Conversion to Jesus Christ (7)

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Gods preparation for the sinner (1)

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Let's turn in our Bibles again to Acts 26 that we just read.
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In our study of true and false conversion to Jesus Christ, I want us to consider this account of personal conversion recorded of the
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Apostle Paul in the Word of God. Here in Acts 26 we have actually the third account of Paul's conversion.
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Luke, the writer of the book of Acts, first narrated Saul's conversion in Acts chapter 9, verses 1 and following, rather a lengthy description.
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And then just a few chapters before this, in Acts 22, we have a second recounting of Paul's conversion.
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When Paul recited his conversion experience before a murderous mob in Jerusalem, they did not receive his testimony.
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And then in the passage before us here in Acts 26 that we read, Paul was standing before the
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Jewish King Agrippa giving a defense of himself and the gospel. Of course the
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Apostle Paul was one of the most remarkable persons depicted in the biblical record. He was a man who was the foremost enemy of the gospel, who lived to extinguish the faith in people of Jesus.
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But in just a matter of a couple days, a few days, Paul became one of the chief promoters and proclaimers of Jesus as the promised
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Christ, the Son of the Living God. Amazing turnaround, for God had performed a great work of grace in bringing
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Paul to salvation. Paul had become born again, of course, regenerated.
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God had caused new life to spring up where there had been spiritual deadness, although Paul had been a very religious, a very devout man.
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Paul became one who loved Jesus Christ and loved the people of Jesus Christ, who had formally hated
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Jesus Christ and the people of Jesus Christ. He was transformed in just a matter of a couple days.
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He became a promoter of the gospel that he was attempting to extinguish.
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Now as we consider Paul's conversion experience recounted in these three passages, it's really not easy to detect the ordo salutis, the order of salvation that we described,
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I think it was last Lord's Day. Every person who comes to salvation experiences this order of salvation, but it is difficult many times to be able to assign or identify each particular step in that order of salvation in people's lives, and it's difficult in the case of Saul's conversion to Christ.
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Perhaps Paul was regenerated, that is, born again when he initially saw Jesus glorified, when, you know,
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Jesus shone to him brighter than the sun. Maybe Paul was regenerated at that moment.
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We cannot know for certain. We cannot always know the moment of the new birth.
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Now its effects will always be seen, but we don't necessarily know at what point that occurs.
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We know the new birth has occurred by the new life that the new birth results in, not because we know the moment necessarily when
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God causes us to be born again. The effects will always be seen sooner or later, but probably sooner than later.
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As our Lord taught, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes, so is everyone who is born of the
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Spirit. So we don't know when Paul was regenerated, born again. We know that Paul had been born again for his conversion to Jesus Christ as a result of a manifestation of regeneration, the new birth by the
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Holy Spirit. But when it happened precisely cannot be determined by us.
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It had to have taken place during the time that Paul, or from the time that Paul initially saw the glorified
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Lord Jesus until several days later when Paul was baptized, confessing openly his faith in Jesus Christ.
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He was born again by the Holy Spirit at some point during those few days.
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It's also difficult to identify precisely when Paul exercised saving faith, justified faith, when he fully trusted
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Jesus as his Savior from sin. Perhaps it was upon his initial seeing the
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Lord Jesus, perhaps it was afterwards when Paul had reflected upon the event, even when he was temporarily blind, when he heard the explanation of the gospel more clearly and fully through Ananias whom the
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Lord Jesus sent to him. It was several days later that Ananias told
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Paul, arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the
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Lord. This of course should not be understood as the water of baptism actually washing sins from a sinner, rather Ananias was calling upon Paul to repent of his sins and show forth the cleansing from sin by undergoing baptism.
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Arise Paul, confess, repent, be baptized. Baptism being an emblem of his cleansing.
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So it would seem that the entire experience of Paul over the course of several days could be described as an account of Paul coming to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
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The entire event was a saving event in which Paul came to Christ.
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He was a different man, different loves, different motivations, different goals, he was an entirely new man as a result of this encounter with the
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Lord Jesus and the few days after and the work of Christ working in his soul.
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And so yes it took a couple days but it was remarkable in its suddenness. Here he was, one who punished
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Christians often in all the synagogues and had tried to make them blaspheme.
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Can you imagine? Even as he was raging fury against them and Paul had persecuted
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Christians even to foreign cities. But soon, very soon he was proclaiming the gospel to the
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Gentiles. For Jesus Christ had sent him to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God and that he may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
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You never know who's going to come to Christ, do you? Sometimes the most least likely person to become a
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Christian becomes a Christian and the one who seems most likely to be a
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Christian become a Christian never does. It's all due to the grace of God. But had everything begun with Paul on that occasion when he saw the glorified
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Jesus on the Damascus Road? It would seem so at a casual reading and yes certainly if we want to say that event initiated his actual conversion to Christ that's when he began to change obviously.
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But no, actually not everything had begun at that point when he saw the risen
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Christ. For the Lord was at work in Paul's life before that day preparing
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Paul for his conversion and we spoke last week about this work of preparation that God works on behalf of preparing the sinner for the grace of God and God had been at work, the
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Lord Jesus had been at work in Paul's life bringing him to the place that he would be born again, converted.
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There was a preparation that God had exercised in this man's life and by the way
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I might comment this, it's a common teaching and assumption by many Christians that Saul was the name of Paul before being converted and he changed his name to Paul upon being converted and that's so commonly spread nobody even seems to to doubt it.
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I happen to know that many African Christians changed their name to Christian names upon their conversion and they see this as an example but actually
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Paul did not change his name from Saul to Paul but rather Saul was his
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Hebrew name, he was probably known by Saul among all the Jewish people before and after his conversion and Paul was his
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Roman name, his Greek name by which he would be known among the Gentiles. The fact that he was going to be a minister to the
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Gentiles it was fitting that he would use the name Paul rather than Saul but clearly he had been transformed utterly.
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The manner in which God normally brings salvation to sinners involves God at work in the soul of the unconverted bringing him or her to the place and time that God imparts new life in that work of regeneration, the new birth.
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So it's important again to understand that the soul's preparation in no way is meritorious nor does the soul's preparation qualify one for coming to Christ but the preparation of God is necessary or a man or woman won't come to Christ.
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Sometimes the preparation is over a prolonged period of time, sometimes it can be through the course of a single sermon or reading a gospel tract but there is a work of preparation that God does in the soul.
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The Lord must prepare the soul otherwise the hating rebellious sinner would not hear and respond to the grace of God in the gospel and so God inclines the ear to hear and inclines the will, the mind and will of a person prior to the day the truth of the gospel floods his understanding and at which time he bows his will to the
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Lord Jesus Christ and we would argue that the passage before us here in Acts chapter 26 records how
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Paul had been an object of God's preparation for grace. Paul had heard a voice to him in the
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Hebrew language interestingly Saul Saul why are you persecuting me it is hard for you to kick against the goats.
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Interestingly that expression by our Lord Jesus that statement it is hard for you to kick against the goats is not found in the other two recordings of Paul's conversion
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Acts chapter 9 and Acts chapter 22 except in the
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King James version in the New King James version you have that statement it is hard for you to kick against the goats found back in the
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Acts chapter 9 account of Paul's conversion and yet that was probably applied or inserted by a well -meaning copyist some centuries after the first century there was a tendency of some scribes and copyists to want to harmonize accounts and so he probably took the expression from Acts 26 and inserted it back in Acts chapter 9 and so in the newer translations you won't find that expression back there it is here however legitimately in Acts chapter 26
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Jesus said to Saul on the road to Damascus it is hard for you to kick against the goats as a stock animal resists being prodded to do something against his will he doesn't want to and so he's prodded forced to do so so Paul had been kicking against the
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Lord prodding him clearly this indicates that the
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Lord had been doing a work of preparation in souls life is that not right obviously
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God had been prodding Saul goading Saul preparing him for the day when he would experience conversion and this is the normal way in which
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God brings people to salvation and again sometimes this is over a short period of time sometimes a prolonged period of time the
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Lord is sovereign in this and so here we have in Acts 26 further evidence of what we've addressed toward the end of our last study yes the
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Bible teaches God's salvation of sinners is due to a sovereign grace alone fallen man cannot and will not come to Jesus Christ for salvation and so in order for the sinner to believe the gospel in order to be saved
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God must impart a new heart to him to enable him to believe and without this new heart a sinful man could never would believe the gospel and so although the new birth is the first act of God by which he begins to do a work of grace in the center
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Paul didn't change until this event in his life nevertheless
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God was at work bringing Paul to this place prior to the new birth prior to regeneration
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God prepares the sinner to encounter salvation God prepares people by his grace for his grace of regeneration and so God had been at work the
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Lord Jesus had been at work in Saul's life even before his Damascus Road journey even while he had been breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the
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Lord there was a work of grace taking place God was dealing with Paul now we might ask the question or attempt to answer the question in what way or ways did the
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Lord prod Paul in preparation of his conversion the Lord said it's hard for you to kick against the goads isn't it
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Paul what was it that was goading Paul and again the whole point of our study of this is that if we understand better the way
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God normally brings people to salvation then we who profess to know can assess ourselves whether we've experienced this work of saving grace in our lives do we know anything about the kinds of experiences that these people in the
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Bible encountered in their salvation when
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Christ brought them savingly to himself and so in what ways was the
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Lord prodding Paul and I want to propose several first God had prodded
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Paul to see in a measure his errant thinking regarding himself and of the nature and ways of God thereby stripping
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Paul of self -confidence and assurance that he had formally understood things rightly and had behaved righteously
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I think Paul was not as confident before meeting the
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Lord Jesus on this road to Damascus than he had been at an earlier stage in his life there had been things at work in Paul's life that I think were causing
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Paul probably to have questioned within himself even as he was still filled with hatred and anger toward Christ and to the people of Christ but the fact is there are some characteristics that are common to unconverted people that must be recognized must be acknowledged and changed when they're converted to God through Jesus Christ and one of these characteristics of an unconverted man is ignorance of his sinful pride that's got to go you cannot be a
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Christian and be filled with this sinful pride that we're going to describe a little bit in the next few minutes
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God's got to change that Proverbs 14 16 reads a wise man fears and departs from evil but a fool rages and is self -confident and if there was one thing that had characterized
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Paul he had been self -confident that he was doing what was right in persecuting
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Christians and trying to extinguish the gospel the center assumes he knows best how to govern his life even while presuming that God is pleased with the course that he's chosen for himself this is how people think they think they're wise to know how to order their life they presume that God must be in favor of it after all it's the best course
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I see it clearly and they are blind to their pride their sinful pride for fallen man is a
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God unto himself though he does not think so or realize so he'd probably deny it but God must bring him down to the dust before he will look to Jesus Christ alone and so one of the works of preparation that God does in the center to bring him to convert the place of conversion is he humbles man he takes away his props his supports things that he formally assumed to be true that he never questioned
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God brings him to the place where he begins to question himself how he's believed in how he's acted this is how the people of Judah were brought were before God before his judgment came upon them sending when
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God sent his armies armies of Babylon upon them they were full of pride self -confident assured presuming upon the fact that or the thought that they were in favor with God and so we read of this in Jeremiah 17 5 and following says the
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Lord cursed is the man who trust in man and those words in parentheses are myself or from me who trust in man or trust in himself and makes his flesh his strength whose heart departs from the
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Lord for he should be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land which is not inhabited not much life there in contrast blessed is the man who trusts in the
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Lord and whose hope is in the Lord for he should be like a tree planted by the waters which spread out its roots by the river and will not fear when heat comes but its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought nor will cease from yielding fruit very similar to someone isn't it and then we have this well -known frequently quoted verse from Jeremiah 17 9 the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it
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I the Lord searched the heart I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways according to the fruit of his doings these people were under the wrath of God but they thought that they were people blessed of God they had ordered their thinking and their lives according to their own opinions and values but they were in error regarding their own thinking they were ignorant of God's ways they presumed that their ways of thinking were in accordance with what
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God would have them think their fallen hearts had deceived them the heart is deceitful above all things and the idea of the heart being deceitful here is that the heart fallen heart causes you to think
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I'm okay I'm thinking rightly I'm reasoning rightly I'm making the right kind of decisions for my life and God's going to be pleased with this after all he wants my happiness and that's the way fallen man commonly thinks until God reveals otherwise to him their fallen hearts had deceived them
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God had said to them obey my voice but then God said yet they did not obey or incline their ear but everyone here it is followed the dictates of his evil heart and therefore
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I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant and so in the preparation of God bringing a soul to salvation through Jesus Christ to submit wholly unto
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Christ in all matters of faith and practice God must show the center the error and folly of his own way of thinking he's got unsettled him and reveal just how faulty that independent spirit is that has disregarded the
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Word of God and so it's important in the preparation of grace for salvation
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God brings a sinner to realize the folly of his own thinking he sees his own ignorance and he says
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I must be guided by something outside of myself even the Holy Scriptures the Word of God this is what
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God does in preparation of bringing a person to salvation if you're going through life presuming that you can get along quite fine without the scriptures instructing you and guiding you you're fooling yourself in fact you are you are setting your for self up as the foolish man as depicted in many places in Scripture because even as Christians of course we know that sin can deceive us our own hearts can deceive us so easily sin has the ability to deceive us greater than our mind has the ability to guide us and correct us and therefore we need something outside of ourselves we need the
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Word of God the Holy Scriptures to guide us and instruct us and bring us back to the place where we should be you neglect the
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Word of God you're in trouble because your heart is deceitful above all things you're not going to know the right way to go in fact we can guarantee it you're going to go the wrong way unless the
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Lord in his grace arrests you and sets you back on a right course remember the account of pilgrims progress how
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Christian early on in his pilgrimage to the celestial city got deceived by mr.
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worldly wise men and so he left the narrow path and he went off to what was it the village of civility or something like that and went by this this mountain and then there was thundering and voices and lightning and the mountain was about to fall upon him and basically this mr.
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worldly wise man was telling Christian that you can have peace and through keeping the law through legalism and he about perished if it weren't for evangelist coming to him once again and setting him back on the right course and that's what happens when we get away from the
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Word of God our hearts are deceitful above everything and even the Christian is going to be deceived unless the
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Word of God is continually instructing us and guiding us if you are not in the Word of God seeking wisdom and grace you're already in trouble you just don't know it but troubles coming because it's the
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Word of God that is a lamp unto our feet that guides us in the right course we should go and in preparation to salvation the
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Lord taught us that where we cease to trust in ourselves and rely on ourselves but we looked outside of ourselves for the truth that is in the
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Word of God the fact is discovery of one sinful condition is not an easy matter people are ignorant of their sinful condition and they're ignorant of God's true assessment of them
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David Brainerd the well -known young missionary to the Indians who stopped by one day and stayed with Jonathan Edwards family for a prolonged period of time he had tuberculosis
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I believe and he died a young man Edwards found his journal his diary published it journal of David Brainerd and David Brainerd is buried in a cemetery right out here just just east of Northampton the downtown city there and David Brainerd had such a heart for bringing the gospel to Indians in Pennsylvania and also in New York area
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I believe but he wrote this about his effort and difficulty that he put forth in order to inform and humble people with respect to their sin especially
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I discoursed repeatedly on the nature and necessity of that humiliation self -emptiness or full conviction of a person's being utterly undone in himself which is necessary in order to a saving faith in other words he was preaching along in preparation wasn't he and the extreme difficulty of being brought to this and the great danger there is a person's taking up with some self -righteous appearances of it the danger of this
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I especially dwelt upon being persuaded that multitudes perish in this hidden way and because so little is said from most pulpits to discover any danger here so that persons being never effectually brought to die in the cells are never truly united to Christ and so perish so the
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Apostle Paul himself described this work of God's grace in his soul he quoted Isaiah 29 14 for it is written
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I will destroy the wisdom God speaking I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent this is how he brings salvation to people we can trust in our intelligence our education our experience all of that is folly and in order for Christ to save somebody they've got to be emptied of all that and God says
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I destroy the wisdom of the wise and I bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent and so if you're wise in your own eyes beware if you believe that you're capable of governing your own life by your own intelligence experience or reason you're playing the fool and it'll show up one day hopefully not too late and so God needs to undeceive you this is what he does
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God will have to humble you before you will begin to look to him and his word alone to guide you in the manner in which you think and in the way you should go this is what
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God does preparing people for salvation and so it's of critical importance that people be humbled before God in order for people to come into a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ God declared this through his prophet
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Isaiah Isaiah 57 15 look what it says closely for thus says the high and lofty one this is
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God speaking who inhabits eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the high and holy place and then he adds this with him who has a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble to revive the heart of the contrite ones note here
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God identifies himself as transcendent infinite and holy he dwells in heaven a high and holy place he's high and removed from the inhabitants of the earth but notice he not only dwells in heaven he says he dwells somewhere else also he also dwells with the one who has a contrite and humble spirit and here when we see the word dwell that verb dwell in heaven speaks of God not only abiding in heaven but the fact that he owns heaven and that he rules in heaven and so the idea that he also dwells with the one or in the one with a contrite and humble spirit speaks of God both owning and ruling in and over the one who is a humble and submitted heart before him and so in order for the center to be made fit one with whom
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God can dwell God must humble him and move him to submit to his rule over him and this is what
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God does in preparation for a person coming to salvation through Jesus Christ as Thomas Hooker wrote there must be contrition and humiliation before the
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Lord comes to take possession the house must be aired and fitted before it comes to be inhabited swept by brokenness and emptiness of spirit before the
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Lord will come and set up his abode in it so it shall be spiritually the valley of consternation perplexity of spirit and brokenness of heart is the very gale and entrance of any sound hope and assured expectation of good and if a person claims to be a
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Christian but knows nothing of this brokenness and you know that in this just destruction of self -confidence be warned and be on your guard ask yourself whether a true work of grace has been done in your soul so in order for God to humble the sinner preparing him as a dwelling place for himself
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God must give a sinner a clear sight of his sin before there will be humility in the center there must be apprehension of the sin of the sin to the sinner
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God the Holy Spirit must do this work and the primary means the
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Holy Spirit uses to give sinners a clear sight of their sin is God's holy law always has been this has been
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God's primary instrument in revealing people their sin I am
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NOT a dispensationalist probably most of you know and because I make that known because there's a lot of problems with the system and one of the problems of the system is that the law no longer has any use or validity in the world because that was back during the age of the law that ended with the cross of Jesus and so there are many people that try and present a
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Christianity and a gospel to the world without even bringing up the law of God this is the very means
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God uses to reveal sin to people now there's the law in the gospel the law reveals sin and God's condemnation of sin and the gospel reveals how to receive forgiveness of sins and do life in Jesus Christ the law and the gospel the law is essential it must be proclaimed and if it's not proclaimed you're going to have a tendency to see people not aware of their sin and sinfulness because this is the common way that God brings people to salvation the
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Apostle Paul described the role of the law of God and convincing him of his sin here's the proud Pharisee he described
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Paul described the ability of the law of God to condemn sinners resulting in their death we read in Romans 7 5 for when we were in the flesh the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death so the law of God was at work stirring up sin and Paul he was ignorant of sin but the law of God made him aware of it and speaking of God's law is having condemned people by causing them to bring forth fruit unto death and the law having prevented people from joining the cell to Jesus Christ and one might draw the wrong conclusion that there was something inherently defective even sinful about the law itself and Paul would not allow that of course to be considered or thought and so Paul next demonstrated that this would be a wrong conclusion for God had a use for his law and bringing people to faith in Christ and so we read in Romans 7 verses 7 through 12 what then shall we say that the law is sin obviously not by no means yet if it had not been for the law
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I would not have known sin see you cannot know sin unless you understand
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God's law that says thou shalt not Paul says
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I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said you shall not covet but sin sees in an opportunity through the commandment produced in me all kinds of covetousness for apart from the law sin lies dead that is it's not apparent it's not recognized and it flourishes when the law comes forth because then you realize hey
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I've got lots of problems here I'm not not dealing with can't deal with and so I was once alive apart from the law but when the commandment came that is came in its truth and realization sin came alive and I died that is he came to see that he was dead in sin and he needed salvation the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me keep the law of God and you live the scripture say probably nobody keeps the law of God we're sinners and therefore that thing that promised life actually resulted in bringing death for sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me and so the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good the law of God is a reflection of his holy character do not think ill of the law of God think ill of the sinner that the law of God confronts and condemns so Paul not only saw the law to be blameless to the charge but he stated that the law had served an indispensable role in revealing to Paul his sinfulness and his need of salvation and so Paul stated specifically that apart from the law he would not have known sin now one of the effects of sin and sin by definition of course is any failure or any transgression of God's law that by definition is said but one of the effects of sin is that it renders a person unable to detect and identify the presence of sin that is in him sin has a deadening effect or influence just like alcohol they say one of the first effects of alcohol is the person under the effects of alcohol doesn't think he's under the effects of alcohol that's what sin does sin renders a sinner unable to see the gravity of the sin before God when we sin we tend to minimize its evil and perhaps even deny its presence and so God has to teach us what it is we have done he then needs to just about drag a confession from us for we will avoid facing the fact the fact of it or the guilt of it but God's law reveals to us that sin is sin and it also reveals to us the gravity the seriousness of the sin and so God's law teaches us what sin deserves before God God who gave the law
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Paul had declared this earlier in the epistle for by works of the law no human being will be justified in a sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin and so there's a necessity to preach and teach the law of God in evangelism people aren't going to know they're sinners unless the law of God is proclaimed clearly truthfully and fully and few people are proclaiming the law of God this is essential however again
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Paul said it was through the knowledge comes or through the law knowledge of sin comes Paul himself would not have known his sinfulness had it not been for the law of God and so God had given his law so that we might know our own sinfulness in shortcomings and so the law is the chief means that God prepares people for the gospel the law can't transform anybody it only condemns people but it does reveal to people they need transformed it does reveal to people they cannot transform themselves it does bring the person if they follow the law of God rightly it'll bring them to the foot of the cross won't it for the outcome of the law the end of the law is
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Christ for righteousness for everyone who believes is what Paul wrote not end of the law that the law no longer is abiding or authoritative but the end or the destiny of the law follow the law and it'll bring you to Jesus Christ is what
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Paul declared the law is an essential matter in the proclamation of the
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Word of God and yet one of the effects is we don't see the wickedness of sin the gravity of sin oh we can see it in others you know we can see we can see the splinter in another person's eye we're good at that aren't we we don't see the beam in our own eye do we we tend not to anyway and so God has given his law for sinners to see their sin but not just to see their sin but again to see exceedingly sinful we finished reading through Romans 7 12 but verse 13 reads this way has then what is good become death to me that is the law certainly not but sin that it might appear sin was produced death and made through what is good the good being the law so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful people will not understand the exceeding sinfulness of their sin apart from the
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Holy Spirit using the law of God to teach them to instruct them and reveal it to them
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John Calvin said this the import of the whole is that it was necessary for the atrocity of sin to be discovered by the law for except sin had burst forth into outrageous or as they say into enormous excess it would not have been acknowledged as sin and the more outrageous does its enormity appear when it converts life unto death and thus every excuse is taken away from it if you woke up tomorrow morning and you had boils breaking out all over your body and you know you'd be running to a doctor quickly wouldn't you and when you know the law causes sin to break out we begin to see its enormity and its defiling nature you know you're not gonna you're not gonna flee to the pastor you know he's not gonna help you know the
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Pope's not gonna help you Mary's not gonna help you you need Jesus Christ he is the only one that can deal with this in problem and the law directs people to Jesus Christ Matthew Henry wrote of Romans 713 there's nothing about which the natural man is more blind than about original corruption concerning which the understanding is all together in the dark till until the spirit by the law reveal it and make it known thus the law is a schoolmaster quoting
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Paul in Galatians to bring us to Christ opens and searches the wound and so prepares it for healing and thus sin by the commandment does appear sin it appears in its own colors appears to be what it is and you cannot call it by a worse name than its own in other words sin is the worst thing you could call it thus by the commandment it becomes exceedingly sinful that is it appears to be so it always was exceedingly sinful but by the law we see it is exceedingly sinful we never see the desperate venom or malignity there is in sin till we come to compare it with the law and the spiritual nature of the law and then we see it to be an evil and a bitter thing but again one of the great obstacles to humble sinners is to for them to see their need for Jesus Christ and the reason this is an obstacle is because they don't see the presence and gravity of their sin why is it that people in their sin can be unaware of their condition why is this well it's certainly not an absence of the revelation of God he's given us a conscience from birth by which we can know our sin that becomes defiled of course by sin and he certainly has given to his law to us why then is it that people in their sin can be unaware of their sinful condition and Jonathan Edwards of course spelled it out as he does everything so clearly and forthrightly
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I'm not going to read all this but you see the basic ways and reasons why sin causes us to be unaware of our sin and he describes first the blinding deceitful nature of sin sin itself is deceitful sin is has more ability to deceive you than your ability to detect it or to understand the extent of it and then
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Satan the devil himself also sets in with our deceitful lust he labors to bind us in this matter he's continually endeavoring to lead us into sinful ways how does he do that well the devil basically puts us into the place of temptation a temptation that we in order to fill our own sinful desires so the devil devil gives people the opportunity to sin have you been reading the news about somehow somebody hacked this website that has all these adulterers in it and now all across the land there's these tens of thousands of adulterers being made public everybody's scurrying afraid you know you can imagine the horror being discovered but the devil wants to provide opportunity for us to sin we think that we can get away with it we think that nobody's watching when we're alone or it's at night and it's dark the prophets talked about that we who know
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God who know that God is everywhere that he's present with us now and he's also present with you when you're alone in front of the television set at 11 o 'clock at night when the wife and kids are in bed and yet we think perhaps because I'm alone
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God does not see sin is deceitful isn't it what about that computer screen it's it's it you know it causes many many people to fall in many ways you think
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God isn't sitting there would you be exposing yourself to that stuff if Jesus Christ were sitting in the chair next to you let's see what you're watching but sin has a way of deadening us to this cause us to think that we're alone and that God does not see sin is deceitful you think that because you know somebody you know doesn't see you your parents don't see you or your pastor doesn't see you that it doesn't matter well the devil would want us to think that way and then sometimes as Edward points out people are stupefied through custom custom in an evil practice stupefies the mind there are things of course that are not only allowed today that's supposed to be celebrated today that we react to and reject and we are now accused of being the problem and my common response is a
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I'm only asserting what your parents and grandparents believed everything's changed hasn't it it's customary now we live in a bizarre world then we're blinded by common custom and the examples of others all about us we always compare ourselves with others well
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I'm not as bad as them so I must be okay but when you compare yourself with the law of God you may not be okay and that's the standard that God is going to use so persons lastly he says persons are in great danger of living in ways of sin and not being sensible of it for lack of duly regarding and considering their duty in the full extent of it in other words there are some who hear the necessity of reforming from all sins attending all duties will set themselves to perform some particular duties and the same time neglecting others oh
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I'm doing enough I'm doing more than most I must be okay and they carve out a little area of their life
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I'm gonna reserve this sin for myself that's deadly and sin is deceitful in that way and so because the insensitivity to sin that we all manifest that we all possess in one degree to another it's necessary for God himself to reveal the sinners their true condition so that they will seek forgiveness and deliverance from their sins and so we should be as the psalmist and ask the
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Lord to reveal our condition to us David prayed search me Oh God and know my heart it's not because God has to know his heart but he's saying search me
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Oh God and know my heart so you can tell me what what you know the issues I have try me and know my thoughts see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting let me know
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God the true state that I am David knew that he did not know himself and so we asked
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God to reveal to him his sin otherwise he would have remained in his sin but ignorant of its presence and severity and we ought to be praying to God reveal to us our
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God those things that are not pleasing to you and so God had to humble
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Paul we have to wrap this up but so let's just let's just rush through what we have here in conclusion top of page well my notes top of page eight number two
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Roman numeral two again we asked in what way or ways did the Lord prod Paul in preparation of his conversion well we could say secondly
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God had prodded Paul to see in a measure a specific sin that condemned him before God this is often the way in which
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God prepares a sinner for salvation some single egregious sin is brought to the forefront of one's conscience with Paul of course it was the
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Tenth Commandment thou shall not covet and when he considered that Tenth Commandment he says
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I began to regard covetousness throughout covetousness of course is desiring something that more than what
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God has given you or covetousness is not being satisfied with what
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God has given you covetousness is wanting more and Paul saw that that's what governed his life wanting more not being content not being satisfied and he saw his whole life was just gripped with this sin and so with the case of Paul God commonly will prepare people for saving grace by causing them to face squarely a single specific sin
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Horatius Bonar 19th century pastor wrote this about the
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Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is as indispensable to your believing as is Christ in order to your being pardoned salvation for the sinner is
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Christ's work salvation in the sinner is the Spirit's work of this internal salvation he is the beginner and ender if you understand the genuine gospel and all its freeness you will feel that the man who tries to persuade you that you have strength enough left to do with the
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Spirit is as great an enemy of the cross and of your soul as the man who wants to make you believe that you're not altogether guilty but have some remaining goodness and therefore do not need to be wholly indebted to the blood and righteousness of Emmanuel that is
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Christ do you feel yourself in this extremity of weakness you're not in a condition to receive the heavenly help your idea of remaining ability is the very thing that repels the help of the
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Spirit just as any idea of remaining goodness thrust away the propitiation of the Savior is you're not saying that you have no strength that is keeping you from believing so God has to reveal to us that we have no strength and many times he'll do that through a specific sin that's what
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Peter did on the day of Pentecost Acts chapter 222 he stood in front of the crowd and he charged them men of Israel hear these words
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Jesus of Nazareth a man attested by God to you by miracles wonders signs which God did through him in your midst you yourselves also know him being delivered by the determined purpose and knowledge of God for knowledge of God you have taken by lawless hands and crucified and put to death now that's that's the direct approach isn't it and Hooker went on to write of this the description of contrition stood of two parts whereby the nature of the work was especially discovered partly in the causes of it sight of sin sorrow for sin partly in the effects of it detestation of sin sequestration from sin concerning the sight of sin so far as it serves our turn in a true conviction of it and that they stood there as accused by Peter and condemned in their own consciences as guilty of no less than the blood of Jesus we have already spoken and the second thing in the text to be considered is the means how this is wrought and these in two the first is a particular application of their special corruption the
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Apostle does not hover in the general and shoot at rovers I love old
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English but comes close to them charges them expressly in a special manner and lets fly in the very faces of them this
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Jesus and you are the men that have committed this villainy a person could not be more innocent a practice more bloody you are men that stand guilty of this horrible abomination of crucifying the
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Lord of Glory and then hooker draws the doctrine from this text and it's a true doctrine a plain and particular application of special sins by the ministry of the word is a special means to bring the soul to a site of and sorrow for them so here's a principle in the way
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God prepares a soul for salvation sometimes the Lord will zero in on a specific sin and you will not be able to sleep or deal with it because it's so egregious so sometimes
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God will bless a witness to an unconverted person that addresses a specific sin it's in the specifics that people are confronted with sin people don't mind admitting to sin in general
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I remember hearing a pastor tell the account of how he was talking to a woman in his church member the church all pastor were terrible sinners aren't we yes we are and I happen to notice your particular sin is gossip isn't it of course she was immediately offended we're all sinners yeah we can acknowledge that it's when you get specific that people start getting defensive don't they but that's what happens oftentimes
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God will bring home a specific sin an egregious sin in order to bring us to an end of ourselves and then lastly we close and what way or ways did the
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Lord prod Paul we would say thirdly God had prodded Paul to see that the people of God that he was persecuting lived lives exemplary in a manner that they dealt with the offenses heaped upon them can you imagine
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Paul was consenting at Stephen's death wasn't he they laid the clothes the ones who stoned
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Stephen laid their clothes so they could throw the stones better at the feet of Paul he seemed to be instrumental one of the leaders and what did
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Stephen do you know he saw a vision of Christ receiving him that had to have impacted
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Paul don't you think the people in the way they responded to his persecution causing them or forcing them to blaspheme putting them in prison killing them don't you think the way they bore witness to Paul prodded him about maybe there's some reality to their faith that's what's happening all over the
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Middle Eastern world today isn't it I won't read it there's a there's a extended quote in there from Murph the
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Middle East Reform Fellowship all over the Middle East people Islamist people are growing weary and a frightened regarding this
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Islamist state and the power that they're asserting and they're becoming sympathetic and affected by the witness of Christians that are being persecuted terribly in those places and he recounts the fact that many people of Islam are taking
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Christians into their homes to protect them and preserve them and he describes how the witness of the gospel is being proclaimed throughout the
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Middle East through this means and I suspect that Paul had this witness of many