Lesson 5a

We are on Lesson 5. Does everybody have a Lesson 5 paper? If you don't, you can slide to the back and get one of those. So we were to read Chapter 2, 1-16 and answer the following questions. So we have, I'm not sure we can, it's a little hard to see this green, but Mike talked about last week, the first group that is referred to in chapter one, we talk about, yeah, that's it. Mike talked about last week the first group being represented in chapters 1, 18-32. Just kind of referring back to that, those are the what?

We refer to them as common centers, but why do we refer to them that way? We're going to be looking at two other groups today. or over the course of the next several weeks looking in Chapter 2. So, what do we mean by common center? What's a common center? Just everyone. And what are some of the characteristics of common center or the everyone that Mike referred to last week? He talked about it the last two weeks here.

They have a sin nature. Okay, they've got a sin nature. And that'll be something that's consistent with all three of these groups, right? And it really is the heart of the issue, right? They have the endemic or the sin nature. They aren't thankful to God. They what? They're not thankful to God. Okay. We're going to find out that that's a characteristic that's shared with these other two groups as well. They're not thankful.

If you look back in chapter 1 verse 18, what do we see there? That's right. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. So do you remember the concept of the jack-in-the-box?

These are sinful beings. You mentioned the sin nature. But what does the sin nature do to truth? It knows certain things about God. It knows His divine nature and His eternal power, right? The sin nature takes the truth of who they are, knowing that they are creatures made by God, and that they stand in responsibility to Him, they take those truths and they suppress them.

It's like a jack-in-the-box. It pops up in their face, and they're constantly spending their time shoving that truth back into the jack-in-the-box, right? Until at some point, God gives them over. Mike talked about that. And they become hardened, and it talks about the nature of that type of person.

But it's interesting that there, in verse 23, Well, 22, it says, professing to be wise, they became fools. So they shoved God's truth back in the jack-in-the-box. They professed to be wise, I know, better than God. Right? Philosophies, other thinking, man-made thinking, that is designed to stand above God, while in the whole time, professing to be wise, they're shoving God's truth out of sight, out of mind.

And verse 23 says, and I think this is a really important part, that sets up not only for the common sinner, but also these other two groups who've got to remember that this is the exchange. There's a great exchange that's made by every single sinful human being. Regardless of which group they're going to fall into, it is verse 23 that is the beginning of that state that they're in. Somebody read verse 23, The Great Exchange.

"...and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things." So here's man, professing to be wise, He exchanges the glory of God, which he is aware of, right? That's what the first chapter of Romans says. He exchanges worshipping the Creator, and what does he begin worshipping? Created things. That's right.

It says that he starts to exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man. himself, other men, and of four-footed creatures, animals, crawling. So, when we look back over the course of history, what do we see the object of man's worship to be? What else? What's on the walls of the Egyptians? Creatures. Some with the body of a man and the head of a beast. Hippopotamus. Yeah, I forgot his name. What's his name? It's your job to figure that out. Yep. I forgot his name. That's exactly right. You can go to the most remote places in the world and you're going to find man worshipping the creation. Right? That's the great exchange. That's what I often refer to verse 23 as that exchange. So here we're talking about the common center. We're talking about the one who exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image.

So just remember that the object of their worship is not God for all three. It is something in the creation. And there's always an object. Everyone worships. Every sinful human being has exchanged what they know of God for something that they prefer to worship. That's the common sinner. So now we get into chapter 2. And we're going to start looking that regardless of the type of sinner, the stage of sinfulness that a man engages in, there is absolutely no partiality of God towards sin.

He is impartial, completely. And that's what the very first verse says in chapter 2. It says, therefore. What's the therefore, therefore? Well, we just talked about all that man has done in that exchange, and based on the fact that man has been given over to all of those things that we see at the end of chapter 1, and we talked about in the last two weeks, now man is left with what? Chapter 2, verse 1. What's that?

No excuse. Have you ever thought about the impact of that? I know you have, but just to kind of be reminded that there is not a human being on the face of this earth with an excuse to God. Nobody can be born into or acquire the state of, I actually get a pardon. I'm unique. I'm one of a kind. No matter how rich or how poor, no matter where you're born, The Bible tells us that there's no excuse. Absolutely no excuse. Every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself, for you who judge practice the same things.

So, what is that? What's going on there? What is God showing us in this verse? What's He telling us? What's Paul telling us? The confusing part of that to me is, like I'll have friends who are, say, in the gay community, and I'm trying to share gently and openly that that really isn't the right way, and I'm thinking, I don't want to fall into judging people by telling the Word of God to them. It just wasn't kind of a question mark for me. It's like I'm not supposed to judge, but you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I do. Wish you didn't. Right? But it's good.

So we got this issue of judgment. Alright, let's talk about this. I'm going to have to get on a rabbit trail for a little bit. What is judgment? That's the very first thing that we see in this verse. Therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment. So let's deal with this word.

What does it mean? Deciding right or wrong. Passing... I can't do it. What did you say? An act of passing judgment. Right versus wrong? Deciding that? Holding somebody to a standard. Deciding? Standard? I think kind of along with that, it's kind of an I'm better than you. Okay. I'm up here and you're down here. Because you're doing something wrong. Which goes back to the right versus wrong. Yeah, more right.

What is judgment? You know, Romans 8 says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. I think judgment is what's happening to folks who haven't. That's exactly what chapter 2 is about. You're exactly right. It is. I was going to just say, Zodiatis says judgment to divide. Divide? Or separate. Divide what? Let's talk about this. I'm putting something up here. Man versus God. Or we could say divine versus human. Or creator versus creature. So the reason I write this down here is because some of you define judgment from a creature perspective, right? Better than you, more right, possibly. Others defined it.

Well, no one really differentiated between divine versus human judgment. But if we're going to understand God's judgment and man's judgment, you have to see them in contrast to one another. And the reason I say that is that there's only one right type of judgment. And man can only judge if it's based on the exact same standards as God's judgment. Okay? So, from a judgment perspective, what aspects of God are we talking about here?

His righteousness. What does that mean? He is right. In everything He does, He is 100% accurate and right. What kind of judge does that make Him? If he chooses to judge, he would be perfect because he's righteous, right? So, unlike Allah, or any other type of God, you cannot bargain with him. He is 100% righteous. He is always right, and he's not going to change his mind based on something that you have to offer him. Right? Do we agree with that? So not only is he righteous, he is just. Right?

Which means He's going to enforce His righteousness 100% accurately at every single point in time. So when God judges what is right and what is wrong, He is always judging based on the holiness of His character. This is wrong because this is who I am, and that has never changed. This is wrong because this is how I created you. We often use the term Creator-Owner. Right?

So, if I made this pedestal, you know, and took all the craftsmanship that... Hold on one second. If I crafted this out of wood and took the time to make it, and you were to look at it and say, you know, whose is that? And you knew that I'd made it, you'd say, well, that's J.D.' 's altar in the Baptist Church. Come on down to the altar. I went down to the altar a lot. I was in the Baptist church. I've got my other Baptist over here.

But if I made this pedestal, podium, you could say that the creator-owner relationship is strong. I take pride over this because I made this. It's mine. I made it. takes pride and ownership over his creatures as well. And because of that, he has the privilege and the right as the creator to stand and decide what is right and what is wrong for the creations that he created. So that creator ownership is strong. We are owned by our creator.

How long was the story about the canoe I saw? Yeah, I did it totally different. I'm going to skip that one today. The idea here is just that because of the Creator... Yeah, go ahead. While you're talking, do you want to chase another rabbit? Yeah, let's do it.

When God created Adam, He created him innocent. And the tree he wasn't supposed to eat from was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So was Adam going around judging? No, there was no judgment. Yeah, there wasn't any contrast. We can clearly say that he didn't know what evil was, but he didn't know what good was either. He only knew God. That's right. Which was good, but he didn't know the contrast. Yeah, but it's kind of cool that God created him that way to keep him away from this judgment thing. Yeah, it's interesting that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is what brought this whole issue into the world.

You know, we don't like being judged. Nobody likes to be judged. I mean, there's so much going on probably in this past week about judgment and the way somebody feels in relationship to right and wrong and who's defining those things. This issue was not designed for us. We weren't designed for it. We weren't designed for it. That was never an intention. Okay, of God. But because the contrast of good and evil exists in our minds, because we tasted the knowledge of good and evil, we now have this right versus wrong concept.

And in this group we have, in the second chapter... Can you see that, Covert? We have a couple different types of sinners, and we're going to continue on with this judgment concept, but I'm going to go ahead and put this out here. So we have the covert and the overt. What do those mean? In chapter 2, 1-16, you have the covert sinner. And then in chapter 2, 17-29, you have the overt. or the self-righteous, we might say. So these guys, these common sinners, they're not passing judgment. At least that's not what we're seeing in the scripture. They're just living like barbarians.

I mean, if you look at the list of stuff, unloving, unmerciful, etc. etc. etc. So I would call him just absolute licentious. I had a teacher teach me one time that sin swings in two different ways. It swings between legalism and licentiousness. Licentiousness meaning I just don't care anymore.

That's chapter one. I don't care. I'm just going to go. haywire with whatever I want. Whatever I want, I'm going to take it. And then you have the legalism. And that's what we start to see in Chapter 2, right? Here's licentiousness. And here's the pendulum swinging over to a legalistic perspective on sin. Yeah? You could say that that's the political correctness. Oh yeah, these are PC. And you know what?

This PC can be covert, meaning I'm not going to talk about it, but I'm thinking about it all the time. I'm judging you, even though I'm not speaking openly about it. Or it can be overt, in such a way of saying, not only are you doing it wrong, I'm doing it right, while secretly I'm doing it as well. You call it the hypocrite. Is there a PC Bible? The problem with PC is that you don't really know what the rules are. Well, that's right. And that's the really big picture.

When we say political correctness, we can use that in a general sense or even a specific sense. We can use it specifically about the political nature of the American government. Or we could be using it in a general sense about what we do and don't say. regardless of whether you're Democrat or Republican. The issue is political correctness has to have a standard. What is it? What's the standard of political correctness?

Opinions. A lot of times it is opinions. Opinions. Worldview. And what is a worldview? It's the way you view the world. Where do you get your ideas about where you view the world? Your culture. Your culture. You could get it from teachings, religious teachings, books. Obviously that's where we come from. My point is that everyone falls into one of these three camps as an unbeliever. It's where you are. Now you may not be as bad as you could be.

But you still made that exchange, and you're still worshipping something other than God. So regardless of how licentious you get, and how much you've been given over, and you've taken advantage of those things, you still stand in the box of common sinner because of that exchange that we saw in verse 23. You're worshipping something other than God.

And therefore, that wrath that is due those who do not know Him, and we see that in verse 2, God's desire is not that they experience that wrath, mind you, because He provided a solution. And we talk about the kindness. We actually move on to that in a couple of verses here about the kindness that would lead to repentance, the change of mind.

But yet, they stand and they decide that they would rather suppress the truth than unrighteousness and continue with that perspective. But the thing is, is that they adopt a standard. They get to decide for themselves what's right and what's wrong. What's happening is, and the way I've referred to it in the past, is that sinful man, whether he's one, two, or three, has taken it upon himself to be the final authority in his life. He decides. So now political correctness is designed around him. I get to decide what's right and what's wrong.

You don't live up to my standard, therefore I judge you on it. Turns out, I do the same thing. That's these guys. You know, that's what verse 1 tells us. Everyone who passes judgment for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself for you who judge practices the same things. Can you be judging someone for their sexual preferences and be guilty of the same thing without doing that same sin? Why? Well, I would say initially I don't have the right to judge. Okay. I'm not the one who sets the standard. I'm not the one who sets the standard. And if I was the one who set the standard, then who would I be? God. God. Now, if God says something is wrong, is it wrong? Yeah. Is it wrong because I said it's wrong? No. It's not wrong because I said it's wrong.

Now remember, as believers, it's not our job to judge. But we can see the judgment of God towards a sin. And we can call it what it is. And we need that ability for us to claim 1 John 1. For us to get in a right standing with the Lord as a believer, we have to be able to see sin for what it is. I have to know a sin is a sin.

But is it my job to judge that sin? Other than to call it what it is based on what God has said. I think it's okay to judge my own sin. It's not okay for me to judge your sin. I agree. Unless it's overt, you know, you sit on the couch, but I don't have the right to say to you, you have to change. Well, and it's not our judgment, is my point. We don't judge what is right and what is wrong.

God does that. We simply reflect what God has said in His Word. And if you are reflecting the standard of truth that is God's Word, we don't, as believers, our final authority is not ourselves, unlike the sinner. The sinner has made himself the final authority.

He's deciding, ultimately, what is right and what is wrong. That's where you get political correctness. I get to decide what's politically correct. I mean, what's politically correct here is totally different than what's politically correct in you know, another country. Why? Because the standard is their own final authority. They've set themselves up as final, or some cultural group, right? If our final authority is God's Word, and He is the definition of what is right and what is wrong, then He alone has the place of judgment.

But what you see in chapter 2 is man taking on that role of God, creating their own standards, some out of the law, and these were Jews, some not of the law, just standards, political correctness of the day. They were covert. But they're taking God's role as judge, and rather than judging themselves with regards to sin, they judge others. You know, I think kind of stepping back and looking at it from a broader standpoint, for us to judge, think of the unbeliever.

They only have one nature. They have to fit in one of those categories. They have no choice. And so for me to judge, I'm judging something that they can only do. So, I mean, you put it in, why that's not right, is I'm judging them for something that they, by nature, have to do. So I'm judging them for something that they can't help, they can't do. So, I mean, you know, I said I can't judge them for that because that's all they can do. You see what it'd be unfair for me to judge them?

So stepping back a little ways and looking at this, you know, there are certainly things that are wrong that God calls out. We can point that out. But that's why I think we offer the gospel to everyone regardless of what we see they may be doing or whatever. I'm not judging them because they can't.

They can't help themselves. You know what I mean? They by nature have to fit in one of those categories anyway. The only thing I would have a little concern with is they can't help themselves. It's not because... They're actively doing something else that prevents them. It's not that they're helpless.

They are actively suppressing the truth and unrighteousness and because of that They can't. Right. That's right. They're using their will to deny and what we've seen in chapter one. They willfully choose against this. Right. But that's all they can do until the Holy Spirit works upon them and brings them to that point where they use their will to choose. Right.

Does that make sense? Group number two has all the attributes of group number one. The only difference is they have become judgmental about everybody around them based on a standard that they as fools have come up with. We can even say that, foolish standards. Yeah, Bob. I've got a question.

What's the difference between that judgment and the judgment that's talked about in Corinthians where he says, you know, can't you be excited about judging your brethren for certain things and how you should be able to do that? What verse are you talking about? First Corinthians 6, 1, 2. So I think that... And the one's more self-righteous. So I think that I should probably use some defining terms here. As believers, there is obviously the judgment that you see in 1 Corinthians, but it is not ours. In other words, it does not originate from our own standards, our own mindset.

It is carried out on the basis of what God has said. So we can judge a person to be in sin or not, very honestly and truthfully because of what the word says about that. So I could very clearly say, I can judge myself for being in sin and I can judge you for being in sin. It's just that it's not my judgment that defines that sin, it's God's judgment. James 4, 11, 12, I like how it expounds on that.

It says, do not speak against one another, brethren. He who speaks against a brother or judges his brother speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you're not a doer of the law, but a judge of it. There is only one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

That's one of your memory verses. The issue in 1 Corinthians 6, it's among believers. and if you have a dispute with another believer why would you sue him? the point is that why would you go before foolish men who are in the world and make a judgment about your problem when in fact we as believers because of God's word can go to fellow believers and have them make a judgment based on their understanding of God's word and his righteousness. And I don't need, in that sense, the world to make a decision about which one of us is right or which one of us is wrong. It's God's word world. And then he says, you know, we are going to judge angels at some point in the future.

From what standard? Same standard. From the righteousness of God standard. within the body of Christ to be able to accurately make judgments about things because of our position in Christ and because of the Word of God. Right. Does that answer your question? Is that your question? Well I think what I have said needs to be clarified. Is it our job to be judges? Okay. Is there biblical judgment that a believer can pass? And what does that look like though? Is that... It looks just like what Les said and James. Well, and God judges according to truth. Right. And so if we are taking biblical judgment, we can recognize whether something is according to his truth. Right. His standard.

But it's not our personal standard or our judgment. I think there's one other element in this too is that I as a believer can make a judgment about a behavior. The problem with group two and three is that not only do they judge but they condemn. We don't have the authority to condemn. That was my next question. Does judgment have condemnation associated with it? Ours doesn't. Ours does not. Now, on this side, sinful judgment is based on my standard.

Right? I'm the final authority, you're wrong, and you need to change. By the way, I'm probably doing the same thing in the background. You just don't see it. Making me an ultimate hypocrite, right? unbelieving judgment is all based on the opposite standard of scripture. It's selfish, it's self-focused, it's political correctness for the purposes of making me feel better about me. That is sinful judgment. You see it all through chapter 2.

From a righteous judgment, it's balanced with not only what is exactly right, so I may say I may come alongside a brother and say, the Bible tells me that what you're doing is wrong according to his standard. It's not my standard. It's his standard. And because he said that this standard, because he defined this as being on the wrong side of the table, that is how I have to see it.

Because my final authority is the Word of God. And I can't stand on any other authority. even though I might feel differently about something. Do sometimes you maybe feel like, man, I wish I had a different final authority? Sometimes. I'm going to be honest. Sometimes I wonder, why does God think that way?

But you know what? Over the time in His Word, you begin to understand that regardless of how you feel, this guy, it's the faith in the facts, right? And if I lose this faith in the facts, and I start operating by how I feel, I just don't feel like I want to talk to Him about that. Well, it's not your feelings that are at issue here, it's the fact of God's Word, and if you're going to dislike me because of my final authority, then ultimately you're disliking my final authority, and I have to be at peace with that. Does that make sense? I also think you find within the Word of God that the method the methodology of how you approach somebody. You just don't decide, well, I've got to go tell him. That's why I wrote Grace up there. There's two that go. You can't go by yourself.

Yeah, there's methods to bringing... Yeah, and the whole idea is to restore. Well, I'm just thinking about relationships, you know, brothers, wives, husbands, children, you know, just the sisters, just the process of deciding, you know, right and wrong. I mean, you guys talk about, you know, you guys get annoyed with each other for certain things and then you turn around and you do the same things. And we do that too as adults, right? Like, I tell Les, don't interrupt me! You know? And I turn around and interrupt her. You know, something like that.

You know, we pass judgment because that's what sin does. It takes the, I'm sorry, we pass judgment from a human perspective all day. Every day. When we're not walking with the Lord, the sin nature is going to try to better itself through its own needs. Like, it's going to get... What do I want today? What do I need? And whatever I need, whatever I want, I'm just going to pass judgment if it's not what I want or what I need.

That's what the sin nature does. Well, I was thinking under man, under mind, that judgment is almost always for condemnation, isn't it? Where God's judgment, I mean there's a final judgment, but his judgment for us is to approve us. That's right. And what is the outcome of God's judgment? Let me see. What is the outcome of judgment for the believer? What's the goal? Approval. Restoration. It's all for bringing you back to a place where you're focused on who you are in Him and not yourself. And it's a loving kindness. It's not a, I'm going to get you back in shape no matter what. It's for His love.

So when you think about the judgment that the right versus wrong within the church, it's for the purposes of building someone up, not for tearing down. goes through all these yucky things that people shouldn't do. And I think he's telling folks, these things aren't the things you should be doing. So in a sense, it seems like as believers, we're set out to share the gospel, but we can't. In other words, isn't part of our thing to try to enlighten people on. I would say that that list of wonderfulness chapter one it's not it's not so much an issue of things that we shouldn't be doing.

It's what the man in the flesh who's turned away from God will do. That's the nature he has. That's the only way he can act. He can't act any other way. And there's a consequence for that. The consequence is no rest. God is always working with the non-believer and pursuing them. What does he offer? Really what he offers is that if you by faith come to me, I'll give you rest for your souls. You don't have rest where you are. That's the issue. The issue is stop doing this so you can start doing that. That's not the issue. The issue is, like I have a will as a non-believer. What do I get to choose? This sin or that sin? I can't choose righteousness. It's not in me.

So, I don't think we believers should be surprised when we see non-believers acting like they do. And that's what Courtney was saying. That's their nature. That's their nature. And they simply need the Gospel. There's nothing more critical than the Gospel message. And judging them for anything else It doesn't make much sense. And that same principle holds for group number 2. They're doing what they do. Yeah, and it says that in verse 3, that those who pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, thinking you will escape the judgment of God, says, not a chance.

Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? So here, God's wrath will be revealed on all sin, but They also are aware, to a degree, of His kindness and tolerance and patience, because they're not experiencing that wrath right now. There's that opportunity. We often times refer to it as that opportunity to come to know the Lord. That God is being gracious by not pouring out His wrath instantly on the sinful human being, so that they have an opportunity to respond to His love and kindness, His tolerance, His patience.

I think that's a great point, because we would judge harshly. And God is always wooing. He's always drawing, where when we make a judgment, we're condemning. That's right, and I think about that in terms of believers too. How do we woo? How do we wait?

I think there's something there to a loving kindness, not a tolerance of the sin, but a tolerance of what is needed for that person to change their mind about what they're dealing with. And that could take years. And that might be the most difficult thing that we ever extend towards another fellow believer who's dealing with that, is kindness and time, waiting for the opportunity of the Holy Spirit to reach them in a way that you could never. That could be one of the hardest things you do. Because it could be a child, it could be a brother.

And you're like, where did this come from? But here you are, walking with the Lord, recognizing that even He is patient and long-suffering for all the evil that is in this world. Pouring out His wrath is not something He's doing right away. Alright. Well, I got off the question. side of things, so we've probably covered a number of these questions, but this is interesting. Question number three.

Why does man despise God's lavish goodness and patience? So here we see God being patient to the unbeliever by not pouring out his wrath. Although it's definitive, his standard is 100% accurate, he's righteous, but he's long-suffering. Why Why does the unbeliever despise that? Would you say that this goodness and patience of God is love? It's His love for mankind, right? Sinful. He came to die for sin. His patience in their response to His offer to satisfy that wrath is something that they despise.

Why? It's always a struggle with final authority. We want to be final authority. We want to be judge. Verse 5, that because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart. Stubborn, sinful man. I think it goes all the way back to chapter 1. When God turns you over, you get you. You get a whole lot of you. And this is who you are. And one of the things about you is that you despise God's goodness.

We've got a few minutes here. Can we say that the unbeliever doesn't understand love at all? That's right. I think I use this with the kids and myself quite a bit, but love. There's God's type of love, and then there's the world's type of love. God's type of love is what? And serving. And man's type of love is about getting and using.

Right? So when man thinks about, oh, God loves you, he's thinking, okay, what does he want from me? Or, I'm loving you as a simple human being, what can I get from you? How can I use you, ultimately? Like, I love you as long as you're useful to me. The moment you're not useful to me, and you get a little bit too many wrinkles, or all that gray hair starts coming in, and I don't think I like it anymore, then I'm not careful. But God's type of love is about giving and serving, and that's exactly what He does here. He gives them time, and He gives them a solution to the wrath that they stand under.

You know, I think also, I always look at these, and the darkness hates light. People do this in the darkness, the covert, and once they're exposed, they hate that. And that's where the stubbornness and the unrepentant come. They're exposed to this, and it exposes who they are, and they know it's wrong. And when the light is exposed to them, they hate it. And that's when they'll do everything they can, stubbornness and the unrepentant heart, to reject it and get away from that light.

That's right. And I think that's where you see this, they just can't stand it. And just remember, for the believer, because the sin nature is still present, it's not in control. Because it can be, a lot of these same attitudes can exist for the unbeliever. Right? Sorry for the blue ring. Right? That's what I was just going to ask. Like the end of chapter one, is that just talking about unbelievers who are unsaved? It is, but it... It also describes our...

Well, it's the sin nature. Right. So, this is the sin nature without a new nature. Right? We have sin nature. We have a disposed or an offline sin nature. It can yell, it can scream, it has no power or control. We're a new man in Christ and we have a new authority. It does not mean that you can't use your will to choose the deposed monarch that is the sin nature. Walk according to the flesh. Walk according to the flesh and then you can have actions and attitudes that look just like the unbeliever.

I think that's a critical point because I think a lot of believers assume that now that they are believers that their sin nature somehow is going to be modified or improved to some degree that it's followable. And the point is that it's no different. It doesn't change. My sin nature and your sin nature fits under these categories that we've discussed and it doesn't change. That's why we have to, what God has called us to, leave it and abide in Christ.

I mean, that sort of just seems to make sense. Because I'm as despicable as the unbeliever right beside me. You and your sin nature. But you and Christ are a new creature. And then that's the identification truths. But we should never forget, as believers, the despicableness of our sin nature. And that is critical to being gracious.

Right? Knowing where you came from. And where you're still capable of going back to, potentially, as well, when not trusting Him. Alright, let's pray. Father, we are so grateful for Your standard, for the relationship that we have to You as creatures, and that we're not left in the dark to wonder and decide what is right and wrong for ourselves. But Lord, we can rest in the truth of what You've shared with us about who we are and how we should live and how we should trust in what you've given to us, that is, a new life in Christ Jesus. Lord, I just thank you for the grace that has been bestowed upon us through long-suffering and patience for us to come to know you, each in our own unique ways in salvation. and for your patience and kindness towards us as you grow us up and mature us into the image of Christ that you intend us to be fully made into. And Lord, I just pray that we might recognize the way that you are patient and loving, but also righteous, and that we might judge in a way that is accordance with your word and that we would remember where we've come from and just be thankful for all that you've done for us on the cross and also the resurrection and just the sheer love that you've extended towards us by indwelling us with your Holy Spirit and giving us new life. We just thank you for that gift. It's your name we pray. Amen.