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Now, something very interesting that happened that

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I'm very fascinated by is the fact that Adam had

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the sentence of death passed on him the day that he sinned.

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God says: “Dying you shall die.”

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Yet, he was not executed immediately on that day.

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Adam died 930 years after.

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It took some time. So even this discovery that

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you are the righteousness of God in Christ,

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you might see no difference at first in your body, right?

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But by the same token, once righteousness is there

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in your spirit, it will manifest in the days to come. Hallelujah!

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Have you noticed something else?

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That the people during Adam's time lived

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hundreds and hundreds of years and then later on,

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pre-flood they can live like 400 over years,

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500 over years and all the way, just before

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the law was given, they lived long lives!

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So from Adam to Moses, there was sin, of course!

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Sin came in through Adam and upon all his descendants

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but until Moses, they lived long lives.

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So in other words, until the law,

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there's something very interesting that

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the Bible tells us in Romans 5 here.

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In Romans 5, it says:

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“Therefore just as through one man (that's Adam),”

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“sin entered the world and death through sin, and thus”

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“death spread to all man because all sinned.”

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Watch this now!

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This is very important for you to catch.

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“For until the law.”

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Until the law means until the law came in,

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“sin was in the world.”

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We all know that it came from Adam.

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Sin was in the world, but there was no law yet.

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God did not give the law yet.

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“For until the law came, until the law entered,”

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“sin was in the world,”

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“but sin is not imputed when there is no law.”

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“Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses.”

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Moses is a representative of the law.

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“Death reigned from Adam to Moses.”

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Now, friend. Look up here.

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This is very interesting!

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So from Adam until Moses, until the law came in,

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there were men who lived during this time,

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there was sin in their lives but they lived long lives.

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Now we can talk about the changes in the environment,

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changes here, changes there. But you know what?

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There was a lot of good environment still, good food yet.

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Even after, during Moses' time, and all the way down.

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So here, you find that these people from

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Adam to Moses,

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until the law came in, they lived long lives.

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Even though they had sin.

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Why? There was no law. Where there was no law,

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“by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

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In other words, they were not conscious of their sin.

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They were not conscious of their sin.

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Now, don't forget.

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The institution of blood sacrifice, in other words,

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the picture of Jesus.

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Everytime someone sinned during that time from

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Adam all the way down, they'll bring a sacrifice to God.

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It's a picture of Jesus, the innocent dying for the guilty,

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the lamb dying for the sinner. Amen.

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The sinner will lay his hands on the lamb and then

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put him on the altar, kill him and then

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put him on the altar and that's a picture of the sinner's death.

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Therefore the sinner escapes death and

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all the sacrifices in the Old Testament was actually

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to avert physical death.

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God gave them another stay of execution.

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In other words, they will not experience death

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because of that sin.

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Even though sin brings forth death

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but because of the sacrifice, they will not die.

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Therefore even during this time from Adam to Moses,

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until the law came in, man had that sacrifice.

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But notice that the Bible says: “Death reigned.”

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There was sin, there was death.

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But if you look carefully at this time in the Bible itself,

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you find that during this period, men lived long lives.

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So I submit to you.

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And the Bible clearly tells us during this time,

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there was no law.

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The law was not yet given.

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Until the law, men lived long lives.

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Even though they had sin, even though there was death

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but i think that death was kept at bay.

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I submit to you, friend.

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When you remove sin-consciousness from

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the life of a believer, you are actually extending to the believer.

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That's the word.

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You are extending life for that believer.

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Hallelujah! Amen.

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I believe, I really believe with all my heart

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that condemnation kills.

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And that's one of my series I did many years ago

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when God gave me this word:

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“Condemnation kills but the Spirit gives life.”

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Just like how 3000 died at the foot of Mount Sinai.

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Condemnation.

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And Paul himself calls that the ministry of law,

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ministry of death, ministry of condemnation.

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Condemnation kills!

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Don't allow it to come into your heart.

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Don't allow it to come into your life

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and in all your relationships with your family members,

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with your loved ones, with your children,

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with the people around you. Amen.

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Do not extend condemnation.

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For some reason, people who are under law,

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they always have this condemning spirit.

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Just like the Pharisees during Jesus’ time.

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They are marked by condemnation.

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They are marked by fault-finding.

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It's no surprise that even a sermon like this,

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there'll be people who are fault-finding. Amen.

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They'll find fault especially with this gospel of grace. Amen.

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Why? Because it rubs them the wrong way.

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They don't like it.

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“You're taking away from me any sense of my”

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“own achievement, and righteousness.”

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“You're taking away my self-righteousness.”

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Now they won't say that.

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“Are you saying there's nothing for us to do?”

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That's what they'll say, okay?

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“If there's nothing for me to do,”

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then in other words,

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(“then how can I get credit or glory?”)

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Friend, listen. Listen carefully.

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In heaven, it will not be us worshiping God with these words:

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“Worthy is the Lamb and me.”

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You are not in the picture.

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I've said it before and I'll say it again.

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And I say this reverently: “If God wants all the glory,”

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“let God do all the work.”

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In fact, God delights in that. Even right now,

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a ministry of grace is supply-conscious,

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which means I must be supply-conscious.

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As I am preaching. Amen.

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Because you don't want to hear Joseph Prince talk

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out of his own mind.

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You want the Holy Spirit talking through him. Amen.

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And I'm supply-conscious.

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The more I'm supply-conscious, the more I see the Lord

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supplying me with the words, even the illustrations, and

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it becomes life.

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But if I am demand-minded, in other words,

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“I better be good at this.”

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“I better make sure I don’t fail in this or that.”

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“I better make sure that I got it all together”

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I'm demanding from myself.

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And that results in stress. Distress.

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You know, there'll be a death in some form

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and I believe that believers, some of them

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are dying before their time, not because of their genes.

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Of course ever since Adam's sin,

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death is in the gene, okay?

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But what I'm trying to say is that you see all these people

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from Adam to Moses.

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Until the law came in, even death was in their system. Amen.

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They are sinners and yet, it seems like death

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cannot seize on them as long they were

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not sin-conscious because there was no law during this time.

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And people think that you must know the law

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to become holy.

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No, friend. You must know Jesus to become holy.

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We walk as He walked. Amen.

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We focus on Him!

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There's a new commandment from Jesus.

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It's not the same as the old commandment.

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No, the only thing is like talking to a man who is hungry.

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“I command you a new commandment. Eat!”

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How hard is that? Amen.

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In other words, we have passed from death to life

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because we love the brethren and He tells us:

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“Love one another as I have loved you.”

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And yet you see sometimes, it's sad to see so much

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fault-finding, finger-pointing  finger-wagging, judgmentalism

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and condemnation in the body of Christ.

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We are not out here to fight against one another.

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Friend, we are out to reach out to the world

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with the gospel of grace, the only gospel there is.

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Hallelujah!

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The world needs to know that God is not looking at

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all the filth and mess and sin.

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God is calling them home. Amen.

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Do you clean yourself before you take a bath? Amen.

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No, you go to the bath and then you clean yourself.

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A lot of people are trying to clean themselves

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before they take a bath.

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Jesus is the bath! Come as you are.

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He will transform you!

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“As many as received Him.” Receive first.

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“To them He gave power to become sons of God.”

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Hallelujah! It is all Jesus, my friend.

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Praise the name of Jesus. Hallelujah.

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Thank You, Lord Jesus.

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And it's so interesting, when I saw this that,

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that during this time when the law was not given yet.

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Until Moses came, until the law, alright?

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Men lived long lives, hundreds of years.

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And then from the time of Moses,

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when the law came in, they died.

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By the way, remember I told you just now

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what God said to me many years ago?

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That from Egypt to Sinai, no one died.

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Well, post-Sinai, the same sin—murmuring—

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which no one died before Sinai.

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From now on when they murmured, they died.

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When they complained, they died.

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When they murmured, they died.

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What's the difference? They are now under law.

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Under grace, no one died from Egypt.

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God brought them out by grace.

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Unmerited, undeserved favor, faithful to the covenant of Abraham

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which is totally a covenant of grace.

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Unearned, undeserved but then they

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boasted in themselves and the result is death.

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You see what the law was designed,

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death comes with the law because of this.

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Paul says it in Galatians 3:

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“Cursed is everyone who continues not in all things.”

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Notice “in all things.”

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You can't just choose what you are able to keep

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and you discard the rest.

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No, you must keep all to be righteous, alright?

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Like James says: “If you offend,”

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“you break one law, you are guilty not”

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“of the one you break. You're guilty of all.”

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It's like a necklace of pearls, alright?

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When one breaks, the whole thing comes unfurled.

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Listen, my friend.

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If you do your best, it's not enough.

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Under the law, you must do everything

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in the law or else you're under the curse.

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But friend, the following verse in Galatians 3 says:

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“Christ has ransomed us, redeemed us from the

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curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”

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“For it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.’”

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So Christ took that curse for us and then

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the Bible says:

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“We don't live by the law, we live by faith.”

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In fact, if you look at Galatians, the opposite of the law

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is actually faith. Faith and law is always contrasted.

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And the Bible says that:

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“The righteous by faith will live.”

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I love that!

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“The righteous by faith will live.”

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In Romans 1, we read that in this way.

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And you can read both ways actually.

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You can read it as:

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“The just, the righteous shall live by faith.”

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I used to think of that like

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people who are believing God for their finances and all that.

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When they are in full-time ministry, right?

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“The righteous shall live by faith.”

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But actually the essence, and I think a few of

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the translators brought that out clearly,

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it's actually: “The righteous by faith.”

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“The righteous one by faith will live.”

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The more you believe you are righteous by faith,

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you will live! Hallelujah!