WEBVTT 00:01:10.399 --> 00:01:16.799 You all to continue to pray as we turn in God's word to uh something still on my mind. 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:21.359 I was not here last Sunday, but where I was, this was on my mind. 00:01:22.159 --> 00:01:30.319 I pray that the of the Lord that it's still on my mind to share with you all here today. 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:41.280 Um Paul's letter to the second letter to the Corinthian church, to second Corinthians, chapter five. 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:47.439 Now, um, as before we read in this text, there's a lot of backstory. 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:55.359 This is the second letter to the church at Corinth, which certainly implies that there was a first letter to the church of Corinth. 00:01:55.519 --> 00:02:01.519 Now, the first letter to the church there at Corinth was uh a lot of rebuke. 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:06.959 The church had a lot of issues that it needed to address within itself. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:12.560 You know, they weren't fighting with outside problems, they were fighting with inside problems. 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:37.439 Um and not uh at any, we do not have time to discuss those issues, but Paul had a great love for that church, a love that was strong enough for that he would reach out to them and instruct them and try to pull them back from their errors into walking in a way that is pleasing to the Lord as a church body. 00:02:37.920 --> 00:02:59.120 Here's the second letter, which implies that Paul's love has not waned at all, that his love is still great, but it also, if you read it, it has a lot of joy because this letter talks about how they had corrected a lot of the problems that Paul had addressed, and he rejoiced in that correction. 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:12.319 But at the beginning of the letter, he says something that when we get to the fifth chapter, I want to keep in mind as he gives his salutation at the beginning of the letter. 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:23.759 Um, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, I'm not reading all of his words here in the first of the salutation, but he says in the third uh second verse, I like to read this, this is always written in Paul's letters. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:29.599 He says, Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:36.639 I think that's a worthy uh way to start any salutation or any comments to the church. 00:03:36.799 --> 00:03:40.879 It was mentioned in the prayer by Brother Owen that we would have grace and peace. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:45.199 We need the Lord's grace and we need peace as a church. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:04:07.120 Then he says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all of our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 00:04:07.280 --> 00:04:10.639 Now that it's beautiful, it's beautifully written. 00:04:10.799 --> 00:04:18.000 I love that language, but it also, I can understand, gets a little confusing. 00:04:18.639 --> 00:04:24.720 You know, I sit there and I read it and I'm go, okay, who's getting comforted here? 00:04:24.879 --> 00:04:27.680 There's a lot of comfort in that verse. 00:04:28.240 --> 00:04:48.480 But Paul is saying is that he has received comfort from God, not just for himself in all of his troubles, but that he would be able to provide comfort for others who are going through different troubles than he's gone through, but not because he has the ability to comfort them. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:57.199 He's not so smart or so experienced or that he's got within himself the ability to say, to make anyone comforted. 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:01.279 But what he has is a God that has comforted him. 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:10.319 And he's able to point them, anyone who's going through any trouble, to the very God who comforted him through his troubles. 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:16.079 See, this is a great comfort to me as a minister because I know my inadequacy. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:21.759 I know that I am not adequate to the task of ministering to God's people. 00:05:22.399 --> 00:05:37.439 Um, I do not have the ability, like the mind, I don't have the right ability to comfort someone except to point them only to the one who's been there for me through any of my troubles. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:40.080 Now, it's very little comfort. 00:05:40.320 --> 00:05:45.840 I recognize it's very little comfort for me to say, yeah, well, I I know where you've been. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:47.919 That's actually the opposite of comfort. 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:58.080 And if someone ever says, you all some of you know this to be true, like when you say that you're going through something and they go, Yeah, I know, because I've been through stuff, does that help? 00:05:58.240 --> 00:05:59.600 It doesn't help. 00:05:59.840 --> 00:06:09.279 Um, like, well, actually, and yeah, buts and and one upmanship is the worst thing to do to comfort somebody. 00:06:09.919 --> 00:06:15.039 Paul's not saying that he's gonna tell them his troubles, so they'll think, well, my troubles aren't that bad. 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:16.320 Look at the Apostle Paul. 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:17.840 That's not that's not helpful. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:20.960 What Paul is saying is, I've gone through troubles. 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:24.720 I'm not even gonna, he's like, I won't even have to get into what they were. 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:27.279 I'm just telling you that God has delivered. 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:33.759 And then God, the same God who's delivered me through my troubles, that's your God. 00:06:33.919 --> 00:06:39.519 And pointing people to God who can deliver through any trouble is the comfort. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:47.519 So he's not comforting them with his own knowledge, he's comforting them with the comfort that he was comforted with of God. 00:06:47.679 --> 00:06:50.320 In other words, it's point always pointing to God. 00:06:50.480 --> 00:06:59.120 Okay, and that is going to carry into the fifth chapter, because remember it's a letter, and there is no chapter really division. 00:06:59.200 --> 00:07:03.519 You kind of have to just read the whole thing, but we can't preach the whole thing in an hour. 00:07:03.679 --> 00:07:21.439 So the fifth chapter, he um, well, I guess quickly in the fourth chapter, just to keep context, he talks in the first verse about therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not. 00:07:21.600 --> 00:07:23.919 So he's still talking about his ministry. 00:07:24.080 --> 00:07:29.120 And and I'm talking about my ministry, but each of you has ministry as well. 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:31.279 See, we're all here to serve. 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:40.480 We're here to serve, but primarily serving God, and then we serve each other, but how do we do that? 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:42.240 I hope we'll get to that by the end. 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:43.600 How do we serve each other? 00:07:43.919 --> 00:07:46.559 Words the foundation for our service for each other. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:49.120 So Paul is still talking about his ministry. 00:07:50.240 --> 00:08:00.960 Verse 5 of the fourth chapter says, For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus our Lord, and ourselves your servants, for Jesus' sake. 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:05.840 So you notice that the hierarchy, as it were, of his ministry. 00:08:06.080 --> 00:08:10.320 He says, It's not about me, it's about Jesus Christ. 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:14.080 And then he says, and I'm your servant, but for Christ's sake. 00:08:14.240 --> 00:08:17.519 So it's still pointing back to the sinner, Jesus Christ. 00:08:17.840 --> 00:08:24.399 As we move, um, he goes in the eighth chapter, or the that was the fifth verse. 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:32.000 The sixth verse of the fourth chapter set talks about God, the same God who commanded light in the beginning, said, Let there be light. 00:08:32.080 --> 00:08:36.960 This is the same God who has shined the knowledge of Jesus Christ in your hearts. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:43.759 If you know about God, if you know about Jesus Christ, like the apostle Peter, you're a blessed individual. 00:08:44.000 --> 00:08:50.000 See, when when Jesus asked Peter, whom do men, or he asked all the apostles, whom do men say that I am? 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:54.639 And they, oh, men have all sorts of ideas, but he said, Whom do you say that I am? 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:57.840 Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:08:59.120 Now, how did he know that? 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:00.799 Jesus says he's blessed. 00:09:01.039 --> 00:09:02.879 Jesus says, Blessed art thou. 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:09.519 And then he says, the how he's blessed is that flesh and blood didn't reveal it, but my Father which is in heaven. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:20.399 That's the same way that if he shined it in your heart to give light of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, he it came from God, that you know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. 00:09:20.639 --> 00:09:30.720 So when Paul says the God who shined light out of darkness, he shined in your heart to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:40.399 Then he says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power of the excellence or that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. 00:09:40.559 --> 00:09:52.959 So again, he's saying his ministry, your ministry, yes, it is true that you have this beautiful treasure of the light of the knowledge of Christ in an earthen vessel. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:55.279 That means we're flawed. 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.959 Every one of us has sin. 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:02.000 There is no one that has no sin. 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:04.959 There is no one that has that's perfect. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:09.439 And Paul himself in the Philippian letter would say that he was not perfect. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:12.879 He would say that he has not attained to the knowledge. 00:10:13.360 --> 00:10:19.519 He had attained to a lot of knowledge, even had it revealed to him from God directly. 00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:24.559 But he said, I press forward as though I had not attained anything. 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:28.000 I'm gonna add that word in there for meaning. 00:10:28.079 --> 00:10:31.120 He says, I press forward as if I had not attained anything. 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:37.439 In other words, he was not going to sit back in his knowledge, he was gonna continue to press forward toward Christ. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:44.399 He said that I may win Christ and apprehend that from which I am also apprehended. 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:49.279 He wanted to reach out and lay hold on Christ, the one who had a hold of him. 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:52.000 Hold that thought as we move forward. 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:54.879 But he says, but we have this in an earthen vessel. 00:10:55.039 --> 00:10:59.919 We are flawed, we are not perfect, and on this life we never will be. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:03.279 But we can press toward the mark. 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:07.039 And then he talks about some things that he's gone through. 00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:08.399 We are troubled. 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:09.839 This is still the fourth chapter. 00:11:09.919 --> 00:11:12.639 We are troubled on every side. 00:11:14.319 --> 00:11:17.679 That's certainly something we can relate to. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:20.719 He says, yet not distressed. 00:11:21.919 --> 00:11:25.759 We are perplexed, but not in despair. 00:11:27.120 --> 00:11:30.799 Persecuted, but not forsaken. 00:11:31.519 --> 00:11:35.839 Cast down, but not destroyed. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:42.480 He puts some contrast, he's gone, we've gone, we're going through troubles, trials, tribulations. 00:11:42.719 --> 00:11:43.679 It's not new. 00:11:43.839 --> 00:11:47.679 It's not something that this uh that the people of God have never faced before. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:50.319 It's not even worse than it's ever been before. 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:54.719 Um, don't ever think that the world is worse than it's ever been. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:56.399 It has always been. 00:11:56.559 --> 00:11:59.199 Not a friend of God, not a friend of grace. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:10.319 Um, ever since Adam fell in the garden, this world is not a friend to the people of God, but there's a place that He's given us as a refuge. 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:24.480 So Paul's talking about this ministry that's centered on Christ, servants for others for Christ's sake, a place where we can comfort one another that in this, in these troubles, and he says that these troubles haven't gotten us defeated. 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:26.559 They're not totally casting us down. 00:12:26.799 --> 00:12:28.399 We're cast down, but we're not destroyed. 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:38.879 He says, always burying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. 00:12:39.120 --> 00:12:42.240 Okay, so keep that in mind. 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:50.399 We'll move to the fifth chapter because in the fifth chapter, he starts with this beautiful thought about what's waiting for the child of God. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:56.319 For if we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were resolved, we have were dissolved. 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:01.360 We have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:06.319 That's the promise you have of what is awaiting you someday. 00:13:06.879 --> 00:13:10.480 Now I don't want that's so beautiful I could just spend the whole time on that. 00:13:10.559 --> 00:13:17.439 But I want us to move into the verse I'd like to talk about in the 14th verse. 00:13:17.679 --> 00:13:20.480 But notice that he has an upward look. 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:34.480 He's like, remember that we have something waiting for us where all of these troubles, all these trials, all of these distresses, all the perplexings, all of these things cast down, that's going to be over. 00:13:34.639 --> 00:13:36.639 There's something waiting for us someday. 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:40.159 And keeping that in view helps you to look forward. 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:42.559 When you look up, you can look forward, right? 00:13:42.959 --> 00:13:52.399 Um then he talks about groaning in this body, longing to be free and to be with the Lord. 00:13:52.879 --> 00:14:01.839 Um, the next few verses talk about how we're confident that while we're at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. 00:14:02.079 --> 00:14:08.319 Um, but we're confident in verse 8 saying, willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:15.279 So he's saying there's something we desire, but then he's going to bring it back to here, right? 00:14:15.439 --> 00:14:18.879 Because he's saying that's waiting for us, and we long to be there. 00:14:19.199 --> 00:14:25.839 But there's something beautiful that we can enjoy right now if we remember something. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:34.799 So he goes, wherefore, verse 9, we labor that whether present or absent we may be accepted of Him. 00:14:34.959 --> 00:14:36.399 So now He's bringing it back here. 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:42.639 He's like, we don't live with, we can't live this life without a heavenly view. 00:14:42.959 --> 00:14:43.919 Like, we can't. 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:47.039 You want to be cast down but not destroyed? 00:14:47.279 --> 00:14:51.439 You can't do that if you're not remembering that heaven is your home. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:59.439 But we also can't live there and not remember what we have from the Lord here. 00:14:59.679 --> 00:15:02.319 So he talks, brings it back to his ministry. 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:08.879 But in doing so, he says, verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. 00:15:09.120 --> 00:15:15.839 Now I want to point out real quick that this is not talking about a future judgment that you're gonna face. 00:15:16.000 --> 00:15:19.279 This is talking about a daily judgment. 00:15:20.000 --> 00:15:26.079 And thanks be unto God, it's by the judgment seat of the one that loves you and died for you. 00:15:26.319 --> 00:15:28.719 Don't ever forget that. 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:32.959 We're not talking about a judge who is distant. 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:36.319 We're talking about a judge who's your near kinsman. 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:40.799 We're talking about a judge who loves you and gave himself for you. 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:43.759 But make no mistake, it's still a judgment seat. 00:15:43.839 --> 00:15:53.919 We must all appear before a judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that which he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:58.480 Then he says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:01.279 So he it is a warning. 00:16:01.839 --> 00:16:03.600 Don't take it lightly. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:08.879 Um, but it's not an eternal judgment you're gonna face someday. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:13.279 This is talking about an everyday thing. 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:29.759 Like when you were in your father's house and he told you to do that which you should do, you're gonna receive from him, whether good or bad, whether you pleased him or not. 00:16:30.079 --> 00:16:32.240 But this father never does wrong. 00:16:32.399 --> 00:16:33.759 Like I do wrong. 00:16:33.839 --> 00:16:37.439 I'll tell them to do something, I'll say to do it this way. 00:16:37.600 --> 00:16:38.719 They won't do it that way. 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:40.639 Maybe my way was the wrong way. 00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:42.639 I readily admit that. 00:16:42.959 --> 00:16:49.279 But Christ has never told you to do a thing that wasn't good for you and good for others. 00:16:49.519 --> 00:16:51.439 There's search the scripture. 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:52.879 Just test it out. 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:56.799 Is there anything in the scriptures that God has told you to do? 00:16:56.879 --> 00:16:58.959 Now I'm not talking about what people did do. 00:16:59.199 --> 00:17:03.279 There's a lot of sin recorded in scriptures that people did that did not please God. 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:06.160 But I'm talking about anything God actually told us to do. 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:08.240 Has it ever been bad? 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:09.920 It's never been bad. 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:11.759 It's always been for our good. 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:15.279 Because God said, I know my thoughts toward you. 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:17.519 The thoughts I think toward you. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:23.519 God knows, and He's told us, and we know, that they're thoughts of good and not of evil. 00:17:23.759 --> 00:17:26.640 When God is, what has God told us to do? 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:30.000 He says, What have I required of thee, O man? 00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:36.079 You know, he says, but that thou doest good, love mercy, love judgment. 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:38.640 Those are the things that God's told us to do. 00:17:39.120 --> 00:17:57.759 Now, when he says we know the terror of the Lord, there is something to be feared in God, but not that he would cast you out of his presence forever, but that you would receive the chastisement that a loving father gives his child for their good and their correction. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:17:59.680 But it is not a pleasant deal. 00:17:59.839 --> 00:18:03.200 I do not recommend that we would do that. 00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:13.279 So he says, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also made manifest in your consciousness. 00:18:13.440 --> 00:18:25.440 So if you if you get what he's saying there, he's saying that how he lives matters before God and the example it sheds, it sets for others. 00:18:25.600 --> 00:18:26.480 It matters. 00:18:26.800 --> 00:18:37.680 How we behave ourselves in this world is a reflection on who we say that we are and whose we say we are. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:47.440 So he goes, We commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:54.560 And then he says, For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God, and whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:59.600 That what he's saying is there's people out there that think he's crazy. 00:18:59.840 --> 00:19:01.519 I mean, I'll just put it in plain language. 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:04.240 There are people out there that thought he was mad. 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:12.960 In fact, in Acts, when he goes before Agrippa and Festus, what he's saying what that he's preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:19:13.040 --> 00:19:16.080 And Festus is like, Thou art mad. 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:18.800 Like he's like, You're crazy, Paul. 00:19:19.120 --> 00:19:22.240 And he's like, Much learning hath made thee mad. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:23.519 That's exactly what he said. 00:19:23.600 --> 00:19:29.440 And he goes, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of God in truth and soberly. 00:19:29.600 --> 00:19:32.240 So he's saying, if we are beside ourselves, it is to God. 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:38.960 He's like, I don't care what people think about me, I am living to God. 00:19:39.120 --> 00:19:43.200 And then he says, but if we be so if whether we be sober, it is for your cause. 00:19:43.360 --> 00:19:53.519 Meaning, in other words, he's going to keep himself in subjection and stay in a uh what uh the right frame of mind. 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:59.519 That's what soberness means, is like a clear frame of mind for the sake of the church. 00:19:59.759 --> 00:20:00.080 Okay. 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:06.800 Then, verse 14, so finally got to where I wanted to be. 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:14.960 Remember, we're talking about a ministry that's Godward and then it benefits others. 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:16.640 That's the gist of this. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:24.240 He says, verse 14, for the love of Christ constraineth us. 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:29.440 I always I found that to be such an interesting word. 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:37.920 Because constraineth seems a negative thing. 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:41.519 I mean, my first read of it seems negative, right? 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:44.000 I don't want to be constrained. 00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:46.400 Um, we all like to be free. 00:20:46.560 --> 00:21:04.000 I mean, I like to wear, I mean, I wear a suit to church because of my appearance, you know, I don't want anything to distract from uh what I'm trying to talk about, but I'd rather wear like a loose-fitting shirt, you know, and and uh be free. 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:06.160 I don't like to be constrained. 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:08.720 But this word constraint, it does mean that. 00:21:08.800 --> 00:21:12.080 So like I don't want to give you a false, I'm not gonna be like, oh, it doesn't mean that. 00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:14.800 It definitely means what you think it means. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:16.960 But let's look at why it means them. 00:21:17.120 --> 00:21:28.640 I mean, one thing about the word constraint that um, like in the dictionary, in the definition, kind of brings about the idea of a child safety seat. 00:21:28.800 --> 00:21:31.600 And I'm talking about the young, we all wear seat belts. 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:33.759 I hope every one of you had a seatbelt on in the car. 00:21:33.920 --> 00:21:36.720 It's not only the law, it is for your good. 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:40.400 But a child safety seat, right? 00:21:40.560 --> 00:21:44.080 Those things, the best ones, have those three-point harnesses. 00:21:44.160 --> 00:21:49.200 I mean, they are, and then you pull them tight, they are constrained. 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:54.640 They are held fast, and that's what the word has a meaning of is hold fast. 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:59.360 Now, as the love of God constraineth us. 00:22:00.320 --> 00:22:05.200 And then he's gonna, I'm gonna read the next bit and come back to that thought. 00:22:05.360 --> 00:22:17.279 But he says, for we thus, or because we thus judge, so because we have reckoned this, we thought about this, this is the truth of the situation. 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:25.519 We thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. 00:22:25.840 --> 00:22:40.640 So what he's saying there is we've looked at this truth of God, we see the situation, and the love of Christ has brought about his death for his people. 00:22:41.680 --> 00:22:53.600 We know that when he was born into this world, the angels declared that he would, well, it's the angel told Joseph, he says, Fear not to take unto thee thy wife Mary. 00:22:54.080 --> 00:22:57.360 He says, for that which is conceived of in her is of the Holy Ghost. 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:06.560 And then he says, You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. 00:23:06.800 --> 00:23:09.759 So we know what he came into this world to do was to save his. 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:13.840 His people from their sins. 00:23:14.560 --> 00:23:16.400 But there's more to that. 00:23:16.560 --> 00:23:18.400 How is he going to save this people? 00:23:18.560 --> 00:23:21.440 What does it mean to be saved from their sins? 00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:29.120 Well, we find throughout scriptures an explanation of what sin does to man. 00:23:29.279 --> 00:23:31.680 What sin did to man in the first place. 00:23:32.320 --> 00:23:35.519 Sin did not make man sick. 00:23:36.160 --> 00:23:36.480 Okay? 00:23:37.120 --> 00:23:40.240 Sin made man dead. 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:43.360 We'll read in Romans chapter 5. 00:23:48.640 --> 00:24:23.279 And in verse 12, and I will go up in a minute above this, thanks, and be thankful for the words above this, but verse 12 says, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, so he's saying that when Adam, not only by one man, but by the man, the first man, the man that from whence all human beings, save Jesus Christ, would come from, that one man, sin entered the world. 00:24:23.600 --> 00:24:25.920 Sin did not enter the world. 00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:30.880 Ultimately, sin did not enter the world by the woman. 00:24:31.600 --> 00:24:33.120 The woman was in the man. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:37.840 Sin didn't enter the world by the devil, though the devil himself came and tempted the woman. 00:24:38.080 --> 00:24:51.680 The blame for sin came only and squarely on the head of the man who was given the law of God and disobeyed. 00:24:51.920 --> 00:25:06.000 He was told, of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden thou shalt not eat, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. 00:25:06.800 --> 00:25:12.080 Now, as soon as he did eat of that tree, he died. 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:19.440 God did not, he didn't exaggerate, he didn't lie, he told the truth. 00:25:19.600 --> 00:25:25.440 Now you might read in Genesis and you say, well, he lived for like 900 something years after he did that. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:30.400 My friends, God was not talking about that your body will cease to have life in it. 00:25:30.720 --> 00:25:39.759 The word death means more it doesn't just mean a body ceases to have life in it. 00:25:40.480 --> 00:25:49.519 You know this just from the usage of the word that something can be dead and still alive. 00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:57.759 For instance, somebody who has crossed you in such a way that you might say that person is dead to me. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:25:59.519 They're not dead. 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:03.279 You just don't want to ever be connected with them anymore. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:04.880 You use the word that way. 00:26:05.040 --> 00:26:09.519 I don't know that it's ever right for you to say someone's dead to you, but you we use the word that way. 00:26:09.840 --> 00:26:20.880 So we understand that the word dead doesn't mean void of a life, it doesn't mean only that the body falls down and life is not in it anymore. 00:26:21.120 --> 00:26:21.440 Okay? 00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:24.000 It means a separation. 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:31.680 Now, when the body does lay down in death, it is separated from its life. 00:26:31.840 --> 00:26:33.759 That's why that word is used for that. 00:26:33.840 --> 00:26:34.480 It's dead. 00:26:34.560 --> 00:26:36.240 But it's not the only time. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:40.560 You can be, if someone's dead to you, they're separated from you. 00:26:41.519 --> 00:26:46.240 Paul or Adam, when he sinned, he did surely die. 00:26:46.400 --> 00:26:48.160 He God told the truth. 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:51.600 He didn't fall down dead at that moment, but he began to die. 00:26:51.680 --> 00:27:02.320 And in fact, I think that the best like uh interpretation of the thou shalt surely die, I've heard is that in dying thou shalt die. 00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:05.840 Now, people tell me that, and I'm like, well, that still doesn't make sense to me. 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:06.880 I don't know what that means. 00:27:07.120 --> 00:27:13.519 So, what it what it means is his body immediately began to start the dying process. 00:27:14.080 --> 00:27:21.040 Now, but we can't understand what it was like before that because we live in a world that's dying. 00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:27.360 The moment we are born, as the poet in one poet said, we all begin to die. 00:27:27.759 --> 00:27:29.360 I might say, well, I don't begin to die. 00:27:29.600 --> 00:27:33.279 Uh my natural life was an increase before it starts. 00:27:33.360 --> 00:27:36.080 I'm on the I'm starting to be on the downhill side now. 00:27:36.240 --> 00:27:40.480 I can I know it and I feel it and everything, but I'm still way up here. 00:27:40.560 --> 00:27:41.840 I I know, I know. 00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:44.480 I'm still young, but I feel older every day. 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:46.880 I am older every day, in fact. 00:27:47.200 --> 00:27:59.120 But quite frankly, from immediately, from birth, from conception, I guess you'd have to say, even though you're starting a growing process, you are also dying. 00:27:59.440 --> 00:28:01.440 You're dying because your cells die. 00:28:01.600 --> 00:28:05.840 I mean, biologically, we are in a constant state of dying. 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:12.480 Because sin entered the world, and death, it says, by sin. 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:15.120 In other words, death entered the world by sin. 00:28:16.480 --> 00:28:20.640 Um, the world before Adam sinned, there was no death. 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:24.480 There couldn't have been, because death entered the world by sin. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:31.120 So it says death passed on all men for all have sinned. 00:28:31.200 --> 00:28:36.560 Now you must, it does not say death will pass on all men because all will sin. 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:40.560 It doesn't say death passes on all men that do sin. 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:42.080 It doesn't say that. 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:47.440 It says death has passed on all men, for all have sinned. 00:28:47.840 --> 00:28:49.600 Now, why does it say it that way? 00:28:49.840 --> 00:28:57.680 It says it that way because when the one man Adam sinned, he died in sin. 00:28:57.840 --> 00:28:59.120 He was separated from God. 00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:08.000 And in Ephesians chapter 2, it would say it this way: You had the quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins. 00:29:08.160 --> 00:29:09.840 That's the death you were in. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.080 That's the separation from God. 00:29:12.480 --> 00:29:18.000 That he was in trespasses and in sins, and now he was in that death. 00:29:18.240 --> 00:29:22.240 But that death passed on all men, for all have sinned. 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:26.320 He's saying, in Adam we sinned. 00:29:26.560 --> 00:29:29.360 We were in Adam, so we sinned. 00:29:29.680 --> 00:29:34.800 So we were in a state of death before we were ever conceived. 00:29:35.040 --> 00:29:42.000 And David would write it this way, he'd say, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. 00:29:42.160 --> 00:29:54.000 David understood not that there's a sinfulness in conceiving a child, but that a child, when it's conceived, is conceived in a state of sin, of death. 00:29:54.160 --> 00:30:06.000 Now, the world today, there's some that would like you to think that we're all born neutral or maybe even good, and you have to sin to become a sinner, but that is not how the scriptures teach. 00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:09.519 It is not that we are a sinner because we sin. 00:30:10.240 --> 00:30:16.800 What he proves out in this chapter is that we sin because we are sinners. 00:30:17.040 --> 00:30:18.480 It's our nature. 00:30:18.800 --> 00:30:21.680 We are dead in sins by nature. 00:30:22.720 --> 00:30:29.680 And he goes on to talk about how death is the wages of sin. 00:30:29.840 --> 00:30:36.880 It's what sin earns, it's what it rightfully deserves, and it's what it works in us. 00:30:37.040 --> 00:30:50.320 And sin even brought death in this world before there was a law spoken by God to Moses on Mount Sinai that would lay out things that pleased God. 00:30:50.480 --> 00:30:53.680 Like, but what so what happened in that interim time? 00:30:55.279 --> 00:30:56.480 Was anyone a sinner? 00:30:56.720 --> 00:31:00.960 Because they hadn't broken any verb, any law of God that they were told? 00:31:01.120 --> 00:31:02.400 Yes, they were sinners. 00:31:02.560 --> 00:31:03.200 They died. 00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:08.960 The proof is in the evidence, the death reigned from Adam to Moses, it says. 00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:11.360 Again, we're still in Romans chapter 5. 00:31:11.519 --> 00:31:13.040 Death reigned from Adam to Moses. 00:31:13.360 --> 00:31:14.960 Death happened constantly. 00:31:15.120 --> 00:31:26.560 You just read in Genesis how Adam was such and such years old, and he had Seth, and he lived a little, he lived this many years longer, and he died. 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:36.720 And then it says Seth was certain years old, and he had his son Enoch, or Enoch, I forget what his son's name was, but then he lived longer and he had sons and daughters, and he died. 00:31:36.880 --> 00:31:48.800 And that's throughout the entire lineage laid out in Genesis, all the way up to chapter 5, the end of 5, and going into 6 when Noah comes on the scene. 00:31:48.960 --> 00:31:49.440 Guess what? 00:31:49.600 --> 00:31:51.040 Every one of them died. 00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:56.640 None of them had had a law written in stone that they were judged against. 00:31:56.800 --> 00:32:00.800 They just had sin in them, and sin brings forth death. 00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:05.440 So everyone was dead in sins. 00:32:05.920 --> 00:32:15.759 Now, Paul says in our text that we judged the fact that if Christ died for all, then all were dead. 00:32:16.000 --> 00:32:24.080 What he's saying is we were all in the same boat, the same condition, and we needed the same salvation. 00:32:24.400 --> 00:32:31.680 There is no difference in how you get saved and how Abraham got saved. 00:32:31.840 --> 00:32:39.840 There is no difference in how King David was saved and how a baby that is just now born gets saved. 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:43.519 The all were dead. 00:32:44.160 --> 00:32:46.880 That's why Christ had to die for all. 00:32:47.360 --> 00:32:54.880 And that Christ came into this world, he did not come to provide a way for us to get saved. 00:32:54.960 --> 00:32:56.720 He came to save his people. 00:32:56.800 --> 00:33:00.320 And he did it by dying because we were dead. 00:33:00.560 --> 00:33:03.440 See, he didn't, he came and he healed a lot of sick. 00:33:04.000 --> 00:33:10.560 He came and he had compassion on the multitudes, and he fed them and he healed them, but that's not what he came to do. 00:33:10.800 --> 00:33:14.000 That was something that he did while he was here. 00:33:15.440 --> 00:33:30.320 But his purpose in coming, his hour, as he would say, his reason for coming was to do the will of the Father, which was that he would give eternal life to everyone the Father gave him. 00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:37.519 And he says that he, of all that the Father gave him, he would lose nothing but raise it up again the last day. 00:33:37.840 --> 00:33:42.240 He came to save his people from their sins. 00:33:42.960 --> 00:33:48.160 And that sin brought death, so he must die for our sins. 00:33:48.400 --> 00:33:59.680 Now, if he died, that's the next part of that text, that we judge that he died for all because all were dead. 00:34:00.320 --> 00:34:03.120 I've got to find the chapter again. 00:34:03.600 --> 00:34:07.200 Um it's right after Romans, too. 00:34:07.279 --> 00:34:08.239 It's 2 Corinthians. 00:34:08.559 --> 00:34:08.880 Okay. 00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:12.239 Um five. 00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:16.800 We judge that if he died for all, then all were dead. 00:34:17.039 --> 00:34:27.119 Then he says, and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves. 00:34:27.519 --> 00:34:33.360 So, again, he says, that there's a result that comes out of his dying for us. 00:34:33.599 --> 00:34:36.159 That he died for us because we were dead. 00:34:36.480 --> 00:34:45.279 But then he says, and that he died for all that day, or so that day, to the end that here's the result of it. 00:34:45.759 --> 00:34:52.639 He died for us because we were dead, but he lives, so we live also. 00:34:53.279 --> 00:34:56.320 Christ would say, Because I live, ye shall live also. 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:10.239 But we are not to live unto ourselves, he says, but unto him which died for them and rose again. 00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:23.839 So the love of God that holds us like it, like in a child seat, that holds us safe and secure in his arms, brought him to this world to die for us. 00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:30.000 So back to Romans chapter 5, and we'll go above the verses that I said we should read. 00:35:30.239 --> 00:35:32.559 I'm going all out of order here. 00:35:33.920 --> 00:35:36.639 But we under we're trying to judge it like Paul did. 00:35:36.719 --> 00:35:39.119 He says, if Christ died for all, then all were dead. 00:35:39.199 --> 00:35:48.239 So we've looked at the fact that we were dead in our sins, but Christ died for every single person that God gave him to die for. 00:35:48.399 --> 00:35:52.079 But now he lives, and we live unto him. 00:35:52.399 --> 00:36:01.039 So in Romans chapter 5, it says, and I don't start at the where do I want to start? 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:05.039 Um I am going to start with the first verses. 00:36:05.119 --> 00:36:06.319 I just won't speak on it much. 00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:22.399 Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom by Christ also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 00:36:22.639 --> 00:36:34.719 And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed. 00:36:35.440 --> 00:36:42.559 Then it says, Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto you. 00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:49.679 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 00:36:49.759 --> 00:36:58.879 Now, that without strength, you might read that and say, Yeah, when we were weak, when we were, you know, needed a little help. 00:36:59.199 --> 00:37:01.759 That is not what without strength means. 00:37:02.000 --> 00:37:04.879 It is not that when we were of little strength. 00:37:05.039 --> 00:37:09.440 It's not when we were just, we needed to be like trained up. 00:37:09.839 --> 00:37:11.279 I am of little strength. 00:37:11.359 --> 00:37:15.920 I have not the strength I had when I was at high school and working out all the time. 00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:24.000 Um, I don't have the strength of people that work with their hands and like, I mean, I work, I type on a keyboard, my fingers might be strong, but that's it, right? 00:37:24.239 --> 00:37:28.079 I don't have a lot of strength, but I'm not without strength. 00:37:28.480 --> 00:37:28.960 You know? 00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:30.559 There is a difference. 00:37:31.119 --> 00:37:36.559 Without strength means zero strength. 00:37:37.839 --> 00:37:39.519 There's a word for that. 00:37:40.639 --> 00:37:41.279 Dead. 00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:42.319 Okay? 00:37:42.799 --> 00:37:47.599 A dead person is without strength, absent of any strength. 00:37:47.839 --> 00:37:48.159 Okay? 00:37:48.879 --> 00:37:55.279 Um, it's not saying when we were sin sick, it's when we were dead in sins. 00:37:56.719 --> 00:38:04.319 When we were without any strength at all, without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. 00:38:04.719 --> 00:38:11.920 And remember, he says the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, because when we were in this condition, Christ died for us. 00:38:12.159 --> 00:38:14.960