The Here I Stand Theology Podcast "The Doctrines of Grace - Total Depravity"

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The Here I Stand Theology Podcast "The Doctrines of Grace - Total Depravity"

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Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.
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Will you recant or will you not? Since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply,
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I will answer. Unless I am convinced by scripture and by plain reason, and not by popes and councils who have so often contradicted themselves, my conscience is captive to the word of God.
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To go against conscience is neither right nor safe. I cannot and I will not recant.
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Here I stand. I can do no other.
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God help me. We are going to be discussing the doctrines of grace in this series.
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Primarily today, our focus will be on total depravity. With that being said, let's go ahead and bring
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BG in. Here we are. Hey, here I am. We're on old -timey
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TV. Absolutely. It's a pleasure to be here in the past. Well, since we're talking about old theology,
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I figured we might as well go back as far as we could electronically. Right, right, exactly.
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Now it works. I like it a lot. This is in living color. Yeah, on these good old -timey
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CRT televisions. These are the ones where we were, or actually, probably not we, it's probably before our time, where our grandparents were the remotes.
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If you wanted the channel changed. I remember our
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TV, one of them that we had had the two knobs, and you got to get up and turn the knobs.
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And the other one, a friend of mine, he had one of those fancy 13 -button boxes that had the buttons to change the channel.
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And it had a cord, so you could sit somewhat far back and change the channel.
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That was the fancy times. And then just whack the side of it if you wanted to be clear.
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It's not coming in, hit it a few times. If you want high def, whack it twice. Draw straws to see who has to climb up onto the roof to turn the antenna.
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Exactly. Man. I'm not kidding. This is all organic conversation.
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And I'm liking this because that made me remember, how did you go up on the roof to do that?
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We fortunately had, we never ended up with the antenna personally.
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We had cable, so things were great. Another friend of mine, they had an antenna, but they had outside at the base, the hand cranks.
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And so you could crank it to adjust, to make major adjustments. Other than that, we did have a
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TV with rabbit ears. And so you're over there, you know, trying. And then when you're the unlucky one, who gets the good signal because you touched it, you're not allowed to sit back down.
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And so you're like watching the thing like this the whole time. So, so yeah. Yeah, I remember literally climbing up the antenna pole, 10 and 15 feet with your feet against the wall, like your
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Batman climbing up the side of the building in the old episodes. I remember that. All right.
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So I'm Claude. I'm the Happy Calvinist. This is Brother Gregory. We are back again for the second installment of this series on the doctrines of grace.
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And so tonight we are going to be discussing total depravity.
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We are going to do our best to biblically define total depravity.
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We are going to be talking about the converse of total depravity, which is the
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Arminian view, Pelagianism, and semi -Pelagianism as well.
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We're going to be getting a lot of history tonight. Greg's going to be talking to us about the
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Augustinian and Pelagian controversy, which really, this is, this kind of goes back to the root of the argument here.
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Yeah, this is not a new topic as far as the church is concerned. So what is total depravity,
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Greg? Oh, boy. So total depravity. The simplest example and the simplest answer is that we are dead in our sin, that the state of unregenerate man is death, that we are dead in our sin, dead in our trespasses and our transgressions, whatever
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English word you want when you translate those Greek words. But we are dead.
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That is total depravity, meaning that there is no goodness in us which we can leverage for our own salvation in any part.
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The little footnote, of course, is don't go too far and make it universal as a description of all creation.
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We have total depravity, but we are not thoroughly evil.
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We exist. God created us and all things. If you go too far, if you abuse, if you will, the concept of total depravity, you end up in the heresy of Gnosticism, which is that the physical is all evil and only the spiritual is good.
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And that is not what we're saying. That's not what Scripture says.
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But Scripture is clear. We are dead in our trespasses. So as a matter of our standing with God for justifications, in the context of justification, we are dead.
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Exactly. And I think another term that we might interchange with total depravity is the term radical depravity, as you said.
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Radical depravity might be Steve Lawson in an article on Ligonier .com.
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Actually, him and R .C. Sproul really went to changing the letters of the acronym in TULIP.
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So they use the terms which are very, very good. They are not that we have to make it more palatable, but they are more palatable terms.
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Radical depravity, sovereign election when it comes to unconditional election, sovereign election, limited atonement, definite atonement, irresistible call, they left the same effectual call, and then, of course, the perseverance of the saints, the doctrine of perseverance of the saints.
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But they use the term preserving grace, which is synonymous. Really, when we get to that, we'll be talking about that.
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But radical depravity is a good term to use if you're speaking with friends or family members that are anti -reformed theology, anti -Calvinist.
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Right, that attempt to just change the term to sneak it into conversation without people immediately shutting it down.
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Yeah, no, I get it. Every few years, just make up a new term for it.
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So if we are to understand total depravity, the
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Scriptures teach, and what we're speaking about is salvificly primarily, right, when we're talking about this, because this is really a soteriological.
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The doctrines of grace are really aimed at soteriology. Right, right, right, which is why
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I also brought up that issue of Gnosticism. So salvation, the term salvation includes justification and sanctification.
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So when we speak of salvation, it is the one time and then the continual.
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Acts of God, grace of God. When you get into the tulip, the
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Armenian Calvinist debate, initially, it's not about matters of sanctification.
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It's not even about matters of is an unbeliever capable of what one would define as righteous acts by human standards, mind you.
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It's really about that initial point, that justification. And so total depravity is a matter of in one's standing with God, one has no ability to, by his own merit or abilities, save himself or choose to be saved.
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So that's total depravity. It is, again, not to say that no man is, you know, incapable of giving food to his children.
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Everyone has God's common grace in that area, or else all of humanity would just implode.
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But yeah, so this is a matter of salvation. This is a matter of justification.
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And so some of the key texts, what would you say are some of the key scripture texts that point us to total or radical depravity?
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So and with that, and we can, excuse me, we can go to the so wonderfully written and poorly organized
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Canons of Dort. And which says you,
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I look like, I mean, like a, a better, a better table of contents would have at least been helpful.
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So, so, because again, it's one of those, how do you, how do you reference it cleanly?
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The third and fourth heads of doctrine. So that's your, your main point. And then we skip past the articles and we go right into the rejections.
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Rejection four. And so I'll read the rejection and then the response to it. And for a little bit of background, just as far as the proceedings for the
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Synod of Dort, the Canons of Dort are a record of really that, that discussion, that debate, that analysis addressing the points of Arminianism.
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And so it is written out so that you have articles that they wrote, which are the reformed biblical
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Orthodox understanding of scripture. And then after their articles of faith, they go into the rejections where they write out what the
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Arminian view is, and then they respond directly to it with scripture. So rejection number four under this header says, so this, this is the state, the
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Arminian statement, the Arminian belief. That the unregenerate man is not really or utterly dead in sin, nor destitute of all powers unto spiritual good, but that he can yet hunger and thirst after righteousness and life, and offer the sacrifice of a contrite and broken spirit, which is pleasing to God.
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So that would be the statement which is being rejected. And it is rejected on these grounds, for these are contrary to the express testimony of scripture, quote, who were dead in their trespasses and sin, even when we were dead in sins,
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Ephesians 2, 1, and 5. And every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,
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Genesis 6, 5. And for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth,
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Genesis 8, 21. And then there, we continue, just, you know, for sake of completeness.
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Moreover, to hunger and thirst after deliverance from misery and after life, and to offer unto
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God the sacrifice of a broken spirit is peculiar to the regenerate and to those that are called blessed.
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Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
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Then shalt thou be pleased with me, or with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
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Then shall they offer bollocks upon their altar, Psalms 51, 10 and 19. And then finally, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled,
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Matthew 5, 6. Yeah, if you would get that. Would you like me to get that? Yes, please. Get the epilepsy filled?
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Before I start jerking the new age in. Okay. Yeah, just turn it.
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Yeah. Right, right. We're good with that. All right. Technical difficulties are fun. I'll try to find a good technical difficulty screen there.
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Go ahead. So that being the argument in point, you know, addressing those two issues, just in that one rejection in the
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Canons of Dort, that we are literally and quite plainly expressed as being dead in our sin, dead in our trespasses.
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There are other scriptures which describe us as the enemies of God. So there is a wealth of scripture on that topic.
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And the root, it all traces back in Genesis chapter 3.
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The scripture says the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field the Lord God had made. He said to the woman,
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Did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent,
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We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.
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But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
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So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
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Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons or loincloths.
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And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
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Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and he said,
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Where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.
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He said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?
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The man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate.
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Excuse making. They don't work. Then the Lord God said to the woman, What is that that you have done?
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And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. And the Lord God said to the serpent,
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Because you have done this, cursed are you above all animals and above all beasts of the field, and on your belly you shall go, and dust shall you eat all the days of your life.
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I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.
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He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. So the root of the problem goes back to the garden.
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This is the doctrine of original sin. And really, the doctrine of original sin is the doctrine that is denied in Pelagianism.
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Right. Right. And that is one of those other points, which we see less of in modern
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Arminianism. And that's, again, the thing to keep in mind, that modern
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Arminians are not first -generation Arminians, because that matter of original sin was brought up and evaluated within the
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Synod of Dort. There are points, there are articles and rejections on that.
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In fact, that is, I believe that's the first, yeah, the first rejection in this header is addressing the fact that the
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Arminians denied original sin. Because if you can deny original sin, then you're good.
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Right? Because then it's not your fault. It's the woman who, you know, and I love that quick double blame that Adam does.
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It's not just that he blames Eve, the woman, he blames God, too. The woman you gave me.
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You know, it's like, it's not my fault. You gave me a defective woman. And I'm like, wow, there you go.
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Let's blame God for your sin. But yeah, and article two, you know, addresses that.
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Specifically, man after the fall begat children in his own likeness, a corrupt stock produced a corrupt offspring.
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Hence, all the posterity of Adam, Christ only accepted, have derived corruption from their original parent.
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Not by imitation, as the Pelagians of old asserted, but by progenation of a vicious nature.
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And so again, and we have, we have this continuously stupid debate within psychology between nature versus nurture.
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Which, you know, more reasons why I don't like psychology is that they reject all of scripture and then try to solve the soul on their own.
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But anyway, that's a whole different topic. But that idea of nature versus nurture is a
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Pelagian argument that we are not by nature evil. We learn it. We imitate evil, you know, almost to say that we are taught evil.
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And Augustine writes beautifully about infants and how you can see evil even at infancy.
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And one of his, and I'll paraphrase, as I always do with Augustine, because he's, he's, he's too good for me to, to, to quote directly.
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But he even wrote that, you know, as an infant, it is not that I didn't grab something that I wanted, but was not my own because I did not have envy, but because I lacked the strength in my arms to do so.
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You know, and it is one of those, you can see jealousy, even in infants. No one teaches us how to be evil.
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That's the truth. That is the truth. Sorry, I had a lapse there for just a moment there.
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I was, it's like I was processing everything that you said. What are we talking about? Don't worry.
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I don't process what I say either. I just speak. No, I mean, I was listening, but I was just trying to,
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I was trying to think with it there too. So, so with the, the, the, the converse of total depravity, which is a
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Pelagianism, right? In a nutshell, give us kind of a succinct, maybe two or three minute, kind of a summary of the, really, it was a battle.
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Right. Between Augustine and Pelagian, correct? Right, right. So, and, and the, the fun part of history is that Pelagius denied that he was the one who kind of started what then took on his, his name, though, and people, critics of Augustine attributed it to being
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Augustine, that Augustine blamed. If you will, Pelagius for, for these beliefs, but he didn't really, you know, believe that, so to speak.
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But I'll, I'll go with my man, Augustine on this one. So, so the dispute as, as in good, you know,
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Augustinian fashion, everything that he wrote was really a wonderful form of apologetics.
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And he, he just went at everything beautifully. But one of the issues was between him and, and Pelagius.
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And the main argument between the two was, again, on the natural state of man because of the fall.
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And so, and that was, you know, that whole point to which one of, one of Augustine's other famous quotes,
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Pelagius hated, which, you know, was when Augustine said, you know, give us, give us all that you will and ask of us all that you give, you know, to that effect.
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Saying that the Lord will ask, the Lord will provide exactly what he then asks of us.
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Meaning that we have nothing to give, but we first receive, and then we give back unto the
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Lord. Really putting into that, which bothered Pelagius on this, because Pelagius believed we have something good already to offer, before receiving from God, that there is some inherent righteousness within man to which
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Augustine outright and correctly refused and refuted. And so that was really one of your, your, your early debates.
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And so Pelagianism and Orthodox Christianity have existed within the, the
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Christian church for, I mean, for most of, most of her history.
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So this is, this is nothing new at all. It's just gone into much finer detail because of the, the canons of Dort.
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There was, and the, the, because of Arminius, and then subsequently the canons of Dort, it brought a lot of clarity to these points.
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But the, the general debate has been, has been raging for some time. Yeah. And it's continued to this day, still yet continues.
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This is exactly why we need to continue to stick to the scriptures themselves.
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So there is always a progression. Would you say, Greg, there is always a progression.
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So people, when they find out that the Pelagian view will, will say, well,
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I don't want to go that far and say that man is born neutral, because that's basically what
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Pelagius taught, right? A neutral state where you basically tip one way or the other. Once you get a certain age, it's almost as if you can grow into sin.
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But like you said, there's no growing into sin. We're, we're born sinners.
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People clearly do not have children. Exactly. Exactly. But so the progression is then to say, well,
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I won't say that we're born neutral. I'll say that we're mostly good in some bad.
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Therefore, that little bit of goodness within us is what makes us be able to respond savingly to God.
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Now there's a term for what I just described. What is that term? Right. Well, in that, that later becomes known as prevenient grace.
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So because full -on Pelagianism is heresy,
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I mean, straight up, you then had this sort of drift to what is known as semi Pelagianism, which so rather than say, man is fully good and righteous and then becomes corrupt or evil.
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You can say, well, man is partially good, you know, partially evil, whatever, whatever mixture you want in there.
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So you have semi Pelagianism, which is sure we're, we're evil and corrupt, but they're still good enough in us to, to, you know, to get saved, if you will, to choose, to choose to elect
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Jesus King. And then the, but the, the fancy and later philosophical term, mind you, it's not theological concept.
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It is a philosophical concept is prevenient grace. It's a way really, it's a way for Armenians to still be able to affirm
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God's grace as necessity for salvation. So it's a way to use the word grace, but have a different meaning ascribed to it.
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And so that's why most Armenians will genuinely.
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And honestly, as far as they understand the terms to be say, well, of course we are saved by grace through faith.
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Grace is necessary. But they're not speaking of Orthodox biblical grace.
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They're speaking of prevenient grace. And so prevenient grace is this measure of grace given to all men by God, enabling them to choose
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Christ. So it's, it's, it's just enough. It's a measure of faith given to enable them to choose
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God. So, yeah, it's, which is not only problematic biblically, but problematic even just logically, there are, there are still a whole host of problems with prevenient grace.
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Yeah. Cart before the horse. Right. So, I mean, and as far as a total depravity goes,
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I mean, really, that's the, that's the one doctrine, really, that both.
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And when we use, again, we, we want to make a distinction and make it clear that when we say that's, that's an idea and a terminology that typically the
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Armenian has, and then we'll talk about Calvinistic view. When we're talking about the
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Calvinistic view, again, we want to make this clear. Calvin did not come up and invent these doctrines.
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Augustine did not invent these doctrines. These are the doctrines taught in the scriptures.
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Spurgeon said at one point in his, in his lifetime, he said, when, when
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I say Calvinism, Calvinism is simply a nickname for the gospel because it, it goes back.
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It's, it's the apostolic truth taught by the apostles. It's the historical truth that we see from beginning to end in the 66 books of the old and the
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New Testament. So when we talk about reformed theology, we are not, we are not talking about a systematic theology created by Augustine, by Calvin, by Spurgeon, by any of the great men of God throughout church history, but we are simply referring to the word of God itself.
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right, exactly. And, and that is, and that's really one of those points.
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It's, it's the summary of whoever has scripture wins. And with the reformed, and it's one of those,
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I'm, I'm not of the reformed traditions because I like them, though.
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I do absolutely like them, but there is of course a danger and even having tradition become an idol.
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The reason why I'm reformed is because the reformed tradition can read through scripture plainly and in context with, as with, with very little issue.
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When you start to qualify scripture as you read it, then there's a problem.
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If you can't just read the whole book of John, the book of Ephesians, the book of Galatians or Romans, when you can't just read through these without having to try to qualify, well, it might, it doesn't really mean that it's, there's this and, you know, and all of this,
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Mike, you're, it's, it's falling apart. And you see that when you have, you know, it's like have, have an
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Arminian preacher just preach through Romans eight through 11. Quite honestly, there'll be a lot of, there'll be a lot of footnotes on, on those sermons.
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He had a whole lot of caveats to the point where some people even try to like say, well, it would be better if you actually read it this part first.
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And then these other scriptures, I'm like, did you just rearrange? I'm like, did you really, is that your argument is to rearrange it?
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So, but when you, when you approach scripture from the reformed, you know, the reformed understanding of it, you, you read it as it is, you read it, you know, the verse in context of the chapter and the chapter in context of the book and the book in context of the entirety of scripture.
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Yeah. And the reformed tradition can do that quite well.
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You know, as opposed to other more modern concepts, which, which arguably fall apart very quickly.
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So, so this is, this likely this episode is a shorter one.
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But it is, it is short for the reason that it is so direct.
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The real challenges, the real depths that we need to, that we will be plumbing in the scriptures as we move along throughout the doctrines of grace will be these next ones that we, that we tackle, which will be unconditional election.
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Everybody, everybody hates that. Again, if you want to be thinking ahead on that, it can be called a sovereign election.
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That map, that's a much more palatable term with the same truth, packs the same punch.
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It still states the same thing that God sovereignly chooses and elects those whom he has determined from whom the father has given him from all eternity.
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So we'll get into that. Any closing remarks, Greg, that you'd like to add on the doctrine of total depravity?
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On the doctrine of total depravity. Yeah. Cause we mentioned prevenient grace, which plays a role with total depravity.
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But yeah, I guess really the, the fleshing out of that comes in. Well, I mean,
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I can, I can do just a couple more points on it since the, the, the main header of the
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Armenian issue was on the will of man and the will of man, assuming that the will of man has some righteousness or then by, by prevenient grace.
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And to not just say, oh, there are problems with it and then gloss over and kind of carry on. But sort of to summarize a couple of the problems with prevenient grace that, and the canons of door bring this up.
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And I thought it was one of them being a very fantastic point that if, if salvation is dependent upon human will, human choice, then there is a possibility that no one would have chosen to be saved, which means the death of Christ would have been for nothing.
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So the, which, which is why historically the, the Protestants, the reformed
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Christians had no problem branding Armenians as heretics. We are a lot less zealous on that now, but I think that's because the reformed are in the minority and it's difficult to call almost every
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Christian, you know, a heretic because when, when you're the minority, you know, it's, it's hard when you, when you just want to just give you like, you know what?
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Everybody's a heretic. So I, but, but they had no problem. I mean, you know, the reformed, they, so for, you know what, about 300 years of reformed history, there was no problem saying, well, yeah, of course,
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Arminianism is heresy. It's semi -Pelagianism. That's absolutely heresy. To, to say that God would have done something that would have accomplished nothing is to lie about the nature of God.
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Correct. Also, you know, also to say you hit the, finally, that, that point of if prevenient grace enables a man to be saved, then why are some saved and others not?
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Because either the blame lays with God, God did not give them enough faith. God did not ordain the circumstances in just the right way for everyone to be saved.
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So that would be to say that God either didn't know how much faith to give, which would be to reject the omniscience of God, which even
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Arminians would, wouldn't do. So either God did not know how much faith or what conditions would be necessary.
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But since Arminians won't even go there, then God did know. So then did he just not give enough faith is the failing with God, or did
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God know how to arrange the circumstances, but then chose not to. So then still that is
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God's fault. But if you're not willing to, you know, to say that about God, then it must be upon the individual.
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And now, no matter how you want to try to dodge it, you are now entering into merit based salvation, which the apostle
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Paul writes explicitly against says we are not saved by our own merit. Because why do some choose and others do not?
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Why do some reject Christ and others choose Christ? What makes, you know, what makes them, is it, is it, is it education?
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Is it, you know, some capability? Is it the amount of money that they have, which, which is very, you know, it, depending on what church you go to, that might be the excuse given.
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Only the rich get saved, which, which is directly contrary to what Christ said. So he said something to the, what was that?
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It's easier for the camel to go through, through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
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Right. You know, mega churches shouldn't exist. So, but the, you know, you, you end up in that issue of if it's up to man, why then do some and not others?
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Unless and, you know, because then, then, I mean, best case scenario, you're now engaging in arrogance.
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I was good enough to choose Christ. I figured it out. And then the one area that you can kind of go, but at that point you might as well hop the fence into Calvinism.
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If you say that no matter the amount of faith or circumstances, someone was always going to choose to reject
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Christ. Like that sounds a lot like predestination if they were always going to reject
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Christ. But then, and this is, so not only is it just plagianism right out, but the destruction it then causes to the church is because then men tried to answer that question.
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Well, why do some, well, let's figure that out. Let's solve that problem. And then you end up with the, the, the, the preacher wasn't charismatic enough.
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Yep. You know, the, the worship service wasn't engaging enough. And so we need the, you know, slick haircut, well built, good voice.
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Look how charismatic I am. You know, I'm going to make this a very palpable sermon, you know, not a lot of scripture because people get bored with that.
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And, you know, and we're going to have, we're going to have our worship leader because apparently the pastor's not the leader of worship, which just blows my mind, which he is right.
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We're going to have the worship leader back there playing a soft thing on the piano, set the mood, dim the lighting.
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I mean, you, you get into this formula, form you the formula of trying to formulate.
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Thank you. Yes. Of trying to get people saved. And then we pervert and we twist the bride of Christ to try to, you know, to win people over.
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And of course the other extreme is yelling at people on the, on the street corner to get them saved. Although that one actually has far more biblical backing than the, than the, than the mega church.
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There's a time and a place to yell at people, to repent for kingdom is nigh. I straight preach.
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So yes, I, Oh no, I'm, I am all for it. I am all for it. I love that.
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So we, we need more soapbox preachers. As long as you, as long as your declaration of you're all on your way to hell is because you don't want people to go there, then, then, then you're doing it right.
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Quick side note. Yeah. On that last night, I listened to a sermon by Josh boss from the
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G G three conference, the most recent one there in there in Georgia. But he, he shared the testimony of being at a conference years and years ago, where the conference meeting led out and they were walking down the street and he saw a street preacher down the street.
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And he was just curious about, you know, the preacher. Well, the closer that he got to the preacher, he found out that they were from Westboro Baptist church.
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Now Westboro Baptist church has a bad rep, right? They may call themselves a church, but they preach and proclaim.
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Hey, that's all they do. I'll say that. So he, he, he, he said, he noticed
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Josh by said, he noticed that every time the light changed the preacher and it was a preacher and his son there that the preacher was just preaching.
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You're going to hell. You're going to hell. You're going to hell. And he never proclaimed the good news of the gospel.
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Right? So he decided that the next time the light changed, he would give that preacher a chance to do his bit.
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And then he just went to preach in the gospel. So they went back and forth like that for a couple of times.
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And finally he said the, the Westboro Baptist guy just packed his stuff up and left. But the point being this, that there needs to be a balance.
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There's a balance between judgment and mercy. There's a judge, there's a balance between law and grace that always needs to be had when we are proclaiming the gospel.
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Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, and it's, you know, it's even easy in that tendency when you're going through and to, to partial quote scripture and say for the wages of sin is death.
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And then you stop there because that, that has the impact. So let's end there. But I'm like, but scripture doesn't end there.
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Scripture does not end with the law. It ends with the cross. It actually, and it continues on from there in the gospel.
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You know? So it's not just the wages of sin is death. It's like, well, yes, that's true, but it, but it continues on with, you know, with the cross and with the gospel, with Christ.
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So you, you can't forget the law. You can't skip over that, which reveals our sin.
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Christ even said that said before I came, they were without sin. Now that I am here, they know that they are sinners, which is why they hate me.
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So Christ, who is the law, the word of God came not to condemn the world, but in him, there was judgment because the righteousness of God was made manifest in his very being and all that he did and all that he proclaimed because he obeyed the commandment that he received from his father.
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And so that is the, the, the judgment. But he did not come to condemn, but through him, the world might be saved.
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So there was judgment in that the law was proclaimed in Christ. Just read the sermon of the mound.
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That is not the gospel. That is the reiteration of the law. It is not good news to know that if you lust after a woman, you are guilty of adultery.
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That's not good news. It is not good news to be perfect as God is perfect because we can't.
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The good news is in the death, burial and resurrection in Christ that he is the resurrection.
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So we, we can't and we should not weaponize the law.
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We should not weaponize scripture. The gospel is already a sword, but it is not one that just kills it cuts, but it also then renews.
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It regenerates. It is what gives life. It is that Christ gives life through the proclamation of the gospel.
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But it's, it is human tendency to want to just to judge the world.
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But Christ didn't judge the world. The apostles didn't judge the world. Paul said, what business do
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I have in condemning those outside of the church? We are to proclaim with love and with mercy and in truth, these things to the world.
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That means the law, but you don't end there. There's no, there's no salvation in the law.
44:53
Amen. The law was a schoolmaster. Paul said that to bring us to Christ, right?
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For we are, we're under governors and tutors beforehand, right? Right. Praise the Lord. So let's anything else?
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Um, boy on topic. No. So I think, I think I'm good with that.
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Um, I got all, I got all that I wanted on prevenient grace in and, and, and out of there.
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Um, and, uh, no. And we ended on, we ended on a positive note.
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You proclaim the gospel brother. That's where we always end on a positive note. That's what we want to.
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So let's, and let's finish with the scripture here. Uh, again, just to top things off, Paul writing to the
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Ephesian church said this, you were dead in trespasses and sins. And once you once walked following the course of this world, following the
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Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now is at work in the sons of disobedience. I just heard my country accent.
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I always hear your country accent. Among whom we all lived once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind.
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And we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us.
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Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ for by grace, you have been saved and raised up with him and seated with a seated us.
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He has seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and his kindness toward us.
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For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.
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It is the gift of God, not of results, so that not of work, so that any man may boast for we are his workmanship created unto good works in Christ Jesus, which
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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So there you go. There's a closing text, which was also a teaser for the next episode.
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We ask that you tune in and be with us. Thank you all so much for taking the time. Any questions that you have, be sure and shoot them to us on Facebook.
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I'm Claude Ramsey. You can get me there. You can get me at Here I Stand Theology Podcast on the group page.
47:23
I encourage you to join the group. Go over to YouTube, ring the bell, like the page, subscribe to the page so that you will get notified when we put out new content like this.
47:35
Go over to Unmerited Favor on YouTube. Make sure and like Greg's podcast page there.
47:43
He is breaking down the Confessions of Augustine at this time. It is good listening to this.
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It will encourage your heart and your mind and will nourish your soul when listening to the things that are said there.