You are invited to stop living under the letter that kills and start walking in the Spirit that gives life. Embrace your identity as a new creation and let go of the guilt that tries to keep you bound. Today, choose to believe the truth of who you are in Christ.
My name is David John Phillips. I have the joy and honor of getting to be the pastor here. There's no place I'd rather be. There's nothing I'd rather be doing, than getting to do this. I say that every Sunday, and I mean it every Sunday.
And, if this is your first time, thanks for coming. Like, thank you so much, and we pray you encounter God**. You have an encounter with the love of Jesus that impacts you in such a way that you're "never the same". Not only are you never the same, you walk away desiring to know him more, and to grow in your *relationship with Christ*. Amen?
Awesome. Well, I'm I'm really excited about starting this new series today. It's a series titled Grace. And I just gotta tell you
a little bit about it. The messages,
most of them were written by my father about 12 to 15 years ago. And, when I went back to help my dad with his church, 02/1516, and '17 in Louisiana. I preached these messages. They became a "part of my DNA", a part of who I am. And, they were already were, really.
But, I preached these messages at fresh start, the drug rehab that my dad started, my best friend runs. 70 percent success rate, those that graduate. 7 0, 70 percent. These messages play a major part, if not the major part in why. Because they're all about identity, who we are in Christ Jesus.
So, I did that every week, preached these messages for a long time. But, not only that. Not only are they preached to people coming in off the street, or coming in, you know, struggling with drugs, and some of them Christians that have just been bound, some of them not, have no idea, and it works. But, these messages are preached as a pastor's conference also, all over the world. I traveled the world with my dad, 2015, 16, and '17.
He had been doing it a long time before. I got to do it with him, preach with him, which was awesome. All over the world, 02/1617, preaching these these these messages. So, they're good for pastors and leaders, whether you've been following Jesus for 40 years, or you have no idea who Christ is and you just walked in, you know, because somebody invited you, or because you just found it online. Praise the Lord.
It's perfect for you. As a matter of fact, these messages, there's a conference, 60, 60 different pastor's conferences last year were preached in multiple different nations around the world using these messages as the conference. That's a big deal. Like, it's gone out and is continuing to multiply. Dad's going in on May 8 to Sierra Leone to do it yet again.
So, I'm excited. And, just to give you a little precursor of the whole series, *2 Corinthians-3:6*, if you'll bring that up. And and, I want you to know too, I have where's my phone? Did I leave my phone down there? It's okay.
If you'll pull out your phone, I put all of the scriptures. There's a lot of scriptures today we're gonna go through, like a whole lot. I put them all on the website. If you pull out your phone, click Safari or whatever. Click on the search thing and type in realchurch.us.
Click go. It will go to our website. Actually, this is live right now on our website. You can share it with your friends, share it on Facebook, whatever. But also, in the top right, you'll see 3 little lines.
Click on that. Click on live streams with your finger, and you'll see message notes. If you pull up your message notes, it'll pull up on the Bible app on your phone. You'll have them all right there. You can take notes as we're going along.
I'm I'm not going to read verbatim every 1 of those scriptures. But, I will quote most of them. Some of them, I will read verbatim. I put them all there so that you can go back because some of the things that I'm gonna share are gonna challenge your theology. But, it's all scripture based.
It's all in scripture and in line with the context of scripture. So, I want you to be Berean. I want you to go test it. If what I'm saying is not in line with scripture, then rebuke me. But, if it is, change your belief.
Amen? Amen? Amen. Alright. *2 Corinthians-3:6*.
It's kind of the the outline of the whole thing. And, if you've been a part of this church in any amount of time, you understand that if you're a believer, you're a minister of the gospel. My role as a pastor is not to be a minister of the gospel. My role as a believer is to be a minister. My role as a pastor is to equip you to be ministers of the gospel.
Amen? Amen. 2 Corinthians-3:6. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the "letter kills", but the Spirit gives life.
And, just to give you a clear contrast before we get started, the day the law was given, 3,000 died. The day the spirit was poured out, Acts-2. Peter preached, 3,000 were born again, and 3,000 lived. K? So, there's just a little precursor there.
The old covenants, Jesus concealed. The new covenants, Jesus revealed. The title of the series is grace. The title of the message today is God's Grand Plan. And, the beginning, if you've been going here for a year or so or more, you have heard the beginning part.
But, if you've heard it, that's okay. Digest it so that you can give it out. *Amos-3:7, it says, surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan*s to His servants, the prophets. *God* does nothing without telling man what He's gonna do. Here, it says, His servants, the prophets.
What's beautiful because in John-15:15, Jesus says, I no longer call you servants. I call you friends. For a servant doesn't know his master's business, but everything I've
heard from my father, I'm telling to you. That's a big deal. We're no longer servants in God's eyes, but we are friends because God did something supernatural for that to happen. Now, we can be confident as friends of God, but yet we still need the heart of a servant, whatever you say, Lord. Why?
Because we know who he
is. In
our actions, it's the heart of a servant. In our heart, in our relationship with God, we know confidently we're friends of God.
In John-16:13, it says that the Holy* *Spirit will lead us into all truth. A lot of times, we just, as an excuse, say, well, I don't understand. No. No. The Holy Spirit wants to lead you into all truth.
So, might not understand now because I'm not ready to bear it. But, God, whatever it takes to to to teach me so I can grow and understand what you want me to know. And then, it says, he will show you things yet to come. Meaning, we're friends of God, and we can know the Father's plan now. So, I want to, today, I wanna show you God's grand plan, and we're gonna start at the end.
*Daniel-7:27*. Ezekiel, Daniel, there it is. Says this when I get there. Then the sovereignty, power, and
greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be handed over to the holy people of the most high. Another version says, to the saints. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the worse all will worship and obey him. This is the end. This is the end
of the matter. Basically, the saints win. Now, Tampa Bay is my home, so I'm a Bucks fan. But, just to let you know, even though I believe the Bucks and Brady are gonna win the Super Bowl again this year, in the end, the saints are gonna win. Just saying.
I'm originally from Louisiana. Sorry. It's scriptural.
I this is my home now. I'm a buxer. I'm just saying. Me and the saints win. Alright.
Revelation *Revelation-21*. Let's look at the end of the matter. Right? Verse 3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look, God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.
Hear the personal pronouns. He, they, they're his. I mean, we are his. That's a big deal. He will wipe away every tear from their eye.
There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne has said, I am making everything new. And, he said, write this down, for
these words are trustworthy and true. The end of the matter is no more crying, no more sickness, no more pain. God creates a new heaven and a new earth, and we **rule and reign** with Him on the new earth. We were created for earth, guys. We weren't created for the sweet by and by to sit on a on a on a little cloud and play a harp and get our angel wings.
It's not it's not reality. The reality is we were created to rule and reign with God on earth as his delegated authority. And, it's gonna be beautiful, and it's gonna be amazing. It's the end of the matter. As a matter of fact, in Isaiah, he's prophesying about this, and he says, what I have said will surely come to pass.
I don't know about you, but I get hope and encouragement from knowing that in the end, *Jesus hit the home run, the winning the "winning home run". We're gonna win. In the end, I'm on the winning team. And, not only that, I'm God*'s friend, and God created in the beginning, and in the end, he wants to be with us. Not only that, he
wants to be in us in communion, like a marriage with the heavenly God of the universe. Come on. That's awesome. Like, I get encouragement from knowing the end. It helps me to endure in the day in and day out and to enjoy the process with him on the way
to the end. Yeah? Alright. Cool.
So we see the plan. Ultimately, this is the good news of the kingdom. *Jesus* is coming back. But let's just imagine, because this is God's grand plan. The Bible actually says we're seated with him in "heavenly places".
So by faith, let's
just see ourself there. Right? So let's imagine this the roof splits open, and we pull our we're we're pulled out to where we see Pinellas County. We keep going back. We see Florida.
Keep going back, and
we see the world. We keep going back, and we're with God outside of time. We just looked at the end of the matter. Now let's go back and look at the beginning. What happened in the begin beginning?
What was God's grand plan there? And how did we get to where we are now so that we can clearly understand? Because when you see the big picture, you don't worry and complain so much about the little details. You walk past them knowing the why.
Amen? Amen. Okay. So, let's start back at the beginning. *Genesis-1*, we see that God created everything.
The sun, the moon, the stars, the planets. He created the trees, the leaves. He created the animals. He created everything, you and I. In Genesis-1:31, he says, and it was "very good".
Everybody say, very good. Very good. Yeah.
Man, it was very, very good. Like, there's beauty still in the world today.
It's awesome. *Genesis-1:26*, *God* created mankind and it says that he gave man **"rule and dominion"** over the earth. So, spiritual God created a physical world, and then, created a physical man in order to partner with his *spirit* to be the delegated authority to rule the earth. *Genesis-1:26*. Okay?
Now, we look around. We still see the beauty of God today. People fly in from all over the world to go to Clearwater Beach and see the sunset. It's gorgeous. It's awesome.
Like this morning, and last night, because my wife said I should, I ate a banana. Pick up that beautiful yellow banana, and it's awesome. It's perfectly packaged. All I have to do is open it, take a bite, and it's filling. It's wonderful.
It's the beauty of the Creator. It's awesome. But, yet, we know that there is that beauty is tainted. There's sickness. There's *sin*.
There's disease. There's war. There's pain. There's suffering. There's babies that are born to defects, and and there's abortions, and stillborns, and and all of this suffering going on.
And, like my my Algerian friend told me yesterday, he was he was talking about murder and other things in the world.
And, he's like, what happened? What happened? Where is God?
Most Christians know that all of that is the effect on of sin on the world. Like, sin has affected and tainted God's good creation. Like, we know that. But, a lot of Christians may not see They might hear that and believe that, but maybe we don't see exactly how that happened. And, I wanna show you in scripture.
In Romans-5, we're gonna start here. *Romans-5:19*. I'm just gonna read the first part. We'll get to the rest. It says, for just as through the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made *sinners*.
Just as through the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners. Now, let's just like think about that for a second. Are you a sinner because you sin? Most people will say, yeah. No.
That's not scriptural. You're not a sinner because you sin. You sin because you're a sinner. There's a difference. And, you're a sinner because 1 man sinned.
For just as through the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners. You guys see that? Yes. K.
*God created Adam and Eve* to walk with 1 another and enjoy 1 another in a perfect Garden of Eden. God told them to be fruitful and multiply, but Satan had a different plan. He couldn't attack and beat God straight up, but he hated the image of God. Mankind was created in God's image. So he attacked God's image, mankind, and deceived them, and they entered into man and changed his very nature.
Where man something there's a problem. Man went from being enjoying the presence of God to being afraid of him, hiding, and guilty, and shameful. There's an issue.
And it's important for you
to understand that everything God created, he created with a seed inside of itself to reproduce after its own kind. Like, think about it. You plant an apple seed, what do you get? An tree, and it produces apples with seed in them. The same seed, you plant those seed, you get more apple trees with more apples.
You you you an animal plants its seed, and it reproduces after its own kind. Well, now, you have a sinful man plant his seed in a sinful woman, and it reproduces after its own kind a baby with a sinful nature, the same nature of its parents because its nature was tainted when they sinned. *Romans-5:19*, by the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners because the sin nature reproduced after its own kind.
You follow me?
Good. So out of Adam's sinful seed came Cain and Abel. And the very first generation, it didn't take long for sin to take root because Cain murdered Abel. You think your family's dysfunctional.
The first 1. And then, generation after generation, as man multiplied and filled the earth, what else multiplied and filled the earth? Sin. Yeah. The sin nature also multiplied and filled the earth.
Now, to go on a different thing, because mankind was in dominion and had the delegated authority of God, when they submitted to sin, they were submitting their delegated authority to sin. So, not only were they corrupted, but all of creation was corrupted. And now, the world is waiting, groaning for the sons of God to be revealed again. So now, because of the sin tainted creation, there's earthquakes, and there's there's hurricanes, and there's disease, and there's babies stillborn, and there's wars, and there's rumors of wars. It's all because man messed it up.
Don't blame God for what man did.
*Sin nature continues to multiply from generation to generation, and sin fills the whole earth. But, God* has a grand plan. History is His story. I'm just telling you how His story is woven throughout scripture so that you can understand and quit questioning His plan. Amen?
*Genesis-6:5*. I wanna show you something that most have missed, many have missed, and preach it wrong. I'm not saying that out of arrogance. I'm saying that because I hurt for the body of Christ, because of ignorance. My people perish for lack of knowledge.
*Genesis-6:5*.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, in that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was on only evil all the time.
Did you hear that? Every inclination of the thoughts of man, of the human heart was on evil all the time. Sin nature multiplied throughout the earth. God grieved that he had made man. You know what he did?
He found a man and he told him what he was gonna do. Noah. What did Amos-3:7, surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan. Here's the example. 1 of them, God found Noah, said, hey man, I'm gonna judge the world.
I'm gonna kill sin, which means I gotta kill all the people because of sin nature. I'm a judge it. Holy God, I have to judge sin. This is my part of the plan right now. So, Noah, I want you to "build an ark" because I'm a save you and your family.
You know what Noah did? He obeyed. He believed the word. We'll talk about it later. And, he built the ark.
Flood happened, world judged. *Genesis-8*. Let's go to it. Every inclination of the thoughts of man, of the heart of man was on evil all the time. Genesis-8:21.
Noah and his family get out of the ark after the judgment. Everybody's dead except for his family. Get out of the ark. They create a sacrifice that's a worship to God. Right?
So, they they sacrifice. *God* "smells the aroma" of the sacrifice, and this is what he says. *Genesis-8:21*, the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, never again will I curse the ground because of humans, Even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. Wait. Every inclination of the human heart's evil before the flood.
Flood. Now, every inclination of the human heart's still evil? Yeah. Wait. Let's put our "thinking caps on" for a second, church.
The flood didn't work.
The flood didn't work. The flood didn't change the heart of man. So, let's just take a little deeper. The **judgment of God** does not bring about the righteousness of God. Judgment doesn't change a man's heart.
So when pastors are trying to control people by judging preaching judgment, thinking it's gonna change their heart, they're wrong. Because the judgment of God does not bring about the righteousness of God. It's clear. It's part of God's plan. It's part of showing patiently throughout history how He's working and bringing man to the climax of history and into relationship with him.
So I can just see Moses, he lived many years, like, long, long time afterwards. They lived longer back then, like 300 years after the flood he lived. Had lots of babies. Babies had babies. Man multiplied again.
Guess what else multiplied? Sin. Because the nature was in them. Yes.
Absolutely. So sin nature multiplied. So now, there's murder, there's there's adultery, there's or I mean, there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on. And I can just imagine Moses at the end of his life, he's like, God, what's going on?
Like, you judged the world. I thought you had a plan. I thought it was gonna work. And I can just imagine God saying, hey, I do have a plan. And my ways are higher than your ways.
You're not ready to hear all my plan yet, but you played your part. Thank you. So, what happened next? And I'm just gonna basically give you a a summary of the Old Testament. *God* the earth's corrupt again.
*God* picks out Abraham. Abram, he picks out another man, and he tells him, gives him his word, pick up your family, go to a land that I'm gonna show you. And, Abraham believes God. Now, here's the crazy part is, in the Old Testament, they're saved the same way we are. Abraham believed God's word.
Who's the word? My Bible says the word's Jesus. Right? The word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word's Jesus.
Abraham believed God. And you know how we know he believed God? Because he did it. He picked up his family and moved. He actually acted on his belief.
A lot of people are don't really know if they're saved. They don't really know if if if, you know, they
say, well, I believe. You'll know you believe when your actions follow your belief because it completes belief. It's complete faith. Amen? You don't have to question anymore when you see the fruit, the result of the belief on the inside.
Because your actions always follow what you really believe.
Amen? Okay. So let's sum up the rest of the Old Testament for you.
Abraham had Isaac. Now, I'm gonna go fast here. If you
don't know these stories, just go back to the Old Testament, read sometimes. Just make sure you're reading it through the picture and through the lens of Christ. Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob. K? Jacob, his name was changed to Israel because he had 12 sons.
Israel has 12 tribes. Those were the 12 tribes of Israel. They had many, many babies. 1 of those sons was Joseph. Joseph, the brothers didn't like him, so they sold him off into slavery to die.
Joseph ended up going to Egypt, became the leader of all, and then used that position that he was given in order to save those that rejected him. Right? Just to type and shadow a picture of Christ in the Old Testament. Alright? Jesus was rejected by his own, sold to die by 30 pieces of silver, died, rose again, was placed as Lord over all, and then saved those that rejected him.
Amen? Amen. Pretty cool. That's all throughout the Old Testament, by the way. Anyway, so the rest of the Old Testament is a story of this nation.
*God*'s using this nation to reveal his plan and his purposes for the whole earth, for every tribe, tongue, nation. Stick with me. We're gonna get to it. Okay? This is all a setup.
Remember, we have the people with the nature of Adam. The seed of Adam is planted in them, so it's a
*sin* nature, and the sin nature must come out. *God* has
a plan to fix the problem, to redeem them and put it back to how it
was in the beginning. Very good. God with them. But even better than it was in the beginning because he wants to be in them. K?
So, 400 years there in Egypt, just I know it's a lot. Just follow me. 400 years there in Egypt, as slaves. You've seen the the movies of Moses or Charleston Heston, "let my people go", you know. Younger, maybe prince of Egypt or something.
Anyway, Moses, chosen by God, comes out, delivers the people. You know, God has these 10 miraculous plagues and stuff, and the Pharaoh finally lets them go. They walk through the Red Sea miraculously, you know, a fire, big pillar of fire of God is separating them from their enemies. They go out, supposed to be
a short trip, they end up at Mount Sinai.
If this is all new to you, it's okay. It's gonna be okay. They end up at Mount Sinai. When they're at Mount Sinai, *God is planning to renew His covenant* with them. But see, you have a sinful people that's full of a sin nature.
They can't be in the presence of God. So, God tells them, do not come to the mountain. Do not They
put up barriers. If you come on the mountain, you will surely die. Holy God, sin nature can't mix. No. And God speaks, and the people say, no.
We don't wanna hear you, God. That's too much for us. Speak to Moses. We'll hear Moses. They're rejecting *relationship* with God.
So Moses, God gives Moses the *grace* to go up
on the mountain. Moses goes up on the mountain and and receives what the book of the law, what what the what the what he's gonna put on stone, comes back down, talks to the people. We find ourselves in Exodus-24:7. Watch this. Then, he took the book of the covenant and read it to the people.
They responded, we will do everything the Lord has said, we will obey. Man, that sounds awesome. Sounds so good. Man, good intentions, you know? I
I got a heart to follow God. Like, I I want to. I'm I'm gonna try really hard. The problem
is, it's deeper than even your heart. It's your nature to not. It's your very nature, a *sin* nature. So, they say that. Moses goes back up on the mountain, receives the book of the law, the 10 commandments, the 631, 21, 31, I forget, laws, and he comes back down, and in just a mere 40 days from them saying that, just 40 days, they're already disobeying the first 1,
thou shall not have no other gods before me. They're worshiping a golden idol. They're they're they're doing all kinds of crazy other stuff. They're doing the very thing that they promised they would do. They broke the covenant right there, and it's not because they didn't try hard.
They probably did, but there was a nature to disobey. There's a nature to not follow God, and many people, all the different religions in the world are saying, "do better", "try harder", and some people do better in this area, and some people do better in this area. But everyone, because of the sin nature, will end up falling and disobeying God and being judged by the law.
Can I just tell you, the law is against you? The
law is against you.
Let me show you in scripture. Some of you don't believe me. Deuteronomy, there's a there's a verse for that. There's many verses. I'm gonna show you all of them, or some of them, not
all of them. Deuteronomy-31:26. Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God. There, it will remain as a "witness against" *Deuteronomy-31:26*. Do we do we have that 1 up?
There it is. There, it will remain as a witness, what? The *law* is against you. Let's let's that's the old covenant. Let's see what the
*new covenant says. Is the law* still against you? Let's look. This matters. *2 Corinthians-3*.
All of these scriptures need to
go up. Chapter 3 verse 7. Now, if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved on letters on stone Wait. Wait. What?
The law was engraved on letters of stone, and it's called the ministry that brought death. Now, to 2 Corinthians-3:9. If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious wait a second. It's talking about the same thing. The law that was engraved on letters of stone was the ministry that brought death and condemnation.
It's against you, Colossians-2:14. Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, it's talking about the law, which was contrary to us. The law is the ministry of death, the ministry of condemnation. It's against you, and it's contrary to you, and there's a reason for it. There's a purpose for it.
The law is good and holy and perfect, and it perfectly does the purpose God said for it to do. Yep. Perfectly. What's
the purpose of the law? You know, most people, when I ask that question, they said, to make you sin less. No. That's actually anti bible. The Bible says the exact opposite.
Let's go to to Romans-5:20. The law was brought in so that the trespass might
Wait. Wait. Read that out loud again. The law was brought in so the trespass trespass might what? So the purpose of the law a trespass, by the way,
is like trespassing over a line. It's breaking a law. So the
law was brought in so that you would break it more. So that you would sin more. What? Really? That's the purpose of the law.
God had a specific purpose for it. I'm saying God added the law not to stop sin, but to make people sin more. Sometimes leaders want to get people to act right, and they say, hey, let's give me people more rules. Let's preach harder against sin. Let's make them more focused on their sin.
And if you do that, you're gonna make people sin more, not less. Don't go to churches that constantly tell you about how bad your sin is. It's religion and it's of the devil.
The law was put there to point out the fact that you can't follow God by your effort. You can't follow God by you trying to be good enough, not in the old covenant and not in the new covenant. Like like a boy walking like a 6, 7, and 8 year old boys or girls, you know, walking by their neighbor's yard, and there's a garden. They don't notice the garden. It's a beautiful garden.
It's you know, they're walking and talking. But then, the the owner of the house sees the the boys walking, gets a little fearful, and so he puts a sign in in the in the garden that says, do not touch my plants. 6, 7, 8 year old boy, they see it, they don't do anything the first time.
3 or 4 days later, they see it again, 1 of them sneaks in.
Why? Nature. There's a nature issue. God put the law there to show us our need for a savior. Romans-3:20.
Actually, sorry. Romans-5:20. Go to Romans-5:20. The law was brought in so that trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more. Romans-3:20.
Here's the heart of it. Therefore, no 1 will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. So, what? The judgment of God doesn't bring about the righteousness of God, and guess what? The law of God doesn't bring about the righteousness of God either.
Rather, through the law, we become conscious of sin.
We become more conscious of our inability to follow Him. It's supposed to, like, it God's holy law, perfect and holy, and does exactly what it's supposed to. It's God's living word written on cold tablets of stone before you, but it's not to it doesn't empower you to follow it. It shows you your inability to follow it, and it causes you to break it more because you're trying by your own self effort. Here's the heart of it.
The problem is inside. Like, this is not like any other religion where you try hard enough and you can make it. You can't make it. You have to recognize, and here it is, through the holiness of God, that the problem is not what you've done. The problem is not what you haven't done.
The problem is not your sin. The problem is you. You're the problem. I was the problem. It's not what I've done and haven't done.
It's me. *God*, I need you to change me. Change me from the "inside out". No matter how hard I try, you no matter what I do, I can't follow you by myself. It's the nature issue.
*Romans-3:20* and 21
says this. Did I give you that? But
now, apart from the law. Therefore, no 1 will be
declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law. Rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin. 21, but now apart from the
*law*, the *righteousness* of God has been made known, to which the
*law and prophets testify. Everybody say, apart from the law*. "Apart from the law".
Praise the Lord. Apart from the law. It's a *righteousness* by faith in Jesus. *God* spent 4000 years to slowly reveal the problem to man, and then he sent the answer. That's why Jesus had to become a man, because God gave dominion of the whole earth to man.
And in order to win it back, Jesus had to be a man. God is not gonna say, I gave dominion to man. Oops. No. He had a plan from the beginning.
This was all part of his plan.
*God loves the world so much, he sent someone to fix it. John-1:1*. In the beginning was the the *Word*. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
The Word of God was God. Nothing was made without Him. That's what it goes on. Everything that was made was made by Him and through Him, is what it goes
on to say. Amen? And then, here's the crazy part. Here's what He did. *God took the Word*, His Word, that was God and is God, and he planted it into the womb of a woman, of a virgin.
It wasn't Joseph's seed. It was God's seed. It was his word, the Son of God. Now, watch this. The Word, **incorruptible seed** of God, planted into even a corrupted woman, sinful woman.
But, when Jesus touched the leper, did he get dirty? The lepers became clean. When the incorruptible seed of God touched the egg, what became clean?
So Jesus was of born of Mary, so he's fully man and had to be. But, though incorruptible seed of God, he's fully God, the Son of God. Amen?
Let's make this connection. Adam, the first the first Adam was created without sin, planted in the Garden Of Eden, and then tempted by Satan, and he fell in the garden. *Jesus* Jesus, nature of God, put in the wilderness, tempted by Satan. 1 fell in the garden. Jesus overcame even in the wilderness.
Then, after that, was tempted in every way that we ever will be and ever could be and overcame completely. Man, that's beautiful. Walked a sinless life. *Jesus is called the last Adam* or the second man. There's a reason for that.
The first Adam fell to sin and had a sin nature. Every man after had a sin nature. Romans-5:19 again, And, I'm a wrap up. Almost done. For just as through the disobedience of the 1 man, the many were made sinners, you understand that, So, also, through the obedience of the 1 man, the many will be made righteous.
Wow. Now, you see the contrast. Let's look at it in John-1:11.
He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet, to all who did receive Him, verse 12, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. 13, children born not of a natural descent or of a human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. Guys, do you see it? Like, this is where Christians miss it.
They they read over this. They don't understand. Like, this is a huge deal. It changes everything. It changes how we teach.
It changes how we live. Everyone's born of woman, a sinner with a sin nature, and the only way to change that is to die and be born again, to be "born from above". So when we look to Christ, like most reject Him, and they reject Him, and they get the result of being a sinner, sin nature separated from God for eternity. But He gives you the right when you receive Him to become a new child, born not of your father or of your mother getting together, not of your family heritage, but born from above. A whole new race of people, a new species of people.
You have the people who were of Adam, who have a sin nature, and year after year, generation after generation, they have a nature to sin, and will always, maybe 1 a little better than that 1, and 1 a little better than that 1, but they'll always end up sinning. But then you have those who have received Christ. That's what baptism when when we are baptized, we're saying, it's no longer I who live. I was crucified with Christ. Your sin nature was crucified with Christ.
Now you're born from above, the incorruptible seed of God in you. So now you have the nature of God.
If you've been born again. The nature of God.
Like, we quote scriptures all the time, but
we don't believe it. 2 Corinthians-5:17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, the old things have passed away. All things have become new. Right?
Yep. First 1 John-4:17, in this world, we are like Jesus. Why? Because we have the same seed in us.
When we receive it and believe it, it begins to produce the fruit of Christ in our lives. And people say, but but I still struggle. Of course, you still struggle. You're not struggling because you don't have the nature of God in you if you're born again. No.
You're struggling because of what's between your ears. You're struggling because your mind, you're struggling with believing the reality of who you are. Yeah. Yeah. In this world, you're constantly bombarded with things that will tell you you're not the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, that'll tell you you're not forgiven, that'll tell you that that you're not healed in his name, that you're not who Christ says that you are, and you have to have to have to be renewed in your mind, so your life can be transformed to the reality of who you are.
The more you believe the lies, the less you'll live out who you are. But see, here's the problem. So many Christians are taught by ignorance, and they are always falling at the altar in guilt and shame, thinking they're nothing but a filthy, rotten sinner. And you know what the father says? Looks at that, and he says, why don't you believe?
Why are you making light of what my son did for you? You're saying, by constantly groveling and calling it humility, you're saying that my son's blood wasn't good enough to wash your sin away. You're saying that my son's blood wasn't good enough to make you right with me. You're saying that the cross wasn't good enough to change you. You don't believe.
Get up and believe.
It's time to be free. There are 2 kinds of people in the earth. The color of your skin is beautiful, but it doesn't change how I see you. 2 kinds of people. Those who are in Adam, and those who are in Christ.
Those who are in Christ, and those who need to be. I'm not mad at sinners. I'm not mad at the folks in Adam. *God*'s not mad. He already paid for their mistakes.
They just need to hear the word and receive it. We can't live in this freedom constantly if we're constantly coming to the altar focused on how bad we've done, and complaining and moaning and trying to feel guilty and calling humility. *Jesus' blood was good enough to pay for your sin, and the cross was powerful enough to set you free. Quit insulting the son of God* and believe the gospel. It's time to be competent as ministers of the new covenant**.
Not of the letter that kills, but of the spirit that gives life. *Holy, righteous*, and blameless is who you are and what's inside of you, if you've been born again. Many people say, and this is my last sentence, and I'll pray, and we'll be done. The last couple sentences. Many people say, but if I say that, people will take it as a license to sin.
This is grace. Grace is not a license to sin. It's not. As a matter of fact, if you think that, you don't understand grace. Like, it's pretty dang clear.
*Romans-6:14*. And, I don't know if I gave you this verse, but if I did, please pull it up. *Romans-6:14*. It says, for sin shall no longer be your master because you are not under the law, but under grace. It's about as clear as day.
If sin is your master in any area of your life, in that area, you're probably living by your own performance, and put yourself under the law. And, so, that's why you're sending more. You probably need to understand God's grace in that area so that you can live in freedom. Yeah. Look, preachers that preach law and condemnation, I love them.
I really do. They want the same thing I want. I want you to live righteous and holy in your life, and experience all the the goodness of God. They want the same thing. The problem is, their method doesn't work.
Because scripture says their method calls you to sin more. *Grace* works. Don't question anymore. Amen? Amen.
Santos, I'm done. Father God, I just thank you for who you are. Lord God, I pray that the seed of this *word* causes people to know you better. And, for those that have questions, I pray that they go back and look at the scriptures, Lord God, and test it by your word, Lord God, and it causes them to walk in freedom. Thank you for your goodness.
Last but not least, this message is a foundation for the rest of the messages. It builds on 1 another. Don't miss. Bring your friends, bring your family, bring your enemies, because people need to hear it so they can be free. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast.
I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God loves you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can