Ministry's Only Hope: Election (part 6) - [Ephesians 1:4ff]

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Election (part 7) - Making Your Election More Sure [2 Peter 1]

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I don't know if you read this in the news, February 13th from the Associated Press.
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Brussels, Belgium. An animal lover was mauled to death by cheetahs after entering their cage at a zoo in northern
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Belgium, authorities and zoo officials said Monday. Karen Eerts, 37, of Antwerp, was found dead in the cage, the spokesman said.
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Authorities believe Eerts, a regular visitor to the zoo, hid in the park late
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Sunday until it closed and managed to find the keys of the cheetah cage. Karen loved animals.
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Unfortunately, the cheetahs betrayed her trust, the zoo director said. One of the cats that killed
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Eerts was named Bongo, whom the woman had adopted under a special program. She paid for Bongo's food.
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I'm not trying to laugh, this is serious, allegedly.
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Animal rights groups called for the immediate closure of the zoo located 55 miles north of Brussels.
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I have several comments, but the main issue is that that cheetah was acting according to its own nature.
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It was acting cheetah -like. It was acting cheetah -ish. And all of a sudden this lady, sadly, believes that the cheetah somehow is a domesticated feline and she was mistaken because cheetahs act like cheetahs.
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Which leads me to this morning's message. The great news for us is, even though we act like our nature before we were saved, even though we act like unbelievers, we acted like ungodly, that is, not like God, unlike God, God was so pleased to send
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His Son to save us and to redeem us and to buy us in spite of our very own nature.
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And that's what we're going to look at this morning. That God, the God of the universe, loved us enough to save us.
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And when I mean salvation, I mean more than Jesus died in our place.
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Of course I mean that. When you're first saved, you think of salvation as Jesus died for me.
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The B -I -B -L -E, that's the book for me, and I know that Jesus loves me, He died for me, and we know that, and that's good, and that's right, and that is foundational.
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But as we begin to study the Bible, we start to put all the pieces together and we realize salvation is a bigger word.
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It contains more than just the idea that Jesus died for me. And that the plan of salvation, which includes
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Christ's substitutionary death in the place of sinners, also includes the
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Spirit of God regenerating us. He quickens us. He makes us new. But it also includes the
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Father before time choosing us. And so when I think of salvation,
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I don't just think of Jesus dying in my place. I think of God the Father choosing me, the
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Son dying for me, the Spirit quickening me, and that does what? It increases my praise.
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It doesn't stifle it. I think, wow, just as I begin to see the different facets of the salvation diamond,
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I think it only increases my praise. And as you mature in Christ, you'll see that salvation is more than just Jesus died for me.
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And as A .W. Tozer would say, when you think of God, what's the first thing that comes into your mind? And he would say, the first thing that comes into your mind is the most important thought.
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And when you think of God, what do you think of? And it is this series, part 62 this morning on the sermons of election.
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I want to try to get under your skin so that you will say, because of the corpus of Scripture, the body of the
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Word of God, will not let me just push election to the side, but it will make me think about it.
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So when I think of God, I think about the Father's electing love, the Son's dying love, and the
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Spirit's regenerating, sealing love. When you think about God, I want to have that whole plan come into your mind.
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Therefore, we've been going quite a few weeks on election. I hope to finish, not this Sunday, but the next time
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I preach. James White will be here next week. Then I'll be gone for Shepherd's Conference. And so we'll try to finish it up, whatever that March date is.
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Southern Baptists define election this way, election is God's eternal choice of persons unto everlasting life, not because of foreseen merit in them, but of his mere mercy in Christ, in consequence of which choice they are called, justified, and glorified.
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That is music to my ears. Why don't we pray before we start, and then we'll get into the text. Father, thank you this morning that you have loved us, as Jeremiah said, with an everlasting love.
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Thank you that you were so pleased to not let us stay in the state in which we found ourselves, by our own choice and by Adam's, but you sent your
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Son to rescue us, to deliver us. And Lord, we would acknowledge this morning that in modern terms of seek and rescue, or seek and recover, it was a seek and recover mission.
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For Father, we could not do anything to please you, we could not offer up anything that might merit your love or affection, but God, who's rich in mercy.
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Thank you for that this morning. And Lord, we would ask that as a congregation and as a people, that through this series, we might esteem you more.
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We might say Jesus Christ is wonderful, the Father is excellent, and the Spirit of God is glorious.
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Father, this morning we'd ask that you'd help us to push everything to the side. Our thoughts about finances and health and what we have to do today and this week.
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We just want to think properly about you. We want to think about you in biblical terms. And we'd ask your
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Spirit to work on our minds and our hearts today that we might think biblically about you.
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And Lord, would you push away any pride that we might have of some system or some teacher that has taught us anything contrary to the
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Scripture. And may we think according to the Spirit's revelation this morning in his name we pray, amen.
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Well, this morning we're in the process of looking at 20 questions about election. 20 questions, and I've geared them in such a way that they're trying to answer objections as we go.
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In other words, people will say, well, what about this? What about that? And I've just made those my questions. And then we've looked through basically
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Ephesians 1 verses 4 to 6 and Romans 8 to find out what the
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Bible teaches about this topic that really is everywhere. You start looking around Scripture and before you know it, don't you find this everywhere?
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You can't read the Bible very long without thinking God is a sovereign, in charge
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God. And he's not just sovereign over weather, but he's sovereign also whether or not people go to heaven or not.
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And so we've looked at 20 questions. I'm not going to give you a big review today. I've done that plenty of times. But just let me give you the first 12 questions.
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I know you're supposed to have three points in a poem, but I've got 20 questions. And today I'm going to give you a quick review on the 12, ultra fast.
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And then today my goal is to look at questions 13 through 18. I know it's going to be difficult, but we're going to try 13.
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Chris is in the back shaking his head. 13 through 18, then we'll have 19 and 20 left over.
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And my purpose again this morning is that we think properly about this doctrine that so many people just want to push to the side because of lots of reasons that we'll talk about later.
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So the first 12 in review go like this. Number one, do you view election as something for mature
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Christians only? We answer that question, it's for all Christians. Number two, and most of these come right from Ephesians 1.
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Do you think election stifle praise? No, it does not. Just like we heard about that song today, and wasn't that a rich song about to the praise of the glory of His grace.
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That's what election should elicit. Number three, do you think that all
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Christians believe in election? Answer, yes, it just depends what your definition of election might be.
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Does God look down the quarters of time and choose you based on foreseen merit or faith? Or does
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God look down the quarters of time as it were, see that there's nothing that the person could offer or commend to God, and then
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God in spite of all that chooses to love them anyway? Is it man -centered or God -centered in other words?
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Number five, do you believe election is based on a person's faith? We've answered that many times, that foreknowledge in the
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Bible is not what we think about in American English. It would be to love ahead of time, to know ahead of time.
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Once I start talking about that, I just want to keep going, but it's going to be a quick review. Do you view election as unloving?
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I mean, it is so unloving, isn't it? No, Ephesians 1 says, in love He predestined us. Number seven, in your opinion, is election impersonal and sterile?
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May it never be, because He adopts us as what? Sons, daughters.
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That's not impersonal, that's as personal as you could get. Number eight, in your view, is election grace -based?
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Is it something that you earn, or deserve, or merit, or strive for, or is it completely due to the wondrous grace, the demerited favor of God?
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Number nine, do you believe an unbeliever's will is totally free? We answer that question, if you mean free to do according to your nature, then we would agree with that.
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If you mean free, because Satan doesn't blind, 2 Timothy 2, sin doesn't enslave,
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Romans 6, and God doesn't have authority over, then we would say, no, we don't believe in that kind of free will, because it's not free.
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It may be voluntary, but it's not free to choose right. Number 10, do you believe election inhibits evangelism?
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The answer there was, no, it's great for evangelism, because there's hope. What do you do with China? What do you do with India?
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And we realize that in Acts 13, verse 48, it says, all who are appointed to eternal life, what?
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Believed, and we have the privilege of being God's ambassadors, to give the good news, and all the best missionaries, that from the history of the church, from Adoniram Judson, the first man to leave
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America, from Salem, Massachusetts, to go out and be a missionary, they all believed in this glorious doctrine, that God elects in eternity past.
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Number 11, do you realize that election does not eliminate human responsibility? It doesn't.
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We have God who's sovereign, He's ordained who goes to heaven, He's also ordained how they go, and they go through the preaching of the gospel, through His ambassadors, and through the prayers of the saints.
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Yes? Men and women are responsible, yet God is sovereign. We believe both.
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Number 12, last in review, did you know that it's a sign of maturity, not to force mental closure on these kind of doctrines?
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The only thing we can do is say, here's what's in Revelation, not the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, but here's what's in the revelation of God, what
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He discloses in His mind, from Genesis to Revelation, and we just accept it. We accept it as a
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God who is infinite, telling us people who are finite, and who have still a, here's a good word for you, here's my big word for the day, we still have a harmoniological hangover, we have a sin hangover yet, we have the flesh,
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Paul would say, Romans 6 and 7. Of course we can't get our arms all the way around it, and by the way,
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I'm glad for that. I'm glad that God is God, and this doctrine shows the bigness, and the greatness, and the
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God -ness of God. Question number 13, it's the longest review in my life, did you know that grasping the doctrine of depravity, unlocks the understanding of election?
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Did you know that if you understand man's inability, because of the fall, it opens up the doors for election, because if man cannot do anything of his own, or her own, then
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God has to be the what? Not the responder, but the initiator. It is my estimation, that when we can't understand election, it's because we forget about the fall, and I don't mean
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October in New England. That's always a fun game, when I say a word, you tell me what you think of it, and if you say fall, they'll say
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New England, autumn. This is the fall, this is Adam, in that allegorical book
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Genesis, who allegorically fell, because he, she, you know, it just doesn't work that way.
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No, I read Genesis like Jesus read Genesis, and like Paul reads Genesis.
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One man, one woman, the garden, they fell because of sin, yes?
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And we are in Adam, and we have fallen. Biblical words that describe unbelievers condition, before a thrice holy
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God, I just have a few. Fallen, dead, guilty, corrupt.
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When we understand the depravity of man, we should ask this question, who then could be saved?
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How are we ever going to get to heaven, if this is our condition? We have lost our ability as unbelievers, to somehow do a good, that God would accept to then save us.
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And why don't we turn to Romans chapter 3, what I'd like to do in this question, is to look at a few passages, to remind us, what we were like, before God saved us.
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And this will ensure, that we won't somehow add to God's work, that we will say,
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God had to completely rescue us, we weren't unconscious, we weren't just sick, we were dead.
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As you're turning to Romans chapter 3, I've seen an autopsy in my life, I worked in the operating room for a long time, and was in the operating room a couple of times, when the patient died on the table, and of course as a sales rep,
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I was the first to be escorted out. When the paddles come out, the sales reps leave, and I think rightfully so.
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But then for a hospital chaplaincy class, I had to take a tour of L .A.
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County Medical Center, L .A. County USC Medical Center, where one of the famous coroners of the stars, Thomas Nomaguchi, I think
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Nomaguchi, had his office. And when you walk in for your first autopsy, or probably your 50th autopsy,
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I am just, I was struck, with the deadness of this dead person. This person wanted to die, and so this person who
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I saw, laying there on the table, what was left of them, took a thing of gas, poured the gas on top of their head, poured gas down their throat, and lit the match right here, and then lived for about an hour.
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Died, and then they had the autopsy. That basically is a picture, of an unbeliever before salvation.
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Self -inflicted wounds, by themselves and their own nature, also in God's good wisdom, we are placed in Adam, and what
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Adam did, we would have done, but Adam's decision, is credited to our account, by divine decree, and we are undone.
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We can't pick up the antidote, we can't make ourselves alive, we can't kind of get up, off the table a little bit, and help ourselves out, as God helps us.
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We are dead. Physically, we are alive, but spiritually, we are dead as unbelievers, and we need a savior, we need a champion, we need one who comes and says,
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I can breathe new life into you, like a God who could breathe, into dead bones in Ezekiel, and make them come alive.
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And Romans chapter 3, echoes this deadness of unbelievers, and this book
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Romans, that talks about our righteousness, that we don't have, and the righteousness of Christ, that we need, lays it out.
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As the man doing the autopsy, would open up the patient, to see what's on the inside, this passage opens up, a prim and proper, external unbeliever, who can wear a suit, or a dress, and God shows, with his magnifying glass, what the tissue is really like, on the inside.
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Romans chapter 3, verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all.
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We have already charged, that both Jews and Greeks, are all under sin. And then
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Paul systematically, is showing the unbelievers, need for righteousness. We need to be right, with God.
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And like nails, in the proverbial coffin, he just goes through character, practice, speech, life, everything.
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Look at verse 10. As it is written, and stands written, there is none righteous, what about me?
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Not even one. It's depraved character. Depraved practice, verses 11 and 12.
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There is no one, who understands, these are Old Testament quotes, all capitals in your Bible, most likely. There is none, who seeks for God.
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All have turned aside, together they have become, There is none, who does good, there is not even one.
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People don't want to hear, about these verses anymore, but I say, it is good to remember, who we were, because then it magnifies, the greatness of Christ, doesn't it?
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Kim and I, we first got married, we were flying from Phoenix, to Omaha. Phoenix it was 80 degrees, December 24th.
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And in Omaha, it was minus 20, without wind chill. A 100 degree difference.
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And we got off the plane, and there was a movie, not a movie, there was a TV camera there, interviewing people, and I was interviewed with Kim, to say what it was like, to come from 80 to minus 20, and it was just, such a huge difference.
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Grandma and Grandpa, were alive then. Oh, I saw you on the news. And if you think, you're pretty good, and Jesus saves you, you have pretty good praise.
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If you think, that you were unconscious, and Jesus revived you, you'd be thankful for that CPR.
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But if you think, that you were going the other way, that you were dead, that you had the wrong character, the wrong practice, and then you transpose that, with the goodness of God, your praise goes up.
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My mother used to sell jewelry, and of course, a good jewelry salesman, will take a diamond, and what will they put the diamond on top of, when they sell it to you?
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Black velvet, so you can see the greatness, of the shining, wonderful, effulgent light, coming out of the diamond, against the backdrop of what?
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These verses show, that black backdrop. If your character is bad, and your practice is bad, well, what comes out of your mouth, is linked to your heart, and so, it's obvious, verse 13, their throat is an open grave.
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Just imagine the smell. With their tongues, they keep deceiving. The poison of asps, is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing, and bitterness.
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Do you mean, this kind of person, can contribute something to God, before they're saved? So God says, since you contributed that,
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I'll save you? No. Their lifestyle is the same way.
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As their heart is depraved, their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery, are in their paths, and the path of peace, they have not known.
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Good summary statement, there's no fear of God, before their eyes. Before we're saved, we don't see
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Jesus, and as Edwards would say, see his sweetness, his kindness, we see no beauty in him, we see nothing that would be worthy, of our adoration and praise, and when we see other people do that, we can't figure it out, we don't understand why.
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That's why God has to do something. We don't want to be holy, and God says,
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I'm going to choose you, so that you will be holy. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4, let's look at another passage, to try to anchor in our hearts, and minds again, that if we are this bad, then it will take
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God choosing us, before we were born. He's not going to wait for what we do, because what we have to do is wrong, there's nothing to offer, we are spiritually dead.
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It is the night of the living dead, dead but walking around, zombies.
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Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17, this is an absolute amazing passage, that will not show that men are weakened, our men aren't so bad, this is going to show you that, unless God's grace came to snatch us out of the fire, we would be undone.
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Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17, Paul's writing to Ephesians, he's already talked about how,
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Father, Son and the Spirit are great in chapter 1, and Gentiles are included in chapter 2, and Paul's a minister of the
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Gentiles chapter 3, and then he says of unbelievers, therefore I say, and affirm together with the
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Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles walk. So he's basically saying to these Christians, don't act like a person that you were in the past, you're new and act like it.
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And he describes how people live and act, when they were unbelievers. In the futility of their mind, that's something that's indicative, or a character word for unbelievers.
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Their futile minds, Romans chapter 1 talks about. Can you imagine, when you're an unbeliever, you can't perceive
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God's truth. It goes out and you can't understand it. You can't figure it out.
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Your mind was made to worship God, and your mind's become meaningless, or useless, or worthless.
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It's become empty. Everything's vanity. All your thoughts lead to nothing. Intellectual aimlessness, one man said.
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Another man said it wasn't so kind. Good for nothing. We were meant to worship God with our minds, and our minds do something else.
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Could it be any worse than that? To me, this all speaks of, then God has to do the initiating.
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Verse 18, it gets more complicated. Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.
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Darkened in their understanding. They knew God, small g, plural, but they weren't intimate with the
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God. Couldn't figure it out. Didn't have the slightest idea. There was a man named
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William Pitt, and he said to William Wilberforce, after a church service, so Wilberforce, the
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Christian, brings William Pitt, the unbeliever, to a Christian service, and afterwards, like when you bring an unbeliever to church, you talk to him afterward and say, what'd you think of that?
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How'd you like that? What'd you believe? Do you believe that? And here's what Pitt, the unbeliever, said to Wilberforce, that so reflects
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Paul's teaching in verse 18 of Ephesians 4. You know, Wilberforce, I have not the slightest idea what that man was talking about.
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He couldn't get it, because his mind is futile, it doesn't think the way it ought to be, unless God comes in to snatch him out.
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And that's because of the ignorance that's in them, and also, look at the passage, because of the hardness of their heart.
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On account of that, calloused feelings, leprous in their feelings, and that all, again, speaks of God has to come to the rescue.
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God is not waiting for these kind of people to contribute and to take an inch before He comes in to rescue.
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People act like Augustine did before he was saved. He had three steps for sin. Here's what the unbeliever thinks.
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Augustine, number one, Lord, make me good, but not yet. Two, Lord, make me good, but not entirely.
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And then, when God shines the light of the gospel through the Spirit's ministry, the response of the
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Christian would then be, Lord, make me good. The passage here is basically talking about spiritual oblivion.
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How can a person like this contribute to God? Anything in regard to his salvation.
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They're hard, their hearts are stone. I hate to give you too many operating room illustrations, but you can get a lot of illustrations from the operating room.
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Standing there, and this person's having a carotid endarterectomy. You know those, of course, what you do at home.
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Carotid artery, and there's a bunch of plaque in there. Right? It either could be from genetics or it could be from Fritos.
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Either one. Or both. I have such a passion for Fritos, because my mom loved
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Fritos, so I love to sit and have a Diet Coke and Fritos in my mother's honor. That's another story.
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And so, it's a very complicated procedure, because, of course, with your carotid artery, or your jugular vein, of course, if you cut those, you can easily die.
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So, they have to open it up, and then take the plaque out very strategically, very surgically, very precisely.
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And so, they took this huge thing of plaque out, and as a sales rep, I have to have my hands behind my back, and I can't touch the OR table, or the person, or anything like that.
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But I said to the doctor, who I was getting to know, I said, what does that feel like? That plaque, that hardness, that sclerosis, that...
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just... hardness. He said, well, put a glove on. So, I put a surgical glove on, and he turned around, and he dropped that huge chunk of plaque into my hand.
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I thought it was going to be rubbery, but it was... placky. I mean, I don't know what it was.
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It was just hard, and I just kept thinking to myself, Fritos! That kind of person, who was not a...
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the kind of person who's not a Christian, has that kind of hard heart, not just in their carotid arteries, but their heart is encased with such a thing.
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It's from the inside, it's from the outside, and that's why the Gospel is so glorious. Not that somehow we contribute to our salvation, or God looks down the corridors of time, and sees that we might do something that would distinguish us from our friends, or our neighbors, or someone else.
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But that it's so hard, nothing could ever happen, there will be no response, ever, never. God can look down the corridor of time, a billion years, and no one would ever respond, and he says, you know what, for the sake of my glory, and for the humble, excruciating death of my son,
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I'm going to kill my son in their place, for the glory of the Trinity. It has to be unconditional election, because of this complete inability.
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You see verse 19, I mean, the resume for unbelievers, begs election, and they haven't become callous, losing all sensitivity, atrophied, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity, with greediness.
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Unbelievers are apathetic about God, apathetic about spiritual things, they have no passion, they are apathetic, they have no passion, or no oomph to try to worship
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God, they are beyond feeling. My life would obviously be that, before I was saved,
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I was kind of a whatever, come see, come saw, if it's good for you, but it's not me, we don't talk about politics, or religion around me,
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I'm not convicted by the word, and my whole attitude about God, and Christianity was, I sure hope
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I don't go to hell, but I was defined by the proverbial shrug. That's what this passage is talking about.
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And what do they do? What do those kind of people do? What would we still be doing, but the grace of God? They give themselves willfully, over to sensuality.
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They dive into it. Licentiousness, and all kinds of horrible things, like those old nestique plunge commercials.
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Just backwards into the pool. Nobody's pushing them. They're diving headlong, because their nature loves it.
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They give themselves over. They're not even ashamed about it. No embarrassment. No regard for public decency.
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I mean, it is Jerry Springer's world. No gun is to the head. They're not forced. They, with a mission, with 110 % sweat and toil, have to go for it.
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Complete surrender. This give themselves over, is used positively of Christ, giving himself up for sinners, in Romans 4,
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Galatians 2, Ephesians 5. One man said this has a frightful emphasis, for the unbeliever.
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And look at how else they do it. This kind of person can choose God first, with greediness.
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It's their business. This is what I call the purpose -driven life. They have a purpose, and it is to gobble down unrighteousness as fast as possible, like a little
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Pac -Man. How many pop culture things am I going to use today?
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But you know, Proverbs 10, 23 of the
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Unbeliever says, doing wickedness is like sport to a fool.
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I need to hear a trumpet. I need to hear a calvary. I need to hear about a
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God who says, in spite of all that, I'm not a reactionary God. You do this, then I do that.
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I'm a God who initiates, who starts, who is not only the Omega, but He's also the
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Alpha of salvation. He's not just the finisher of salvation. He's the what? The author.
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It's all part of God's plan. Now, Elder Lewis Brown has been anointed by this man who touched his head or his shoulder in an elevator,
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I believe. Harry Ironside. Was it your head or was it your shoulder? Patch on the head.
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All right. And Ironside was talking about a story that involved a new
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Christian. And as new Christians, you know, love to tell their testimony, they got to tell their testimony at a church service.
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And boy, this new Christian was just beaming, happy, joyful, spark in the eye and a hop in their step.
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And he said, God did it all. God gets all the glory. He didn't say that I believed or I took the first step or I believed and then
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God saved. He didn't give any sense about his own doing. It was all
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God's glory. And these elders at the church were very legalistic. And so they didn't like that.
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They didn't like grace alone through faith alone. So they said to this man, you seem to indicate that God did everything when he saved you.
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Didn't you do your part before God did his? The new Christian jumped to his feet and exclaimed, oh yes,
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I did. For more than 30 years, I ran away from God as fast as my sins could carry me. That was my part.
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But God took out after me and ran me down. That was his part. We contribute sin to our salvation and God does it all.
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It's his point. Romans 8 says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God except exercise some of their free will and show that they would believe and God would see that foreseen faith and then choose.
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Friends, if I didn't have any biblical text, I could just say logically, mentally, which one ascribes more glory to God?
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Unbelievers are in love with sin. And if R .C. Sproul is right, when he calls sin cosmic treason, how can a person who's in love with sin do anything to let
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God save them? It's like Sirhan Sirhan said after he shot
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Kennedy. They can gas me, but I'm famous. I have achieved in one day more than Robert Kennedy did in all of his life.
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And that kind of person describes us before God. The natural man, 1 Corinthians 2 says, does not accept the things of God, for they're foolishness to him.
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He cannot understand them because they're spiritually appraised. Now, depravity doesn't mean people can't do good in society.
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It doesn't mean they're as bad as they could possibly be. Even Hitler spared some French villages after a priest begged him to.
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But it does mean this, that we can do as unbelievers nothing good in God's eyes that would somehow make
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Him save us. We can't believe without God's grace.
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We can't repent without God's grace because we are by nature, Ephesians 2 says, dead. And I would say to you that every one of you believes in the corruption of man.
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The courts believe it. Our society believes it. Peter Jeffrey said, near all legislation has grown up because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes with justice.
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A promise is not enough. We need a contract. Doors are not enough. We have to lock and bolt them. The payment of fares is not enough.
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Tickets have to be issued, inspected, and collected. Law and order are not enough. We need police to enforce them.
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All this is due to man's sin. We cannot trust each other. We need protection against one another.
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It is a terrible indictment on human nature. We need election.
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And if you get the idea that man is unable, man is corrupt, unbelieving man is not able to offer anything to God, then you'll have to say it happened in eternity past where God had to initiate it.
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Yes, it's humbling. But it's amazing. If it wasn't for God, we'd be undone.
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Job 14 says, Who can make clean out of the unclean? No one. Has any of you ever met a
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Christian who said, I have come to Jesus Christ and believed without the power of the Holy Spirit?
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Well, the triune God is working together. It's the power of regeneration by the Spirit, the death of Jesus Christ, the
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Savior at Calvary, and then backwards in eternity past, according to Ephesians 1, the election or selection of God.
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And we can say like Eric Fromm of Calvin, that he was a pest for writing things like that. But it is clearly found in Scripture.
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What are we going to do? Except embrace it. I love it. It's like the guy that wrote to Dear Abby, I'm 44 and would like to meet a man.
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It's like the woman who wrote to Dear Abby. I'm 44. Well, you never know these days. I'm 44 and would like to meet a man my age with no bad habits.
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Rose. Dear Rose, so would I. And it does us no good to be at the
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Christian cathedral and sing songs like they have now. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a soul like me.
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It devalues the cross. It devalues the Spirit's work. And it devalues eternal election.
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This is wonderful. I got this little story from a children's doctrine book.
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Can you imagine? This is a book for children about doctrine. By the way, dads and moms, you are that book to your kids by what you do and what you say.
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But here's a kid's doctrinal book that teaches children about man's state.
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The story has often been told of the clock that just would not go. Leave it a few days and see what happened was suggested.
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But still the clock would not go. It needs oiling well. So this was tried, but still the clock would not go.
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All kinds of things were tried. Give it a good shake. Put it in a different place. At least it was taken to the shop where it was brought.
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At last, it was taken to the shop where it was bought. We'll have to send it back to the makers, they said.
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It came back from the makers with just one comment. It needs a new inside. The spring is broken.
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And this little book about children's doctrine says what a picture of man. Why? Because he is wrong at heart.
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His mind and his will and affections and his understanding are completely wrong. He is a sinner.
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The Bible word is that man is fallen. What a great illustration.
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And by the way, that book is no longer promoted as a children's doctrinal book. It is promoted as an adult doctrine book.
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Man needs to be chosen. He is unable. He is helpless. He is powerless.
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He has no capacity. And the key to understanding the election is depravity. Augustine said,
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The God of grace does not find men fit to be elected, but He makes them so.
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And for an unbeliever, to somehow help God choose him would be like going out to the parking lot and finding an 18 -wheeler there and having to push that thing up Mount Washington by yourself.
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It cannot be done. R .C.
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Sproul's mentor said, Alongside of getting faith out of a heart that is utterly hostile, making a silk purse out of a sow's ear or getting blood from a turnip is child's play.
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And I love the song. Maybe we should sing it. "'Tis not that I did choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be.
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This heart would still refuse thee had thou not chosen me." You say,
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Uh -oh. There's a problem brewing. Men can't respond.
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Women can't respond who are unbelievers. Yet, I'm telling them to repent and to believe. How could
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I tell someone to repent, believe, trust, follow, forsake if they can't do it? That is a great question.
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How can you tell people to do something if they can't do it? Now, let's back up for a second. I don't know if my kid's education or it's just me or it's a dad or what, but my kids have a hard time with grammar sometimes and maybe it's a chip off the old block.
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If someone asks you how you're doing, you aren't doing good. You do what?
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How are you doing? I'm doing what? Well, that's right. Adjective. Adverb.
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You're always in trouble when I back up off away from my notes. Now, if a kid says,
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Can I have a piece of candy? My grandma would say, What? Yes, you can, but you may not.
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The difference between may and can. Man and woman.
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Yes, you may means you have my permission. Yes, you can means you physically can do it.
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Yes? It's the same kind of thing when we preach the Gospel to unbelievers. They must, but they cannot.
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They must true or false. They must believe, forsake, follow Jesus Christ with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.
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They must, but they cannot. Whose fault is that? Well, before the fall, men and women were what?
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Able to obey God? Yes. Responsible to obey God? Yes. But the fall did something tragically to people.
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And after the fall, God says, You still must tend the garden. They were responsible, yes, but they cannot.
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That's why the second Adam Christ had to come. We tell unbelievers, they must believe.
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That's why Jesus said in Luke 24, that we are to preach what to all nations? Repentance.
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That's why Acts 16 .31, Believe unto the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
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Yet they can't. God's program hasn't changed. He made men and women upright,
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Ecclesiastes says. So we are to tell them the same thing, although they can't do it. How does that reconcile in our minds?
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Well, we're told to tell them to repent and believe, yet they cannot do it, but that is exactly the process in which
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God has the gospel given to them, and then instantaneously at His will, He makes them alive.
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As a kid would say, may and can, and differentiate them, we too when we preach, we say they must, but we know they cannot.
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But we have been told by God, you must preach to them, you must, so then we do that.
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Pelagius said, Whatever I ought to do, I can. Augustine said, Oh no. Oh God, command what you will, but give what you command.
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Question 14. Chris Floyd was right. All right, here's a big one.
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Do you believe the non -elect will ever desire salvation? Do you believe the non -elect will ever want salvation?
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Because the question comes up, well, if God chooses before eternity passed, who's going to be believers? What if somebody wants to go to heaven, but they're not chosen?
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Why don't we turn to John chapter 6, and we'll answer that. The unbelievers, to answer the question, will certainly not want the punishment of hell, but they'll never want the glories of God in heaven.
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They'll never desire that, because they don't have a heart to do it. They're not masochistic, and somehow say to themselves, you know,
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I love hell. They don't want the terrors of hell, but they don't want the glories of God in heaven. It's not in them.
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And we'll see again from John chapter 6, that only those that the
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Father has chosen will come to Him, and if they do, He'll never cast them out. But the other ones aren't going to come.
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John 6 .37, just a cursory reading of this verse and a couple others.
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Jesus says, All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.
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Implied many things, but one implication is, those that the Father has not given Me will not come. Only the elect are going to knock.
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Look at verse 44. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him, and I will raise him up on that last day.
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God the Father chooses the elect. He then gives the ability to the elect by the ministry of the
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Spirit to follow, to repent, to believe. John 6 .65, and He was saying,
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For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been what? Granted him from the
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Father. If the Father doesn't choose someone, He's not going to grant them the ability to come and give them the desire.
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The non -elect will never seek holiness. They don't want hell, but they certainly don't want the glories of God in heaven.
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A .W. Pink said, There are those who misrepresent the doctrine of election in this way. Here I am sitting down at my table tonight with my family to tea.
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It's a cold winter's night, and outside on the street are some hungry, starving tramps and children. And they come and knock at the door and say,
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We're so hungry, sir. Oh, we're so hungry and cold. We're starving. Won't you give us something to eat?
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Give you something to eat? No, you don't belong here. Get off with you. A .W.
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Pink said, Now people say that is what election means. That God has spread the gospel feast and some poor sinners, conscious of their deep need, come to the
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Lord and say, Have mercy on me. And the Lord says, You're not my elect. Not my friends. That is not the teaching of this book nor anything like it.
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That is absolutely a false representation of God's truth. I do not believe anything like that, my friends.
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And I would not insult you by asking you to come here tonight and listen to anything like that. Now then,
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Pink says, Here's the truth. God has spread the feast. But the fact is, nobody is hungry and nobody wants to come to the feast.
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And everybody makes an excuse to keep away from the feast. And they are bidden to come. They say,
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No, we do not want to. We're not ready yet. Now, God knew that from the beginning. And if God had not done something more than spread the feast, every seat at his table would have been vacant for all eternity.
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End quote. It is not the sinner who says, God, I want to come, but I can't. And God slams the door on their face.
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It is the sinner doing that to God because of their nature. God does not force people to disbelieve.
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They do that of their own self. I could show you this example. What's the difference between these two people?
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One comes to Jesus and says, Hmm, I'm a rich young ruler. Good master. What good thing shall
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I do that I may inherit eternal life? And he comes seemingly asking for salvation, but we know he's got some kind of side plan going on.
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He doesn't want to recognize he's a sinner. He doesn't want to recognize Jesus is Lord. Jesus is just some kind of pez dispenser.
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Jesus who gives him a lot of good things and that he can go on and live his sinful life. So he says, yeah, I want to follow you.
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Jesus knows he's not wanting righteousness. He wants to just live his own life the way he wants to.
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And then another person, a woman, comes to Jesus weeping, coming up behind her, and Jesus says,
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Thy sins are forgiven. What's the difference? What is the difference between someone who's got an agenda coming to Jesus and someone who just comes to Jesus for physical healing and God heals her soul?
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And you have to say with me, and we'll learn this next time, the only difference is God who sits on a throne and says,
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I will have mercy on whom? I will have mercy. This is an amazing truth.
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Remember, your friends who are not elect, by the way, you don't even know that. You don't know who the non -elect are.
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You're to treat everyone like they need to hear the gospel because they do, yes? We preach the gospel to everyone and God will take the elect and they'll hear your words and God will take a heart of stone and make it into a heart that rushes fast after God and His glory.
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People don't want hell but they don't want the glories of God. So much so that Edwards would say, if there's a sinner in hell now and you said, you know what, you just have to repent and believe and you get to go to heaven, what would happen?
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They would never, ever repent and believe because they don't have it in them.
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They don't like hell but they certainly don't like the God of the universe in heaven because heaven is not just some kind of ethereal cloud with your best friend and a couple of puppies floating on there with the
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God of the universe. I don't know why I said that but I have an old boss that I love dearly and he said, if my dog, the
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Pomeranian Max is not in heaven, then it's not heaven. I mean, the thing that makes heaven heaven isn't a thing, it's a person.
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The triune God and all His glory streaming out and the believers don't even have to get on their face because they've been clothed with Christ's perfect work and perfect righteousness.
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And when those believers get to heaven and God says, I want this answered, did you somehow come to me apart from my eternal work,
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Christ's death on the cross and the Spirit's power and that person would say, I can never answer that affirmingly because I know
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I'm a product of grace. By grace you've saved me God. The faith that you've given me is a gift and I was lost and now
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I'm found and I used to be under judgment and now there's no condemnation because I'm in Christ.
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And it's like Christ's righteousness is a wonderful robe. It's like an asbestos blanket cloaked over us so all the fire of God's wrath goes right around that asbestos blanket and right on to Christ at Calvary.
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And does God not have the pleasure and the prerogative to say, I am going to choose the bride that I will for my son.
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And if you're in an Eastern culture, you would immediately say, the father has every right to choose for his son the bride he wills.
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And if that's even man, how much more for the God of the universe. Election does not somehow mean that the non -elect ever want salvation because they will never want salvation because even the elect don't want salvation until God gives them a new nature and makes them born again.
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Well, 15 and following next time. Tozer, as I said earlier, the most important thing about you is when you hear the word
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God, what comes into your mind. And it is my purpose in this extended series to make sure election comes to your mind every time you think about God because it is the most
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God -exalting, pride -crushing doctrine that you will ever, ever hear.
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And by the way, you'll hear a lot about it in heaven because it will be the extolling of God, the triune
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God in heaven. I would go so far to say God the
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Father loves election. God the Son loves election. God the Holy Spirit loves election.
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The triune God loves preaching about election because it exalts His name. Do you like preaching about election?
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Let's pray. Lord, we exalt Your name today. And Lord, certainly, Christians have believed other things in life and it doesn't make them not saved.
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But Lord, it is the tenor of Scripture, the corpus of Scripture, black and white in Ephesians 1 that You are a
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God like no other God. We could never come up with a God like this. Lord, I would say that if I wanted to invent the
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Bible and write it of my own, I would never invent a God like this. He would be more like my own choosing.
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Yet God, You are extolled and high and lifted up. And that somehow from the great heights of Your heaven that You would have
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Your Son so condescend towards us, have Him cloaked with humanity, and have
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Him live among sinners is amazing. Thank You for that.
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Thank You that it's all one big plan that we'll praise You for in eternity. Thank You that we serve a risen Savior who was sent on purpose by You.
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And thank You that He will redeem everyone that You gave Him and He won't lose one. Thank You that there's hope for our unbelieving moms and dads and friends and husbands and kids because You'll get all the lost sheep, not just the house of Israel, but also the lost
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Gentiles too. And we'll be praising You forever because of Your seek and rescue, seek and recover plan.