The Valley Of Vision (part 2)

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Through The Church Age (part 3)

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Well, if I was going to title what I think we're going to do today, I'm not sure,
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I can hardly wait to hear what I'm going to say myself. I would title it something like Ruminations More, about these
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Puritan guys, and Reverse Engineering. For me that's pretty good, a little alliteration there, did you get that?
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That would make a Baptist happy. Rumination and Reverse Engineering and all that.
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Mostly the titles I really like are 1 John chapter 2, John chapter 11,
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Hebrews chapter 3, Revelation chapter, wherever we are, that's the title.
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Well, we've been talking about the Puritans. And I hope today to draw some things to your attention that will be edifying and maturing for all of us.
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I will get more out of this than you, but you may listen. All right? Okay, let's pray.
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Holy Spirit, You inspired the book, we pray this morning that You would illumine the book to our hearts.
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We pray that the Lord Jesus would be glorified, and that we would be edified and matured in Him.
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We pray in His name now, Amen. I've been thinking about the
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Puritans, as you know. We looked at Valley of Vision two weeks ago before we got snowed out last week.
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And the Puritan sees himself in the deep valley. He looks way up and he sees the glory of God, but he sees that he is hemmed in by what he called mountains of sin.
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So he is deeply aware of his sin, and his deep awareness of his sin causes him to have a deeper awareness of the glory of God.
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That's why the Valley of Vision is a good thing. And so I understand we, in our culture at least, not particularly at BBC, we don't want to talk about our sin very much.
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But if we do not talk about our sin, if we do not rehearse our struggle with it, if we do not rehearse where we have come from in Christ, by that much, the glory of God will be diminished.
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So I saw an ad for a new church today, this week I mean, and I looked at it and I thought, hmm, looks like more therapy to me.
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And so I don't know what we're going to do about sin. I would not have any opinion without listening.
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But I thought, hmm, looks moralistic and therapeutic. What we want to do is we want to come from the
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Word. And that's what the Puritans did. That's why the awareness of their sin was directly proportional to their awareness of the glory of God.
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I have said to you that they were masters not only of the English language, but of the scriptures.
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And as I thought about that, and I looked at some of the things that we see in Valley of Vision, some of you that have it, you will recognize some of the major names in there,
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David Brainerd, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, you can kind of see those guys in there.
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But all of the Puritans were not the major leaguers. I'm not even sure that in the
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Valley of Vision, the prayers that we find there are the so -called major leaguers, the big boys.
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And so I was reminded again to look at this little book. And I think there are still some of them in the bookstore, don't know that for sure.
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It's the last admonition of Deacon Joseph Allen to the church at Hardwick.
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And we talked about that at length in a previous session where he warned them.
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He spoke to the believers in the church. He spoke to the young people in the church.
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He spoke to the old people in the church. He spoke to those that were in the church just because they were citizens of Hardwick, which would have been the deal in 1781.
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You paid taxes to the town. The town was required by the Commonwealth to have a meeting house and a preacher.
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And so your taxes went to pay that. Every time I think of that,
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I just know that I'm 250 years too late. West Boylston was not paying me when
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I was here at Bethlehem. Just doesn't work that way anymore. And have you been to Sturbridge Village?
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And they show you the pastor's house, right? Highest paid cash salary in the town.
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20 cords of wood for free. Those days are gone. Okay. Anyway.
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Joseph Allen was just a deacon at the church in Hardwick, the Calvinist Congregational Church, which still stands on the common.
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It's no longer Calvinist. Probably congregational. Doesn't know which side of the
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Bible is front and back and upside and right side. But anyway, that was the church.
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The church to which Jonathan Edwards came two or three times to help them with problems.
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Jonathan Edwards came from Northampton. Didn't have to go around the
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Quabbin. Just came through all those places and no doubt walked over to Hardwick or rode a horse or whatever.
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In any case, Joseph Allen in 1781 offered all this admonition to the church, which we've talked about, but I want to read this to you today because when you read
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Valley of Vision and you read the prayers of these people, you understand that they were systematic theologians.
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Now, if you're sitting there thinking systematic theology, oh man, that's just for seminarians, people that want to talk about this.
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No, no, no, no. These Puritans were systematic theologians. They were masters of the
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Scriptures, but not only did they master the Scriptures, they were able to put the pieces together and then not only put the pieces together to give a treatise for a systematic theology class, but to give vent and expression to their own lives in Christ in an elegant and eloquent way.
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Because they knew not only the Scriptures, but having put the pieces together, they knew the doctrine.
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This Joseph Allen, anybody here from Oakham? Then you know about Deacon Allen Rode.
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Same guy. Joseph Allen took part in the affairs of Hardwick and in 1781 he was 70 years old and so he writes this admonition.
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To the church. And he warns the old people in the church. It goes something like this,
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I paraphrase, I'm not quoting. It goes, you old people have sat in this church under the light of the gospel all of these years and you have not yet turned to Christ.
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You need to turn to Christ. Okay, he talks to the citizens of the town who are not true believers and who knows how many that would have been because it was a taxpayer deal, don't you see?
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All right, and he speaks to them and he says, you need to come to Christ. And I want to convince you to come to Christ.
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And you have thought all is well because you come to this church, but it's not well. And you're on your way to hell.
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Guy was very direct. He was 70 years old. I suppose he had read the Scripture that a person's life ought to be three score and 10.
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So when he was 70, he thought I'm on borrowed time. Or at the end of the time. And so he wrote this.
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Then he had the audacity to live another 15 years. And it was his family.
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It was his family in 1795 that had this made public, is the way they put it, made public by having this admonition printed.
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He was also quite a poet as some of you have read the book have seen. But let's talk about systematic theology a minute.
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After he cautions all of these people that they need to come to Christ, and he cautions the believers too that they will not be sanctified apart from the sanctifying ministry of the
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Holy Spirit. Having done that, he says, I have thought before.
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Now listen to this carefully. Because you're gonna see this guy thread a needle just like Tom Brady through defensive ends, linebackers, and safeties to Edelman.
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Just like that. And nobody touches the ball. All right? This guy is gonna thread the theological needle here.
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And what was he? Was he a theologian? Yes, he was. But what was he? Took part in the affairs of Hardwick.
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But at least an account or two says he was a builder, a guy that built houses. That's what he did.
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There's even one account that says he was involved in the building of the Salisbury Mansion in Worcester.
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Don't know whether that's verified or not, but that's floating around in Hardwick.
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So here's what he says. I have thought before I close to say something concerning the decrees of God and answer some objections, which some people advance and make use of as an excuse for their indolence and delays in the great work of their salvation.
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He says, some of you people are indolent and you delay in the great work of salvation and it's you that has to be involved in the great work of salvation.
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The objection. Some say that if God has elected some to everlasting life from all eternity and they only shall be saved, therefore, if I am not elected,
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I cannot be saved. Let me do what I can. For the Spirit of God, I am told, is the alone author of conviction and regeneration.
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If so, what is there for me to do? For if I am elected, God will bring to pass all his counsels.
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Then what must I do but sit still and wait God's own time? For all that I can do will avail me nothing towards earning my salvation.
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Answer, but stay a while and consider, pray. Whoever told you that you might sit still having nothing to do in the work of your soul's salvation?
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Neither I nor any that hold the doctrine of election agreeable to the Scriptures ever pretended any such thing.
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For the word of God teaches directly to the contrary. As in Isaiah LXV 65, six and seven, seek the
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Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the
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Lord and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
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You are to hope for mercy through the merits of Jesus Christ alone on whom you must believe through the aids of the blessed
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Spirit. What sayeth the Scriptures? Make you a new heart. Strive to enter in at the straight gate.
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Work out your salvation, trusting to God, in God to work in you the work of His good pleasure and the work of faith with power.
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Now some of us will say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, that's Philippians and it was written to believers. Could be written to unbelievers too.
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These and many other places of sacred writ plainly show that you are not to sit still and attempt nothing.
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Got that? You are not to sit still and attempt nothing. You are to be in the use of the means
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God hath appointed. And this the God of heaven commands you to do.
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He's talking to unbelievers here. And it is at your peril if you neglect so to do.
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He has never told you that He would appear for you in any other way whatsoever.
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And if there were no other motive than obedience to His commands, you are absolutely bound to obey.
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He's talking to unbelievers. And He's saying to them, you are absolutely bound to obey.
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Why? Because He commands. Notwithstanding your own weakness and inability, because it is
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His will that you should by your striving. Some of us are going, what?
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Oh no. By your striving, come to the knowledge where your help lies.
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Therefore, dare not for your soul's sake sit still when the great
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God commands you to work. Is this salvation by works?
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No. In whose hands your life and breath is and who can turn you into hell in a moment?
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I said, He commands you to work for God has not lost sight, His right of command, though you by the fall have lost your power to save yourself.
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You say, what? I say, He just threaded the needle. He didn't wander off into Arminianism and say, you are autonomous.
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Therefore, whatever you conclude and whatever you decide, your will, your power, that's what brings you to Christ.
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Nor has He gone the other route and gotten into the hyper -Calvinism of the day.
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This is 1781. This is the day when people are saying to a William Carey, for example,
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Mr. Carey, if God wants to save the heathen, He will do so. And without your help.
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And what they were saying was, no need for you. And Carey then went to India on his own hook.
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All right. It was not up to William Carey to give anybody the gospel.
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It was the election that would determine the situation that Mr.
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Carey could just stay home in England. That's a hyper -Calvinism that the scriptures know nothing of. Now, what was old
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Deacon Allen saying? He was saying this, the preacher of the gospel needs to tell people that they need to strive to be saved.
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And what will they find when they are striving to be saved? They will find, what we may look at if I get to it today, they will find that they are unable to do what
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God wants them to do to be saved and they will cast their lives on Christ.
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By grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, the scriptures alone. They will come to that, but they will not come to that until they run out of the end of their working.
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And so here's a guy, he's a builder. Guy builds houses. You know, in the Merrill of Modern Divinity, that thing with the
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Merrill controversy among the Scotch Presbyterians that we looked at several months ago.
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And the Merrill of Modern Divinity, the book which started all of that, was written by a barber. Here's a guy that's a builder.
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And he could not do better theologically than anybody anywhere to thread the needle between Arminianism and Hyper -Calvinism.
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And he did it in about two paragraphs. That's the kind of knowledge that these
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Puritans had, the kind of thinking that they had about their salvation in the
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Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to ask yourself, why did they have that depth?
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When I read Valley of Vision, when I read what this guy wrote, I say, where did a guy like this come up with that depth of understanding?
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And I would say, there are probably a lot of places, but I would say one of the things is they didn't have as much static as we have.
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Deacon Allen didn't have to check Facebook. Even if he wanted to check Facebook, he couldn't check
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Facebook because it wasn't around. Deacon Allen didn't have to answer the phone.
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Deacon Allen didn't have to figure out that the dentist in Worcester wanted him there. And all of that.
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We have a lot of static that keeps us from some of the depth that they had. Now, don't misunderstand.
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I don't think you can probably get away from a lot of the static. A lot of it we could, but I don't think you can get away from.
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It's just part of the deal. The other thing is, their church services were long.
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I myself have a relative who was the pastor of the Dorchester Congregational Church.
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And he split the church. Well, I guess he split the church. I don't know the whole story. I only know a little piece of it.
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Okay. And among the 15 charges or so, 15 or so charges against my relative was this.
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On three occasions, now you count them, three times and they were keeping track. On three occasions, this guy failed to preach two hours.
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Think of it. When I read that little pamphlet in the American Antiquarian Society, I said,
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Lord, let me never be guilty. I have something like that. All right.
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And you may sit there thinking, well, we're working on it at BBC. All right. And there are times when it happens.
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The other thing is this. There were farmers and people that worked like that. If you'd been six days a week behind a horse or a cow cleaning up after it, church would look pretty good on Sunday morning.
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A lot better than it looks probably to some of us. And the only distance you could go, let's say you lived in Princeton and you could get to East Princeton and it was a three hour walk or four hour walk to get there.
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Church looked pretty good on Sunday morning up there on the common. And in those days, in those days when pastors were trained to be pastors at Harvard and Yale and other assorted places like it, and actually were taught the word, they would come to the depth that we read here and we read in the
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Valley of Vision. At least that's my theory. The other thing is for households of modest means in 1781 and in the earlier 1700s and the late 1600s, they didn't have a lot of money to buy books.
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The library was in a box. And for some of those, the library consisted of the
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Bible and Pilgrim's Progress. That was it. And if they were a little wealthier, maybe
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Fox's Book of Martyrs thrown in. So when you get home at night and all is winding down for the day, and that'd be about 5 .30
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today, all right? And then you had to light a candle to do whatever you were gonna do.
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Probably you would go and read the Bible or Pilgrim's Progress or Fox's Book of Martyrs and you might get more than we sometimes do.
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I'm impressed with those guys. All right. Now let's get to the reverse engineering.
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When I read Valley of Vision for myself, I always think,
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I always think, oh man, this guy's thinking about so -and -so passage. Oh, he must be familiar with this passage.
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Oh, he must be familiar with that passage. Now I don't know the passages that they had in mind when they say the things that they said, okay?
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But I can think of passages that relate to the things that they say. And so I've often thought one of these days, it's gonna have to be someday soon because I don't have too many one of these days is left, probably.
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Anyway, one of these days, I'm gonna take something from the
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Valley of Vision and we're gonna go to the scriptures that seem to apply that the guy was thinking about.
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These people had the scriptures rolling around in their heads and they ended up coming out their mouths.
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With the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. It was their means of sanctification to rehearse the scriptures as they did.
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And I might add, you know, I was gonna do this today, but there isn't time, plainly isn't time. I was gonna bring paper,
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I was gonna bring pens that I filch out of the bank every time I go there, okay? For you to write, all right?
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And I was gonna have you, I was gonna read some scriptures here and then have you write your version of a
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Valley of Vision thing and see what we could do, but no time for that. So we're just gonna do a little reverse engineering on my terms this morning.
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Now you remember the Valley of Vision piece that I read to you, one of them, that I read to you when we were together two weeks ago.
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I said, there must be some source to all of this.
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And I reminded you of these things that I thought of from the scriptures that would have resulted perhaps in what the guy blurted in this thing called the cry of a convicted sinner, all right?
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For example, in John chapter six, when
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Jesus says, I am the bread of life, and then he goes on to say, whoever eats my body and drinks my blood, he has fellowship with me and so on and so forth and must do that to have fellowship with me.
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And we know at the end of that episode that a lot of people said, this is really hard. We're not following this guy anymore.
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And some of them probably thought he may be a little nuts when he says things like that besides the ones that were offended.
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And so we have people who were weighing whether they ought to follow Jesus or not follow
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Jesus. Then we have the philosophers on Mars Hill when they listened to Paul in Acts chapter 17 and everything is going fine.
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And then he gets to talking about the resurrection of the dead. And they say, don't think we can go there.
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And some of them laughed and mocked him. But a few said, we want to hear more about this. And so there we have another group of people who are weighing whether or not they ought to believe what is said about the
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Lord Jesus Christ. They are weighing whether or not they ought to go that way. Then we have the guy that came and asked that his, servant or daughter,
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I forget which, be healed. He was a Gentile and Jesus said to him that he marveled at his belief.
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And the guy said, you remember that? The guy said, I believe. And then what did he blurt next? Help my unbelief.
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I've been there lots of times. Probably you have too. But we will not ask for hands.
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All right, okay. Help my unbelief. So here's a wavering that goes on with people that are coming to Christ.
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Then we read a couple of the warnings out of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter six, Hebrews chapter 10, to these people that were wondering whether they ought to go back to the temple worship.
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Maybe all that was involved in the temple worship was really right. And they were now under persecution for even considering Christ.
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And so Paul, at least five times in the book of Hebrews, warns them, don't turn back, don't turn back.
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Go on to maturity in Christ. And then of course, we read in Jude that people were to persevere in the face of false teaching and so on.
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So here we have this wavering that goes on. Now listen to what the Puritan says.
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Thou righteous and holy sovereign in whose hand is my life and in whose hand are all my ways.
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Now watch this, this is great. Keep me from fluttering about religion. Keep me from wavering about religion.
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Fix me firm in it. Man, oh man, that ought to be what I'm praying every 30 seconds.
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For I am irresolute. Are you resolute or irresolute? My decisions are smoke and vapor.
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And you know, woulda, coulda, shoulda. Oh, we shoulda done, oh, we coulda. Well, fix me in resolution.
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My decisions are smoke and vapor. And I do not glorify Thee. I do not glorify
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Thee when I flutter about religion. I do not glorify Thee when
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I think about being as one of those people on Mars Hill. I do not glorify
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Thee when I say what? I have to be so involved with Jesus Christ that it's like eat my body, drink my, boy, that's really hard for me to hear.
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No, no, no, I do not glorify Thee when I waver in my relationship to You.
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I do not glorify Thee or behave according to Thy will. So, keep me from fluttering about religion.
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Now, we're not talking about American spirituality here or Islam or Buddhism or something like that.
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When the people of this day and age talked about religion, they were talking about biblical Christianity.
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So here's what I want to do this morning. Well, looking at the clock.
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I want to read together some Scripture and I want you to get a
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Bible so that you can kind of go along with me. And when I just have one verse to read, I'll tell you so you don't have to go like that and then
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I'm ahead of you and all of that. And there are Bibles in the pew. These are pews, these blue pews.
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All right, here, there are Bibles in front of you. Okay, if you need this. But I want to read, okay, because I want to put the emphasis on the right syllable in some cases, okay, to read this.
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And I want to do this. I want to read a passage or two of Scripture and then I want to ask you, I want to ask you, so what's this all about?
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And see what you have to say. So listen carefully. If the guy next to you is sleeping, give him a poke.
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All right, I'll start right at Genesis. Genesis 1, verse 7.
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You don't have to turn there, there's just one verse. I've got three single verses to read here and then we'll get down to a longer passage.
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All right. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature.
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That's ESV. The man became a living soul. It's more literal, okay.
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So what's that about? Quickly, let's not fight with each other about who gets to go first.
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What's that about? It's about the creation,
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I'll help you. It's about the creation of man. All right, what does it tell me? Tells me something about God.
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He can make men out of dirt. Tells me something about men too. That the man did not become a living soul until God breathed into him the breath of life.
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At Revelation 11, 11, I read a similar thing about the two witnesses that are going to irritate the world until they are killed and then they are resurrected from the dead.
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And John says, but after three and a half days, a breath of life from God entered them and they stood up on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them.
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Yeah, that's what resurrection of the dead will do for a lot of people, will cause them to be very fearful.
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1 Thessalonians 5 .23, now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our
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Lord Jesus Christ. Now what's that about? Tells me something about man, at least in this verse.
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It says that man has a body, a spirit and soul and body. And by the way,
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Paul here says your spirit, your soul, your body. And we always say, don't we, body, soul and spirit.
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It tells us something about how backwards things got at the fall. Started out spirit, soul and body.
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And when God breathed into it, now I understand that I am treading on a systematic theology point of discussion, all right?
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And disagreement, all right? But I say this, when it says
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God breathed into Adam the breath of life, it's talking about his spiritual life. Doesn't say that about any of the animals that were created or anything like that, but when
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God made the man out of dirt and then He breathed into him the breath of life, Adam, who had absolute communion with God at that point until he sinned,
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Adam became a living soul able to communicate with God.
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The fox terriers, the pigs, the snakes, all of those, they were living beings.
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They were creatures animated, but they did not have direct communion with God, all right?
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Now let's go to Romans chapter eight. And by the way, if you think that man is a,
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I don't wanna say trichotomy, that is to cut in three pieces. Nobody can be cut in three pieces, all right?
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But I would say tripartite. There are three distinguishable things about people described in several different ways in the scriptures that have to do with their spirit and have to do with their soul and have to do with their mind and have to do with their will and have to do with their emotions.
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All of those things are distinguishable, but they are all packed together in one being, us, marred by the fall, okay?
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Now Romans chapter eight, Paul gets into this. So I'm gonna begin at verse nine of Romans eight and go down through verse 17.
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You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If in fact, that if is one of those ifs that I used to call a sensi -if, but people that translate the
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Bible get all nervous when you say, oh, that's not, you can't say sensi -if, it's more nebulous than that.
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So here's a good way. Seeing that, this is a seeing that if, okay?
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Seeing, it's not if you are in the spirit. Paul assumes they are in the spirit, okay?
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You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. Seeing that, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you.
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Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But seeing that Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit, now here's where ESV, in my never to be humble opinion, goes off the rails a bit.
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This does not make sense if you capitalize spirit here for another time, but it does not.
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What's in view here is the spirit of the man. Your body is dead, but your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
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The imputed righteousness of Christ that came to us when we were saved that has made our spirits alive.
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People have a spirit. That's what Paul was saying to the Thessalonians. That's what he's saying here to the
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Romans. And that spirit is that which communicates and is very sensitive to God.
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Now that doesn't mean you're mindless, you're willless, or you're emotionless. It just means that your capacity for spirituality is distinguishable.
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Some commentators even say it's dividable. And they point to Hebrews 4, verse 12.
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The Word of God is quick and sharp, sharper than any two -edged sword, even to the what?
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The dividing, to give it to you in King James, the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.
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To distinguish soul and spirit. The Word of God is an instrumentality for that to happen.
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Verse 11, if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His spirit who dwells in you.
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Verse 12, so then brothers, we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
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But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the
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Spirit of God are sons of God. To be led by the Spirit of God is to have a spirit that is alive to God.
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To have a mind that is alive to God. To have a will that is under a mind and a spirit that are alive to God.
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And those things are distinguishable. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons.
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By whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit, little s, that we are children of God.
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And if, and seeing that we are children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
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Now what's that all about? What that's all about is to talk about what the indwelling
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Holy Spirit brings to us in Jesus Christ. It brings not a spirit of fear, but the
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Holy Spirit has made our spirit alive. To the Corinthians, Paul says this, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what
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God has prepared for those who love Him, these things God has revealed to us through the
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Spirit. I'm at 1 Corinthians 2. Sorry, my wife tells me often, you've got to tell them where you are.
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Okay, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. And she's right, by the way. Alright, so I'm at 1
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Corinthians 2, verse 9. These things God has revealed to us through the
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Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person?
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Whatever's going on in your mind has a great deal to do with whatever's going on in your spirit.
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That is distinguishable, saith the Scriptures. Alright? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the
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Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
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How do we freely understand the things given us by God? I'm not giving you a chance to say what that's all about.
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Or am I? So I'll tell you. Here's what it's all about. We have a mind that is governed by a
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Spirit made alive in Christ, and that gets us to a knowledge of the things freely given us by God.
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If you are rejoicing in salvation this morning, it is not because you thought you would do that.
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It is because your spirit is alive in Christ. Your spirit is alive to God.
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And you are rejoicing in freely knowing by the Spirit who indwells you, who tells your spirit that you are a child of God, which then affects your mind to freely know those things given us by God.
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And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom. This comes from the
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Spirit. But taught by the Spirit. Interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
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Verse 14, the natural person, the person outside of Christ, does not accept the things of the
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Spirit of God. They are folly to Him. Think about Mars Hill. And He is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
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The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. For who has understood the mind of the
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Lord so as to instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.
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I don't have this down here, but to the Ephesians chapter 4, about verse 32,
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I think, something like that, Paul says to those Ephesians, he says, you need to be renewed.
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Now watch it. You need to be renewed in the Spirit of your mind. To the
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Romans 12 .2, you know this. I don't have that down here. To the Romans at 12 .2,
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he says, you should not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by what?
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By the renewing of your mind. Because we are in Christ, because the
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Holy Spirit indwells us, we think differently than worldlings. It's a whole different ballgame.
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They don't get it. That's their problem. Okay, we get it because of the indwelling
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Holy Spirit. Time is flying.
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1 Corinthians chapter 15, 44 through 49.
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Did I get that? 1 Corinthians 15. What is sown is perishable.
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He's talking here about the resurrection of the body now. What is raised is imperishable.
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It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power.
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It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is a spiritual body.
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Thus it is written the first man, Adam, became a living being, a living soul. Why? When?
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When God breathed into him the breath of life. And by the way, time is flying.
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By the way, what is the word that is translated spirit in Greek?
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It is pneuma, which means what? Breath, wind, air, all of that.
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We find the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John as He's leaving
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His men, it says He breathed on them to what? To receive,
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He says to them, receive the Holy Spirit. And He breathed on them. Okay?
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So here now it's talking about a body that is spiritual and that will be resurrected and is alive.
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The first man was from the earth, the man of dust. The second man is from heaven, as was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust.
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And as the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. That would be us. Okay? But as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
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There are other passages I think about John saying, when we see Him, we shall be as He is.
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Okay? So you get it? Because our spirits are alive in Christ Jesus, that has something to do with how we operate.
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So what does all that have to do with the Puritans? Well, I'm going to read to you from the Puritan. Remember now, these guys have this stuff all rolling around in their heads.
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They have it all put together. They are great systematic theologians. They express it in personal pronouns and verbs that talk about how they feel, what they are, and all of that.
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They are in the valley of vision looking up and they see the glory of God as they put all this together, even though they know they are surrounded by sin.
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Now you're going to get a picture in a minute of a mountain that is apprehended, a mountain of sin that is apprehended by this guy that is going to pray.
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And then you're going to hear him talk about something else. And what he has opened up, what he seems to understand here is what
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I have talked about, that men are spirit, soul, and body.
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And if you erase spirit from that, which Adam did when he sinned, if you erase spirit, his spirit died.
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Did Adam die physically when he sinned? No, he did not. He lived longer than anybody ought to, 900 and some years, okay?
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He did not. He died spiritually, though, on the spot. What does that mean?
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That means what was left of Adam to run the show was his mind, not affected by a spirit, his mind, in the words of Ephesians, not renewed by the spirit, okay?
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His will and his emotions. And as you read through the Old Testament, you read about all kinds of willful people running on their emotions.
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And it is called the soul life. If you are apart from Christ, if you are not in Christ, there is a life of the soul.
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And that life threatens those of us that are in Christ. That's why Paul goes through that whole thing in Romans chapter seven, which we don't have time to go into, but it threatens us.
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And it is called in the writings of some of the Puritans and in other commentators, the life of the soul.
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And what they mean is the life of the soul cut loose from the spirit of God.
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Now listen to this Puritan. He says, cut me not off.
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You know what? That's biblical talk for what? For what? So -and -so was cut off.
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What's that mean? They killed him. All right? This guy is saying, don't kill me,
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Lord. Don't kill me before my thoughts grow to responses.
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He said, if I think, if I think and it's not governed by the
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Holy Spirit, pretty soon my thought will become a response. Every time you and I sin, every time
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I sin, every time you sin, I was gonna say, well, I know that's how it works with me, but I know that's how it works with you too.
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Okay? Before I ever get involved in sin, I've thought about it. And the thought becomes a response.
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This old Puritan says, cut me, don't kill me before my thoughts. He says, Lord, do you know what
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I think? Don't kill me before those thoughts grow to become responses.
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Now watch this. And the budding of my soul into full flower. This guy is distrustful of his soul, his mind, his will and his emotions, which might not be responding to the
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Lord in a spiritual way. So cut me not off before my thoughts grow to responses and the budding of my soul into full flower.
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Once the responses start and we begin to sin, then the life of the soul comes into full flower.
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You say, how does that happen? Well, you know how it happens. We all have done this. We get involved in sin and then we start to become
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Philadelphia lawyers. Hey, well, I needed to do that. I know we're not supposed to do that ordinarily. I ordinarily wouldn't do that, but under the circumstances,
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I had to do this. And you know what? I guess I actually was right to do that. In fact,
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I think now, as I think about it more, I think that it actually was the really right thing to do that I got involved in that sin.
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Okay? This Puritan says, you know what? When we start that self -justification for being in sin, and that's all around us.
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Just take a look at any news thing on the internet and you'll see all kinds of people justifying sin as the right thing to do because it's compassionate.
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Usually that's kind of where we are. We're warm and fuzzy in our culture because it's compassionate.
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Okay? This guy says, when we start out down that road, our soul life buds into full flower.
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Don't kill me, Lord. Stop my soul life from budding into full flower for You are forbearing and good, patient and kind.
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Lord, I am leaning on Your patience, Your goodness, Your kindness, so that my mind, my will and my emotions don't run the show but that Your Holy Spirit runs the show.
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That's where He's going. And then later, I have to leave some things out for time's sake and writing's sake.
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Later, He says, O Thou Father of my spirit. What does He do? Who is
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His Father? His Father is the source of His spirit. His Father is the source of life in the spirit.
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His spirit is alive because of righteousness, the imputed righteousness of Christ.
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And the source of that is the Father. O Thou Father of my spirit, Thou King of my life, cast me not into destruction.
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Drive me not from Thy presence, but wound my heart that it may be healed. Break it that Thine own hand may make it whole.
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For a guy to pray like that, he's got to have in his mind all of the
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Scripture that talks about the nature of man, the nature of God, how it all fits.
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He doesn't intend to just go write a term paper about it. It all becomes personal pronouns and it becomes very personal.
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And it is a piece of the walking through the valley of vision where he sees the sin.
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Lord, don't let my soul life come into full flower. But he sees the glory of God.
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Thou Father, Thou Father of my spirit, You are kind, You are patient.
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Wound me if necessary to keep my soul life from budding into full flower, to keep my mind, my will, and my emotions from running the show.
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Let me be sensitive to my spirit, which is guaranteed by Your spirit and informed by Your spirit that I am
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Your child. That's what the Scriptures, that kind of praying springs out of a knowledge of the
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Scriptures that is deep, deep, deep. God grant that we would find more and more of that kind of thing for ourselves.
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Heavenly Father, we're grateful for Your Word. We're grateful for the testimony of these people who lived in the 16, 17, and 1800s.
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We marvel at their depth of understanding, and many of them were quite ordinary people, barbers and builders, among others.
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We pray, we're pretty ordinary people ourselves, Lord. We pray that You would give us a depth of understanding and an expression of gratitude for our salvation and an expression of fearfulness of the sin we might get into that amplifies
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Your glory. To know what we might become amplifies the glory of our salvation.
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Help us to understand. Help it to happen with us and in us.