Faith and Hope What about the law part 4

Welcome to episode 109, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 109. If you've been following this, this series on faith and hope, you know that we've been covering a lot of ground. We talked a little bit about faith and hope, we've added grace, and now I'm adding the law. If you're just coming in on this episode, if you just found this on the interwebs and come in and just— you're in the middle of this play, you can go back to, I think it's 94, it's episode 94 is where we we started all of this wonderfulness way back then, and we started talking about all these things. But I want to jump back into the law. And like we've talked on previous episodes, these are all huge topics. The law is huge. Faith, hope, love, grace— all of these things are huge. And I'm trying to get this into bite-sized portions that we can just kind of chew on as we go through the day. That's my whole modus operandi here, is to help you get in the word of God and then let the Holy Spirit lead you into all truth. What I'm here to do is just to motivate you to get into the word and just hear every day to say, hey, it's okay, your head's not going to explode if you read the Bible. I promise you, this is my little soapbox moment. Get in the word of God. It's the best way to spend time with Jesus. And so he will lead you, the Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth. And with all of that said, I want to get back in and show you my superior reading skills. And I'm— we're going to pick up— we read from Romans 5:12-17. I want to read a little more and finish up Romans 5 and go into some of 6. We're going to start at Romans 5:18. Therefore, as one man's offense, judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation. Even so, through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, So also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? And I want to stop there. And I know, again, my superior reading skills are just— I know they're wonderful to listen to, but I have got to get the word of— this whole thing is about the word of God, and I have got to get that into the airwaves, because without the word of God, I wouldn't be here. I'm telling you, I'm a— I'm just nothing without Jesus. And I— and, and I— as I dig into this word and he kind of leads me on this path that we're walking down. He's showing me things that, you know, I've seen before, but to go back and to think about and to tell you how what I'm seeing or how the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding and directing me. And right now he's wanting me to talk about the law. And the law, we're gonna— I'm not gonna rehash everything that I talked about on the law, but it was given to show that we were not worthy to enter into heaven, to enter into God's way of doing things or his kingdom. Because perfection is the only way to enter in if you're going to try to keep the law. Now Jesus came and died so that we didn't have to do it, but then we got to use faith, and then we're going to start talking about grace and all of those things. They all kind of work together, but unless you get a— unless you get a grip on the law, you're gonna— I think you're gonna bypass some of this stuff because the law was sent. Now we're going to enter into a little Gregology here. I believe the law was sent— if you look back at where Noah was where they built the ark, and we didn't have— or God didn't have any law going on then. There was sin in the world, and men, as they continue to live, they continue to get more and more and more and more sinful because Satan was still involved down here and he was still leading people. And I think once you jump into sin and you start going down that rabbit hole, you are caught and trapped forever. And we're not going to start chasing that rabbit, but you are in sin, and the only way to get out of sin is to die to self and accept what Jesus has done for you. But see, Jesus hadn't come in the Old Testament, so there was no answer for sins. In order for God to— he had to just wipe everything clean. Started with Noah and his sons and daughters and, and wife. And if you go back all the way back to Genesis 3, where man had fallen, where Adam and Eve bit the fruit, used his spoken word to tell the serpent what was going to happen to him— and we're going to go to that, Genesis 3:14 and 15. Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. God pretty much told Satan how it was going to happen. He hadn't had it all played out. And we're not going to go into the word of God. I mean, we're— we can get into that in other episodes. But God spoke the word, it was going to happen. Well, now the seed that he was talking about was through man, and man was corrupt. And he had to— he looked down and saw Noah, who was not— he hadn't fallen into all that mess. And so he had him build the ark. And then it started happening again. Men started falling in after, after Noah and his sons, you know, started repopulating the earth. Men started falling back into sin. And we pick it up where Moses went up, you know, he— the children of Israel went, you know, through the Red Sea, all of that. I'm not going to rehash that story, but God went up and gave Moses the Ten Commandments. And this is where the Gregology comes in. It is— I think that he gave the Ten Commandments to stop some of this sin, to get his chosen people Israel to, whoa, you know, hit— pump the brakes. And he wanted to show Man, look, this is the standard. You need to live by this standard. And so they tried it. They knew that, that this was God, and God showed all these miracles. And so they had this standard that they had to live by. And so as they were trying to live by, God knew that they couldn't live by it, but he had to slow down all this sin mess so that he could get the Savior born. And I, I mean, that's the Gregology, and that's the simplification in a 10-minute lesson is that God gave man the law so that he could get his Son here on earth so that he could live perfect and die that death so that then we could use our faith— well, actually not our faith, God would implant the faith. We would then use our faith or that faith to accept Jesus and die to self. And we're going to get that, we're going to get to all that in the faith and the grace and all of those lessons down the road. I told you this is a big, big deal. I want you to see the law as a way to calm this, to show man that sin— it made sin come alive is what Paul said. So it made it kind of put a— if you're looking through some words and stuff and you put a highlighter, I mean, I know you've seen those, and I highlight a lot of stuff in my Bible, it makes it stand out. And I think that's what sin— when the law made sin stand out And it showed man, hey, you're messing up. This is God's standard and you've screwed up. And if you want God to bless you, you need to get back in line. Well, all of that was fine and good, and when Jesus came, he lived the sinless life. He did not mess up. He did not break one of those laws. And then he went on the cross to pay the price for you and I. Jesus fulfilled the requirement of the law, the spotless lamb. God sent his son to pay the price that you and I could not pay. The thing that the law required the requirement of a spotless lamb. I want you to hear in John 1:29, the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.' And when I say that sin is no longer the issue, it's because Jesus took it away. Sin is gone. Sin has been paid for. Every sin, past, present and future sin has been paid for at the cross. So next Thursday's sin is paid for. The sin that you did at 20, the sin that I did at 18, the sin that I did at 23, all of those sins was put on Jesus at the cross. And all I had to do— I mean, I'm putting up air quotes— all I had to do was die to sin. I had to repent I had to die to my old self, and I had to accept what Jesus did for me on the cross. You know, people make it seem kind of simple. I mean, it's very simple, but it's not easy. We're going to get into the whole dying to self, and we've talked about that when I've talked about humbling yourself. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. If you are wondering if you— I mean, if you're truly, quote, saved, because there's some scripture in the Bible that states wide is the way. And I had a series— I had an episode on wide and narrow is the gate, and I don't want to reteach that lesson. But Jesus also said to people in the church— he's talking to people in the church when he said, depart from me, I never knew you. And I just want to go, because that's such an important scripture, I want to go to that. That's in Matthew, it's in 7:21. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.' And I just want to stop there, and, and we're going to get into— and I'm about done talking about the law. But we're going to get into the practicing lawlessness. And, and my tongue-in-cheek response to the medical practice is, you know, I'm going to start going to the doctors more when they get in the game. Because if this is a medical practice, if they're just practicing, I want them in the game. I want them to have some skin on in the game. Again, that's my distorted sense of humor, and I'm not against doctors. I'm just— this is just me seeing the practice and then the, the words of Jesus saying them that practice lawlessness. And in order to practice, I think you've got to get up every day thinking about— if you're a doctor, if you're a medical professional, you get up every day knowing that you've got to go to work and you've got to help save lives, or you've got to go tend to people's problems and that sort of thing. And you're practicing your profession every day that you at the office, every day that you've got a patient in front of you, you are practicing. And I think this is what Jesus is is that the people that practice lawlessness— now it's one thing to be caught in homosexuality, it's another thing to practice homosexuality. And kind of in my, again, my distorted sense of humor is giving God the finger and saying, you know, I'm gonna do this, you know, you've— I done prayed that little prayer and I'm going to heaven, but I'm gonna do my thing down here. And that to me is the practicing of lawlessness. And that's where Paul said, and we're going to go, we're going to finish up in Romans 6 where it said, shall we say then, shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? And that is a great place to stop, you know, because one of the things when you start talking about doing away with the law and you're dealing with grace, then people, the next thing is, well, you know, you're just going to let people do whatever they want. No, no, God's not saying that at all. But I am saying that if you live in love and you truly love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and body, that you're not going to practice lawlessness. You are going to try your best. And that, I mean, I— that's what I'm doing, and I'm pretty confident I'm going to end up in heaven. It's because I'm not trying to be perfect, but I'm also trying not to practice lawlessness. If I see myself sinning— and I'm putting air quotes up— where I just continue to mess up and mess up and keep doing the same thing, I've got to turn around, repent, and say, 'God, help me with this. I, I'm struggling with this area right here.' God is okay with that. But then, you know, the people that just say, 'Nah, I'm doing whatever I want to do down here,' that's not humbling yourself. That's prideful. And pride comes before the fall. And I'm not even going to start chasing that rabbit, but I just wanted to put that out there. I told you that this is a big huge topic, and I don't even know why I do this to myself. I should just talk about these real simple things, but you know, while you're working out, and I want this to just sink in, and I want you to be stronger in Christ because we're more than conquerors. We are warriors, and if we're going to win this battle against the punk, we got to know whose side we're on, and we got to know how to fight this battle. So all right, let's pray real quick. God, I thank you so much for the person listening to this podcast. Lord, I thank you for allowing me to be here, and I thank you for allowing me to, to fill the air with your word. God, thank you again for writing it. Holy Spirit, thank you for never leaving us nor forsaking us. And I pray in Jesus' name that you would quicken the lesson that you want this person to know about the law. Lord, let them dig in for themselves. It says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Lord, Get— put the fear of God on them and the reverence that you're due. And Lord, I thank you. We love you. We ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you in the next episode.

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