Imputed Righteousness (10/05/2003)

Park Meadows Church

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This morning, we're going to continue our discussion on being made acceptable to God in Jesus Christ, but we're going to look at part of it, at least, from the human viewpoint this morning.

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And last time, we looked at it from the divine viewpoint, but even as we look at it from the human viewpoint, we're going to always gravitate back to the divine viewpoint.

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So you'll see, you'll kind of start in the divine, come down into the human viewpoint, which is in time, and then we end up thinking about the great counsel of God, which is the divine viewpoint again.

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So let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We ask you to protect my parents on the road, on the way back home, and help my dad to feel better.

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Father, Lord, we thank you for each of us that you have brought this morning, this particular group, and we thank you that you have a particular message for us today, and that nothing is done by accident, but all according to your plan.

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And so, Father, help each of us to take the part of this message that is particularly designed for each heart this morning.

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We think of Brother John this morning, and our prayers are for him. We know that you can touch his body and totally heal him if you choose to, if it be thy will.

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And Father, we just thank you for the grace and the peace that you've given him in his heart, and we ask that you would lessen the pain that he might have, and Father, that you would flow energy and strength into his immune system, and strengthen his body.

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Be with Celeste and the rest of the family, comfort their hearts, and Father, now turn our hearts and minds to the word of God at this time, and teach us, and we ask it in Jesus' name.

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Amen. I want to remind you of two verses that we studied last time, Colossians chapter one and verse 12, and Ephesians chapter one verse five.

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If you'd like to turn with those, we will start with those, especially turn to Colossians chapter one.

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Colossians 1 .12 says, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

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This old English expression made us meet means made us fitting, or made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible

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God, the firstborn of every creature. You look at the grammar in this passage, and you have to ask who the subject is.

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The subject is the Father, and then you have to ask, are these passive or active verbs?

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They are active verbs. That means that the subject is doing the acting.

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So, we see that it is the Father who accomplishes each of the things mentioned in this passage.

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It is the Father who makes us to be fit, to be partakers of the inheritance.

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It is the Father who delivered us from the power of darkness. It is the

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Father who translates us into the kingdom of his dear son, and it's because of the

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Father that we have redemption in his blood and the forgiveness of sins, and because of Jesus Christ who gave that blood and who is the image of the invisible

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God, the firstborn of every creature. We see here who's doing the work. We see that it is

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God who makes us acceptable. We cannot make ourselves acceptable to a holy

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God. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 5 and 6 says, "...having

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predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved."

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That's Jesus. So in Christ, we are accepted because God has made it to be so.

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Now right at the end of the message last week, we talked about that you could sum up the fact that God has made us accepted into two concepts.

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The first we call it imparted life, and the second we call it imputed righteousness.

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Both of these acts done by God to his children, to his own.

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So let's think about imparted life first. Colossians chapter 1, verse 27, if you go a few verses further than where we just were to verse 27, speaking of imparted life, perhaps one of the clearest verses about that in the whole

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Bible. It says, "...to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the

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Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

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Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in us is life imparted, because life is

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Christ, and Jesus Christ is life. This imparted life takes into view the election from eternity past, at least from our viewpoint, the effectual calling that takes place in time, the spiritual birth that takes place in time, the born again experience, being born from above, being born from the first, the regening, the imparting of the divine nature to us that happens in time, and all of which is the result of the adoption, which we studied a couple of Sundays ago, which is the sovereign placing of us as children into the family of God.

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All of this surrounds the idea of imparted life. This life has been imparted to us by one greater than us.

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We have the life of Christ, Christ in us, the hope of glory. John chapter 14 and verse 19 says, "...yet

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a little while, and the world seeth me no more." Jesus Christ is speaking here, "...but

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ye see me, because I live, you shall live also.

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At that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you."

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So we see that imparted life has to do with being in Jesus Christ, who is in the

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Father. As was so well taught in Sunday school this morning with the illustration that you had of us being in Christ, and then

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Christ being in the Father. The Bible says, "...you who were dead hath he quickened."

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And so God has imparted life to us, and this life is in His Son, Jesus. And this life is

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His Son, Jesus. And so He is in us, and we are in Him.

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Now let's talk about imputed righteousness for a moment. If John is one of the key books that speaks of imparted life,

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Romans is one of the key books that speaks of imputed righteousness. So turn to Romans chapter 4 and verse 11 for a moment.

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We'll look at a few verses in the book of Romans about imputed righteousness. Because the reason we're acceptable to God is because He has imputed

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His life to us, imparted His life within us, and imputed His righteousness to us.

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Because a holy God can only accept His own holiness. He cannot accept anything less than that.

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So without imputed righteousness, we could not come into His presence. Romans 4, 11 says, "...and

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he received," now this is speaking of Abraham, "...he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised."

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And the reason it points that out is that at the time Abraham was given this, he was not a

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Jew. A lot of the Jews nowadays want to say that salvation is only of the

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Jew and for the Jew. And Abraham was not a Jew when this was given. He was yet uncircumcised when he was given this sign.

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"...that he might be the father of all them that believe." That means all, meaning both Jew and Gentile.

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"...though they be not circumcised, that their righteousness might be imputed unto them also."

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Now the word imputed is an accounting term as we've discussed many times. God takes the righteousness of Jesus out of His account and places it into the account of the believer.

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And He takes the sinfulness and the sin of the believer and takes that out of His account and placed it in the account of Jesus the day

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He was on the cross. And Jesus was crucified because of our sins.

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They had been imputed to Him. Just as sure as that is true, as sure as He died with our sins imputed to Him, the resurrection proves that we now have

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His righteousness imputed unto us. Romans chapter 4, skip down to verse 20.

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"...Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God."

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Isn't it interesting that the Bible defines unbelief as staggering? You stagger about not knowing where you're going.

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But verse 21 may be one of the best definitions of faith in the

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Bible. Abraham being fully persuaded that what

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God had promised, God was able also to perform. Can you think of a better definition of faith?

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True faith is being fully persuaded that what

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God has spoken, God will do. That what

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God has promised, God is able to perform. Verse 22, "...and

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therefore because of that faith, it was imputed to Abraham for righteousness."

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Now why does it say that? Because Abraham was not a righteous man. He was an imperfect sinner.

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And when God saved him, he was given belief as a gift from God.

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And because of this, he was persuaded from the inside of his soul all the way to his mind throughout his entire body.

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He was fully persuaded that God would do what

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God has said he would do, which is faith. And this is then imputed to him as righteousness.

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The faith is imputed or counted by God as if Abraham had true righteousness.

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So what actually happened was because of faith, God gave Abraham his own righteousness.

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Verse 23, "...now it was not written for his sake alone." So here comes the good news of the gospel.

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This was not only done for Abraham. Not for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also.

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To whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our

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Lord from the dead. Who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification.

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Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace. We have peace because we're accepted by God.

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We have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access. So because we're accepted, we have peace.

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But we also have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

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So we have righteousness of God. The very righteousness of God himself has imputed to us.

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Now James chapter 2 verse 23 sums it up this way. And the scripture was fulfilled which saith

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Abraham believed God. Not believed in God, but believed God. He was fully persuaded that what

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God said, God would carry out. He believed God and it was counted or imputed unto him for righteousness.

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And then it concludes this way. And he was called the friend of God.

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You see we are accepted. We are friends. We are made friends.

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The Bible says we once were enemies of God. We were blind. We were deaf.

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We were dead. We were lame. We were enemies. And now we're made friends.

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This is true acceptance. 2 Corinthians 5 21 we talked about last week is a beautiful picture of the imputation of our sins to Jesus and in his righteousness to us.

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It says it this way. For he, God the Father, hath made him, Jesus, to be sin for us,

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Jesus having known no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

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You see Jesus was not a sinner. But God made him to be sin.

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How did he do that? He placed our sins within his body. First Peter talks about that.

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It says our sins were in his body on the tree. God made him to be a sinner by placing our sins in him.

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And then he died with our sins in him. But he rose again, did he not?

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That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So just as surely as God made

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Jesus be sin, he made us be righteousness. Was Jesus a sinner in reality?

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No. Are we righteous in reality today? No. But if God counted him to be a sinner, which was proven by the fact that he was crucified.

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And he says he now counts us to be righteous, then it is so. Positionally as we stand before God the

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Father, as God the Father views us, we have the very righteousness of Jesus Christ.

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Because he made us to be righteous. Not that we could do it on our own. Jesus couldn't be a sinner on his own.

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He refused to be. He was tempted at all points. And yet without sin.

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And yet God made him to be a sinner. And we cannot be righteousness.

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We cannot have it. We cannot be righteous. But God has made us righteousness.

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This is the doctrine of imputation. This is one of the reasons we're accepted is because God has given us the very righteousness of Jesus Christ.

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Well, we review Ephesians 1, 6 again. It says, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

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You see, if we had done it on our own, it wouldn't be of grace. And God's grace could not be praised.

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But all of this was done to the praise of the glory of God's grace.

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This word is charis. Is grace. Wherein he hath made us accepted.

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This is the word karito. Which is from the same root word. So it says,

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God has graced us. In the beloved. In Jesus Christ.

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And so we see that we've been made acceptable by the grace of God. Now all of that obviously is from the divine viewpoint.

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Because it's all done by the subject who is the father. As he acts upon the object of his love.

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Which is us. And let's look at it for a moment from the human viewpoint though.

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Turn to John chapter 20 verse 31. We have a verse in John.

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That gives the imparted life. From the human viewpoint.

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And then we have a verse in Romans chapter 3 verse 22. That gives the imputed righteousness from the human viewpoint.

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So let's look and see what the Bible says about it. From the human viewpoint. First let's talk about imparted life.

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John chapter 20 verse 31. But these, and it means these words.

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The word of God. The written word that you hold in your laps this morning. These words are written.

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That you might believe. That Jesus is the Christ. The son of God.

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And that believing you might have life through his name.

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So on the human side. The fact is that imparted life is applied by faith.

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Imparted life is applied to you and made personal to you individually.

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By faith. That believing you might have life through his name.

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So on the human side we see that imparted life. Is applied to us individually by faith.

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Now let's look at Romans 3 verse 22. Even the righteousness of God which was by faith of Jesus Christ.

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Unto all and upon all them that believe.

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For there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile it means. Even the righteousness of God.

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So we're talking about imputed righteousness. Even the righteousness of God. Which is by the faith of Jesus Christ.

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Unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference.

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So we see that not only is imparted life. Applied by faith.

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But imputed righteousness is applied by faith. And that's here in time.

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Now we have to take it a step further. We know about the nature of man.

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What does the Bible teach about the nature of man? Is there a spark of goodness in us all?

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Is that what the Bible teaches? We're wicked. Yes. And what is that doctrine called among the reformers?

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What did they call it? The doctrine of the depravity.

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The doctrine of the depravity of man. When man stepped out of that garden.

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He stepped out totally depraved and lost. Unless God put the covering on him before.

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I don't remember where he was still in the garden or had stepped out when that happened. But before God killed the first animal.

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And shed the blood of the first sacrifice. And clothed them. Before that they were lost.

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And they fell in sin. Into what Calvin called total depravity.

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And Calvin was right about that. And the way we know that is. Think about right before the flood.

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If you go into the portions of Genesis. And you read right before the flood. What does it say about the men?

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That were on the earth? It says about their nature. That they were only.

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Evil. Continually. Now think of those three words. Only. Evil. And then continually.

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So there was no mix of goodness in them. There was no mix of goodness and bad.

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And God just had to bring the spark out. In all of us to see the good. It says only evil.

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And not only were they only evil. There was no time in which this was not true. To put it in a positive.

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They were always only evil. And then the flood came.

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But after the flood this is written. The heart is deceitful.

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Above all things. And desperately wicked.

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So what about man? The nature of man. Man is that he is totally depraved.

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And we are born that way. We don't have to learn to be that way. We are born with that nature.

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You don't teach your children to be bad. They do it naturally.

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You teach them the manners. Because they don't know the good manners naturally. They know how to say huh and yeah naturally.

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Did you ever teach your child to say huh or yeah? Raise your hand if you had to teach them that. Did you ever have to teach them to say yes sir and yes ma 'am?

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Raise your hand if you had to teach them that. You mean that didn't come naturally? Is it still easy?

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Do they still always say yes sir and yes ma 'am? You say huh? No they don't.

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So the nature of man is fallen. The bible teaches each of these things. In different places.

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That man is dead. He is born dead. Man is blind.

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Man is in a state of deafness toward God. He cannot hear

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God. He cannot hear the word of God. He will not hear the word of God.

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So he is deaf. He is lame. A man is a total cripple in God's sight.

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As far as the ability to walk for God. And his hands are withered because he cannot serve

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God with his hands withered with sin. So I have to ask you this question.

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If it is true that we are found in a state of death. Deafness. Blindness.

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Impotency. And the only way on the human side that we can be given the righteousness of God have it imputed to us and given the life of God having the life of Jesus imparted unto us if we are in that state of total depravity and deadness and blindness and deafness what is it that causes the change?

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Can a dead man raise himself? Can a blind man make himself to see?

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Can a deaf man all of a sudden hear and gain instruction on how to be one who hears?

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Can a lame man walk? Can withered hands serve

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God and make themselves to serve God on their own? So what has happened here? What has to happen to make the change?

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Is that change even in time? Is that change on the human side or is it from the divine side?

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Let's turn to John chapter 6 in verse 44. Now see you think we're looking at salvation here about to look at salvation from the divine viewpoint but I'm still in time.

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I'm looking at this from the human viewpoint. Here we have a human who is totally dead to God.

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A walking dead man. Jesus said you're white in sepulchers. You think you're alive but you're full of dead men's bones.

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That's how he could see them. He saw the death in their eyes.

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I can look at pictures of myself before my salvation at the age of 24 and I see death in my eyes in the photographs.

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I can look at my wedding pictures and my mouth was smiling but my eyes were dead.

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I was happy to be married but my eyes were dead. Here we have a walking dead man in time.

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Something has to happen. John 6 44 Jesus would be a great authority to go to to find out what happens would he not?

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And this is what Jesus said. No man can come to me except the

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Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.

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It is written in the prophets now listen to this and they shall all be taught of God.

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Now you need to put in your King James version in verse 6 45 John 6 45 where it says taught of God just scratch out the word of and put the word by.

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Because that is what it means. And they shall be taught by God every man therefore that hath heard.

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Now who are the ones that are going to be taught? Those who are drawn to Jesus by the

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Father. All of these who are drawn to Jesus shall be taught by God himself every man therefore that hath heard.

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Now you have men who are deaf right? Every deaf man who has ever come to the place of hearing it says has learned from the

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Father. The little word of there put the word from has learned from the

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Father and that person comes to me Jesus says. So you have three things that have to be done to a dead deaf blind person for that person to do anything other than die or be blind or dead.

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And those three things are this. First he must be drawn by God the Father. Now we're in the human side we're in time.

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This walking dead man in time has to be drawn in time by the

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Father to Jesus Christ. Secondly he has to be taught through ears that were once deaf they have to be open so he can hear and be taught by God the

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Father. And thirdly he must learn things from the

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Father and then Jesus says he comes to me. This is how it happens.

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This is the only way it happens. Remember the birth of a child is not caused by the child.

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He must be born from above the Bible says. You must be born from the first as in the

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Alpha. As in the only one who was around when there was nothing else. You must be born from him.

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The word draw in the Greek is which means literally to drag.

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You take a dead lame man. The only way you can move him is to drag him.

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His legs aren't working. You've got to grab him by the nape of the neck and be stronger than he is and drag him to move him.

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And that's what the Bible says God the Father does. He drags him to Jesus.

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You've heard that said by preachers but all you have to do is look up the Greek word you'll see it's not just a saying.

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It is the word. He must drag them to Jesus. Why? He's dragging against a nature that was very hateful towards that thought.

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An enemy of God. Now this word taught where it says they will be taught from God is the word didactos which means it's like didactic in English.

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It means instructed or communicated by teaching. Communicated by teaching.

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God the Father communicates to us by teaching us before we can ever come to Jesus.

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That's amazing but the Bible teaches it. Makes sense when you realize the depraved state we were in.

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And this word of where it says we are taught of the Father or we learn of the Father is the word para which means from or near.

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You were taught by being made near to God. God comes near and teaches. Now if we see these things are true that the only way that a dead deaf blind man can come to Jesus is if he is dragged taught and if he learns something by hearing the

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Father. Let's go to John 6 64. Jesus continues this thought but there are some of you that believe not.

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For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not. You see the

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Bible not only teaches that God knows from before the beginning who his children are it teaches that Jesus knew from the beginning who his children were not.

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If you have one group who is elected you obviously have a group who is non -elect.

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They're the ones who ain't in the group that are elected. You can't have one without the other.

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The Bible teaches both. God knew his own with love from before anything was made.

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Ephesians chapter 1 teaches very clearly. But John chapter 6 verse 64 teaches he also knew those who would not believe.

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Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And he said therefore said

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I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of or by my father.

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So he reiterates the same truth that we've already studied. He says it again.

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Now this is an interesting thing. If you look at John 6 and you see that Jesus has taught the sovereignty of God.

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He begins in verse 44 and says no man can come to me unless the father draws him. And then he comes back and he nails it home again and he says

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I know everyone who is not going to believe and he says no one can believe except it is given to him of my father.

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Why? Because they're dead, deaf, blind and lame and withered.

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But look what happens when he teaches this doctrine. Same thing that happens today. Verse 66 from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

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It is not a popular doctrine. Then said

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Jesus unto the twelve will you go away also? It is a very unpopular doctrine.

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But Simon Peter as if to say well we kind of tempted to go away after you teach something that strong but he says but the problem with going away is this to whom would we go?

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As if to say if there were another place we could go we would go but he said to whom would we go?

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Thou hast the words of eternal life. Now the words of eternal life have just said from eternity that no man comes to the father except I mean to the son unless the father draw him.

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And the words of eternal life have just said no man can come to me except it were given unto him by my father and yet they turned away from him and walked with him no more at that teaching.

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A very hard teaching. When we understand

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Jesus' words and we go back into Colossians we see a new depth of meaning.

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When it says that God is the subject and he is doing the acting strengthened with all might we are strengthened.

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The dead person the blind person has to be strengthened from above in order to be saved.

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Strengthened with all might according to God's glorious power and to all patience and long suffering and joyfulness which are things that dead people don't have.

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Giving thanks unto the father the father who has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life.

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God made us to be fit to be partakers. God has delivered us from the power of death and darkness and blindness and lameness and impotence and he has translated us or changed us or metamorphosized us into the kingdom of his dear son in whom we have redemption through his blood.

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Even the forgiveness, the taking away, removal of the sins. Jesus who is the image of the invisible

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God the first born of every creature. How is it then that God deals with us in time?

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First he does this either through the channel of Jesus Christ or through the

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Holy Spirit who he sent after the ascension. This is how God deals with us in time.

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He does not come himself as the father but he comes by the Holy Spirit or by his son

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Jesus into time. Turn to John chapter 1 verse 29.

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Let me ask you a couple of questions as we come to towards the end of this.

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And think about it before you answer quickly because you've heard things said on TV on the radio in different places.

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Can God hear the prayers of the lost? Now be careful before you answer because I know that the common answer is no.

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I remember when Brother Criswell got in trouble for saying that the Jew God can't hear the prayer of the Jew.

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But I didn't ask that question. I asked can God hear the prayers of the lost? Secondly, I would ask it this way, can

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God work in the lives of the lost? Now it is a trick question.

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Let me give you a hint. What if we reworded it? Does God hear the prayers of the non -elect?

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Would that be easier to answer? The answer is no. So when

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I ask you the first one, can God hear the prayers of the lost, what if I'm talking about a lost sheep that's going to be saved that God already knows is his own?

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It is not orthodox in your thinking but could it be possible that God could hear that one's prayers even before he's saved in time?

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He is counted as a lost person among men but could God hear his prayers before the day of his salvation?

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Think about that one. Take it home and chew on it a little bit. How does

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God deal with lost sheep? They are lost, are they not? John 13, stay there in John 1, we're going to go to it but I want to read you this verse in John 13, 36.

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Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, whither

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I go thou cannot follow me now. Now underline, or in your thinking anyway, the word now because there's a time in a minute we're going to look at where Jesus talked to the

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Pharisees, some of the Pharisees and he said something very similar but he didn't add the word now he just put a period after the word me and I'll show you what

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I mean but now he's talking to Simon Peter who was a sheep and he says where I go you can't follow me now but you shall follow me afterwards in John 14 too, in my father's house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you.

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That's a comforting phrase, isn't it? If you were just going to die and go to the dust and live no more and exist no more,

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Jesus said, I'd tell you if it was that way if when you die it's all over I'd tell you if it's that way he said, in my father's house there are many mansions if it were not so,

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I would tell you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you

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I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also and whether I go you know and the way you know so how does

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God work in the life of a lost sheep before the day of his spiritual birth turn to John chapter 1 verse 29 give you a couple of examples, living examples in the

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Bible where we see that God did deal with them even before they were saved while they were still lost John 1 29 the next day

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John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith behold the

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Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world this is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me for he was before me and he goes down through let me just pick out one verse because we're running out of time this morning look at verse 36 and looking upon Jesus as he walked he said behold the

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Lamb of God and the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus now these two disciples were not saved before this happened but they were already being dealt with by God because they were following John the

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Baptist and they were in the right place at the right time and I want to save some of that thought for next week but now

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I want you to go down and think about another group of people look at John chapter 8 verse 19 you remember how he told

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Simon you cannot follow me now where I go you cannot go now think about this as we read this little passage then said they unto him where is thy father

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Jesus answered ye neither know me nor my father if you had known me you should have known my father also these words spake

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Jesus in the treasury as he taught in the temple and no man laid hands on him for his hour was not yet come then said

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Jesus again unto them I go my way the same phrase he told Simon and ye shall seek me the same phrase he told

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Simon and ye shall die in your sins for whether I go you cannot come he doesn't say you will not come he doesn't say you won't choose to come he says you cannot come there is a group of people living around you today in our time who can never go to heaven that's not a popular teaching but it's absolutely the truth

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God did not give you and I the ability to know who they are so he told us to witness to all men but Jesus could easily tell who they are he simply looked them in the eyes and he knew immediately he knew before he looked at them in the eyes but he looked at these people in the eyes and he said whether I go you cannot come then said the

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Jews will he kill himself because he said where I go you cannot come see I couldn't understand they were totally confused and he said unto them you are from beneath I am from above look at the contrast you are of this world

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I am not of this world now what did Jesus later tell his disciples did he tell them that they were of this world or not of this world not of this world you see they are of a group who were never of this world

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Jesus was never of this world but he's speaking to a group who were always of this world they were always from beneath they were born from beneath and they were always from beneath from this world and he says

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I am from above you are of this world I am not of this world I said therefore unto you you shall die in your sins for if you believe not that I am what does that mean

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I am who's that that's the Jewish Jehovah Jesus told his

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Jews I am and they knew what that meant that's why they picked up stone shortly thereafter to kill

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Jesus because he claimed to be God if you believe not that I am you shall die in your sins

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Acts 13 48 and when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of God the word of the

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Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed Jude 1 says Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James to them that are sanctified and called mercy unto you peace love be multiplied and he goes on to speak of a group of men who crept in as false teachers and he says that they were before of old ordained to this condemnation there are two groups in the world three actually there are saved sheep lost sheep and lost goats the goats will never be sheep the lost sheep will not remain in that state because they will hear

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Jesus said my voice they all hear my voice and they follow me this was

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Calvin's irresistible grace to the lost sheep when he hears the master's voice it's irresistible he will follow to the lost goat when he hears the master's voice he doesn't hear the master's voice he doesn't hear anything what if you were sitting here unsaved this morning there may be someone here that way would you say well if I'm non -elect

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I cannot be saved and I will blame it on God for not choosing me could you say that this morning

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God would answer it this way Revelation 22 17 and the spirit and the bride say come and let him that hear it say come and let him that is a thirst come and whosoever will whosoever chooses to whosoever desires to let him take of the water of life freely it is your choice this morning and you will be held responsible for the choice that you make with regard to receiving

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Jesus the water of life or not Revelation 21 5 says and he that sat upon the throne said behold

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I make all things new and he said unto me it is done I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end

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I will give unto him that is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely that's what

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God would say to such a person who would try to blame his lost state on the fact that he was not chosen

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God would say did you ever hear anyone offer you the free gospel and they would say yes I did and God would say what did you want to do with it what did you choose to do with my son

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Jesus Christ but the fearful and the unbelieving you see there's where it comes if you choose to not believe if you remain in a state of unbelieving and are abominable in God's sight murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers idolaters, all liars that pretty well takes in all the human race especially when you hit the word liar shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death everyone in this room can do what they wish to do this morning do you wish to drink of the water of life have you done so already if not do you wish to or do you wish to choke on the dust of desert, the desert place of existence without God where no water is

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Jesus already knew Simon's name before Simon knew Jesus as we saw this morning so it's interesting as we study salvation by imparted life and imputed righteousness both in earth time or by belief but also in earth time the only way that a depraved human being can believe is if he is drawn by the

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Father and taught of God it's the only way that it can work it's the only way that it ever has worked still the way it works today when you go out witnessing you have a burden for the lost and we should all have that burden you cannot save anyone and the reason is because your personality and your technique and soul winning is not going to draw them to Jesus if anything will turn them the other way that's impossible too by the way but it's not going to draw them to Jesus you can give the good news as we've given it this morning the good news is you can't save yourself it's all in God God is active it is

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God who brings us from darkness into light the reason that's such wonderful news is once you have it you can't lose it if it's

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God that did it but you can't do the drawing all you can do is the telling you can't do the saving all you can do is have the burden and the tears and pray you can't do the teaching they have to hear from God so when you go and you do the telling and the person does not fall on his knees and weep and receive

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Jesus into his heart don't go away feeling that you're a failure because you've done your part you've spread some seeds someone else may come along and water and if that is a lost sheep the next person who waters

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God may open his ears and at that point he will see the irresistible Jesus and be saved

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I know many of you do have a heart and a burden for the lost if you go by what you've been taught through the years you'll feel a miserable failure because you've been taught that if you don't go you're going to send the soul to hell my bible says fear not he that can destroy the body but fear he that can destroy the soul there's only one of him and that's

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God you can't send the soul to hell so be relieved of that that is not your responsibility your responsibility is to tell the wonderful news of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ the

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Holy Spirit will move as the wind blows where it listed he will move upon people some of them will be irresistibly saved others will be damned and lost forever because they chose in their heart not to believe they did not want to believe they did not want to drink of the water of life they wanted nothing to do with the

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Lord Jesus Christ and they are responsible you can't change any of that all you can do is obey and go and witness you can pray that the

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Lord would allow you to be in the presence of a lost sheep when he gets saved that's a blessing and then perhaps be able to disciple that person in days to come you know

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Jesus the only time that we see recorded that great multitudes of his followers turned away from him was the day that he taught that God the

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Father was in control of who gets saved and who doesn't that was the day that's the day the crowd got small that's the day he asked his own twelve will you leave also and Simon Peter said yeah we would if we could find someone else but we can't find anyone else who has the words of eternal life so we're staying but you know that same group is the group, that little group is the group that turned the world upside down with the gospel those who will say that a

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Calvinist will never witness he'll just sit and wait and see if people walk in the back door that's ridiculous because all of the followers of Jesus are the only ones who didn't leave that day when

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Jesus taught God was in control they're the ones who stayed therefore they're the ones who witnessed they're the only ones that did the witnessing you wouldn't be sitting here this morning saved if it weren't for the fact that they witnessed to someone who witnessed to someone who penned on the human side some bible or printed some bible or did something for the

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Lord on the human side that allowed you to see the gospel and then God drew you to Jesus by the gospel which includes human hands if it weren't for that little group of on fire witnesses so it's a total lie that you can't both believe in the sovereignty of God and be a powerful witness the great

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Spurgeon known as the prince of preachers was a Calvinist he would not even allow

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Armenians to come to his bible college it's written in the rules of the bible college I've got them at home

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I've read them he wouldn't let them come because he didn't want them to argue over that he was one of the greatest soul winners that ever lived that we have recorded in history he said

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God didn't paint a yellow stripe down their backs so I don't know who the elect are so I witness and he witnessed with a fervor so let's rejoice in the fact that it's

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God who's in control let's stand if you're a person this morning and you've heard this message and you don't know if you're saved or not you don't know if you've received

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Jesus you're not sure you have you think perhaps you haven't then you need to realize that God works on people even before they come to the place in time of their salvation if you sense

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God working on you if you have a conscience that's bothered by a sermon like this a conscience that's bothered by having rejected

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Jesus that's a good sign it's not a bad sign that's a sign that the

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Lord is working in your life all you have to do is receive

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Jesus as your own in your heart tell him you want him to be your

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Lord your boss tell him you want Jesus to be in your life for the whole rest of your life and in the day that you do that is your day in time when you became a born again child of God what we call a saved sheep you belong to Jesus from that day forward let's pray

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Father we thank you for your word we thank you for your marvelous plan of salvation we thank you that you work in our lives in time to open our eyes more and more to see the things of you and to understand more of you as you reveal yourself to each of us individually and as a group together at times like this we thank you for your the depth of the riches of your grace that you would send your own son to this earth to die at the hands of sinners to give his blood for us we cannot comprehend this but we can thank you that you opened our eyes to the beauty of it and may we dwell on that thought today and this week.

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Father bless our conversation our fellowship and our meal together and we thank you for the food we're about to have in Jesus name.