3ABN Sabbath School Panel

Lesson 4: Justification by Faith Alone

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Pr. CA Murray (Host), Jill Morikone, Pr. John Dinzey, Pr. Ronny Shelton, Shelley Quinn

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Series Code: SSP

Program Code: SSP000029A


00:01 The Bible tells us, "In the beginning was the Word,
00:03 and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
00:07 It says, "To receive with meekness
00:10 the implanted word,
00:11 which is able to save your souls
00:14 and to be diligent to present yourself
00:16 approved to God rightly dividing the Word of truth."
00:21 Join us now for the 3ABN Sabbath School Panel.
00:25 Our study today is "The Gospel of Galatians".
00:34 And we welcome you once again
00:35 to our 3ABN Sabbath School Panel.
00:38 I'm CA Murray and it is my privilege
00:40 and pleasure to welcome you
00:41 to a time of study in the Word of God.
00:44 This quarter, we have been looking
00:45 at the Book of Galatians,
00:48 the title of the lesson this quarter
00:49 is "The Gospel in Galatians".
00:51 Now if you are a student of Adventist history,
00:53 you may know overtime when that term
00:55 The Gospel in Galatians was fighting words
00:58 in the Adventist Church.
01:00 Even up to the General Conference president,
01:02 there was The Gospel in Galatians,
01:04 there was the Law in Galatians,
01:05 and the church had divided itself into two camps,
01:08 the gospel camp and law camp
01:10 and that was quite heated discussion.
01:12 And so, here in the Book of Galatians,
01:14 there is some minor difference of opinion
01:19 as to some of the things in Galatians,
01:20 but there is one universal opinion
01:23 and that is that Christ has seen,
01:25 Christ has lifted up,
01:26 and there is a universality in the Book of Galatians,
01:30 that if you look very closely
01:31 you see it very, very evidently.
01:33 And that's what we're gonna talking about today
01:35 as we look at the idea of justification
01:38 in the Book of Galatians,
01:40 and how that effects your life,
01:42 effects my life, and how we work our way
01:46 through that very, very important
01:47 and sometimes lost sight of doctrine
01:50 in Adventism, in Christianity, and in the Book of Galatians.
01:54 Let me say this also, by way of homework,
01:57 should you want to follow us, follow along with us,
02:00 may I encourage you to turn to, what is it?
02:03 ABSG, Adventist Senior, Adventist Bible Study Guide
02:09 .adventist.org, or have it correct?
02:12 Adult Bible Study Guide. Adult Bible Study Guide.
02:14 ABSG.Adventist.org. Thank you so very much.
02:17 It's good to have friends to bail you out
02:18 when you're drowning, and we appreciate that.
02:22 But the notes are there, now I need to mention also,
02:25 these are not our notes,
02:27 these are the official Bible study notes
02:29 as produced by the Seventh-day Adventist Church,
02:31 our notes kind of belong to us.
02:34 You may not always want our notes
02:35 'cause our notes tend to be...
02:38 We write them on and whatnot.
02:39 So this is how you can follow along
02:41 what we're going to be talking about.
02:42 We, of course, are following that
02:44 but we have additional light to give,
02:46 additional commentary to give,
02:47 and that's what the Sabbath School Bible study
02:48 is all about
02:50 and we just are so very, very excited to have you.
02:52 John Dinzey, Jill Morikone, Ronny Shelton, Shelley Quinn,
02:57 good to have you guys all here.
02:58 We want to launch right up because there is precious time.
03:02 We're gonna have a word of prayer
03:03 and then lets just launch out together.
03:05 Father God, we thank You
03:06 and praise You for Your goodness,
03:07 and for the power of Your Word.
03:09 Help us now as we dig into Your Word,
03:11 give us as it were gold in shovels
03:13 that we may dig deeply and find out that
03:16 what You want us to know,
03:17 so that we may do it and put it into practice,
03:20 so that we can be like Christ Jesus.
03:21 And we thank You dear Father in Jesus' name, amen.
03:25 Amen.
03:26 Our first day's study
03:30 really built on the heels of the,
03:34 dare I say, dust up between Paul and Peter
03:37 as we looked at previously.
03:41 One of the things that I see in the Book of Galatians
03:45 is that Judaism
03:48 because of the way the structure is wedded to do,
03:52 Christianity is wedded to be, and they come from
03:56 two different theological mindsets.
03:59 The eastern mind says, you are what you do
04:01 and that is true,
04:03 but Christianity is more we have to be
04:06 and our doing comes out of what we are.
04:09 So you've got two,
04:12 not adverse theological mindsets
04:14 but certainly they don't lay on top of each other.
04:16 And we see the beginnings of some diversity
04:21 in thinking the early church, of course, was very Jewish.
04:24 And one of the things that Christianity
04:26 had to establish for itself was
04:28 when we see the beginnings
04:29 of this in the Book of Galatians
04:31 is that you don't have to come to Christ through Judaism,
04:34 in fact, you cannot come to Christ through Judaism.
04:36 Yes. Judaism was not...
04:38 Christianity was not just an improvement on Judaism.
04:42 It was a change in direction.
04:44 That was a totally different paradigm
04:47 and we see the beginnings of this happening here
04:49 in the Book of Galatians.
04:50 We begin to see
04:51 some of the different things that happen.
04:53 Now for me, I base Galatians, particularly Galatians 2
04:56 after the Jerusalem Council.
04:58 We are talking 48, 50 AD.
05:01 There are some who place it before,
05:03 I place it after,
05:04 simply because we see the ascendancy of James
05:06 and some of these people here in the Book of Galatians.
05:09 And of course, James sort of came to the forefront
05:11 after Jerusalem Council.
05:12 So I'm going Jerusalem Council beyond
05:17 and taking a look at that.
05:19 What takes place in the aftermath
05:22 of Paul and Peter at Antioch has some deep spiritual
05:27 and theological roots
05:29 and we want to take a look at that.
05:31 The writing in Galatians by Paul is rather strident.
05:36 Paul was never one, if you look at his writings,
05:38 the whole Pauline epistles and the Pauline letters,
05:42 Paul does not mince words, he doesn't take a lot of time
05:45 to be politically correct
05:46 or very, very tactful sometimes.
05:48 He kind of puts it out there.
05:49 He puts it out there in love but given his conversion,
05:53 given what he was, given his background,
05:55 given his training, Paul kind of just puts it there
05:57 and puts in very, very plainly.
06:02 One of the things I want to talk about
06:04 is the idea of justification in Pauline literature.
06:14 The verb to justify, the lesson tells us
06:16 is used some 39 times,
06:18 27 in the Pauline letters by themselves.
06:22 This is a very, very strong, strong stance
06:27 as to what Paul is thinking.
06:30 When I talked about Do and Be,
06:34 when you think of Do and Be,
06:37 you are gonna run up against justification sooner or later,
06:41 because justification flies in the face of Do
06:45 and is much more a consequence of Be.
06:48 We see here the beginnings of theological controversies
06:53 which in time will split Judaism from Christianity.
06:58 They cannot go hand in hand with each other
07:01 because of this idea of justification.
07:04 Interestingly enough, it was a Jewish community
07:06 that made the first strong attempts
07:08 to separate themselves from Christianity.
07:11 You think of Jamnia in 1980,
07:15 where the Jews added The Birkat ha-Minim,
07:18 which was a blessing against the heretics,
07:20 really it was a curse but they call it a blessing.
07:23 And everybody in the temple had to say "Amen".
07:25 Well, since it was a blessing against Christians,
07:28 Christians could not say amen,
07:29 so they began to filter themselves out
07:31 of the Jewish temple, but originally Jews
07:36 and Christians worship together.
07:38 The church was predominantly Jewish
07:40 but as the gospel moved out,
07:42 it began to take on more of a Christian flavor
07:44 and the Christians left.
07:46 So, then comes this idea that justification
07:50 is the way to righteousness and not working yourself
07:55 into a correct state with the Lord.
08:00 The lesson takes pains to say
08:02 that justification is a legal term.
08:04 And it's interesting that Paul given his mind,
08:06 given his background, chose to use terms
08:09 that were forensic in nature,
08:12 that were legal to try to explain
08:14 what he meant by justification.
08:18 Of course, we're talking about right standing with God.
08:21 The idea that you could be right with God
08:25 through an act of faith was alien to the Jewish mind.
08:29 It was alien to Jewish thinking.
08:32 Their mindsets said, I've got to do something to be right,
08:35 the idea that I can just accept Christ,
08:37 and be made righteous through my acceptance of Christ
08:40 was alien to them and I may say,
08:42 it's also alien to many, many people today.
08:44 The idea that I can just love Christ,
08:47 accept Christ, take Christ unto myself,
08:49 give my life to Christ, and then be accounted
08:51 as righteous as justified through that act
08:55 seems a little farfetched to those of us
08:58 who may like to try to work out our salvation
09:02 or like to have control of the situation.
09:04 The truth is that work has been done
09:06 through the death of Jesus Christ.
09:08 We're gonna talk a little bit about this idea
09:10 of the stumbling block of someone dying on a tree,
09:13 being a stumbling block to the Jewish mind
09:16 because anyone dying on a tree, not dying on a tree
09:18 but even put on a tree after death
09:21 is an accursed person.
09:23 And yet, Jesus not only died on a tree
09:26 but remained on a tree after death
09:28 before he was taken down, that idea is just alien,
09:30 how do we follow someone like that?
09:32 How do we accept someone like that?
09:33 How do we give our lives to someone like that?
09:35 And yet, that is the basis, the crux, the nexus
09:39 of what justification by faith is,
09:41 that I have faith in Christ, I surrender myself to Christ
09:45 and then I'm accounted as righteous,
09:50 alien to the Jewish mind.
09:51 And so Paul speaks very, very stridently
09:54 that this idea of working yourself
09:57 into right standing with God is alien to heaven.
10:01 It is alien to what Christ is all about.
10:03 It is alien to the principles of heaven.
10:06 The idea that you can work your way in is not of God.
10:10 In fact, it's really of the enemy.
10:12 The idea that you surrender and become righteous
10:16 as an edict by God is alien to our thinking
10:19 but it is the basis
10:21 of what justification by faith is all about.
10:24 The opposite, and I just want to take a moment
10:26 before my time runs out
10:27 to talk about this of justification,
10:29 of course, is condemnation.
10:31 Romans 8:1, "There is now therefore no condemnation
10:36 to those who are in Christ Jesus."
10:38 So we are justified by faith and by faith in Jesus Christ,
10:43 our Lord and Savior.
10:45 So Paul implies this legal term.
10:48 Paul is outlining the way to righteousness
10:51 or rather right standing
10:53 and that is faith in Jesus Christ
10:55 not by works of the law.
10:57 In fact, Paul hits it so hard
10:58 that later on he's got to come back
11:00 and bring some balance to this
11:02 because the question that is naturally answers
11:04 if the law means absolutely nothing,
11:06 what is the good of a law.
11:07 And Paul takes a lot of time to explain that,
11:09 and we'll be talking about that in our future lessons.
11:11 But one of the things I want to touch on
11:14 also is the fact that justification
11:17 is not just a reactive response to sin,
11:21 it is proactive through the working of grace.
11:25 God does not just forgive your sins,
11:28 He cleanses you from sins. Absolutely.
11:30 He allows you to walk with Him
11:33 so that you do not continue in sins.
11:35 So it's not just mobbing up behind you,
11:37 it is that and also orienting your life
11:41 so that you do not continue to sin.
11:43 And all of that is a consequence
11:45 of your surrender to Jesus Christ.
11:47 That's what Paul is trying to get through to a community
11:50 that doesn't think that way.
11:52 That is not part of their mindsets,
11:53 the fact that I can just accept Jesus
11:55 and be accounted as righteous.
11:58 And so Paul speaks very stridently,
12:00 you see some very, very strong statements
12:02 in the Book of Galatians.
12:06 What is wonderful about Galatians
12:08 is rather than being exclusive as some people think,
12:11 it is very much inclusive.
12:13 It is in the Book of Galatians that we find that
12:16 if we accept Christ, we are Abraham's seed
12:19 and heirs according to the promise.
12:21 So all that they got, we now get
12:25 because we have been grafted in
12:27 through our love of Jesus Christ.
12:29 And so as we talk about the idea of righteousness
12:33 and being in right standing with God,
12:35 it starts with a symbol ascent of your mind and your heart,
12:39 Lord Jesus, I will follow You,
12:42 and then this massive and wonderful plan of salvation
12:44 kicks in for you.
12:46 And you become what the Jews call "Mishbuka",
12:49 you become a brother, a family member
12:52 of the family of God, and every right and privilege
12:55 that is available to the family
12:57 is available to you through Jesus Christ.
13:00 Amen. Amen.
13:02 Well, John. Praise the Lord.
13:03 Well, when we move over to Monday's part,
13:05 we are now moving to Galatians 2:16.
13:09 And Galatians 2:16 and if somebody has it,
13:13 would you kindly read it?
13:15 Sure. Sister, Jill.
13:17 "Knowing that a man is not justified
13:19 by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ,
13:22 even we have believed in Christ Jesus,
13:25 that we might be justified by faith in Christ,
13:27 and not by the works of the law,
13:29 for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified."
13:33 Thank you very much.
13:35 So it says here that Paul mentions
13:37 the works of the law.
13:40 So what is he referring to by the phrase,
13:42 the works of the law?
13:45 And so this is something that we need to understand
13:49 because Paul is saying
13:50 you cannot be justified by this.
13:52 So if you cannot be justified by this,
13:54 we need to understand what is this thing,
13:56 what does it mean?
13:58 But before we move on to understand
13:59 the works of the law, we have to understand
14:01 how the Bible uses the word law,
14:04 specifically in the New Testament.
14:06 And the lesson brings out that there is a word
14:08 "Nomos," it's a Greek word,
14:11 that you will forget in about 30 seconds.
14:13 And this word is used in several different ways
14:18 as you look at the New Testament.
14:19 One, it could refer to the entire Old Testament,
14:22 it could refer to the first five books,
14:25 it could refer to a principle from God
14:28 or even a commandment direct from God.
14:31 So you see that it has several uses,
14:34 so what do you do when you see the word law
14:37 in the New Testament?
14:38 It helps you to examine the context
14:41 so that you can see what...
14:43 You can say, "Ah, okay, this is referring
14:45 to the Ten Commandments,
14:47 or this is referring to the books of Moses only.
14:51 So you have to examine the context
14:53 to help yourself out in this endeavor.
14:56 So when it talk about the works of the law,
14:59 we have to ask ourselves whether what does it mean,
15:02 does it talk about the ceremonial law
15:05 or it said the Ten Commandment law
15:07 also refer to as the moral law.
15:11 And so Paul points out that, no matter
15:15 how hard one tries to follow to obey God's commandment,
15:18 our obedience will never be good enough
15:21 for God to justify us.
15:22 We'll talk about that in a little bit.
15:25 So what do we do with the works of the law?
15:28 It's interesting that
15:29 when they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls,
15:33 they found some writings by the Essenes.
15:37 Now the Essenes were a people
15:38 that lived at the same time Jesus lived.
15:41 And outside of the scriptures,
15:46 the writings of the apostles,
15:49 they found this phrase, "The works of the law."
15:53 And they indeed, the Essenes did teach
15:56 that you could be justified by certain works of the law.
16:02 So I like to point out some of these things
16:04 as presented to us
16:05 in the scroll titled Miqsat Ma'ase HaTorah
16:12 which just means important works of the law.
16:15 And the law describes, this scroll describes
16:17 a number of issues based on biblical law
16:20 concerned with preventing holy things
16:22 from being made impure.
16:25 Including several that are marked out as to Jews,
16:28 as to separate yourself from gentiles.
16:30 If you separate yourself from gentiles,
16:32 you are doing a work of the law
16:34 and this can help you in being justified.
16:38 So they say, if you follow these things,
16:43 you'll be reckoned righteous before God,
16:46 so the Essenes strived to do works of the law
16:50 so that before God,
16:51 they can be considered righteous.
16:53 And so you see Jesus making a little reference
16:56 to somebody that want to justify himself,
16:58 when you see the two men went to the temple to pray
17:02 and he says, I thank God that I'm not as other man,
17:05 and then he begins to mention some things that he used to do.
17:08 Yeah.
17:10 That he thought were great things before God.
17:12 And I'm not like this publican over here,
17:15 and so he, of course, you know,
17:18 you see himself justifying himself before God
17:20 because of his good works, but Paul does not do that.
17:25 He specifically mentions that you cannot be justified
17:29 by the works of the law.
17:30 So when we go to Galatians 3, we're gonna see verse 2,
17:35 I'm gonna read verse 3...
17:38 Yeah, actually, Galatians 3:2 and 3.
17:41 "This only would I learn of you,
17:42 received ye the Spirit by the works of the law,
17:47 or by the hearing of faith?"
17:49 Now Paul begins to do something to wake them up a little bit,
17:53 "Are you so foolish?"
17:55 These are some of the strongest words
17:57 used by Paul.
17:59 Having begun in the spirit,
18:00 are ye now made perfect by the flesh.
18:04 And now I would like to point to another book
18:07 that Paul wrote and that's the Book of Romans
18:09 which is a wonderful book on righteousness
18:11 by faith as well.
18:12 And in the Book of Romans 3:20,
18:16 Paul makes a statement that is very clear.
18:20 He says, "Therefore by the deeds of the law
18:24 there shall no flesh be justified in his sight,
18:29 for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
18:32 So, we believe as Paul that you cannot be justified
18:37 by the deeds of the law,
18:38 and I would say that sometimes people not knowing
18:41 the Seventh-day Adventist to say,
18:43 you're trying to be justified by the deeds of the law
18:46 by keeping the commandments.
18:47 And no, we believe that we are saved
18:50 by grace through faith
18:52 that not of yourself, not of works,
18:54 lest any man should boast
18:56 just as it's written in the Bible.
18:58 And so another verse, Romans 3:28,
19:01 "Therefore we conclude
19:03 that a man is justified by faith
19:07 without the deeds of the law."
19:09 So we also conclude this here.
19:11 Pastor CA would do the same,
19:13 we all do because this is what the Bible says.
19:15 Now I like to point out some good news.
19:18 I like good news. Does anybody like good news?
19:19 That's right. Oh, yeah. I like good news.
19:21 We had enough bad news, don't we?
19:23 That's correct.
19:24 Here is the scripture that says Romans 3:23,
19:28 and I think, most of us here can quote it,
19:31 what does it say?
19:32 "All sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
19:35 That's right.
19:36 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
19:39 So then, I usually ask a question at this point,
19:41 okay, so if all have sinned
19:43 and come short of the glory of God,
19:45 how many good deeds can you do
19:48 that will cancel or clean that one sin.
19:54 Because the Bible says in Romans 6:23, what?
19:57 "The wages of sin is death."
20:01 So this first part of Romans 6:23,
20:04 wakes us up to understand that we're in serious trouble
20:07 if we have sinned, for the wages of sin is death,
20:10 and the last part is good news.
20:12 You know, it's interesting,
20:14 I heard when we record some prisoners from time to time,
20:17 one of them said my favorite scripture is
20:20 Romans 6:23 and I listen, "Really?"
20:24 For the wages of sin is death,
20:26 but he was focusing on the last part.
20:27 That's right.
20:29 Because the gift of God is what?
20:31 Eternal life through Jesus Christ.
20:33 Amen.
20:34 And so good news, you cannot do one good thing,
20:39 not a million good things.
20:41 And if it was possible for you
20:44 to commit just one sin in your life
20:46 and live the rest of your life doing good things,
20:48 it will not cancel out that one sin
20:51 because the wages of sin is death.
20:54 So we agree with the Bible,
20:56 so we're justified by faith in Jesus Christ.
21:00 Now here's where we find a scripture, Romans 3:24,
21:03 "Being justified freely by His grace
21:07 through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
21:10 There is only redemption in Christ Jesus.
21:13 So what do we do if we find ourselves with sin?
21:18 If anybody is in this condition,
21:20 I point you to 1 John 2:1, and in 1 John 2:1,
21:26 I'm gonna have to read it because time is short.
21:28 It says, "My little children, these things write I unto you,
21:32 that ye sin not."
21:34 You've heard these things, and I write these things
21:36 so that you do not sin, but if any man sinned, we have?
21:38 Advocate.
21:40 An advocate with the Father...
21:41 Amen. Jesus Christ, the righteous.
21:45 And so verse 2,
21:47 "And he is the propitiation for our sins,
21:49 and not for ours only,
21:50 but also for the sins of the whole world."
21:53 I consider this good news. Amen.
21:55 So if you have sins, what are you supposed to do?
21:57 1 John 1:9, if we confess our sins,
22:01 He that is God is faithful
22:03 and just to forgive us for our sins
22:05 and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
22:09 So by the deeds of the law shall no man be justified.
22:11 So if anyone has sinned,
22:14 good news we have an advocate with the Father,
22:17 Jesus Christ, the righteous.
22:19 And so, I would like to read one last text
22:22 and this is found in Romans 5:1.
22:25 "Therefore, being justified by faith,
22:30 we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
22:35 And I think this is something that we all need,
22:37 peace with God.
22:39 And we can only get it through our Lord Jesus Christ.
22:41 Amen. Amen. Amen.
22:43 Sister, Jill. Amen.
22:45 That's well done, Brother Johnny.
22:46 I'm so excited about this lesson.
22:51 I know that Paul in the Book of Galatians
22:53 writing to the Galatian Church, the Galatian believers,
22:56 the Judaizers came in
22:58 as we mentioned in previous lessons.
23:00 And trying to say that faith is not enough,
23:03 faith has to somehow be combined with works,
23:06 somehow in order to be saved they had to do faith plus works
23:11 in order to be saved.
23:12 And I know that they taught circumcision
23:15 and the Judaizers were trying to say that
23:17 the gentiles had to be circumcised
23:19 in order to be saved.
23:21 But I know today in the Christian church,
23:23 I think back to my growing up years,
23:26 growing up in the church.
23:28 I was raised my entire life as the Seventh-day Adventist.
23:32 And I believed in justification by faith.
23:35 I believed that we were justified entirely
23:39 through no work of our own,
23:41 we come before Jesus and we say,
23:44 "I accept you as my savior, I claim Your forgiveness,
23:48 seek Your forgiveness
23:50 and the cleansing blood of Jesus to cover me."
23:52 And at that point, I stand before Christ justified,
23:57 made righteous, in His robe of white righteousness.
24:01 However, having said that, I was also taught that
24:06 as soon as the justification process took place,
24:09 which is, I was taught the work of God.
24:11 Then I needed to move to the sanctification process,
24:15 which I was taught was the work of Jill.
24:18 Yeah. Oh, boy.
24:19 So this is what Paul was combating
24:21 in the Galatian Church.
24:22 Exactly.
24:24 So they were taught, it was faith plus work.
24:27 And I was taught justification by faith,
24:29 sanctification by my own effort.
24:32 Now we're not saying,
24:33 we're throwing out sanctification
24:35 but sanctification is the work of Jesus.
24:37 Amen.
24:38 The work of grace in our hearts and in our lives.
24:41 Philippians 2:13, "God is the one
24:44 who works in us both through will
24:46 and to do of His good pleasure."
24:48 I remember reading
24:50 and then we will get to Tuesday's lesson.
24:53 I was 19 years old,
24:55 I came home from a Bible college.
24:58 And we were in church
25:00 and I remember the organist was playing
25:02 and I remember it to this day.
25:03 The song was, "Cover with His Life".
25:07 Look upon Jesus, sinless is He Father,
25:10 impute His life to me My life of scarlet,
25:14 my sin and woe Cover with His life,
25:18 whiter than snow.
25:19 And I remember standing in church,
25:21 everyone is just singing it
25:23 because this is what we've done our whole life.
25:26 And I began to cry,
25:28 'cause until that point and I was 19,
25:31 I did not know that the blood of Jesus covered me
25:37 and it wasn't my effort to try to get to heaven.
25:41 I had been stressed thinking I have got to be perfect,
25:46 I have got to be perfect to make it to heaven,
25:48 and I'm trying but I can't.
25:51 I'm trying and I'm failing,
25:53 and realizing that the blood of Jesus covers us.
25:56 So that's why I'm passionate about this topic.
26:00 The basis of our justification and it's Tuesday.
26:03 And I want to go back,
26:05 Brother Johnny, you read this already.
26:06 But let's look at Galatians 2:16 and 17.
26:12 We see the word and, Pastor CA,
26:13 you talked about that the word justification,
26:16 to justify being used 39 times in the New Testament,
26:21 27 of those in the writings of Paul
26:23 and four times in these two verses
26:25 that word "justify" is used.
26:27 The word is, I don't know
26:28 how to pronounce it properly, dikaioo. Dikaioo.
26:32 No, I'm not sure how to pronounce it.
26:34 Okay, I'm not sure how to pronounce it
26:37 but it just means to show to be righteous,
26:40 to declare righteous, to make righteous.
26:44 And justification means to, to declare not guilty,
26:47 you're acquitted from your sin by God.
26:49 Absolutely, it's a legal term.
26:51 You imagine going before a judge and knowing,
26:54 I did speed and I deserve this punishment,
26:57 or I did x, y and z and I deserve this.
27:00 And then the judge saying, declaring you acquitted,
27:03 you are freed, you're justified before the law.
27:08 So we see this word four times here in Galatians 2:16,
27:13 "Knowing that a man is not justified..."
27:16 There's our word, we are acquitted,
27:18 we're declared righteous before God.
27:21 "We're not justified by the works of the law
27:23 but by faith in Jesus Christ."
27:26 We're talking today on the basis of our justification.
27:30 We're justified not by the work of the law
27:32 but by faith in Jesus Christ.
27:35 "Even we have believed in Christ Jesus,
27:37 that we might be justified by faith in Christ,
27:41 and not by the works of the law.
27:42 For by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.
27:46 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ,
27:49 we ourselves also are found sinners,
27:51 is Christ therefore a minister of sin?"
27:55 Certainly not.
27:57 Four times we see that word "justify", to be acquitted,
28:01 to show to be righteous, to be declared righteous.
28:05 The believers made righteous justified by the Lord,
28:08 cleared of all charges we laid it to sin.
28:12 Moreover, they're justified
28:14 or made righteous by God's grace.
28:16 Each time we receive faith, now that word for faith,
28:20 I love that because it's always,
28:23 the faith is a gift from God.
28:25 It's never something that you or I can conjure up ourselves.
28:29 It's always a gift from God never produced by people.
28:33 And in secular antiquity, faith was referred to
28:36 as a guarantee or a warranty.
28:38 In scripture, it's God's guarantee
28:41 that what He has promised will come to pass.
28:45 So I love that, we're justified by faith
28:47 and God Himself gives us the faith that we need,
28:51 that's beautiful.
28:53 Let's look at a couple more scriptures Philippians 3:9,
28:58 still looking at justification by faith
29:02 and the basis of our justification being that faith.
29:05 Philippians 3:9, you have that, Brother Ronny?
29:10 I do.
29:12 "And be found in him,
29:13 not having my own righteousness,
29:15 which is from the law,
29:17 but that which is through faith in Christ,
29:20 the righteousness which is from God by faith."
29:23 Yes, I love that passage.
29:26 That same word for righteousness
29:28 is the form of that word for justification.
29:32 And it means literally righteousness of
29:35 which God is the source.
29:37 Amen.
29:38 "Being found in Him, not having my own righteousness."
29:41 So it's, we don't stand before God with our own righteousness
29:44 'cause we know our righteousness is
29:47 as filthy rags.
29:49 We stand before cloth
29:50 and the righteousness of Jesus Christ,
29:53 not having our own righteousness,
29:55 it's through faith.
29:56 And one more scripture, Johnny, you looked at this one
29:58 but Romans 3, Romans 3, and I got so excited
30:03 when I studied this and I'm sure
30:05 you all already have studied this,
30:06 but it was the first time I had put this together.
30:09 And I got so excited, I jumped off the couch
30:11 and I ran and told Greg and I said, "Guess what?
30:14 I just found in Romans."
30:16 And great, it's been here all along
30:18 and many people have discovered it,
30:20 but it's the first time when I saw that.
30:23 When Romans 3 and we already read verse 23,
30:26 "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
30:29 Verse 24, "Being justified," that's our word again,
30:33 "To show to be righteous,
30:34 declare righteous freely by His grace
30:37 through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
30:41 whom God has set forth as a propitiation
30:44 by His blood through faith
30:47 to demonstrate His righteousness,
30:49 because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins
30:52 that were previously committed."
30:55 Verse 26, we see variations of this word
30:59 "justify" three times in verse 26,
31:02 and this is the first time I had ever realized that.
31:06 They're all a little different form
31:07 but they're all the same root word in the Greek.
31:11 "To demonstrate at the present time,
31:13 His righteousness,"
31:15 meaning His righteousness of which God is the source.
31:18 "That He might be just to be declared righteous
31:23 in the eyes of God.
31:25 And the justifier, same word to be showed to be righteous,
31:30 to be declared righteous of the one
31:33 who has faith in Jesus."
31:35 So God is the one who is righteous
31:38 because He's divine, Jesus is divine.
31:40 He was the propitiation, the substitute,
31:42 He took our place on the cross that He might be just
31:47 and the justifier because He is righteous
31:51 and holy and pure, He can impute,
31:54 impart His righteousness to you and I.
31:57 And when we stand before the Father,
31:59 we don't stand covered in Zechariah 3,
32:03 those filthy garments,
32:04 and Satan the accuser of the brethren,
32:06 and you mentioned condemnation, Pastor CA.
32:09 Satan might come in with condemnation
32:11 but justification.
32:12 Jesus says, "My blood, my righteousness,
32:15 I have declared, Pastor Ronny,
32:18 perfect and righteous before me, justified.
32:23 Praise the Lord for that. Amen.
32:25 And the second that we got left.
32:26 I've looked at that and I have some notes here
32:28 that one is reactive, the other is proactive.
32:31 Nice.
32:32 When you're justified I see that
32:33 as because the root is the same
32:35 but they're playing out just slightly different.
32:38 When you're justified, there's nothing against you.
32:40 There's nothing negative in you,
32:42 but to make righteousness kind of a positive
32:45 and not only there is nothing against you,
32:47 you actually got some money in the bank here,
32:50 you know, it's not just a absence of negative,
32:53 it's the presence of positive, you know.
32:55 So it's two sides of the same coin.
32:57 But not only there is nothing bad in your record,
33:00 there's some good stuff in your record.
33:01 You know, you're made righteous and it's completely,
33:06 old is taken care of and now you're moving forward
33:07 in Christ Jesus.
33:09 Pastor? Amen, I like that.
33:12 Wednesday talks about the obedience of faith,
33:16 obedience of faith.
33:19 First, we talked a lot about faith.
33:22 I kind of like to get a good definition,
33:25 what is faith?
33:26 What are we talking about?
33:28 Faith is not something that I can reach out
33:29 and grab a hold off like this, you know, I can literally,
33:33 physically reach out and grab this,
33:35 that's the kind of person that I am,
33:37 I want to put my hands on it, but faith, where is it?
33:40 Somebody help me with this. What is faith?
33:43 Is this something that we can take a hold off,
33:46 that we can grasp?
33:50 The first thought that comes to my mind,
33:52 the Bible says that,
33:54 "Faith comes by hearing
33:55 and hearing by the word of God."
33:57 I believe that faith is rooted in our knowledge of God,
34:01 our correct knowledge of God.
34:03 Faith is something that we, it's a belief,
34:07 we understand how much He loves us,
34:10 we begin to trust Him,
34:11 that's kind of the root for our faith.
34:14 But faith is not just ethereal,
34:17 faith is leaning into God with and totally relying on God.
34:24 Okay.
34:25 What is the Bible definition to faith?
34:27 Well, CA, go ahead.
34:28 When I think of faith, I think of,
34:30 if I could put in a word, "response."
34:32 You know, we love Him because He first loved us.
34:34 There is this reaching out of God,
34:37 this eternal reaching of God to us and faith is the,
34:42 in my mind the response to that eternal reaching out of God.
34:45 The substance of things hoped for.
34:46 That's right. I can guarantee.
34:49 Yeah, yeah. Hebrews 11:1.
34:51 Oh, yes.
34:52 I like the way that is expressed
34:54 because it says, the substance of things hoped
34:58 for the evidence of things not seen.
35:00 Evidence is something tangible
35:03 and something you can see, okay.
35:05 It still brings, Paul is trying to help us by saying,
35:09 faith is the substance, I just look to the definition
35:12 for substance that of which a thing consists,
35:16 physical matter or material.
35:17 So substance, he is trying to help us with this word,
35:20 substance by using say,
35:22 just like you grabbed that glass or that cup,
35:26 he says, is the substance of things hoped for,
35:29 the evidence of things not seen.
35:30 And that is what He says, that just shall live by faith.
35:35 Yes.
35:36 In the Greek, the word there is hupostasis.
35:38 Hupostasis.
35:39 And it means a title deed, that's part of faith.
35:42 Trusting, I mean there's various things
35:45 but that is the title deed.
35:46 That is when we recognize that all of God's promises
35:50 are ours in Christ Jesus and faith is the substance,
35:54 it's the title deed, it's that claiming and leaning into.
35:57 How does one make and you did this,
36:00 you said to ask me.
36:02 Yes, yes, I did.
36:03 How does one make the ethereal real?
36:05 How does one make the intangible tangible?
36:08 How does one make the metaphysical physical?
36:11 Through faith, it makes
36:13 what seems to be unreal, very real.
36:16 It is that quality given to us by God that reaches out into
36:22 what seems to be a void and grabs hold of something
36:25 that's out there and brings it to myself
36:27 and makes it very, very real.
36:29 So we've talked basically about the biblical faith.
36:32 Is there any other faith in the world I mean,
36:35 that don't we exercise faith everyday?
36:37 Oh, sure. You're on an airplane.
36:40 Oh, yeah, very good, very good.
36:42 Absolutely, sitting in the chair.
36:43 Very good.
36:44 You know, we walk over
36:46 and we look back at the back of the studio,
36:47 and we think it's dark,
36:49 but if I walk back there and I flip the light switch,
36:52 am I exercising faith?
36:53 Sure. Oh, yeah.
36:54 How so?
36:56 You assume that lights gonna come on.
36:57 I assume that there's something in that wall
36:59 behind the switch that's going to make the lights come on.
37:02 But don't you think it's based on past experience?
37:04 Oh, good point, good point, past experience.
37:07 In other words, a child that has no idea of what that is,
37:10 they won't go over there and flip on the switch.
37:12 It's just dark that's all they know,
37:13 they don't know how to reach out, you know.
37:16 But good point we learn along the journey,
37:19 this sanctification process after we're justified,
37:23 we proceed down a course of by faith.
37:28 And how do we know if faith is actually working then?
37:32 Can we see it? I mean it's invisible.
37:34 You know, it's another word for faith that is very good,
37:38 it's trust.
37:39 Yeah, trust the Lord with all your heart,
37:41 lean not on your own understanding.
37:43 So if I understand faith correctly,
37:45 it's more than just one thing, it consists of two things,
37:49 it's trust and belief.
37:53 I believe when I flip that light switch
37:56 that it's gonna come on.
37:57 Every one of us will leave here pretty soon
37:59 and we will take that key out
38:01 and we will put it in the ignition
38:03 and by faith we turn the key.
38:06 And we're expecting that car to start, are we not?
38:09 By faith, we left our comfortable position
38:12 here in the air conditioning and we went out to the car,
38:14 and by faith we got in and said,
38:16 this thing is gonna take me home.
38:18 And so we learned from that, you know,
38:20 but there's times that lets us down, you know.
38:23 Sometimes it has to be towed to the garage,
38:26 you know, when it's not working.
38:27 I've been there, I've taken into your garage.
38:28 Pastor, many times.
38:30 You know, but the question that...
38:33 When we talk about faith, Paul makes it clear that says,
38:37 absolutely is functional
38:41 and is foundational in the Christian life.
38:44 So to be a Christian, I mean,
38:45 we can't be a Christian without faith, can we?
38:47 That's right. No.
38:48 Without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
38:50 There you go.
38:52 Hebrews 11:6, "Without faith,
38:55 it is impossible to please God."
38:57 Why is that?
38:58 Because God again is that invisible being out there
39:02 and it takes faith to believe that He is there
39:05 and that He is who He says He is
39:07 and can do what He says He can do,
39:09 it's all a matter of faith.
39:14 I want to look at a couple of the text there we talk about,
39:17 the question is asked in our quarterly,
39:19 what do the following text teach us
39:21 about the origin of faith?
39:22 I want someone to go with me to Genesis 15:5 and 6,
39:28 and then we look at the second one,
39:29 John 3:14-16.
39:33 The Genesis 15:5 and 6, talking about faith,
39:39 one of the first examples of faith in the word.
39:42 Jill, you have that?
39:43 "Then He brought Him outside and said look now toward heaven
39:47 and count the stars if you're able to number them
39:50 and He said to Him so shall your descendants be.
39:54 And He believed in the Lord Abraham
39:56 and he accounted it to him for righteousness."
39:59 I can see two problems with this.
40:04 And go with me, when we think about this,
40:06 Abraham, I mean what he had a whole parcel of kids,
40:10 he had a large family.
40:13 What was his, what was his situation?
40:14 Childless.
40:16 He was childless
40:17 and here God is saying you're gonna have...
40:19 And old, childless and old. And then there you go.
40:21 Yeah, he's beyond the years of reproduction.
40:24 The years of reproduction, you know, it kind of,
40:26 has a border that that's the end of that.
40:29 So by faith he believes what God says,
40:33 he looks up and he says, look at all of those stars
40:36 there's no way I can count those.
40:37 But God says, my descendants are gonna be like the stars
40:41 or we say like the sands of the sea,
40:44 they can't be numbered.
40:46 So I can see them, what faith, but what does it say Abraham,
40:49 what did he do?
40:50 Believe. He believed.
40:52 He believed in God by faith, he believed.
40:57 Okay, and John 3:14-16.
41:01 John 3:14-16, "And as Moses lifted up
41:05 the serpent in the wilderness,
41:07 even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
41:10 that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
41:14 but have everlasting life."
41:15 Somebody give me a little background
41:17 lifted up the serpent.
41:18 What are we talking about here in the wilderness?
41:22 Wasn't there a time that in the wilderness,
41:24 they begin to be bitten by poisonous snakes.
41:26 Absolutely.
41:28 And so Moses says then, let's take a serpent
41:31 and put it on a pole
41:33 and the one who looks on him shall live.
41:35 How does that work?
41:37 I mean, looking at a symbol is going to save your life?
41:41 Isn't that something? Isn't that something?
41:43 Again, it's the response of the suppliant to God
41:48 who is able to supply, it's response of faith.
41:51 it's not logical... Right.
41:53 Just staring at a serpent on a pole.
41:55 It's not logical.
41:56 Yeah, it's not rational. Yeah.
41:58 To believe just looking at but,
42:00 that's the crux of the Christian experience.
42:04 There are lot of things that are illogical
42:06 and it is faith that makes the illogical logical,
42:10 the irrational rational, the unreal real
42:12 and this is another example of that.
42:14 I like that.
42:15 Interestingly enough looking at the serpent on the pole
42:17 does not prevent the snake from biting him.
42:19 Good point, they would still get bitten.
42:22 They would still get bitten. But this was a way to live.
42:24 The remedy.
42:25 Yeah, this was the remedy, beautiful.
42:27 And think about
42:28 some of the other promises that God made.
42:30 I love the one that God
42:31 when He talks about in Malachi 3,
42:34 when He talks about "If you bring your tithes
42:37 into the storehouse," He said,
42:38 "I will open the windows of heaven for you
42:41 and pour out a blessing upon you,
42:43 you won't have room enough to see it."
42:45 And then God does something there
42:46 that I don't think He does any place else.
42:48 He says, "Try me and prove me."
42:50 That's right. Amen.
42:52 Yes.
42:53 By faith, try me and prove me and see if I won't do.
42:56 What I say I will do it. Good example.
42:58 By faith. Shelley?
42:59 Yes, well, I have Thursdays and the title of the lesson is
43:04 "Does Faith Promote Sin?"
43:06 So what we had going on in Antioch and Galatia,
43:10 the Judaizers had come down
43:12 and the Judaizers were Jewish Christians,
43:14 who had faith in Christ
43:17 but as we've said they believed that they,
43:21 you still had to fulfill the works of the law of Moses.
43:26 So here they come down and they're teaching, you know,
43:29 you've got to be circumcised.
43:31 They're trying to upset the gentiles
43:33 and basically by doing,
43:35 by demanding this strict obedience
43:38 to the ceremonial law,
43:39 what they were doing is bringing in the gentiles
43:45 under the condemnation of the law.
43:47 But what they were accusing Paul of, is hey,
43:51 you are lowering our standards to that of gentile sinners.
43:56 So let's look at Galatians 2:17
44:02 because what the Judaizers believed
44:05 that anytime you talk about a justification,
44:09 the gospel of justification by faith alone,
44:12 what they were thinking is hey,
44:14 this is going to encourage disobedience to God.
44:16 And, you know, there are some in today's church that,
44:23 that when you're teaching grace they will swing over too far
44:27 and they make it license to sin,
44:31 so which is not true.
44:33 Then there are those
44:35 who are kind of like the Judaizers.
44:37 So how does Paul respond to the accusation
44:41 that a doctrine of justification by faith alone
44:45 encourages sinful behavior, here's what he says.
44:48 Galatians 2:17, "But if we..."
44:52 Oh, excuse me. "But if, while we..."
44:54 And here we means in the Greek it's "ourselves."
44:59 So he's talking to the Jews, and especially when you look
45:02 in the context of verse 15, he is saying,
45:06 "We who are Jews by nature."
45:07 So if we Jews seek to be justified by Christ,
45:13 to be declared righteous, to be put in right standing
45:17 with God just by Jesus Christ act.
45:22 "If we seek to be justified by Christ,
45:25 if we are ourselves are also found sinners
45:29 is therefore Christ a minister of sin?"
45:34 Is He a party or a contributor to this sin?
45:38 What does Paul say?
45:40 Certainly not. Certainly not!
45:43 Because what was happening here,
45:48 the Jews had basically express,
45:52 they understood the inadequacy of the law to save them
45:55 or else they wouldn't have accepted Christ, right?
45:57 But now they are trying to go back to that law
46:00 and Paul, his reaction to them is that this is absurd,
46:06 it's absurd.
46:08 Christ promised justification to those
46:12 who came to Christ through Him.
46:15 And if Christian Jews were found to be sinners
46:20 after they came to Christ, then we got a problem.
46:24 They're suggesting that that makes Christ
46:28 an accomplice to sin,
46:31 that His provision of grace wasn't enough,
46:34 and that He was unable to fulfill His promise.
46:38 So in the strongest possible terms,
46:40 Paul is saying, God forbid, absolutely not!
46:46 This is utterly absurd,
46:47 that Christ would be a minister to sin.
46:50 And we think about even people
46:54 when it comes to the foundation of the Ten Commandments,
46:58 which is the foundation of God's government.
47:01 We see that God put the Ten Commandments
47:03 inside the ark,
47:05 put the mercy seat over the commandments.
47:08 Yes, the commandments were written in the Mosaic Law
47:11 because God dictated them, Moses dictated it to the people
47:16 and then he wrote them out.
47:18 But God afterwards,
47:21 even after they had the altar built
47:26 and ratified the covenant,
47:28 then God writes on stone the Ten Commandments
47:31 and has Moses put them inside.
47:34 So it is possible that since the commandments
47:38 are still enforced, it is possible
47:41 that we might fall into sin by breaking a commandment,
47:44 but that doesn't make Jesus a contributor to that.
47:47 Let's look at verse 18, Paul says,
47:50 "If I build again those things which I destroyed,
47:56 I make myself a transgressor."
47:59 He had learned the truth through direct revelation
48:02 through careful study of the Bible.
48:04 Paul knew that Jesus Christ had fulfilled the Mosaic Law.
48:10 He knew that this plan for justification
48:14 came through Christ and not through the law.
48:17 So what he had done as he preached
48:20 justification by Jesus alone,
48:24 he had torn down that old teaching
48:27 that you're justified by the law.
48:29 And now he is saying, hey, you know what?
48:32 If I return to the Mosaic legal system
48:35 or even if I insist that it's obedience
48:38 to the commandments that saves me.
48:39 He says, I am building this up again
48:43 and I've proven myself to be a transgressor
48:45 because I'm saying yeah, it's still enforce
48:48 but I haven't been doing it.
48:50 So Paul is also saying here that he would be sinning
48:57 against the law of God's grace if he tried to tear down
49:02 or restore, excuse me.
49:03 If he tried to build up what God had already torn down.
49:07 So he goes on in Galatians 2:19
49:12 and he's describing his union with Jesus Christ.
49:16 He says, "I threw the law,"
49:20 under the operation of the curse of the law.
49:21 "I threw the law, died to the law."
49:26 Basically in Christ by...
49:29 I mean he died by curiously through Christ death.
49:33 "That I might live to God."
49:36 See in Paul's previous life,
49:40 he was the Pharisee of Pharisees.
49:43 He was doing everything as Jill said,
49:45 you try to do as I tried to do,
49:47 not growing up in the Adventist church
49:49 but being taught, I had to be perfect
49:50 to be loved by God.
49:52 So he was trying so hard
49:56 to be justified
50:00 by keeping all of the ceremonial laws,
50:03 by keeping the works of the law,
50:05 by doing the Ten Commandments and keeping those commandments.
50:10 But he had now,
50:13 he learned that this system was ineffective
50:17 to achieve salvation
50:19 that all that the ceremonial system did
50:21 was point to Christ.
50:23 And you know what I love.
50:26 When you think about it on the sanctuary
50:28 that was theology,
50:31 the sanctuary was theology in a picture form, if you will.
50:35 True.
50:36 These people could not read. Right.
50:38 You know, there were some that even doubted
50:41 that Moses had written the Pentateuch or the Torah,
50:44 as Pentateuch in Hebrew or Greek.
50:47 Greek.
50:48 But the Torah, because it's like hey,
50:52 they didn't have writing back then,
50:54 and then they found now that they did,
50:55 archaeologists have uncovered it.
50:57 But God's people couldn't read so he shows them
51:01 the remedy for sin and every one of those symbols
51:03 pointed to Jesus Christ.
51:05 But Paul is saying, hey, I have died to the law,
51:09 my heart no longer responds to it.
51:11 Before his life revolved around the Mosaic law
51:15 but now his life revolves around Jesus Christ.
51:20 And he says in verse 20,
51:21 "I have been crucified with Christ,
51:24 it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me
51:29 and the life which I now live in the flesh,
51:32 I live by faith in the Son of God
51:36 who loved me and gave Himself for me.
51:38 Amen.
51:39 So, you know, Paul's so good to impart,
51:41 in Romans, he talks about
51:42 when he was united with Christ that,
51:45 you know, you die to your old sins,
51:47 you were buried with Christ in the baptism
51:49 but more than that you were raised
51:52 to the resurrection life.
51:55 And this complete union with Jesus Christ,
52:00 this vital relationship, it's a very relational thing.
52:05 What he's saying is everything is new,
52:09 I am a new creation in Christ Jesus.
52:11 Amen.
52:12 You know, so He sees everything,
52:16 he sees himself as being crucified
52:19 at the time of Christ crucifixion,
52:20 that old nature, that old man died.
52:23 He buried it, he's been resurrected
52:26 and Paul is now in Christ Jesus.
52:30 I wanted to read you something 'cause I just,
52:34 I don't have time to finish but let me read this.
52:37 This was written from selected, excuse me.
52:39 From Faith and Works, and written by EG. White,
52:43 "The danger has been presented to me again and again
52:46 of entertaining, as the people,
52:47 false ideas of justification by faith.
52:51 I have been shown up for years that Satan would work
52:54 in a special manner to confuse the mind on this point.
52:58 The law of God has been largely dwelt upon,
53:02 and has been presented to congregations,
53:05 almost as destitute of knowledge of Jesus Christ
53:09 and His relation to the law as was the offering of Cain.
53:14 I have been shown that many have been kept
53:17 from the faith because of the mixed,
53:20 confused ideas of salvation,
53:23 because the ministers have worked
53:25 in a wrong manner to reach hearts.
53:28 The point that has been urged upon my mind for years
53:32 is the imputed righteousness of Christ.
53:37 There is not a point that needs
53:39 to be dwelt upon more earnestly,
53:42 repeated more frequently,
53:44 or established more firmly in the minds of all men,
53:48 than the impossibility of fallen man
53:51 meriting anything by his own best works.
53:55 Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone."
54:00 Amen.
54:02 It is only as His righteousness is imputed,
54:07 it's reckoned to our account.
54:09 Like you said, CA, not only when we are justified
54:14 are we acquitted and the sins are no longer evident.
54:19 But then the righteousness of Jesus Christ is credited
54:23 to our account, imputed to our account,
54:26 and that's the only thing that makes us righteous.
54:28 Amen and amen.
54:30 Not only does He bring you,
54:31 bring you out of your deficit state,
54:33 you no longer in the red, you are not at zero,
54:37 you are well in the black, you know.
54:39 So you are, you have this credit,
54:41 you're well in the black.
54:44 Before we go, we've got a few moments
54:45 anybody want to just pull out a bow on their thought?
54:47 I'll give you a chance before we wrap up,
54:50 we've got a minute or two.
54:52 Anything you want to add because I think
54:54 this is so thorough,
54:56 the fact that justification is that
55:01 I don't want to say the default setting
55:03 because that's a little cheap.
55:04 But all you have to do is accept Christ,
55:07 open heart to Christ,
55:09 your past sins are taken care of
55:12 and you've got now an open account
55:14 with Jesus Christ as you can draw at any time
55:16 and cannot be overdrawn.
55:18 Shelley?
55:19 Hebrew 7:20 says,
55:21 Christ is our surety of a new covenant.
55:24 He is the surety on behalf of God.
55:28 The promises that God has made in Christ, or yes, an amen.
55:32 But He is the surety on behalf of us to God
55:37 that we will walk in covenant, loyalty, and obedience
55:42 because He works in us to will
55:45 and to do His good pleasure by His spirit
55:49 and He will complete the good work He's begun.
55:52 So Jesus Christ is our salvation,
55:56 Jesus Christ is the new covenant
55:58 there is nothing else that can be done.
56:01 Very briefly.
56:02 You know, it seems like it's almost natural
56:05 for most people to think they have to do something big.
56:08 But the Bible... Right.
56:10 Emphatically says
56:11 that it's a gift that is by grace.
56:15 And if somebody gives you something, you feel like
56:19 "Oh, I didn't get you anything."
56:22 That's almost natural for people
56:24 but I think we need to keep before us that Jesus says,
56:28 "I am the way, the truth and the life."
56:31 What an incredible God we serve.
56:34 Amen.
56:35 You think the plan of redemption
56:36 put in place from before the world began
56:39 and the privilege we each have
56:41 of being His sons and daughters.
56:42 Amen.
56:43 So we just want to appeal to you,
56:45 you don't have to live
56:46 in condemnation or guilt or shame.
56:47 Amen.
56:49 You can be free in Christ Jesus.
56:50 Amen. Amen.
56:51 I just want to say one more thing.
56:53 Faith writes the check, grace takes it to the bank.
56:56 Amen. There you go.
56:58 I think grace writes the check,
57:00 then faith takes it to the bank.
57:01 I said that, bad mistake.
57:03 And we get to cash and praise the Lord.
57:05 I want to come back to that word Mishbuka,
57:07 which is family of God.
57:08 You become Mishbuka once you accept Jesus Christ,
57:13 all of the rights and titles and privileges of that family
57:16 now belong to you.
57:18 You get the signet ring.
57:20 You get the ability to speak on behalf of the family.
57:23 You get the inheritance of the family
57:25 and everything that God has outlined
57:27 for that family is now yours.
57:29 Thank you for joining us for this edition
57:32 of Sabbath School Panel.
57:33 We'll see you next time.
57:34 There's so much more in the Word of God.
57:36 Let's dig together and live together.
57:38 Amen. Amen.


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Revised 2023-10-23