A King's Ransom (1 Peter 1:1-21)

Huge are help in time of need. He will always be. If you are for, you can be against us. If you are for us, we'll never be ashamed. You can be against us. If you are for us, we'll never be ashamed. Huge are sheltered.

Is your key or shade unsound? Another moon. Where does my help come from? I dwell on my songs and faints for you. Sings out a loud song of joy. For I have known the living God. Faith that you will withhold.

From those who live to follow you. High pride your servants. Oh God. Then have the riches of this world. From strength to strength. Those who trust in you. I fill with joy. Those who follow you. Go from strength to strength.

Those who trust in you. I fill with joy. Be where you are. Be where you are. Just as said, the Lord counts no iniquity or deceit upon me. My strength was dried of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you.

And I did not cover my iniquity. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. You forgave me. Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you.

Good morning and welcome to Kootenai Church. Just when you think spring is here, winter has the final say, doesn't it? We're glad you joined us this morning. Would you please stand? We're going to sing a few hymns this morning, getting started with the solid rock.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All underground is sinking sand.

All underground is sinking sand. His oath is covenant, His blood supports me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, even as all my morphings say. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All underground is sinking sand.

All underground is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpets sound, oh, may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand.

All underground is sinking sand. They will sing of my Redeemer and His wondrous love to me. On the true across He suffered, from the curse He set me free. Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer, with His blood He purchased me.

On the cross the dead will tell the wondrous story. How I lost the strength to say, in His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave. Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer, with His blood He purchased me.

On the cross He killed my pardon, ate the dead and made me new. I, when His hand to life hath brought me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, oh, sing of His blood He purchased me. On the cross He stilled my pardon, ate the dead, drank the bitter cup reserved for me.

Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer, with His blood He purchased me.

On the cross He killed my pardon, ate the dead, drank the bitter cup reserved for me.

I, when His hand to life hath brought me, Son of God, with Him to be. Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer, with His blood He purchased me. I, when His hand to life hath brought me, Son of God, with Him to be.

You may be seated. Good morning. Just one announcement and reminder that the choir practices today after the service in the room that is off of the back of the sanctuary here. I wanted to make you aware of a couple of prayer concerns, so I'm going to switch up how we do announcements here this morning.

We're going to pray first and then we'll read the Scripture after the prayer, but I wanted to bring a couple of things to your attention that we could be praying for. First, of course, we're all aware of what's going on in Ukraine and how that is affecting various Christian populations there.

There is a sense in which what we are seeing transpire happens on smaller scales and even a similar scale all over the world all the time. The difference is that this one is put in front of our face 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and we are forced to pay attention to this, and so we are reminded that this is going on.

But this is not an anomaly in and amongst other nations. This type of stuff happens all the time because God is ruling, and we should not forget this, God is ruling in the affairs of men, and all of this is under His sovereign control.

Whatever He is doing, He is doing to put together and to put into place all of the pieces so that He can accomplish His redemptive purposes. And I was reminded of that this last week. I was at the Shepherds Conference down in Los Angeles at John MacArthur's church.

There was a Shepherds Conference, over 80 different nations represented there with pastors from over 80 countries, and of course some of those are Russian. John MacArthur has probably amongst any ministry in the world, Grace Community Church has a larger and more influential presence in Russia than probably any other single ministry.

Whether it's the MacArthur Study Bible or the messages translated into Russian or the outreach of the Master's Academy or the Master's University, the Master's Academy International, Master's University, Grace to You, all of that has such an impact in Russia.

So there were a lot of Russian pastors that were at the Shepherds Conference. I met a couple of them, Romanian, and of course there are Ukrainian pastors there. And one of the things that John MacArthur shared before one of the main sessions is that the nation of Ukraine has the largest number of Christians of any nation in Europe, in the nation of Ukraine.

He said that there was a Polish pastor who was there whom he had met with earlier that day who said that, he said to John, there are more evangelical Christians at this conference than we have in the nation of Poland.

He said how many hundreds of thousands of people were at Grace Community Church? 4 ,500 men. That's all that was there. Europe is very dark. But they shared at Shepherds Conference that one of the effects of what is going on is that, and John has spoken with some of these missionaries who are huddled down, bunkered down in basements and in homes with large numbers of unbelievers.

The church has been scattered in the Ukraine, of course pushed out of the Ukraine, but a number of these Christians are hunkered down and their unbelieving neighbors are coming to them for provision of food and water and shelter and the Christians are having an opportunity to share the gospel.

And he said large numbers of people are coming to faith in Christ as a result of this. Not only that, but this is forcing massive numbers of people to leave the Ukraine and take the gospel into the rest of Europe.

Now do you remember what happened in Acts chapter 9 when the church was persecuted? Everybody fled to all of the other regions around and the gospel went out from that place. This is just a glimpse at what God is doing through this.

Yes, the human tragedy is a genuine tragedy. The toll is significant. But one of the things that we can and should be praying for is that God would be using this to put into place what He wants in order to accomplish His eternal and redemptive purposes, His salvific purposes in Europe.

Europe is a dark, dark place spiritually speaking. So if the gospel could be forced into Europe, these missionaries and refugees forced out with the gospel, that would be a good thing that would come out of this.

So it is horrible. There's a lot of horrible stuff happening. We should pray for that. Pray for those who are suffering those things. But let's rejoice in the fact that God is sending His people out even if it be in this way.

He is accomplishing good in this and that's something that we can remember. And then a last prayer request as I was at a shepherd's conference with one of the missionaries that we support, Bruce Moorock.

Bruce, of course, has had cancer and we have been praying for him through all of this. His state of care now is palliative care. It's not cure. A cure is off the table. So it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when he goes home to be with the Lord.

I did about a 30-minute interview with him, a video interview that will be coming out soon. I'll send that out to the church when I have a chance to do that so you can hear the testimony of Bruce as he is facing death.

It's a very real thing and how he is trusting in the sovereignty of God through that. And I'm aware that even as I mentioned Bruce, there are a number of people here who have similar health concerns and I don't want to be negligent of that, but just that Bruce has been on our radar for a while.

So let's bow our head in prayer and then we will read Scripture together. Our Father, we are reminded again of Your majestic sovereignty, Your goodness, Your wisdom. You're perfect in every way and we acknowledge that we as Your people are gathered here together as those who are unworthy of Your grace and unworthy of Your goodness.

We deserve eternal damnation and judgment and the fact that we are not suffering the same afflictions that our brethren around the world are suffering even in the Ukraine is just a testament to Your grace and Your goodness and Your unmerited favor to us.

We have no claim upon any of the physical blessings that we possess and that we enjoy each and every day and yet You have lavished them upon us. Make us good stewards of those things and make us always mindful that at any moment all of it could be taken away and if You were to remove all of these physical blessings You would have done us no wrong, for we deserve none of it.

It is all of Your grace. And of course the spiritual blessings that we enjoy in Christ because of our salvation and Your work of grace in our heart is just another evidence of Your goodness to those who are Yours.

We are mindful of our brethren, pastors and elders and teachers and orphans and widows and Your people in the Ukraine and other places around the world. We are thankful that You are putting into place among the nations all of the pieces necessary to accomplish Your sovereign purpose and Your sovereign plan.

We know that the hearts of the kings are in Your hand and that You turn them wherever You wish. You rule from heaven in the affairs of men. No purpose of Yours can be thwarted. Nobody can say to You, what have You done?

Nobody can question Your wisdom. Nobody can teach You what is good or right or just. But we know that amongst all of these things You are working out a perfect plan and so we pray that You would help Your people to trust You.

We pray that in the midst of the destruction that the light of the gospel would shine even brighter, that people's eternal hope and eternal confidence would be displayed against the backdrop of the loss of all things and that You would be calling out Your people, Your sheep out of darkness and into light and gathering in Your elect ones so that You may be glorified and receive the fullness of praise and glory that is due to You.

We know that You are both saving and judging among the nations. Those are Your two works and so we pray that in the midst of judgment that You would remember mercy and in the midst of judgment that You would be accomplishing salvation, not only in Ukraine but around the world in our nation as well.

We thank You for our brother Bruce who has been faithful in taking the gospel wherever he has gone to the places that You have sent him and we pray that You would strengthen him and Linda and encourage their hearts in You as they wait upon You for Your perfect purpose in their life.

We pray that You would help them to trust You, to rest in Your sovereignty, to show Your love and grace to those around them. We pray that the church in Friant would care for them and encourage them and be a rich blessing to them and that You would give grace to Bruce to testify to the sovereignty of his God and the glory of the gospel to any and all who will listen.

We pray also for many amongst ourselves who are suffering, who are ailing, who are ill, we pray that in times of difficulty and trial that our hearts may be lifted up to praise and honor You, that You would take our focus and our affections off of this world and put it on the world that is to come as we long for and wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We pray Your blessing upon our service here, our worship, our time of fellowship together. May You be glorified through all that is said, all that is preached, all that is read and sung and our attitude and our hearts together be glorified in and through Your church, we pray in the name of Christ our Lord and our soon and coming King.

And all God's people said, Amen. Will you turn please to 1 Peter 1. This is the passage that Dave Rich is going to be preaching from. I mentioned that I was at Shepherd's Conference, so as is our ongoing 45-year tradition, Dave is going to be preaching on the…and all 45 years of that have been spent in 1 Peter.

Dave is going to be preaching from 1 Peter 1. Beginning at verse 1, we're going to read verses 1 through 21 together. Will you stand with me as we read? And the glories to follow. If you address as Father, the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

For he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

And may God bless the reading of his word.

Of heaven's praises roped in frail humanity. Now the light of life has come. Look to Christ who condescended, took on flesh to ransom. He, the perfect son of man, in his living, in his suffering, never trace nor stain of sin.

See the true come to save the hell-bound man. Christ, the great and sure fulfillment of the law in him we stand. Come behold the wondrous mystery. Christ the Lord upon the tree. In the stead of ruined sinners hangs the lamb in victory.

See the pride shunned, see the Father's plan unfold. He sons to glory, grace unmeasured, love untold. Come behold the wondrous mystery. Slain by death, the God of life, but no grave could ever restrain him.

Praise the Lord, he is alive. What a friend! How unwavering! Christ in power resurrected, as we will be when he comes. What a foretaste of deliverance! How unwavering our hope! Christ in power resurrected, as we will be when he comes.

Our scripture reading this morning is going to come from Galatians chapter 3, 11 through 14, and it says, Now that no one is justified by the law before God as evident, for the righteous shall live by faith.

However, the law is not a faith. Rather, he who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

In order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Let's end our music service this morning by singing Before the Throne of God Above.

Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea,. A great high priest whose name is love,. Who ever lives and pleads for me. My name is graven on his hands,. My name is written on his heart,.

I know that while in heaven he stands,. No tongue can bid me hence depart. When Satan tempts me to despair,. And tells me of the guilt within,. Upward I look and see him there,. Who made an end to all my sin.

Because the sinless Savior died,. My sinful soul is counted free,. For God the just is satisfied,. To look upon him and pardon me. To look upon him and pardon me,. Who raised the one risen Son. I bow before the cross of Christ,.

And marvel at this love divine. God's perfect Son was sacrificed,. To make me righteous in God's eyes. This river's depths I cannot know, But I can glory in its flow. Bow down low, and pour on me his glorious love,.

And pour on me his glorious love. I bow before the cross of Christ,. And marvel at this love divine. God's perfect Son was sacrificed,. To make me righteous in God's eyes. This river's depths I cannot know, But I can glory in its flow.

The Lord most high has bowed down low,. And poured on me his glorious love,. And poured on me his glorious love. How they raised the one risen Son, risen Son.

You may be seated.

Precious blood that's left heaven, Took your sin, died on a tree, Broke all your chains and made you free. So beloved, live your lives, remember. It's left heaven's throne to come down to earth. Took your sin, died on a tree, Broke all your chains and made you free.

So beloved, live your lives, remember.

The precious blood that's left heaven's throne to come down to earth. Took your sin, died on a tree, Broke all your chains and made you free. So beloved, live your lives, remember.

Christ.

Well, I feel kind of superfluous now. Jim didn't steal my thunder this week, but they did. Let's pray together. Father, we are so grateful for the gifts and talents that you've given our people and their willingness to exercise them for your glory.

Now, our church has grown so much, and so we just get to see and enjoy so many of the great gifts that you've given to your people, and we're grateful for that. And Lord, my prayer today is that you will speak clearly to your people through your word, that I would be kind of removed from the equation as much as that can be.

I pray that for those of your elect here who have been redeemed, that they would reflect on that redemption and give you great glory, and that they would live according to who they are. And for those among your elect that are here today that haven't been redeemed, I pray, Lord, that you might use this gospel message to bring them to salvation.

Lord, I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Jim came really close to sealing my thunder. You probably noticed that a couple weeks ago. He was one verse away. I think he just didn't know exactly what verse I was going to be doing.

So, but our text today will be 1 Peter 1, verses 18 and 19. But before we really get into that, I'll read the larger passage starting with verse 14. But before we get into it, I want to start with a little illustration.

I want to tell you about a king's ransom, a literal king's ransom. King Atahualpa. King Atahualpa. You may have heard of the Spanish explorer Francisco Pizarro. I'm not saying it right, Ed. He came to the area of modern-day Peru in 1532.

The Incas had a vast empire in South America. Atahualpa was king of the Incas. He had a kingdom of over 10 million people. Pizarro invited the Inca king, Atahualpa, to a feast. And that feast was actually an ambush, where he captured King Atahualpa, and they basically destroyed thousands of his warriors.

They had guns, and the Incas didn't. They were very afraid of those weapons, and many of them ran. Many of them were killed. So Atahualpa was imprisoned. Atahualpa was wise, and he said, Hey, I see this cell I'm in.

I will fill this cell to the height that I can reach with gold, and I'll fill this adjoining room twice with silver if you'll let me free. And Pizarro said, It's a great deal. And so King Atahualpa had those rooms filled with gold and with silver.

The main room, the room that he was in, that's known as the ransom room, it still stands in Peru. We can estimate the quantity of gold and silver that was in those rooms, and so we can estimate the value.

Now, it wasn't in gold bars or something, so there's some discrepancies depending on what it would have been like. But the estimates range today, the value would be between 500 million to one and a half billion dollars worth of gold and silver.

It's the highest ransom ever paid. And what did that ransom achieve? Do you know the story? Nothing. Pizarro killed Atahualpa, and then he proceeded to kill most of the Inkas and take over their land.

So it was a king's ransom, a useless king's ransom in this case. But when we think of over a billion dollars, I want you to understand for a minute how much a billion dollars in gold and silver.

Would be worth.

It's a lot of money. It's a thousand to a million, thousand, thousand, thousand dollars worth of gold and silver. Now, if you took a billion one dollar bills and you laid them out on the ground, it would cover an area of four square miles or about 2 ,600 acres of land.

If you stacked it up, it would be seven miles high. If you laid it end to end, it would extend around the earth four times. That's a lot of money. If you spent $5 ,000 every day, and some of you would like to try, it would take you 550 years to spend a billion dollars.

If you were to save $100 a day, you put it under your mattress, it would take you 27 ,000 years to have a billion dollars and an uncomfortable mattress. But you can see it's a massive ransom. It's a high price, right?

But today, if we understand our text, a billion dollars, rooms full of gold and silver, it's going to seem like nothing, like trivial junk compared to the high price of our redemption. A real king's ransom, a ransom paid not for a king, but by a king.

So let's read together 1 Peter 1, 14 through 19. As obedient children, not being conformed to the former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct.

Because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you address his father, the one who impartially judges, according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourn, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your feudal conduct inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless,.

The blood of Christ.

So verse 18, it starts out with knowing, or you might have, for you know that, it's a participle knowing. It's a continuation of thought from verse 17. You look at verse 17, if you address his father, the one who impartially judges, according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourn, knowing that, and then we learned some facts there that would motivate us for obedience to the command in verse 17.

So conduct ourselves in fear because of what we know, the truth that we know in verses 18 and 19. So everything that we're going to learn and appreciate in verses 18 and 19, yet that is meant by Peter to serve as a motivation for obedience to the commands above, most closely the command in verse 17.

Conduct yourselves in fear. So we're going to make that connection and application more towards the end. There's a strong sense in which verses 18 and 19 stand alone as a very significant independent thought.

Okay, so the information in 18 and 19 is presented by Peter as motivation for a command. And we will look at that, but dwelling on that truth itself, just knowing what we are knowing, it's going to accomplish Peter's objective to motivate us, but also serves to glorify God in maybe the most concentrated and effective way that I can imagine.

It accomplishes the purpose of all things, the glory of God, if we just can contemplate the truth that is in these two verses. So first we want to know what it is that we know, what it is that we are knowing.

Peter says we are knowing something, that we know something.

What is it?

Well, the passage, these two verses you see, they're about redemption. So what we're knowing are facts about redemption, our spiritual redemption. So the plan for exposition of these two verses, I want to demonstrate that the dimensions are elements of redemption.

First, we want to see what redemption is, get ourselves a working definition of what redemption is, as Peter would want us to understand it, and then go through the elements of it. What are we redeemed from?

What are we redeemed to? What were we not redeemed by? What are we redeemed by? We're going to see the high price of our redemption. We're really going to dig down into that. That's the emphasis, that which we're redeemed by, the high price of our redemption.

Peter makes that contrast. We'll spend time in that. Having made the examination of the price of our redemption, again, we'll come back and make the application. So, the two verses. Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct, inherited from your forefathers,.

But with precious blood,.

As of a lamb unblemished and spotless,.

The blood of Christ.

So the passage is about redemption. So we're starting with that. What is redemption? I'm using the LSB. It translates a form of the verb, loutrao, as redeemed. It's possible you have another good translation that might use ransomed for the word.

You got a bulletin today. That verse is on here and it uses the word ransomed. So either one is fine. The Greek word has a very specific meaning. It means to pay a price to effect the release of a captive.

Now, in the first century, it would have been understood mainly in two ways. To effect the release of a slave, to buy a slave. And I say effect the release. They could be bought to release, bought to free or bought to make your slave.

Or it could refer to a prisoner of war. Prisoners of war were treated as slaves. You could ransom them, effect their release. It would generally mean one of those two things or could mean even more generally, just the freeing of a captive, freeing or purchase someone from any form of captivity.

A slaves could even buy their own freedom. That would be redemption. They could buy their own freedom. So that's the analogy. Whether you have the word ransomed or redeemed, that's the first century analogy.

Now here, of course, Peter's not talking about redemption from physical slavery, from physical imprisonment or institutional slavery or economic slavery to freedom or to some slavery to some other master.

That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about spiritual redemption, the work of Christ that accomplishes this aspect of our salvation. Now, Jim read the first 21 verses and in the beginning of chapter one, you see other elements of our salvation.

Peter talks about our being chosen. Much of 1 Peter is about our sanctification, our glorification, regeneration. Isn't there? He's caused us to be born again. So it's about our salvation. And here, Peter is focused on the redemption analogy for our salvation.

And so now we're going to ask, redemption from what? It's referring to an aspect of our salvation called redemption from what did Christ redeem us? If redemption is paying the price to purchase a slave or a captive, then we have to ask by what or by whom were we held captive?

From whom were we redeemed or from what? So if you were asked this, someone said, are you a redeemed person? And you would say, yes, I sang a song about it today. I know that. And they said, well, what are you redeemed from?

You know, that's the release of a person from being in captivity. What were you in captivity to? How would you answer that? Well, I probably wouldn't say from conduct, from a type of conduct, but that's what Peter tells us here, right?

It's also the, it's the same word that's used in verse 15.

If you look up,.

But like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your conduct. You see feudal conduct in verse 18. That's a contrast to holy reverential conduct in verse 15. So you're redeemed from one type of conduct and to another type of conduct.

It's very interesting. I don't think I would have said it that way unless God says it that way, right? I need that correction. Would you have said you were redeemed from sin and its consequences, death and hell?

Doesn't scripture say that before our redemption, we were dead in sin, we're slaves to sin?

Yeah.

This is Peter's way, this use of the word for conduct. It's Peter's way of referring to sin. It's an emphasis here on outward behavior, but the word conduct, it's an interesting word. It may be translated ways or way of life, depending on your, the old King James is that word conversation, which doesn't really fit with modern language today, but for them, it meant your way, your general way of living.

It is a reference to outward behavior conduct, but it's outward behavior that's informed from inner beliefs. It's that which demonstrates your central beliefs. It's the outworking of the inner person.

That's conduct. And here we're redeemed from one type of conduct to another. Let's see how our pre-redemption conduct is described. First is futile. And the word means aimless or purposeless, without any meaning.

It's a thing that doesn't have a reason for being. It's unproductive. It's translated as futile or empty or vain, sometimes aimless or useless. It's just nothing. Peter has described our former conduct back in verse 14.

You see that? The former lusts, which were yours in your ignorance. So prior to our regeneration, redemption, we were engaged in satisfaction of our sinful desires. That's us in our natural selves. We're completely ignorant of the person and work of Christ.

We're enemies of God, lawless rebels. We're just unrepentantly satisfying the desires of the mind and of the flesh. That's who we are apart from Christ. We get a description of this life in 1 Peter 4.

You can flip over there if you want.

It's up to you.

I don't know why I say stuff like that when I'm up here, because you do what you want. 1 Peter 4, 1 through 4. Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to no longer live the rest of the time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

For the time already past is sufficient for you to have worked at the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

In all this, they're surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of dissipation, maligning you, but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. It's futile, it's empty, it's meaningless life, abominable idolatries, sinful nothing.

It's just intent on the worship of the worthless almighty self, getting what makes you happy just before it makes you miserable, right? Getting what relieves you just before it makes you more anxious.

That's the life of the flesh. Hope that ends in despair, right? Fun and happiness that ends in shame, guilt, emptiness. It's characterized in scripture as just sinful, ignorant, futile, empty, nothing, vain, useless.

All we do in our natural state is futile. It's just done out of lustful ignorance. It can't have any eternal, truly valuable aim or purpose. Calvin puts it this way in his commentary. The whole life of man, until he is converted to Christ, is a ruinous labyrinth of wanderings.

You might object to that. There are non-Christians out there that are doing great things that have great value and meaning. There's great inventions, advances in medicine and science, and there's great art, there's great music, philosophy, and literature.

There are great acts of heroism. There's daily acts of love and kindness and bravery done by unbelievers. And that's all true. We're grateful that God gives common grace to everybody, to all people, all of his image bearers.

He uses all of that to be good to his image bearers. We're grateful for that. We appreciate beauty, kindness, and love, and all that's good, wherever it comes from, knowing that it comes from God. But here's the point.

The deeds of the unregenerate person cannot have eternal value. They can't. They're not done for the only good that remains after this place is burned up, which is the glory of God. They can't have that as their motivation.

So they're not capable of a single truly good deed. They're just not able to, they're incapable of the motivation that it would require. The unredeemed person is not capable of accomplishing the chief end of man, right?