1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,503 What made Adam and Eve righteous when they were in the garden? 2 00:00:05,171 --> 00:00:06,072 Was it their performance? 3 00:00:07,340 --> 00:00:07,574 No. 4 00:00:08,842 --> 00:00:10,010 And we often think that. 5 00:00:10,577 --> 00:00:11,177 Well they were perfect. 6 00:00:11,444 --> 00:00:12,078 They were doing everything right. 7 00:00:12,312 --> 00:00:14,080 Okay, so they were righteous because they were doing the right things. 8 00:00:14,514 --> 00:00:16,583 And so what makes a person righteous is how he performs. 9 00:00:16,983 --> 00:00:19,052 Yeah, but see we don't do right things and now we need God's grace. 10 00:00:19,452 --> 00:00:20,954 But see that's the problem here. 11 00:00:22,155 --> 00:00:26,526 Adam and Eve were righteous or justified before God not because of what they were doing. 12 00:00:27,527 --> 00:00:30,663 They were righteous before God the same way that you are. 13 00:00:31,231 --> 00:00:32,999 Why are you righteous before God? 14 00:00:33,700 --> 00:00:35,769 Because of God's grace. 15 00:00:36,269 --> 00:00:39,539 Because you're depending on his grace and you're totally receiving his grace, you're 16 00:00:39,539 --> 00:00:40,240 passing before him. 17 00:00:40,573 --> 00:00:44,677 That's the same exact way that Adam and Eve were righteous before God. 18 00:00:45,912 --> 00:00:47,213 They were dependent on God's grace. 19 00:00:47,981 --> 00:00:53,386 Living before God as passive individuals, receiving from God what God gave and recognizing 20 00:00:53,386 --> 00:00:56,489 he is the author of all these things, they lived by grace. 21 00:00:58,892 --> 00:01:02,996 And the reason I want you to recognize that is I want you to see that God does not change 22 00:01:02,996 --> 00:01:05,131 his plan or change his way of dealing with us. 23 00:01:06,032 --> 00:01:11,871 People have sometimes this idea that in the Old Testament people were saved because of 24 00:01:11,871 --> 00:01:14,274 what they did or didn't do. 25 00:01:14,374 --> 00:01:18,044 If they were obedient to the sacrificial system and the phallus system, then they were saved. 26 00:01:19,212 --> 00:01:20,914 And if they kept the covenant then they would be saved. 27 00:01:21,281 --> 00:01:21,848 Is that true? 28 00:01:22,248 --> 00:01:22,615 No. 29 00:01:24,150 --> 00:01:24,851 It's not true. 30 00:01:26,820 --> 00:01:29,756 And people have the idea that Adam and Eve were righteous before God because they were 31 00:01:29,756 --> 00:01:30,523 doing the right stuff. 32 00:01:31,191 --> 00:01:32,992 They were performing the way they were supposed to. 33 00:01:33,793 --> 00:01:34,994 And so that's what made them righteous. 34 00:01:35,161 --> 00:01:35,628 They were perfect. 35 00:01:35,995 --> 00:01:36,763 They were doing the right stuff. 36 00:01:37,030 --> 00:01:37,664 So they're righteous. 37 00:01:38,398 --> 00:01:39,966 Their performance has nothing to do with it. 38 00:01:41,367 --> 00:01:41,768 What's that? 39 00:01:42,068 --> 00:01:43,670 Except that we don't know what they were doing. 40 00:01:44,204 --> 00:01:45,605 Well we do have a pretty good idea. 41 00:01:46,106 --> 00:01:47,874 They were having dominion over the garden. 42 00:01:48,308 --> 00:01:49,175 They were taking care of it. 43 00:01:49,976 --> 00:01:51,010 They were being fruitful. 44 00:01:51,611 --> 00:01:52,445 Working on multiplying. 45 00:01:53,146 --> 00:01:55,348 And so they were doing what God had put them there to do. 46 00:01:55,949 --> 00:01:56,516 Worshipping God. 47 00:01:56,983 --> 00:01:57,417 Honoring Him. 48 00:01:57,984 --> 00:02:02,689 Now how long that went on we don't know whether it was a couple hours or a couple days or 49 00:02:02,689 --> 00:02:03,456 weeks or millennia. 50 00:02:03,590 --> 00:02:03,957 Who knows? 51 00:02:04,324 --> 00:02:08,561 But they were living for this time before God the way God wanted them to be living. 52 00:02:09,128 --> 00:02:10,196 And serving Him. 53 00:02:11,431 --> 00:02:12,098 Things were right. 54 00:02:12,098 --> 00:02:18,805 And the reason they're righteous is because they're living dependent on God for God's 55 00:02:18,805 --> 00:02:19,038 grace. 56 00:02:20,406 --> 00:02:23,276 In the Old Testament what made Moses righteous? 57 00:02:25,712 --> 00:02:26,212 His faith. 58 00:02:26,513 --> 00:02:27,847 He's depending on God. 59 00:02:28,248 --> 00:02:29,349 Trusting in God for everything. 60 00:02:29,449 --> 00:02:30,450 What made Abraham righteous? 61 00:02:30,984 --> 00:02:31,584 By faith. 62 00:02:32,051 --> 00:02:33,486 What makes David righteous? 63 00:02:34,787 --> 00:02:35,788 His relationship with God. 64 00:02:36,089 --> 00:02:36,389 Grace. 65 00:02:36,823 --> 00:02:37,690 Not about faith. 66 00:02:37,857 --> 00:02:38,525 Not about works. 67 00:02:38,725 --> 00:02:39,526 Not about his actions. 68 00:02:39,626 --> 00:02:40,426 Not about his performance. 69 00:02:40,426 --> 00:02:42,128 What makes you righteous? 70 00:02:43,062 --> 00:02:43,830 God's grace. 71 00:02:44,631 --> 00:02:44,797 Faith. 72 00:02:45,064 --> 00:02:46,766 Your performance has nothing to do with it. 73 00:02:47,700 --> 00:02:54,741 So, works never have anything to do with salvation. 74 00:02:56,176 --> 00:02:56,476 Ever. 75 00:02:57,744 --> 00:03:00,246 Or with righteousness before God. 76 00:03:03,616 --> 00:03:05,151 Never have anything to do with this. 77 00:03:05,385 --> 00:03:07,287 They didn't have anything to do with it in the garden. 78 00:03:07,820 --> 00:03:09,489 They didn't have anything to do with it in the Old Testament. 79 00:03:09,489 --> 00:03:11,491 They don't have anything to do with it in the New Testament. 80 00:03:11,958 --> 00:03:15,795 And I want you to get this down because we have so many people running around who think 81 00:03:15,795 --> 00:03:20,200 that ultimately the reason I'm righteous before God is I'm doing the right stuff now because 82 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:21,568 I've got Christ and the Holy Spirit. 83 00:03:22,769 --> 00:03:24,871 So now I'm righteous because I'm doing the right stuff. 84 00:03:25,305 --> 00:03:25,605 No. 85 00:03:27,006 --> 00:03:28,107 It never has anything to do with it. 86 00:03:28,474 --> 00:03:32,946 Works, our actions, our performance never has anything to do with your standing before 87 00:03:32,946 --> 00:03:33,279 God. 88 00:03:33,580 --> 00:03:36,649 Your standing before God is always dependent purely upon grace. 89 00:03:36,649 --> 00:03:41,654 It's dependent upon God doing absolutely everything. 90 00:03:42,555 --> 00:03:42,589 Period. 91 00:03:43,556 --> 00:03:46,092 Now, back to the crux telegorum one more time. 92 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:48,628 So we're saved by grace. 93 00:03:49,963 --> 00:03:50,930 100 percent God's work. 94 00:03:51,464 --> 00:03:53,533 We are sustained by grace. 95 00:03:54,434 --> 00:03:55,568 100 percent God's work. 96 00:03:56,102 --> 00:04:00,840 And we ultimately are taken to eternal life to participate in the eschatological reality 97 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:02,408 to fulfill it all in of all things. 98 00:04:03,276 --> 00:04:03,910 By grace. 99 00:04:04,510 --> 00:04:06,279 God does it all. 100 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:07,547 Everything. 101 00:04:08,314 --> 00:04:09,616 It's all grace. 102 00:04:10,216 --> 00:04:12,819 And your works never have anything to do with it. 103 00:04:13,519 --> 00:04:13,753 Ever. 104 00:04:15,288 --> 00:04:16,055 It's all God. 105 00:04:16,489 --> 00:04:20,960 And at the same time, remember I suggest the other side is 100 percent your responsibility. 106 00:04:21,527 --> 00:04:25,531 You're still responsible for doing the right stuff, making the right decisions, choosing 107 00:04:25,531 --> 00:04:26,099 the right things. 108 00:04:26,399 --> 00:04:27,166 God holds you accountable. 109 00:04:27,667 --> 00:04:29,969 And so if you make the wrong decision, you're accountable. 110 00:04:30,270 --> 00:04:32,405 If you do bad actions, you're accountable. 111 00:04:32,905 --> 00:04:34,674 And if you do right things, God gets the credit. 112 00:04:35,775 --> 00:04:36,643 That's the way it works. 113 00:04:37,343 --> 00:04:37,810 All the way through. 114 00:04:38,311 --> 00:04:40,613 So it has always been this way. 115 00:04:40,980 --> 00:04:46,252 Man, humanity, has always lived before God only by grace, never by works. 116 00:04:46,986 --> 00:04:47,253 Always. 117 00:04:48,655 --> 00:04:49,389 God's consistent. 118 00:04:49,656 --> 00:04:50,923 He doesn't change the rules. 119 00:04:51,391 --> 00:04:54,594 And there are lots and lots of Christians running around who think that on the Old Testament 120 00:04:54,594 --> 00:04:56,396 they were saved because of their good works. 121 00:04:56,896 --> 00:04:58,598 Adam and Eve were righteous because they were perfect. 122 00:04:59,032 --> 00:05:02,402 And now we are saved because we have Christ and now He enables us to live the way God 123 00:05:02,402 --> 00:05:03,036 wants us to live. 124 00:05:03,036 --> 00:05:07,840 And they start muddling things drastically because they begin to believe that their right 125 00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:12,879 sin before God is because they're doing right stuff by God's grace, but it's their performance. 126 00:05:13,246 --> 00:05:15,048 That's always a problem. 127 00:05:15,948 --> 00:05:16,349 Okay? 128 00:05:16,649 --> 00:05:17,283 With me on that? 129 00:05:20,186 --> 00:05:24,824 So let's talk then about sin and about evil. 130 00:05:25,491 --> 00:05:27,393 And that's what our chapter now is getting into. 131 00:05:28,995 --> 00:05:30,296 What is evil? 132 00:05:30,596 --> 00:05:31,331 What is sin? 133 00:05:31,331 --> 00:05:34,667 Sin actually has several definitions we can live with. 134 00:05:35,435 --> 00:05:37,170 What are some of the definitions of sin? 135 00:05:40,340 --> 00:05:41,307 All right. 136 00:05:41,474 --> 00:05:44,110 One of the classic ones is the hamartia, the miss the mark. 137 00:05:45,845 --> 00:05:50,450 And you have there the idea of the guy who's taking target practice and shooting at the 138 00:05:50,450 --> 00:05:51,718 bull's eye misses. 139 00:05:52,652 --> 00:05:53,953 Misses the target altogether. 140 00:05:54,887 --> 00:05:55,788 You're wide of the mark. 141 00:05:56,222 --> 00:05:56,589 Miss the mark. 142 00:05:56,956 --> 00:05:59,158 That's clearly one of the definitions of sin. 143 00:05:59,525 --> 00:05:59,926 What else? 144 00:06:01,027 --> 00:06:01,561 Okay. 145 00:06:02,528 --> 00:06:06,966 We've got original sin lurking around over here and we need to talk about that. 146 00:06:07,166 --> 00:06:09,602 In fact, that's going to be our first big topic here in a moment. 147 00:06:10,303 --> 00:06:12,972 Original sin, a little different than that. 148 00:06:14,073 --> 00:06:14,273 Okay? 149 00:06:14,374 --> 00:06:17,110 Other definitions for the sin that we might carry out? 150 00:06:18,644 --> 00:06:19,512 Deny God. 151 00:06:20,747 --> 00:06:21,114 Okay. 152 00:06:21,114 --> 00:06:21,214 Okay? 153 00:06:21,514 --> 00:06:28,254 So a denial of God or you might say of God's will. 154 00:06:30,656 --> 00:06:36,329 In fact, the corollary of this is sin is any violation of God's will. 155 00:06:40,733 --> 00:06:42,735 Sin is any violation of God's will. 156 00:06:45,104 --> 00:06:47,373 Any other thoughts on this? 157 00:06:50,610 --> 00:06:54,647 Evil then is not simply the absence of good. 158 00:06:56,182 --> 00:06:59,752 Evil is not simply the non-existence of what is right. 159 00:07:00,553 --> 00:07:04,557 Evil has a tangible, active presence. 160 00:07:04,991 --> 00:07:05,892 It's a thing. 161 00:07:06,692 --> 00:07:09,328 It's not just an absence of something. 162 00:07:09,862 --> 00:07:14,033 And that kind of gets back to what I was saying about Christian scientists and even Augustine 163 00:07:14,033 --> 00:07:17,904 a little bit here where that evil is the non-presence of good. 164 00:07:18,271 --> 00:07:19,172 And that doesn't do it justice. 165 00:07:19,272 --> 00:07:21,974 It is a tangible, active, willful kind of a thing. 166 00:07:22,074 --> 00:07:28,314 It has an existence of its own, actively denying God's will, missing the mark, failing to do 167 00:07:28,314 --> 00:07:29,949 what God has planned for that person to do. 168 00:07:30,683 --> 00:07:35,188 So any failure to live up to God's will, that would be sin. 169 00:07:36,923 --> 00:07:38,491 What do you think of that definition of sin? 170 00:07:38,491 --> 00:07:41,194 Any failure to live up to God's will is sin. 171 00:07:44,530 --> 00:07:46,766 What does it do to our understanding of sin? 172 00:07:47,066 --> 00:07:48,134 What qualifies as sin? 173 00:07:50,503 --> 00:07:52,038 Just about everything. 174 00:07:52,939 --> 00:07:55,875 You see, we kind of blow right by this. 175 00:07:55,942 --> 00:07:59,045 I don't pay much attention to it, but this is a pretty tough definition. 176 00:07:59,979 --> 00:08:02,048 Any violation of God's will qualifies as sin. 177 00:08:02,815 --> 00:08:08,187 So if you intentionally do something against one of the Ten Commandments and violate it, 178 00:08:08,187 --> 00:08:09,155 well, that's against God's will. 179 00:08:09,589 --> 00:08:09,889 That's sin. 180 00:08:10,089 --> 00:08:10,990 We're okay with that. 181 00:08:11,257 --> 00:08:13,059 You know, you take someone's life, sin. 182 00:08:13,559 --> 00:08:13,926 All right? 183 00:08:14,594 --> 00:08:17,463 But what if you don't intervene when you could have? 184 00:08:18,030 --> 00:08:21,000 Is it God's will for you to do something about a problem and intervene? 185 00:08:21,367 --> 00:08:21,734 Sure. 186 00:08:22,301 --> 00:08:23,035 Didn't do it. 187 00:08:23,536 --> 00:08:23,736 Sin? 188 00:08:24,470 --> 00:08:24,937 Yeah. 189 00:08:25,471 --> 00:08:25,872 Sin. 190 00:08:26,539 --> 00:08:30,176 Not just, well, lapse or, you know, poor judgment. 191 00:08:30,776 --> 00:08:31,878 God calls it sin. 192 00:08:32,945 --> 00:08:35,848 So then you have opportunity to do good and choose not to? 193 00:08:36,249 --> 00:08:37,049 Sin. 194 00:08:37,650 --> 00:08:38,084 Sin. 195 00:08:38,084 --> 00:08:41,454 When you could have been doing something better with your time than you were doing, God's will 196 00:08:41,454 --> 00:08:43,356 would have been for you to be using your time more wisely. 197 00:08:43,689 --> 00:08:44,223 Is that sin? 198 00:08:44,790 --> 00:08:45,324 That's sin. 199 00:08:46,425 --> 00:08:50,396 And you begin to realize that if you operate seriously with the definition that sin is 200 00:08:50,396 --> 00:08:54,567 any violation of God's will, the sin starts to mount up and sin becomes a much bigger 201 00:08:54,567 --> 00:08:57,937 problem for us, which is exactly what we want to have happen here. 202 00:08:58,271 --> 00:08:58,971 That's the goal. 203 00:08:59,438 --> 00:09:04,010 Sin needs to become really sinful and needs to well into importance. 204 00:09:04,010 --> 00:09:06,345 We realize how really significant it is. 205 00:09:06,913 --> 00:09:07,446 All right. 206 00:09:07,780 --> 00:09:11,450 Now, when we talk about sin, we do distinguish two kinds of sin. 207 00:09:11,684 --> 00:09:17,023 And we make the distinction between what we call actual sin and original sin. 208 00:09:19,158 --> 00:09:23,262 An actual sin would be the sins that you, by choice, are committing. 209 00:09:23,829 --> 00:09:26,866 The things you're doing that are against the will of God. 210 00:09:27,333 --> 00:09:28,034 Actual sins. 211 00:09:28,634 --> 00:09:32,471 Actually carrying out things that shouldn't be done or failing to do things. 212 00:09:32,471 --> 00:09:35,007 Anything that you are doing actively in your life. 213 00:09:35,675 --> 00:09:36,509 That's actual sin. 214 00:09:37,209 --> 00:09:45,151 And actual sin would include then both sins of omission as well as sins of commission. 215 00:09:47,753 --> 00:09:49,488 Both of those fall into there. 216 00:09:49,555 --> 00:09:52,191 And I'm not sure how many M's go into omission, but that's the way I've got it now. 217 00:09:52,792 --> 00:09:53,092 All right. 218 00:09:53,392 --> 00:09:54,393 Sins of omission and commission. 219 00:09:54,493 --> 00:09:55,194 They both fall in there. 220 00:09:55,294 --> 00:09:56,228 They're part of the actual sins. 221 00:09:56,562 --> 00:09:59,732 But before we get to there and spend more time on that, let's talk about original sin 222 00:09:59,732 --> 00:10:00,232 a little bit. 223 00:10:00,633 --> 00:10:01,767 What is original sin? 224 00:10:01,767 --> 00:10:03,436 What do we mean by it? 225 00:10:06,472 --> 00:10:06,505 Okay. 226 00:10:06,772 --> 00:10:08,140 Our sinful nature. 227 00:10:10,276 --> 00:10:11,110 All right. 228 00:10:12,078 --> 00:10:13,613 Tell me more about original sin. 229 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:16,749 The corruption of creation. 230 00:10:16,949 --> 00:10:18,250 The brokenness of creation. 231 00:10:20,753 --> 00:10:21,587 All right. 232 00:10:21,821 --> 00:10:22,388 Tell me more. 233 00:10:23,389 --> 00:10:23,889 The fall of man. 234 00:10:24,457 --> 00:10:25,024 The fall. 235 00:10:25,491 --> 00:10:27,994 It has something to do with the fall of man. 236 00:10:28,194 --> 00:10:28,861 The fall of Adam. 237 00:10:30,029 --> 00:10:30,396 All right. 238 00:10:30,630 --> 00:10:30,963 More? 239 00:10:30,963 --> 00:10:32,365 You mentioned Augustine. 240 00:10:36,102 --> 00:10:40,773 The word he uses a lot and that Martin Luther used too was concupiscence. 241 00:10:41,407 --> 00:10:41,874 Concupiscence. 242 00:10:43,075 --> 00:10:47,113 At first I was confused about that word, but I think it's a pretty good word. 243 00:10:50,216 --> 00:10:50,750 Can be. 244 00:10:52,585 --> 00:10:54,320 Now that you brought it up, I want to talk about it. 245 00:10:56,622 --> 00:10:57,323 All right.