WEBVTT
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In the name of Yahweh, our judge and Redeemer.
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Amen.
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Americans seem to have a fascination with courtroom dramas, with those
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dramas that portray the activities that take place in legal battles in
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courtrooms.
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You turn on the news and oftentimes the lead story is this court case
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taking place in South Carolina of the murder of a wife and son by the
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accusation of murder against Alex Murdoch murder of his wife and son.
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We're enthralled by the new developments that arise from that trial.
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Or you can get fictional accounts of courtroom dramas on TV.
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Law and Order now is in its 22nd season, very popular.
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Even more popular is its spin off, Law and Order SVU.
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There's even reality TV that depict courtroom scenes like Judge Judy
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and America's Court.
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There is even a cable channel or digital broadcast that is dedicated
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exclusively to courtroom dramas.
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Court TV.
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And if you're not into television, you can go to the theater and see
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these dramas played out, such as Twelve Angry Men, one of my
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favorites.
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The contest that takes place among jurors in a particular legal case.
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Later on at the Fox, there will be the Broadway production of To Kill
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a Mockingbird with Atticus Finch making his case in a courtroom.
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Some of us, like myself, love reading legal fiction.
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I've got a shelf full of John Grisham books.
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We are enthralled by courtroom dramas.
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And that's why this particular text from Micah, chapter six, should
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especially engage us, because it's a courtroom drama.
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The plaintiff is Yahweh Sabaoth.
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The prosecuting attorney is the prophet Micah, and the defendant
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Israel, the people of Israel.
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And so the prosecution begins with these words hear what the Lord
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says. Arise
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plead your case before the mountains and let the hills hear your
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voice.
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Hear you, mountains.
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The indictment of the Lord and you enduring foundations of the earth.
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For the Lord has an indictment against his people.
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He will contend with Israel.
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This is his his contest, this is his contention with his people,
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Israel, and he's bringing an indictment against them, a legal case
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against them.
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And so what is that complaint?
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Micah, the prosecuting attorney, lays out the complaint of his client
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of Yahweh.
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Oh, my people, what have I done to you?
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How have I wearied you?
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Answer me.
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For I brought you up from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the
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house of slavery.
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I sent before you Moses, Aaron and Miriam.
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Oh, my people, remember what Balak, King of Moab, devised, and what
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Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him and what happened from Shittim to
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Gilgal, that you may know the saving acts of the Lord.
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That you may know the saving acts of Yahweh.
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The case here is that Yahweh kept his part of the covenant.
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The covenant made at Sinai, signed in blood that the people themselves
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said, we will keep all of the stipulations of this law.
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Yahweh kept his part of the covenant, the saving acts.
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He delivered them, he rescued them out of Egypt, their bondage to
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slavery.
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He led them to the promised land, using faithful leaders like Moses,
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Aaron, Miriam.
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He brought them across the River Jordan.
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He protected them from their enemies, like Balak, King of Moab, and
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the sorceries of the wizard Balaam.
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And they were settled in the land at Gilgal.
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He kept his side of the contract of the covenant.
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But Israel has flagrantly and demonstrably violated their part.
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And so the courtroom scene here continues with the defense, the
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defense that's offered by the people of Israel.
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And the defense is essentially.
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Well, what can you expect of us, Yahweh?
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What can you demand of us?
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Haven't we fulfilled those demands?
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With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on
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high? Shall I come before Him
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with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
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Will the Lord be pleased
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with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
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Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body
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for the sin of my soul?
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The defense is, well
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we've kept all of these ceremonies from the Sinai covenant.
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The sacrifices.
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Why
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we've offered calves, right
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according to the stipulations, not two years old, not three years old,
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one year old.
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We've offered thousands of rams for sacrifice, rivers of oil.
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What do you expect?
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What do you demand, Yahweh?
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Do you want, like the Moab, god Chemosh, a sacrifice of our own sons,
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our firstborns?
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Is that what you want?
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They make their defense, but then Micah comes with the rebuttals as
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the prosecuting attorney, and this is what he says. God has told you, O
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man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do
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justice and love kindness and to walk humbly with your God.
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Micah here says God has told you.
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It's all there in the covenant, the essence, the heart of it.
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Oh, yes, you have offered up sacrifices, and these are God's gifts to
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you, to his people.
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Gifts that deliver the forgiveness of sins to those who are repentant.
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But you have failed to provide the prerequisite repentance.
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You continue to abide in your sin willfully and without any remorse.
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And what is the heart of the covenant, the moral stipulations that
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form the heart of the covenant?
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It's to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly before your
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God.
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And for that, o, Israel, you
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have failed and you stand condemned.
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Wow, what a fantastic courtroom drama that is.
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And it's so great to be kind of an outsider a spectator watching that
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drama, but the fact is, you and I are not outsiders.
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We're not simply spectators to this drama.
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Because what does Micah declare?
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He says, God has told you, O man, what he requires notice he doesn't
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say, God has told you, O Israel.
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But he now expands it out to all of humanity.
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All human beings are accountable to him in this courtroom, and that
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includes you, and that includes me as well.
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How have we done in terms of God's moral law?
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Have we done justice?
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I think if we look in ourselves, in our hearts, we see that we're
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basically always looking out for ourselves at the expense of others.
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Have we shown kindness?
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So oftentimes we get caught up in the incivility of this age of
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slandering and reviling others to elevate ourselves.
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Have we walked humbly with our God in submission to His word, His
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will, His law?
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Or have we gone following after other gods of our own making?
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I think as we look in our own hearts, we see this same transgression
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against the holy covenant of God, the law of God.
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Oh, yes
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externally, we may do ceremonies like coming to chapel, but
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internally, there is no repentance, there is no remorse for our sin.
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And so we too stand condemned in this courtroom scene.
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But we must not miss what the intent is of Micah's prosecution against
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Israel and of God's words to us today.
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The intent is, is not to condemn these people.
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The intent is not to destroy these people.
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These words of Micah are intended to bring repentance.
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They are a call to repent to Israel and to us.
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And for us who do repent.
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There is another word of the Lord, another decree, another verdict.
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And that is acquittal.
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That is pardon.
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Even in Micah, in the very next chapter, Micah, chapter seven, he
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declares these words. Who is a god like you
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pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of
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his inheritance, for the remnant, the repentant remnant, there is
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pardon.
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There is passing over the iniquity.
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For you who repent, there is pardon passing over iniquity.
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God does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast
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love.
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He will again have compassion on us.
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He will tread our iniquities underfoot.
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You, O Lord, will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.
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That's God's desire.
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That's God's intent to cast all our sins into the sea.
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And that's what he has done, not simply by a wishful thinking it away.
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Oh, no.
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God is the just arbiter of all.
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He must be just as well as the justifier of the repentant of those who
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have faith in Him. And in His justice
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God, the plaintiff, takes upon himself the punishment for the
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transgression of the guilty.
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He assumes that penalty, the penalty of death, the penalty of
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condemnation of damnation in the person of Jesus Christ.
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The apostle John says, if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
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a defense attorney, who pleads our case.
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Jesus Christ, the just one, the just for the unjust, the righteous for
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the unrighteous, the plaintiff for the defendant.
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That's Jesus Christ who has come for you.
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And he's not only the defense attorney, because the basis of our
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acquittal is his sacrifice.
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Not the sacrifice of year old calves or thousands of, of, of rams, but
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the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, of Yahweh
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Himself.
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We have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the just, who is the
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atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours, but for the sins
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of the whole world.
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And so there is acquittal, there is pardon, there is peace for you in
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this courtroom drama through your advocate, through your substitute,
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Jesus Christ.
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We love to watch courtroom dramas.
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They are engaging unless we are the defendant standing accused.
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And the day will come in which there will be that greatest courtroom
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drama of all, the day of judgment at the end of all time.
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And as Paul says, we will stand before the judgment seat of God in and
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of ourselves.
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All the evidence will point to our guilt.
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But you have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, who is the
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atoning sacrifice for your sins and through repentant faith in Him in
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that last and most dramatic courtroom scene of all God's verdict on,
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you will be not guilty. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and
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of the Holy Spirit. Amen.