Radical Depravity - [John 1:9-13ff]

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Years ago, I heard Steve Lawson preach and I thought what do I love in preachers?
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I love gospel fidelity I love Enthusiasm. I love passion and a commitment to the local church and so Steve it's a real joy for us to have you here, it's good to be able to call you a friend and comrade and A man who would go around Princeton with me searching for Protestant relics
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It was really an amazing thing, but I'll tell you there's something good
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To be done to someone's soul when you remember faithful ministers in the past Maybe your mother maybe your old pastor
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Maybe a pastor a generation ago where you see faithfulness in spite of persecution in spite of suffering
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And then you visually imagine that that baton is passed on to you and you think Lord by your grace
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I want to be faithful. I want to be faithful to preach faithful to minister And so some of these old paths and these old school men and women
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Help us in our walk. And so tonight. I hope you're going to be a convicted be
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Encouraged and I hope you're also going to have this Coles of your heart stoked so that you say
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Lord by the grace of God. I want to be served I want to serve full speed ahead for you and you'll see that with Steve tonight
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I don't know if it's in his nature to preach a half -baked sermon. I was listening to him in the car
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He's on the phone and I'm driving and when he's talking on the phone with his left hand Holding the phone to his ear.
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He's preaching with this movement to kind of like the Word of God Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 is is sharp and living and I thought that's the way he talks on the phone
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If some preachers today could preach with the conviction that Steve talks on the phone we would be better off Steve please come and minister
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Well, thank you Mike for that dazzling introduction I I Appreciate that so much.
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I do want to say publicly Mike has treated me like the King of England these last two days and Has shown me such a wonderful time and has poured out hospitality
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And I know it's really reflective of the entire church And so I am a blessed man and the fellowship that Mike and I have had the last couple of days
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And I'm sorry that Steve Cooley was a little under the weather. I was recovering I'll put it that way and was unable to to be with us
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But we've Mike and I've just had wonderful fellowship and we've gone all about Princeton looking at Jonathan Edwards Portraits and paintings etc and things like that So but I want to say thank you for allowing me to be here
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I'm so grateful that you're here tonight that you would come out on a Friday evening with so many other options going on and it was
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Really indicative of where your heart is where your commitment is to the Word of God And so I'm so grateful for us to be able to spend this time together
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And I know there are many churches represented here tonight. It was good to see my friend Ted Bigelow and and Members from his church and I know countless other churches as well
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So this is fun, isn't it? now the last time I preached the pulpit was on that end of the building and so I'm a little bit disoriented and I'm trying to Get my sight lines
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Set but what's helpful is everyone is still seated in the same seat as when
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I was here last time So a very traditional church
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For those of you outside of this church Make certain you don't sit in someone's seat or that would be very disruptive to the equilibrium of this church so Well, we have a wonderful conference in store
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We're going to be looking at the doctrines of grace and what has come to be known as the five points of biblical
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Calvinism And that's what we're going to look at and tonight. We'll be looking at the first one as you know on radical depravity
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So I invite you to take God's Word and come with turn with me to the gospel of John John chapter 1 and I want to begin by reading some verses that we'll be looking at here in a moment and What we will do tonight just to let you know where we're headed is we will walk
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Entirely through the gospel of John and we will gather together the key verses that will address the doctrine of total depravity or Radical corruption, but I want to read
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Some verses here in the prologue of John's gospel that we would be we will be looking at here in just a moment
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So this will be a launching point and just a little bit John chapter 1 beginning in verse 9
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There was the true light which coming into the world Enlightens every man
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He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him
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He came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him
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But as many as received him to them. He gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name
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Who were born not of blood? Nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God throughout the history of the church those times of greatest
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Reformation and those seasons of greatest awakening Have always been those eras in those epics when the church has come back to the high ground of the sovereign grace of God The church has always been strongest
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When she has been strongest in the doctrines of grace Such was the case during the
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Reformation of the 16th century was it not? The Reformers came back to the
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Word of God. They came back to sola scriptura scripture alone and They came back to the verse -by -verse preaching of the
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Word of God through entire books in the Bible where they could not pick and choose their way through the
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Bible and when you start in chapter 1 verse 1 and you end up in the last verse of the book and you
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Explain and apply every verse that is in that book There is no other position to which you can come to Than to be committed to the doctrines of grace
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The only way that you can fail to stake out that high ground is to be a topical preacher
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Or to be one who just preaches whatever you feel like preaching at that particular
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Sunday But if you preach sola scriptura, you will preach tota scriptura
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Scripture alone all of scripture tota scriptura You come back to the high ground of the doctrines of grace
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Martin Luther John Calvin John Knox and all of the other Reformers to a man preached the doctrines of grace
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The same was true the golden Puritan age of the 17th century the
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Puritans To a man spoke with one voice and they asserted the biblical doctrines of election
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Predestination and sovereign regeneration the Westminster divines who were the architects of the
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Westminster confession along with towering giants like John Owen Samuel Goodwin Matthew Henry William Perkins and the like all
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Spoke the language of biblical Calvinism Further the leaders of the
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Great Awakening in the 18th century here in this New England Area they were all great preachers of the sovereignty of God in salvation and men like Jonathan Edwards George Whitefield William Tennant and others and since then virtually every strong Bible teacher has
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Trumpeted these very same truths from Charles Hodge to Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield in the 19th century and Princeton including
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon J .C. Ryle in England to those who launched the modern missions movement
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William Carey Andrew Fuller each of these men were
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Essentially committed to these doctrines of the sovereignty of God in salvation
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In fact not to hold them you would be out of sync With the long line of godly men who have extended in the church from century to century
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This has also been the doctrinal stance of the strongest Bible teachers of the 20th century and the 21st century
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The stronger a teacher is in the Word of God The stronger he will be in the doctrines of sovereign grace over the past 100 years there has been a legion of Bible preachers and teachers who have driven these truths home men like a
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W pink Martin Lloyd Jones James Montgomery Boyce John MacArthur RC Sproul John Piper Al Mohler and countless more while these men may differ on secondary issues
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They line up together and they speak with one voice on the doctrines of the sovereignty of God in Salvation it has always been the
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Mount Everest for the church It has always been the high ground you take one step off of the doctrines of grace and you have put your foot onto the slippery slope and Cascading down from biblical
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Calvinism the church traverses down the slippery slope to Arminianism that Jonathan Edwards said was the greatest threat to the colonies was this man -centered religion of Arminianism and Repelling down the side of this mountain from Arminianism the church then
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Continues to go down to liberalism from liberalism to ecumenical ism downward to universalism downward to agnosticism finally in the bowels of the abyss of hell itself with atheism the times when the church of the
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Lord Jesus Christ has stood tallest and acted like men and preached the
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Word of God Have been those times when they have dusted off the high place and have stood squarely on biblical
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Calvinism That is what I want us to look at in this conference in this conference.
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I want to trace out these truths that have been historically identified as biblical
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Calvinism or the doctrines of grace and what I want us to see is they do not come from a castle in Europe and They have not been handed down to us by mere men
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But they come from the lips of God incarnate the Lord Jesus Christ himself
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As well as Matthew Mark Luke and John Peter and Paul, but it goes all the way back to the prophets of old
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Moses David Isaiah Ezekiel Isaiah and all of the prophets they spoke with one voice and They preached the truths of the sovereign grace of God every great movement in church history
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Has been preceded by men who have come back to these God honoring truths
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These truths honor God and God honors these truths
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If there will be a great awakening come to the New England area again If there is to be a mighty revival that will come to America again
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It will not come with little Horizontal truths on let's all have some male bonding together in the church
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And let me throw up on you you throw up on me and we're all just going to get reconnected with each other
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If there is to be a mighty movement of God again in the land
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We must come back to the same truths and put our lips to the same trumpet
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That Edwards and Whitfield and the great men of God of old Blew with all of the breath that God gave them these doctrines of grace
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Do you desire to see God do something great in this day again? Do you desire to see
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God make his church yet again a city set on a hill whose light is
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Shining out. Do you desire us to be the salt of the earth in a way that has impact and influence in?
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Evangelism that the lost would be brought to Christ and even greater ways
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Then we must come back to the truths of the Reformation Come back to the truths of the golden Puritan era come back to the truths of the
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Great Awakening There is no shortcut. There is no other way for it to happen so tonight
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We must be fundamentally committed yet again to these grand and glorious truths
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This is what I want to do I want tonight to trace for us first in this session the first Heading of the doctrines of grace, which is total depravity or radical
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Corruption, however, you would desire to put it and I want to begin by looking at this text in John 1 verse 9
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But let me first give you a definition of total depravity This is the teaching of Scripture that the original sin of Adam has corrupted the entire human race
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Every man is born in sin with an evil disposition towards sin
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Every man has a sin nature that has corrupted the entirety of his being it is like a drop of cyanide into a glass of water and that cyanide permeates
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Every part of that drink of water such that man now has sin in him
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From the top of his head to the bottom of his feet totally depraved mind
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Emotion and will are in bondage to sin His mind is darkened by sin and he cannot understand the truth nor can he know
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God His emotions are defiled by sin and he cannot love
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God nor love what is right But instead he actually loves
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What is wrong and evil and his will is deadened by sin and he cannot come to Christ He cannot believe because he's held captive by his sin and will obey his master
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Who is sin? So here's what I want to do Lord giving time.
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I want to give you 10 headings This may end up being a series. I Want to walk through this as quickly as I can
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But the reason I want to look at all 10 of these passages out of John's gospel we're going to start in chapter 1 and work our way through as I want you to see the overwhelming case
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We're not just proof texting one or two verses here the entirety of the gospel of John Number one.
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I want you to see spiritual blindness Spiritual blindness beginning in verse 9
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I want you to see there was the true light and the true light is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself He is the true light in the sense that he has come to bring the truth of God and the revelation of God to man
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He has come to be the manifestation Of all that God is to man though veiled in the form of a bondservant
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Jesus Christ came into this world like ten thousand sons blazing in his glory in the sky above He came as the true light which coming into the world enlightens every man that is every man who hears the gospel whether from his own lips or Through those who will preach the gospel or teach the truth of the gospel
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There is the light of Christ that Enlightens every man that gives them the knowledge of the truth
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But we read in verse 10 he was in the world and The world was made through him what a thought that is
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Christ was the great God in Genesis 1 who on six consecutive days spoke everything into being out of nothing and In the fullness of time
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Christ was born of a woman under the law. He came into this world The world that was made through him now, please note the response of the world how blind can blind be and the world
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Did not know him The world did not know him despite the perfection of his life the profundity of his words
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The clarity of his claims the power of his miracles the testimony of the father the witness of the prophets the preaching of John the
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Baptist and Yet still this bright shining true light penetrating into the darkness of this world and Still the world did not know him how blind can blind be this world is spiritually blind and can not see
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The true light that has come into this world in the person of his son
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The Lord Jesus Christ we can share the gospel. We can witness the gospel
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We can preach till we are blue in the face But we are describing a sunset to blind men
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We are describing Beethoven's symphonies to deaf men verse 11
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He came to his own meaning the very world which he had created and Those who were his own verse 11 did not
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Receive him and let me tell you the world has not gotten any better the argument can be made that the world is even worse if Jesus Christ were to come back today and Present himself to Boston and this greater
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New England area and if the true light came yet again this Region as well as any region in the world would still be blind as a bat to the light of the
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Lord Jesus Christ himself And just to seal this off verse 13
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G John as he writes this speaks of those Who were born referring to be born from above?
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Who are born again? those of supernatural birth, please note not of Blood meaning not of human lineage or human descent in other words
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It doesn't matter if your daddy was a deacon down at the church. That's not going to get you into the kingdom of God Nor the will of the flesh meaning you can strive to be religious all you want
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But there will be no entrance into the kingdom, but notice this nor of the will of man my friend there is the bondage of the human will in Which man is held in the grip of sin and his
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Salvation if it is to come it will not be by the exercise of his own will apart from sovereign grace freewill
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The free will of man is a pagan goddess That the church has too long worshipped and if that provokes you tonight
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Praise God there is only one free will in this world and It is the free will of the one who has created heaven and earth
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There is only one who has autonomy and independence There is only one who says and it is done only one who speaks and it comes to pass
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There is only one who says I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion upon whom
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I will Have compassion and it is the one who is upon the throne of God None other than God himself but man fallen sinful race of man
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John tells us on the front porch of this book If he is to be born of God, it will not be of man's will
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Number one that I want you to see is the spiritual blindness the true light the authentic like the real like the genuine light has come into this world and This world did not know him
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Now second, I want you to see come with me to chapter 2 verse 23. I Want you to see second the second mark of total depravity or radical corruption not only spiritual blindness but secondly spiritual deception
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That those who are in this state of unconverted sin Can be so easily self -deceived
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Into thinking that they are right with God when in reality They are not even those who claim to believe
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Upon Jesus Christ if that If that conversion is not authored by God if it does not conceived in heaven
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It will be a dead testimony So look at verse 23 now when he was in Jerusalem at the
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Passover during the feast Many believed in his name observing his signs, which he was doing and we would read that and say
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Wonderful praise the Lord But not so fast Because Jesus said not everyone who says to me
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Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven There is a false conversion when it originates out of the flesh
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Look at the next verse verse 24 But Jesus on his part
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Was not entrusting himself to them For he knew all men
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Jesus sees into the heart Jesus looks not at the outward appearance, but he looks upon the heart and With these who are saying
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I believe I believe in verse 24 It says Jesus was not entrusting himself to them the word
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Entrusting is the very same word in the original language that is translated believe in verse 23 and it could be translated this way
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They were believing in Jesus, but Jesus was not believing in them They were believing in Jesus But Jesus was seeing with x -ray vision and cutting through to see the counterfeit
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Confession that these people were making because at the end of verse 23 they were observing his signs
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They were sign worshippers And Jesus knew that he knew it was a superficial commitment it was an empty profession
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It was a dead testimony Their faith was not a true saving faith and it can never be
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Unless it is birthed by God in heaven a mere outward attraction to his miraculous
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Signs that in and of itself will never lead to heaven. No here.
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There is no repentance There is no self -denial. There is no surrender of one's life
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And what is tragic is they are spiritually deceived into thinking they are right with God How many people are in churches here in the
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New England area this very this very moment who are sitting in churches and?
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assuming that they are in the kingdom of heaven because they are members of a church because they attend and they go through the
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Ritual and because they go through the outward motions of churchy anity but they have never entered into a personal relationship with a living
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God through his son the Lord Jesus Christ and They are birthed of their own flesh
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Verse 25 and because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man for he himself knew what was in man
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There is your free will There is man's contribution to the to the new birth it is simply an empty testimony
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There are the tears among the wheat there are the bad there are the bad soils among the good soil
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There are the bad fish caught along with the good fish. There are the Judas's among the twelve There are those who profess
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Christ among those who? Possess Christ, there are the many who say
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Lord Lord and they are the foul fruit of a totally depraved heart
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They are deceived They will die thinking they are going to heaven and they will be emptied into the bowels of hell itself
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They are the almost Christian. They are the half converted follower of Christ It's a second mark of total depravity
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Spiritual deception, but it gets worse Look at chapter 3 verses 3 and 5.
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I want you to see third. I want you to write this down spiritual inability
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Because what we're going to discover in John chapter 3 here is all who are born into this world
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And that would include just about everyone are born outside the kingdom of God in a state of spiritual alienation and Must enter into the kingdom of God that is why they must be born again
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Because their first birth was a birth in sin But in order to enter the kingdom of God Jesus says to Nicodemus How impossible it is for man to be born again in and of himself
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Say let me ask you this What contribution did you make to your physical birth?
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Did you decide who your parents would be and what gender you would be and what color hair you would have or any hair?
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No, you just appeared by the sovereignty of God So it is spiritually
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Now notice what Jesus says in verse 3 Jesus answered and said to him truly truly.
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I say to you that is to underscore how important it Is what he is about to say everything that Jesus said is inspired and is true but some things are more important than other things that he said and What he says here he draws our attention to by saying truly truly
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I say to you and Less one is born again.
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Watch this He cannot He cannot
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He cannot See the kingdom of God now, do you know the difference between may and can?
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I learned that very early in elementary school One day I asked the teacher
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Can I go to the little boys room in front of the whole class? She corrected my
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English to say the question should be may you not can you
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I will assume You can the issue is may you at this appointed time?
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The word may speaks of permission the word can speaks of Ability and what
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Jesus is saying here is that no man has the spiritual ability to see or enter the kingdom of God in other words if it is to happen it must be a
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Supernatural miracle that will happen from above cannot see the kingdom of God that is to say
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Cannot understand the things of the kingdom cannot comprehend the things of the kingdom cannot discern the things of the kingdom
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Cannot see the kingdom of God then in verse 5 He says truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the
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Spirit He cannot enter into the kingdom of God he is plagued by spiritual inability
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He cannot save himself, but it is far worse He cannot even
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See the truths of the kingdom of God apart from divine intervention by God I Must move quickly number four.
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I want you to look in chapter 3 verses 19 and 20 because it gets worse
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I Want you to note spiritual depravity is the fourth mark of this radical corruption
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Chapter 3 in verse 19 what I want you to see in verse 20 is that all
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Unconverted people love the darkness and hate the light did you hear that they love the darkness they?
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hate the light They love Wickedness they hate the truth
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So in verse 19 we read this is the judgment that the light has come into the world and Men love the darkness
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Rather than the light for their deeds were evil
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They love their sin the reason they hate the light is They do not like having their sins exposed
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I want to ask you a question what is more absurd a Child afraid of the darkness or a grown man afraid of the light
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They love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil
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And then in verse 20 for everyone who does evil now
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That includes every unconverted person for everyone.
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That's a universal statement everyone for everyone who does evil hates
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Hates the light that there is no one in a state of neutrality in this world
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There is no one in in this middle ground position You know we hear people talk about let's have a seeker sensitive service
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That's like saying let's have a God hater service Let's try to get those who are unconverted to come in and let's tickle their ears
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But this says that everyone who does evil hates the light
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Now we want people to be saved But we cannot be beguiled Into an understanding of how the church is supposed to work that there are people out there who are just hungry for God No, there are people out there who hate
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God We say well there are people out there who are searching for God.
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No there are people out there who are running away from God That's why we must bring the gospel to them and love them
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But they're not just gonna suddenly appear and go oh, I love this expository preaching
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I I just love this when Mike just goes on for two hours on Sunday morning.
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I just eat this up No they hate they love the darkness
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They can hardly wait to bolt out of here if they happen to come to church on a Sunday To please their spouse or come on a
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Sunday or an Easter in Alabama. We call them CEOs Christmas and Easter only
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And when they come they're just doing their little thing for God, but you know what they are so miserable
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When they're hearing the truth, and they will be until their hearts are sovereignly and supernaturally
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Regenerated by the Spirit of God at least that's what the Bible says
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For everyone verse 20 who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light
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For fear that his deeds will be exposed listen a
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Proper diagnosis. It's often said is half the cure if We cannot make the right diagnosis of the unconverted man or woman boy or girl
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We will be deceived ourselves into what true evangelism actually is
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But I must tell you it gets worse at the end of chapter 3 number 5 spiritual defiance
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We see in verse 36 That there are only two categories of people in the world there are believers and There are disobeyers
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There are believers and there are disobeyers In verse 36 we read he who believes in the
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Son has eternal life but He who does not obey the
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Son you see the parallelism that is going on here line a Believes in the
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Son line B does not obey the Son to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is to obey the gospel to obey the command of the gospel to repent and to Believe when we share the gospel listen.
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We're not giving people options for their lives We're not giving them
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Suggestions We are Commanding them on God's behalf to believe in the gospel and be saved
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Delayed obedience is no obedience delayed obedience is disobedience delayed obedience is to be under the wrath of God Look what this says, but he who does not obey the
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Son those are Unbelievers they are those who disobeyed
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Defiantly the Son will not see life But the wrath of God abides present tense right now abides on him
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This is Romans 1 verse 18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
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Against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men. This is a long way away from smile.
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God loves you As if that's all there is to say There is the love of God that is being extended in the free offer of the gospel of Jesus Christ But it is in a context in which sinners are right now this very moment under condemnation and are under divine wrath and Are soon to be the object of his eternal wrath
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You remember when when Jonathan Edwards preached his great sermon Sinners in the hands of an angry
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God now, we have God in the hand of angry sinners They don't like this truth
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But beloved it is true All sinners are in the hands of an angry
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God This very moment and the only thing that keeps them out of hell is the long
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Suffering and the patience of God this very moment where they have already offended the infinitely
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Holy God and that is the greatest crime in the universe that could be made and they are under the sentence of divine judgment already
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They refuse to obey the Son. They refuse to submit to the
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Lord Jesus Christ They refuse to comply with the gospel. They refuse to humble themselves
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They instead choose to be disobedient to the Son of God They trample underfoot the precious blood of the
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Lord Jesus Christ this is true of every
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Unbeliever there are believers and there are disobeyers of the
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Son and They are in this very moment Under divine,
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I want you to turn to chapter 5 Because it gets worse chapter 5 verse 25 and number 6
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I want you to see spiritual death a Jesus taught that every unconverted person is
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Spiritually dead in their sins and he taught it long before Paul ever announced it in Ephesians or Colossians Now total depravity came from the lips of the
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Lord Jesus Christ Notice verse 25 truly truly I say to you again
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This is like saying you've got to pay attention to this
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Your ears have got a perk up to this You can't just let this go in one ear and out the other and maybe we'll get it next
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Lord's Day We must grasp this truth
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Truly truly I say to you an Hour is coming and now is now that that now is is important because this is not looking to the end of the age
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What follows is not speaking of a physical? Resurrection of the dead at the end of the age and the hour is coming and now is
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When the dead and The dead here refer not to those who are physically dead in the grave that will not be till the end of time
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This is referring to those who are spiritually dead right now
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Everyone who is outside the kingdom of God Or is spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins
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Ephesians 2 verse 1 they have existence, but they do not have life
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They are walking dead men the entirety of their life is described by the plague of death
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Their mind is spiritually dead towards Christ. They cannot understand the truth
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Their emotions are spiritually dead towards Christ They do not and cannot love the truth
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Their will is spiritually dead towards Christ They cannot respond to the truth
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Nor love the truth Here is the question of the hour
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What can a dead man do I? Remember being in seminary we were studying
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Jonathan Edwards George Whitfield And I remember the professor asked that question after we studied a
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Whitfield sermon What can a dead man do and I remember one of the students in the back row of the class yelled out?
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Stink that's all a dead man can do. There's a cemetery across the street
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You can go into that cemetery you can preach till you're blue in the face there is no one going to respond
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Apart from a sovereign resurrection unto life And when we witness the gospel we are
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Speaking to people who are dead and their trespasses and sins You can sing 48 verses of just as I am
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You can put money under the seats in the pews You can beg people twist their arms but until God by his sovereign spirit works in the hearts of those who are unconverted they remain dead men go into a hospital bed into a hospital room and There is someone who is sick at the point of death
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You can put the the only antidote that they could that could save them right next to their bed and you could urge them
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Take the medicine and you will live if that's all that it was then man would make his contribution
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God could only do so much but no more we could only do so much but no more it now rests with man
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But the only problem is man is not sick in his trespasses and sins
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He is what he is dead in his trespasses and sins you go into that same hospital room
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The man who was once sick is worse. He died in the middle of the night They've not yet come to remove the body you go into that hospital room there.
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He lays he is a cold corpse You can take a pin you could stick him in his feet there will be no response
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You can go in you can share the four spiritual laws You can preach the gospel you can whistle just as I am you can do all that you can
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There will be no response whatsoever because that person is
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Jesus says an hour is coming and now is
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When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live that is the voice of the
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Shepherd Calling us by name unto himself out of the grave of sin to be resurrected to believe upon the
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Lord Jesus Christ But we're chronicling out of John's gospel the depths of the depravity of total corruption
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Not only Spiritual death But it gets worse
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Number seven Spiritual paralysis Chapter 6 verse 44 chapter 6 verse 44
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Jesus taught that it is absolutely Impossible now, you know what the word impossible means, don't you?
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It is absolutely impossible for spiritually dead sinners to exercise saving faith in Jesus Christ, they are marked by volitional paralysis
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They cannot come to faith in Christ if left to their own free will in fact
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If it were left to man's own free will No one would ever be saved you've ever heard someone go.
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Well, here's the way for knowledge is God looks down the tunnel of time
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Looks to see who would believe upon him Let me tell you several things wrong with your little scenario
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Number one God has never looked down the tunnel of time to learn anything What kind of an open theist view of God do you have?
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God has never learned anything You understand that? God has never learned anything
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The reason God knows the entirety of the future is God has already ordained the future
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God does not look down the tunnel of time to see what people are going to do with his son the
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Lord Jesus Christ as if There is some gap in God's thinking Second even with such a
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Paltry view of God all God would see
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Is people spiritually dead Unable to believe
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Upon his son Jesus Christ and third the word for knowledge means
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Whom he has for loved with distinguishing Saving love but look at John 6 verse 44
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This is as clear as it gets If someone will not accept the teaching of this verse
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You've got your Bible upside down You're you're reading right to left.
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I mean you Look what this says No one now, how many people do you think that covers?
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No one Now, please note the next word Is it may or is it can?
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Okay class It is can no one can no one has moral ability
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No one has spiritual ability No one can come to me to come to Christ is to believe upon the
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Lord Jesus Christ here is total inability a fallen man to come to faith in Jesus Christ No one can come to me
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I've gone back to the original language and translated more carefully. This is what it says No one can come to me.
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It says exactly the way it reads No one can respond positively to the free offer of the gospel and here again is the death blow to the pagan notion of Free will
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Now Jonathan Edwards wrote his towering treatise the freedom of the will and it's exactly what
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Luther said in his book the bondage of the will And what Luther I mean what
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Edwards argued is well man does have free will it's only free in one direction
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He is free to reject Christ and to sin to his heart's delight like at verse 60
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They said to Jesus this is a difficult
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Statement who can listen to it. Let me just tell you this
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It's not difficult to understand It's difficult to swallow a little child can understand this
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No, it's difficult to accept Look at verse 65
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And he was saying For this reason I have said to you that no one can
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Come to me again a statement of complete total entire
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Human inability to respond to the gospel of Christ Notice at the end of verse 65.
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We'll look at this tomorrow morning unless It has been granted him from the father
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So the next verse as a result of this as a result of what as a result of teaching total depravity and radical corruption many of his disciples withdrew and We're not walking with him anymore.
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I Remember when I was in seminary the professor saying men When you preach these truths if the people do not respond by saying this is a hard statement to accept
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Then you have not yet been a man enough to teach the truth Because the carnal mind and the unconverted flesh will always respond in opposition to these truths
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It separates the men from the boys. It is a continental divide of theology
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But it gets worse chapter 8 verse 34
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Spiritual slavery now any one of these would be a slam -dunk case for total depravity, right?
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But I'm giving you ten of these This is an entire library of argument to support this teaching
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John 8 verse 34 What we will discover is that the unregenerate heart is entirely and completely enslaved to sin a slave is bound to Obey his master and a lost sinner must underscore must a lost sinner must always choose obedience to his master
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Sin Look at verse 34 Jesus answered them
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Now watch this again. Truly truly I say to you It's it's really like every time Jesus gets to the doctrines of grace.
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He prefaces it by saying truly truly I say to you this is very very important.
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How could you miss this? Everyone that covers the field
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He's not talking about left -handed painters here Everyone Who commits sin present tense everyone who lives in a state of sin?
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Everyone who lives in the pursuit of sin that is an unconverted person outside the kingdom of God in the kingdoms of this world
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Everyone who commits sin that's like saying everyone who is unconverted everyone who is lost Is present tense the slave of Of Sin in a state of spiritual enslavement to sin and must obey the impulses of sin
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And that is to say the unconverted person must do what sin?
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commands and it is simply degrees of sin into which the Unconverted person goes the entirety of a lost person's
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Life is fast bound in sin to Sin now listen to this
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The mind is enslaved to sin the emotions and affections are enslaved to sin and the will is enslaved to sin top to bottom
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Such a person is Unable to free themselves and to operate in a different direction
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All are slaves from birth to Sin It is as if They are chained to sin with a ball and chain as a prisoner with the iron band about his leg and Cannot escape and Cannot come to Christ He or she is imprisoned in a jail cell of sin
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That is why unless the Sun sets you free You cannot be free indeed those to whom we share the gospel
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Are fast bound in sin? They cannot
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Separate themselves from the shackles of sin They cannot believe they cannot come to Christ they can only obey
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Sin number nine it gets worse chapter 8 verse 44
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Spiritual enmity there is
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The clash between God and Satan between angels and demons between heaven and hell and every unconverted person is in bondage to a personal and real devil and as a is marked by spiritual enmity and Hostility towards God towards the gospel towards the things of God Look at verse 44 you
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Jesus is addressing the spiritual leadership of the nation Israel He is speaking to the most religious people on earth the most religious people in the history of Civilization he is addressing people in the holy city of Jerusalem Standing there around the temple area to those who knew the
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Word of God and who were who were separated unto the
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Word of God the Pharisees You Now you would think what would follow would be bouquets of Praises and I at least have you on my side
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While we try to win the world you are of Meaning belonging to you are of your father
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The devil Where there's a gospel tract for you, there's a verse to put on your refrigerator you are of your father the devil
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Now understand this Every lost unconverted person
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Has God for their father And by the way, that's why you should not marry an unbeliever.
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You'll have a devil for your father -in -law You are of your father the devil now
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You will follow the direction of your father You are permanently bound to him
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You live in his house You will live by his house rules
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You will follow His direction Until one can come and rescue you out of this family of darkness
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You are of your father the devil And it's true. Not only of the Pharisees long ago.
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It is true of every member of Adam's race Who are outside of the
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Lord Jesus Christ There are only two families in this world. You understand that don't you?
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There's the family of God and there's the family of the devil There is the family of heaven and there is the family of hell and when we were born into this world
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We were born into the family of the devil Doesn't matter if you were baptized as an infant doesn't matter if you were consecrated at age
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Whatever doesn't matter if you entered in a confirmation class at age 12 Until you are born again, you are of your father the devil and you want speaking of desires affections and You want to do the desires of your father?
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You want to do this? You're not being forced to do this Every unconverted person has a sin nature that is wicked and evil and depraved they wake up in the morning wanting to sin
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They want to do the desires of their father. He was a murderer from the beginning and Does not stand in the truth
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Because there is no truth in him Let me just say parenthetically and that is what every son of the devil does
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Is listens to his father the devil and Follows the lies of the devil
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You don't have to repent You don't have to believe You don't have to be born again
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You just need to be religious you just need to be a church member you just need to do some good things
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You don't need to Get committed. You don't need to give your life to Christ.
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You don't need to turn away from this world In fact, I'll give you the kingdoms of this world You'll just bow down and worship me
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When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature for he is a liar and the father of wise
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And he has his false prophets everywhere he has his false teachers everywhere
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Who preach easy believism who preach cheap grace?
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Who preach universalism who preach Unitarianism? Who preach all kinds of false gospels?
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that damn and destroy the souls of men and Those who sit under their ministries of darkness are drawn to the darkness
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Because they love the darkness But it gets worse chapter 8 verse 43 and 47 and I'm finished
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Spiritual deafness We've talked about spiritual blindness cannot see the truth, but spiritual deafness cannot hear the truth
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Notice what Jesus says in verse 43 Why do you not understand what
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I am saying now just stop right there if there was any preacher on the face of the earth Who was crystal clear in what he said who spoke truth the whole truth nothing, but the truth
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It was the Lord Jesus Christ who backed it up with a sinless perfect life of integrity
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Who performed miracles that would authenticate his claims to be the Son of God?
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Who the heavens opened up and God spoke out of heaven and said this is my beloved son in whom
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I'm well pleased Hear him who the entirety of all the prophets in the Old Testament They all spoke and pointed ahead to his coming
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Why do you not? Understand what I am saying he gives the answer it is because You Cannot not may not cannot you cannot hear the truth
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Because of your sin nature and because of the devil and because of your fallen Adam the mute button has been punched
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You cannot hear the truth that I am saying neither
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Can you hear Isaiah or David or Moses or Ezekiel or Malachi and Down to this day neither will they hear
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Matthew Mark Luke and John you cannot hear my word
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That is total depravity that is radical corruption What a strange thing it is that God has called us
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To share the gospel with those who cannot hear to tell them to look to Christ To people who cannot see
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We invite people to come to Christ Who cannot walk or come look at verse 47?
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He who is of God meaning he who belongs to God he who has been born of God He who is is of the family of God?
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He who is of God Here's the words of God and note the order to you must be of God in order to hear the words of God And you can never hear the words of God until he first acts upon your dead soul and makes you of God for this reason the middle of verse 47
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You do not hear them referring to the words of God You do not hear them
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Oh you hear the punctuation you hear the the the language being spoken
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But you do not hear the voice of God in the truth because Everyone who is not of God That is every lost person every unconverted person everyone outside the kingdom of God They Cannot hear the words of God Because they are not
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I can only bring the message to the ear But unless God opens the ear
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They cannot hear this is the black velvet backdrop upon which we will set the diamond of Sovereign grace and the darker the black velvet backdrop
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The brighter will shine the glory of sovereign grace the lower
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We put man in his place The higher we will put
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God in his place It's like a seesaw Man is down God is up but when man is up God is down the more we speak of the radical corruption and total depravity of the human race
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The more we will be astonished and we will be amazed
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We will be bewildered our jaws will drop
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It will be shock and awe To hear of the sovereign electing redeeming
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Regenerating preserving grace of God To reach down into this fallen depraved sinful human race but for God None of us
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Would ever be saved This is the truth of the
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Word of God This is the great physicians diagnosis of the human race
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Mind Cannot know the truth heart
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Cannot love the truth will Cannot believe the truth dead unable to respond paralyzed
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Unable to come to Christ blind cannot see the truth deaf cannot hear the truth enslaved to sin enslaved to the devil and even those who are religious totally deceived
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Into thinking they are in the kingdom The only way that anyone can ever be saved
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Is by the extraordinary Amazing grace of God That is what we will begin to look at in our next session
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Father it's worse than what we thought The closer we draw to the cemetery the more the reek the the reeking odor of death the foul decay of death we smell the closer we draw to the corpse
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And we put our hand upon the corpse The colder it feels
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The stiffer it feels the lifelessness that we sense.
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Oh God it's so clear When Adam sinned the whole human race fell fell all the way to the bottom
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And came crashing down to a state of radical corruption and God it was once true of us
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It's true of some here tonight Lord help us to believe the record from the words of Christ himself
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And the words written by the Apostle John And we come back for the next session
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Lord help us begin to see the light Shining in this darkness