You are invited to stop measuring your worth by your performance and instead rest in the perfect righteousness of Jesus that covers you. When you shift your focus from your own failures to His finished work, you will find the freedom to serve without fear. Today, choose to walk in the assurance that you are fully accepted by God.
Well, good morning. It's a "joy to get to be here". It's a joy to get to
be your pastor. If you don't know, my name is David John Phillips, and I have the honor of leading getting to be a lead pastor here, and there's nothing I'd rather be doing. And if it is your first time, welcome. And we pray you experience the love of Jesus, that you have such an encounter with God that when you walk away from today, you're "never the same", and you never wanna be the same. And you desire and hunger after more of him every single day.
Amen? So we are in the middle of a, series. And before I get into that, the notes for this 1, for this whole series, we're gonna be putting them on the website so you can follow along if you would like. So, you can go to realchurch.us, www.realchurch.us and click on if you have your phone, click on the little 3 lines, click on live streams, and then message notes. It'll pull up all automatically on the Bible app or if you don't have the Bible app, it'll pull up like a PDF, I think.
So you can follow along. On the Bible app, you can take notes. I would encourage you to take notes today, because I want you to reteach this in your daily life. Maybe this is a message that you've heard before. Maybe you've heard some of the analogies before.
Great. Take notes on it and go over it so that you can share it with your friends. Because to the extent that you give out, that's the extent that you really know it. Right? Amen.
When you when when you teach something, man, that's what really goes deep in you. Amen? So, I want you to hear, receive, and it becomes such a part of you that you can't help but share. We're in the grace series. It is part 3 of this.
These are the messages I told you in the beginning. These are the messages that my my father actually wrote these 13 to 15 years ago. These are messages that have been preached around the world. Man, I was privileged to get to travel with my dad before I got here serving him, serving the the conference, and even getting to preach some of these messages and this is my favorite 1. It's actually the first 1 that I got to preach in India.
It was awesome. Love it. And these are for whether you've been a Christian for 70 years. I'm telling you these these messages work for pastors and at conferences but it also works for drug addicts at Fresh Start that have no idea who Jesus is and we're telling them they're about Christ and about their identity and it it causes them to never be the same where they're set free from from day 1. They're set free and then they graduate fresh start and 70% of them never go back because they understand beyond a shadow of a doubt who Christ says that they are.
Praise god. So, it doesn't matter where you're at in this whole Christian walk thing. Whether you don't know Jesus, you just happen to walk through these doors or you've been leading leaders. Receive today because man, every time I go through this message, it encourages myself. So, we're just gonna dive in.
The beginning of it will be a bit of a review from message 1 and message 2. Message 1 was god's grand plan. Message 2 was crossing the Jordan. We're going start in Romans-3 and verse 20. Says, 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. So, right there, we see the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law is not to make you righteous. It was never intended for you to follow it in order to become righteous. We learned in the the first message that judgement, the judgment of god does not bring about the righteousness of god.
Right? Remember, Noah's ark, the the flood in the beginning right before the flood, man, the every inclination of man's heart was on evil from the beginning and then god judged the world and then right after it, it says, he will never do it again even though every inclination of man's heart is on east, still on evil from the beginning. Meaning, the judgment of god did not work in order to change the heart of god. It did god's plan to show mankind that judgment doesn't change a man's heart. So, why is it that we constantly try to manipulate Christians in order to be more righteous by warning them about fear of judgement.
Judgement doesn't change a man's heart. Amen. Guess what? 4000 years. Through the Old Testament, god was showing and teaching mankind that the law doesn't change a man's heart either.
*Romans-5:20* and pull it up. The law was brought in so that, here's the purpose, so that the trespass might increase. The purpose of the law was that you would sin more. Remember, this is all review. The purpose of the law that you send more and not only makes you sin more but then it also *Romans-3:20* makes you conscious of your sin.
Why? Is god's law holy? Is it righteous? Absolutely. It's perfect.
The old covenant is amazing but there was a major problem with the old covenant. In Hebrews, it talks about if there wasn't a problem with it, we would have no need for a new 1. The problem with the old covenant is not god. The problem with the old covenant is not the law. The problem with the old covenant was us.
It's mankind. See, the law is perfect and holy shows god's perfect will for mankind on 2 cold tablets of stone. And hit you over the head with it and does not empower you to keep it but shows you that you can't. And so the the whole purpose of it was to bring us to the end of our self where we say, oh my gosh, no matter how hard I try, I can't do it. It the problem isn't actually what I don't do and what I do, the problem is actually me.
I'm the problem. I need to be "saved from myself". Amen? Amen. *Romans-3:21*.
Man, praise the lord for some good news. But now, "apart from the law", everybody say, apart from the law. Apart from the law. Apart from performing in order to be good enough to please Now, apart from the law, the righteousness of god has been made known to which the law and the prophets testify. It's very interesting.
Even the law itself was testifying forward that a righteousness apart from it would be revealed. And the prophets, the whole Old Testament is pointing forward towards a righteousness apart from the law. Verse 28, *Romans-3:28*, for we maintain that a person is *justified* by *faith* apart from the works of the law. What is justified mean? Very simply, justified is just as if you'd never done it.
Be amazing if you had a court case and you really messed up and they let you off the hook but it's not on your record. It's just as if you'd never even done that thing. *Justified*. Just as if you'd never done it. Nobody it did nobody remembers it anymore.
Restored with him and restored with the community. *Justified*. You guys follow me? Yeah. Okay.
For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Alright? Let's keep going. *Romans-4:1*. What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, discovered in this matter?
Now, so Paul wrote Romans, and as he's going through Romans, he's he's pulling out this topic and he's just as we go, he's he's gonna get deeper and deeper and deeper. So, as we go in this message, we're gonna get a little deeper and a little deeper and a deeper. What Paul's doing here is he's showing the people that are reading that hey, this isn't just some concept that came up with. Actually, *Abraham, our forefather of faith*, the fourth and the the the father of the whole Jewish nation but our father by faith, Abraham actually understood this. Understood this matter.
What matters he talking about? Romans-3:28, for we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Abraham got it. Verse 2, if in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about but not before god. Now, just let's just think about this.
We're going put our thinking caps on for a moment. Like, you know, you you think about man, I I I try to do, I try not to do bad and I try not to sin and I feel good about myself when I don't and then I try to do these good things and that's awesome. It's important. You know, the the the boasting, if if if that's the way that you live, I try not to sin and the more that I don't sin, the better I feel about myself and then the more that I do good, the better I I feel about myself, okay? If if if this is the way that you're focused, then, if you're doing good, you have something to boast about because you're boasting in your effort.
The religious man, I found, is boastful. I've just found that if I ever come across someone that is religious, they usually are so focused on what they've done that they boast about what they do for god. Right? Kind of that holier than thou type of thing? Okay?
Let let's let's let's just drive this home. If I were to ask you, if I were to ask you, how righteous are you? Hold on. Hold on. Wait a second.
I've I've asked a lot of you this before. I'm I'm doing a little different this time. If I were to ask you how righteous are you on a scale of 1 to 10 and you were to think and say, man, you know, I've been a drug addict. I've been sleeping around. I've been stealing and lying and cheating and really, I got cases in multiple states right now against me.
I'm probably just a 1 or 2. You know, or if I were to ask you how righteous are you and you were to say, well, you know, I go to church on Christmas and Easter, maybe a couple times throughout the year. I I pick up a Bible every now and then. Pray before I eat and I'm a pretty good dude. I work really hard and and man, you know, I'm I'm I'm a just a good guy.
I'm I'm probably a normal guy, 4, 4, 5 or maybe if I were to ask you, hey, how righteous are you? And you say, well, you know, I I read my Bible every night. I serve on a serve team. I go to church. I worship and and man, I I pray.
I'm you know, I'm I'm still struggling here and there but man, I'm you know, I'm probably a 6, 7, maybe 7.5. Or maybe I would ask you, how righteous are you and you say, man, you know, I'm going on mission trip to Pakistan. Man, I I've been on mission trips before. I pray for people and they got healed. I've seen people delivered of demons.
Man, I've I've I've read the Bible. I I got in worship and when I get on worship and get on my knees, every time I feel his presence and tears come down my face, you know, I mean, it's just awesome. Not only that, I prophesy over people, all this stuff happens. You know, I'm probably a 9.5. If when I ask you, how righteous are you?
And you immediately start to think about yourself and how you're doing, Isn't that self righteousness? Isn't that self righteousness? If I ask you how righteous are you and you immediately start weighing your deeds, you're self righteous. I'm not mad at you. Just telling you some truth.
Letting it cut because I love you. I don't do that I don't trust in what I've done or what I haven't done because I trust in what he's done. Jesus paid the price for me and all of my unrighteousness and all of my self righteous efforts, Jesus completely fulfilled the whole old covenant 100% but then, he took the curse of my junk 100% by being beaten and bruised and and bleeding to death, dying on a cross for our sin. And then, 2 Corinthians-5:21 says, he who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him, we might become the righteousness of god. Amen.
He credited. Yeah. He credited that goodness that he did to my account. So my trust is not in myself, and I no longer measure myself by what I've done. I measure by what he's done for me and what he says about me.
We'll get there. We'll get a little deeper every time. Okay. *Romans-4:3, what does scripture say? Abraham* believed *god* and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Now, Abraham believed god. What does that mean? God spoke to Abraham, god's word, and Abraham believed the word of god. Who's the word? *Jesus*.
Right. For those of you who don't know, John-1, it says, in the beginning was the word. The word was with god and was god. Then, it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus is the manifestation of the word.
So, when Abraham's believing god's word, who's he believing? Jesus. Man, he knew about this before Jesus was even there. He was believing forward on Christ and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, that word credit is an accounting term.
Okay, very specific. It's kind of like you have a cellphone bill. You have a debt and then you go to pay your bill, you pay $10 extra, then and then on the next bill, you have your debt and you have a $10 credit. You know what I'm talking about? Praise the lord.
Well, you take all of Abraham's sin past, present, and future and add it all together and then god says, hey, Imma put a credit of my righteousness in your account. All of his stuff added together does not add up to his righteousness. So, you look at Abraham's account, you see god's righteousness. That's a credit, Amen? Amen.
Let's keep going. Let's get a little deeper. *Romans-4:4*, now to the 1 who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. Now, he's just making this real practical for us, right? Thankful that Paul makes things practical.
You gotta a job. Let's say you lay in brick or work in a McDonald's or whatever, you get $10 an hour. Okay? And you work 10 hours. At the end of the day, you get to, hey, you expect to get paid how much?
Made it easy for us. Dollars 100. Is that a gift or an obligation? Is it a gift or an obligation? Obligation.
You earned it. It's what you deserve, right? Okay. Next verse. However, *Romans-4:5*, to the 1 who does not work but trusts god who *justifies* the who?
Who *justifies* the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. There's a lot of people that say, you know what? It's time for me to get back to god. Let me clean myself up. Let me let me go and man, I need to stop.
I need to stop drinking first and and and stop this. Then, then, maybe I'll, you know, once I start doing some good stuff here and there, I'll go to church, go to church a few times, and and feel better and and once I finally get myself "cleaned up", I'm like, alright, god. Here I am. I've done some good now. I'm ready to be saved.
*God* doesn't justify those who think they're godly. That's pride. God actually opposes the proud. God justifies though who say, those who say, I can't do anything in and of myself no matter what good I try. It's never going to be god's perfection and he requires perfection.
So, god, I'm a filthy rotten sinner and I need you to save me from the "inside out". I need you to save me right where I am because I can't even make a half a step to you. Amen? Amen. **God justifies the ungodly**.
That's why Jesus said, first, blessed are the poor in spirit for they shall see the kingdom of heaven. Those who recognize the poorness of their spirit. See, the more that I grow in him, the more that I understand in and of myself, I need him more. I I I stay continuously poor in spirit in and of myself so that I'll constantly seek him but man, in him, I'm rich in spirit because I see his kingdom. Amen?
Amen. Okay. Their faith is credited as righteousness. Man, that same credit that god gave to *Abraham* to those the ungodly who choose not to try to work their way to god but to receive what he's did, their faith is credited in their account, that same credit will get there. Verse 6, okay.
So, so, Paul is making the case here, great writer. He's saying, hey, you guys know Abraham. Abraham knew about this way before things. I'm not just making it up. Here's what he knew and here's how it happened but now, you know, let's skip a few and go to David.
David was pretty big in your books. Let's show that, hey, he actually knew the same thing. Verse 6, David says the same thing when he speaks about the blessedness of the 1 to whom god credits *righteousness *apart from works**. Everybody say apart from works. Apart works.
Good. And then, he quotes David writing about this in the Psalms. Verse 7, blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. By the way, mercy covers. It's talking about mercy.
It's a beautiful thing. Verse 8, this 1 of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Blessed is the 1 whose sin, the lord will never "count against them". Blessed is the 1 whose sin the lord will never count against. Wait, wait a second.
Hold on. I've been born again. *God*'s made me new on the inside out. I get that. He's credited this righteousness to me.
That's cool. It's awesome but but I'm still in this flesh. I'm I'm still in this sinful world, right? So, I still see crazy stuff from time to time and and hear crazy stuff from time to time and there's these crazy thoughts that come into my my head from time to time and and man, sometimes I get condemned by those thoughts and don't even don't even try to think about em and then and then next thing you know, I'm I'm I'm I'm struggling. Maybe thought about 1 thought too much and I and I fall in this area here like but but but the Bible says, blessed is the man who sinned the lord, the person who sinned the lord will never count against them.
Who is who is that man? Who is that person? And you think about it and you process, you wait a second. Hold on. That's me.
I'm I'm the man. I'm the person. Well, wait, that's me. I'm the person who sinned the lord will never count against them and wait, as a matter of fact, because he counted all my sin, past, present, and future against Jesus, it would be unlawful for him to count it against me because I received what happened? Wait a second.
Anyone who believes in Jesus has received that sacrifice, your past, present, and future sin is never counted against you? You want to take it a little deeper? If it's not counted, it's not in the books, then it can't be judged. Remembers your sin no more. Washed as far as the East is from the West.
Is it counted or not? See, sometimes we look at scripture and it shifts. It challenges what we've always believed and what we always thought deep down or maybe what we're always taught by somebody that we really respected. If it's in line with scripture, maybe we need to allow him to change our thinking. Amen.
And to change our beliefs. So, we can really walk this thing out. Yeah. Amen? Amen.
Blessed is the man who sinned, the *lord* will never count against him. The wrath of god is still on those who don't believe. *John-3*, I mean, I'll I'll show you. It's there. I didn't give this as a as a scripture.
Verse 36, whoever believes in the son has eternal life but whoever rejects the son will not see life for the for god's wrath remains on them. Pretty clear. Right? But for us as believers, the judgment of god had completely fell on Jesus and we received that. As a matter of fact, the same gift is for the whole world.
But if you reject it, you're saying, no. What I do is enough. You can judge me for my own works instead of for Jesus'. Make sense? Let's let's just drive this home a bit, and I believe I believe these analogies that I'm about to give you, if you really hear them and receive them and see them, I believe it's gonna "set you free" in many many ways.
Can I have an a volunteer who has good knees that can step up on the stage? Geo, do you wanna do this? Sure. You know what? You can do that.
Come on. But I need you to keep a straight face through it, okay? Alright, here we go. Come here. He's a smaller.
Alright. Okay. This man right here, Gio, he's gonna be our balance scale today. So, you can put your hand out like this. Perfect.
Close your close your fingers and you push this hand out like this. Perfect. Alright. Just like that. He's our balance scale, okay?
The top of his head is the top of the scale. You got a chain going to here and a chain going to here. You guys see it in your mind? Alright. So, if I if I push down on this, what happens?
This goes up, right? Now, you stay straight but this, there you go. Alright, if I push down on this, what happens? Okay, we, our our balance scale is calibrated. You guys see that?
Calibrated balance scale. Perfect weight. Okay, good job. Stay there. No, I'll.
Woah. Woah. You're be here for a while. You got strong shoulders? Okay, good.
So, let's just imagine that this is you. The Bible says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god, okay? So, that means you've sinned. We're gonna put, we're make this side our sin side. We got sin on this side.
We're put sin in the scale. What happens if I put sin in the scale? That's, yeah, you stay straight. This, there we go. Just like that.
Perfect. Why does it do that? Because sin's heavy. The Bible says the wages or the payment for sin is death. It's pretty heavy.
Now, let me ask you this. What happens if I read my Bible, put some maybe I I I give I give I give a car away. You know, what what happens if I if I I go to church quite a bit and all that? Does does it even out the sin at all? No.
No. Your good works don't even out the sin? No. Why not? I thought I thought I was supposed to.
Right? I mean, deep down, that's the way a lot of Christians live. Right? No, there's nothing that you can do that will ever before or after you come to Jesus. Just read Galatians-2, 3, and 4.
The Galatians tried to do good works after they come to Jesus in order to make themselves more righteous and Paul said, hey, you've fallen from grace. So, the only thing that will shift the scale is *death* and Jesus, right? Fulfilled the, he said, to tell us that it is finished. He paid the price for the sins of the world, the Bible says. Once and for all the Bible says.
So, Jesus was beaten, crucified, and and bled and died in order to pay 100 for our sin. So, when we put Jesus's blood on this side, what happens? Does it, does it even out? Yes. No.
No. Remember, Bible says a credit of righteousness. Amen? Yep. **credit of righteousness**.
So, so now, his blood has 100% paid for biblically, all *sin* for us because we have believed, right? How do you know you really believe? How how do we know Abraham really believed? When god told Abraham to leave Er, how how do we know he really believed? He obeyed.
He did it, right? If he would have said, yeah, lord, that's good and then never made the adjustment in his life to follow, then, we would have known he he really didn't believe. Right? What you, how you respond is always the fruit, right? Remember, hearing and doing, that's complete belief, complete faith, okay?
So, we believe what Jesus said and we're 100% forgiven and our sin are 1 is 100% totally covered. Okay. Now, the payment is death. It's it's not our good works. A lot of people think, well, it's our good works.
Let's let me put it in perspective in another analogy for you, okay? Let's say you have, you owe $2,000 for your mortgage this month and you just don't have it in your account but you got some good cucumbers and squash in the backyard. So, you take some cucumbers and squash to your mortgage guy and say, hey, will this work this month? What's he gonna say? No.
You know why? Because the requirement is not cucumbers and squash. The requirement is $2,000. It has to be exact. Now, is god just sweeping sin under the rug?
Saying, hey, I don't care about your sin anymore. No big deal. Just put it under the rug. No, god's a righteous judge and a just judge and your sin has to be punished 100% with the exact penalty but the beautiful thing is is it was in Christ. All we have to do is believe it and receive it and it's completely there for us.
Amen? Amen. Now, I'm to go a little bit deeper. What happens when this fallen world, man? Saw some crazy stuff.
It affected us, man. COVID, you know, governments and racism. Jeez. I just don't know what to believe anymore. And I lose lose some some trust.
Start messing up for a little bit. Start sinning on this side. What happens? When you when you sin, does it do this? No.
Then, you have to be born again again? And then, you sin again and then does this? You realize a lot of preachers teach this and then you gotta do this? Can a man be born again again? Like, think about that.
You were born of Adam, and then you were born again of Christ. And then what? Born again of Adam? There we go. The **blood outweighs**.
So, when you sin again, *Jesus*'s blood pays for It's already paid for. It's actually not even counted against you at all. So, question then, if you think the other way, which sin is it that outweighs the blood? Which 1? How many sins?
How many sins does it take to to outweigh the value of the blood? Why? Pastor. Oh my gosh. Are you making light of sin?
I hear that all the time. And at the right time, I turned to the person. I put my finger in their face. I say, no, sir. You're "making light of the blood".
Amen. You. You did good. Thank you. This man got some strong shoulders.
So, hearing this, I mean, shoot, what shall we say? Shall we just send more? You know, a lot of people, a lot of lot of people that have that question in your heart and if you do, that's normal, right? If you've never heard this before, you never heard this explained in in this way before, you know, me just go. Should we just go sin more?
Guess what? They asked Paul the same thing. *Romans-6:1, what then? Shall we just go sin* more? You know what Paul said?
By no means. We are those who have died to sin. How should we live in it any longer? Like what I'm this thing, what I'm showing you is grace. It's getting what you don't deserve.
You do not deserve this credit. Grace is a beautiful thing. It is empowering. You know what? Say in in in Titus-2:11.
And 12. Like, a lot of preachers are literally have had this conversation. My dad and I with with pastors and they're like, we can't teach this or people just go out and sin more. I'm like, you don't get it, sir? Titus-2:11.
Watch this. It says, for the grace of god has appeared that offers salvation to all people. Verse 12, it. Now, for you English people, it is referring to what? Grace.
Grace. The subject of the last sentence, right? So, we can say, the grace of god teaches us to say no to *ungodliness* and worldly passions and to "live self controlled", upright lives in this present age. The more you understand grace, the more you're gonna be empowered to live how you couldn't live on your own. The more you're gonna be empowered to live the godly life that you were created to live.
The more you receive his grace, grace is god empowering you by his power to do what you can't do on your own. In 1 sense, it's empowering you to live a godly life. In another sense, it's empowering you to do his work like go to Pakistan and pray for the sick and then be healed and all kinds of cool stuff happen. It's god's grace and the more I grow in him, the more I need his grace because the more I realize I can't do the stuff that I'm doing by my own effort. It's not just for me guys, it's for all of you.
Another another verse that and and Galatians-2, 3, and 4 really hits this home but go read it on your own time. *Romans-6:14*. Says, for sin shall no longer be your master because you're not under the law but under grace. That means, to the extent that you under understand grace, sin is not your master but to the extent that you're under the law, under performance in any area of your life, guess what? sin is your master.
So, if you're struggling with sin in any area, your focus is probably on what you're doing instead of what Christ did. Amen? Amen. I just wanna share with you how really how good this is and how freeing this is. You know, Real quick.
1 more quick analogy. You ever heard the the the jokes about the pearly gates, Peter at the pearly gates? Yeah, you you you some of you have heard those jokes, you know, and gotta do this to get in or whatever. Some kind of cool punch line. Well, this is based on that but it's just analogy, okay?
Peter's not really standing at the pearly gates waiting to let you in, alright? But we go to go to heaven, right? We we die and and we're on our way and waiting. There's this long line of people in order waiting to to get in and Peter's there and and you got this this weight scale. You know, the old school weight scales that come up and they got a big circle and you know, it's got the numbers as it goes goes across when you step in.
You know what I'm talking about? Okay. Like a Publix. Sure. And and so, it it has the 1 to 10 thing and and people are stepping on and as they step on, it's like, very bad and so he steps off and he goes to hell And the next guy steps on.
He's like, oh, he did he did some pretty good stuff. 5. And he goes to hell. Right? Because god requires perfection.
You have to be perfect and holy in order to make it into his presence. Period. Okay? So next guy, he he did a lot of good stuff, but it still wasn't perfection. Nobody is perfect except in Christ.
So then, I'm like, everybody's sweating, but it was my turn. I'm chill. I I finally I step up on the weight scale and and guess what happens? I step up on the weight scale and a lot of people think a lot of people think instead of me stepping up on the 1, instead of you stepping on the weight scale, Jesus gets down off the throne and steps on the weight scale and that, I mean, and that's great to think about. Jesus is righteousness.
He stands in our place. That's beautiful to think about but that's actually not what happens. Actually, what happens is I "step on the weight scale". Jesus is in me, and his righteousness is in me, and that outweighs every bit of unrighteousness, period. So when I step on the weight scale, it goes to perfect and holy and righteous in his sight, and my father says, well done, my good and faithful servant.
Yeah. Amen. Now, watch this. Because I've been, I've got, my my dad taught me, I mean, this isn't like news from my dad. Paul talked about this 2000 years ago.
*Jesus, you know, shoot, Abraham* talked about it 6 6000 years ago, however long, right? Like, this isn't new. This is just clear. So, my dad taught me this stuff from a kid. It really became real to me.
Shoot, I don't know, 13 and a half, 14 years ago. So, my mind has been renewed in this where I I I really believe it so much that I'm freeing and I live it where I'm not even conscious of sin anymore. Hallelujah. You you realize I you're not supposed to be sin conscious. What you're conscious of, you repeat?
Man, I'm so conscious of his *righteousness* that his righteousness is flowing out of me and it's awesome and anytime that I get sin conscious, that's where I get tripped up. Let me show you in scriptures so you believe me. *Hebrews-10*. I didn't give them this this this is extra. Verse 1 and 2, but it is in your notes.
It says, the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the real things themselves. For for this reason, it can never by the same *sacrifices* repeated endlessly year after year make perfect those who draw near to worship. So, the law can't make you perfect. Never. Wasn't wasn't made to do that but watch this.
Verse 2, otherwise, Would they not have stopped being offered the sacrifices? For the worshipers would have been **cleansed once for all** and would "no longer have felt guilty" for their sins. Another version says, and would no longer have been conscious of their sins. So, when someone is cleansed once and for all, they should no longer be sin conscious. Well, dang.
It's crazy because just like 7, 8 verses later, it says in verse 12, Hebrews-10:12, but when this priest, Jesus, the high priest, had offered for all time, 1 sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of god and since then, waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. Verse 14, for by 1 sacrifice, he has made perfect forever those being made holy. Meaning, by that 1 sacrifice, he's cleansed us once and for all all time. So, I no longer have to be conscious of my sin. I can be righteous conscious realizing that whatever I'm conscious of, my life will repeat.
You're struggling with sin? You're probably too sin conscious. Put your, take, stop making yourself the center of attention and put Jesus in the center of attention in that area and you'll reflect his goodness. And watch this, if you have a a guilty conscience in an area, if you keep going, let's see if I can find this old spot. Ah, verse 22.
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with full assurance of faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience. Wait. So if you do have a guilty conscience and you're overly or you're sin conscious in area, all you gotta do is go back and remember the blood and let it sprinkle and remind you that you're forgiven so that you can live righteous conscious again. Oh, it's a it's a mental thing because you you are righteous and holy and it's not counted against you but your conscience is guilty so you think it is. So you just need to go back and remember what he did.
You're free. Be free. walk free. Live free. Amen?
Amen. Is it good news? Yes. Like this is like the good the the too good to be true news. But when you get it and you live it, man, there's so much *freedom* and and man, when you walk in a room, as you're no longer trying to prove yourself or be proved because you know you're proven.
So, when you walk in a room, you're able to serve. It's just awesome. Thank you, Jesus.
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.
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