otherwise, verse 2, would the sacrifice not have stopped being offered? Yes. If it did it for one and all time, and it says what? Since the worshipper would once and all been cleansed, they would no longer have any guilt or conscience of sin. Wow, the opposite here. No longer. And then verse 10 says, in accordance with the will of God, in God's will, we, you and I, have been made holy, have been past tense. How? Through the offering made by for all the body of Christ. By his body you were made holy. So anybody says you need holiness, brother and sister, I am holy. I'm perfectly holy because he says so. Verse 14: for by a simple offering, Christ's body, he has forever, how long is forever? Forever. Completely. How is it completely? Not 99%, it's 100%, cleansed and perfected those who are consecrated and made holy, which you've been made holy. So it says the blood of bulls and goats is not able to perfect the believer, but in verse 2 it says, for if it's otherwise, which it is in Christ, one sacrifice for all time, since us the worshippers had once and all been cleansed, we are no longer to have any guilt or consciousness of sin because the sacrifice has been done for all time. He's cleansed your mind from guilt and condemnation. If you have it, it's because you're judging yourself by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Instead of the tree of life, which is Christ, he defines you. The dead, the the crucifixion is the final Satan. All that stuff is done.

unknown 27:53

Woo!

SPEAKER_00 27:55

I might have to take an offering. I'm just teasing. I don't take offerings. Anyway, where was I? Okay. Verse 7. Now what says the quest? Would you look up one 1 John 2, 6 there? The quest of mankind, this is he's talking about everybody, is to be in constant in expressing that which is good and glorious and of imp uh imperishable value. In other words, everybody really in their heart wants to express good and glorious and in something that goes on and on and on forever. Like giving your name on a building, for instance. We are eager to engage the original blueprint life of our ages, all of us. We want to engage this. Now, I'm this is a rabbit trail, but I'm just gonna say this is how it's done, and then we're gonna keep that in mind to keep on going to the next scriptures. Yeah. It is in I love this. 1 John 2, 6 in the mirror. It is in this consciously abiding meno, in the awareness of our oneness, our union. Say this Father and you are we are one. There's no separation between me, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Father, we are one. He is living in your body. You're the temples of God, the Father, Son, Spirit, all dwell in you. You are the incarnate, you're the incarnate sons and daughters of God. He lives in you. It is in this place of consciously abiding in the awareness of our oneness that our conversation, what we speak about, unveils what? The same fellowship with the Father that Jesus enjoys. Whoa! By consciously being aware that I'm in union, that I'm one with God, my conversation unveils a fellowshipping. I'm talking to God. God is talking to me, and I'm speaking out the same things Jesus would speak about with the Father. And he says, and results in a daily walk that mirrors Jesus isn't what we're all looking for. One living your and my life in the full benefit of it, the life of the ages. And also we're doing is just consciously abiding, and you know, Father's no separation. You know, God, you're not up there somewhere. He came here. Oh, we're waiting to go to heaven. No, the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. He came here. He died, was ascended, and he came in the Holy Spirit, the Pentecost. He's here. Heaven has come to earth. But Bill Johnson wrote that book, right? When heaven invades earth, he's here. He's living in you. You are a living letter, a demonstration to the world of his love. But anyway, with that in mind, I know it's a rabbit trail, with us with human beings trying to attain this, usually by their own, and I and then I'm gonna go. It says, yet there are those who ignore the truth through unbelief. In other words, the truth of what God believes to be true. And it's I mean, see how it can be easy to do that because you can go, huh? Well, that doesn't look, I don't look perfect, and I do this and I do that. Yeah, you're judging by the wrong tree. Yet there are those who ignore the truth through unbelief, the truth about their original identity as a son. Say, I am a son and a daughter. There's no male, no female. I always like to say this: if I can be the bride of Christ, you women can be the sons of God. They continue to exist as mere hirelings, motivated by monthly wages. In other words, remember in John the fourth chapter, he says, remember he talks about Abraham being righteous by faith? He said, Someone that works believes they're going to get a reward for it. But God, but Abraham believed the God who justifies what? The ungodly, the person that doesn't deserve it. They believe in their failure and unrighteousness and are consumed by outbursts of anger and displeasure. And why wouldn't they be? Because there's no joy. How many times have you heard this? I'm a sinner saved by grace. I'm not. I'm righteous, I'm holy, I'm well beloved, I'm perfect. Because you know why? And I can give you every reason in the book, I can say that isn't true, but God says it's true. That's faith, brothers and sisters. If he believes it, it's true. Regardless of the contradictions of my life. You know, if you pray for someone, I had a recently I prayed for a brother who's got a good friend of ours who's got a bad knee, his needs would be replaced. I prayed for him, right? Isn't he? Let him go, didn't say a month later he calls me. I'm going to the doctor to get a knee replacement. I said my pain's gone. Took a long time, but all of a sudden God healed him. So it wasn't instant, was it? Anyway, I thought I thought that was funny. And he said to me, Now what do I do? Let's go to the doctor's appointment set up. Like, hey, figure it out. He's a beloved brother, by the way. Nine. Listen, pressure from every side. Now think about this. Like an overcard room, or my best analogy would be singing a tight elevator. Imagine you can't move. Or cramped foot is the experience of every soul of everyone who does not does what is worthless. Now remember, soul is your mind, your will, and emotions. That's negative. That's I mean what I mean is when you're worthless, what he's talking about is you're you're do you know, self-righteousness is you thinking you're doing something to become something. I'm righteous because I believe. Self-righteousness, I I did this, I did this, and then I deserve this. That's what that's what he's talking about. You know, we look at this stuff and we think about all the people doing all kinds of nonsense things in the world. And I I call those things, we call them sin, I call them the fruits of sin. Again, ha martya is a word for sin. Ha without matiya meros, without form and a lot of portion. You believing a lie about yourself and everybody else. Everybody in the world is image bearers, by the way. They're all made in God's image and likeness, they're all sons and daughters, they just believe a lie about themselves. That's what sin is, and when you believe that, you have outward expressions that what we've called sin. Okay, so that's the definition. Where am I?

unknown 34:06

Second part of the mind.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Okay. Now the soul is the mind, the will, and emotions. Now, if you're not having any joy and peace, what's happens? If you don't feel fulfilled, anger and depression, of course it comes out. The fact that the Jews are Jewish, the fact that the Jews are Jewish does not make their experience of evil any different from that of the Greeks. In other words, they're not in any better position, even though they have the law. Symptoms of diseases, the commentary here. Excuse me. I'm sorry I talk so fast, I can't know, but I get so excited. My mind goes faster than my mouth can keep up with. Symptoms of disease are the same in everyone. They are not a respecter of persons. Uh first ten. In sharp contrast to what we just read to this, bliss. What's bliss is ecstatic joy, self-worth, total tranquility is witnessed by everyone, both Jew and Greek, who find expression in that which is good. We are tailor-made for good. What is good? I always love that scripture when in the in the fifth chapter of John, I think it was the sixth chapter, sixth chapter of John, around the 20th, 29th verse, it says, They said, What must we do to do the works of God? And he said, believe in the one whom he has sent. I am right now doing the work of God. I'm believing in the one whom he has sent. And then if you look at Ephesians 2, 10, it says, say this, I have been recreated in Christ, have been, for good works that I walk in them. Say they are not my good works, they are his. And say this, I am his good work. You're transferring. Remember the in John the 9th chapter? Why is this man blind? Is it because of his parents' sin or his sin? Neither. It's so the glory of God could be just demonstrated in him. The glory of God is being demonstrated in you. You, your whole life is the good work. You're the live 2 Corinthians 3, you're the living letters read by all. You're the epistles of God, not written on stone, but written by the Holy Spirit on your heart. You are the living letters, you're the good work. God does not judge people on face value. Praise the Lord. I, for one, would be in a lot of trouble. And that remember in Samuel in Samuel 16 or 1 Samuel 16. You remember he's to go and anoint a king from Jesse, and they have a feast, and the first got the first son comes and goes, ooh, he must be a look at him. And God says, you know, you look at the outside, but he says, but I look at the heart. And remember, he went through all the sons except for Jesse, or excuse me, except for David. And is this it? God hasn't chosen any of them. Go get the son. And of course he chooses David. He chose the one that even his father wouldn't have chosen him. Say, aren't you glad? Say, God chooses me. See the echo of my likenesses just keeps on. He can't he can't quit thinking about me. He can't quit thinking about you. He sees your heart. He's not looking at your outward condition. He is looking at the real you inside. And he is so pleased with you. Rune and self-destruction are inevitable result of sin. In other words, you believe in a lie about yourself. You cause ruin and self-destruction. You see that, hey, my life for a long time when I was not believing the truth about myself was ruining self-destruction. Whether someone knows the law or not, righteousness is not a hearsay thing. It is faith-inspired, practical living, giving new definition to the law. When I flip over to Romans 8, verse 2, I think. Let's see here. It's faster to flip through my Bible than it is on my on my go through my says the law of the spirit of life, the law of my new being has set me free. See the law of my the law of this I'm under the law, I'm not under the old law, I'm under the law of the spirit of life, which has set me free from the law of sin and death. That's the law. You sin, you break the law, you sin, you die. But now I'm under a new life. Remember, 2 Corinthians 3 says, the spirit and the law. The litter kills, the spirit brings life. The spirit cannot bring death. It's impossible. And if you look in Exodus, remember the spirit of death killed the firstborn? It was not God doing that. That's not the spirit of life. There was a spirit, but it's not the spirit of life. It was not God's spirit that did that. The spirit cannot bring death. The law, the letter, cannot bring life. It kills. Period. It's black and white. That's what he's talking about here. For every for even a pagan's natural instinct will confirm the law to be present in their conscience, even through even though they have never heard about Jewish laws, thus they prove to be a law unto themselves. Okay? I'm gonna read the next verse and then comment. The law is so much more than a mere written code, it is presence in its presence in human conscience in our brain, in our thoughts, even in the absence of the written instruction, is obvious. Condemning or commending personal conduct. Now remember, up until Moses there was no law, but this was going on. People were commend commending themselves and they're condemning themselves. It was featured the law. And the law, when it came out, was to show us, show them exactly what was going on from inside to the outside. And of course, the law is a tutor to grace because after a while you're frustrated. You can't you figure you kind of figure out you can't do it, so you need you need a savior. Right? There's a whole bunch of stories I could go with, but I don't have time. Okay, I'm just gonna end in 16 here. Every hidden, conflicting thought, every thought that's conflicting from the finished work of God will be disclosed in the daylight of God's scrutiny based on the good news of Jesus Christ that I proclaim. In other words, the good news of Jesus Christ, He's declared all man innocent, all man righteous, all man forgiven, all man sons and daughters, all man image bearers, all man, all men and women. When I say men, I mean everybody. All man, I should say. So species, right? There's man and there's womb man, a man with a womb. That's you women. Womb man. Both made in God's image and likeness, right? Declared what God has declared in the in the death, resurrection, and ascension of his son. That act is the most pivotal thing that ever happened in human history. And it is such good news. Alright, amen. That's the end.