Genesis 1 And The Gospel

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What accounts for one person believing and another not believing? On judgment day will you stand before God and said
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I accepted Jesus in my heart My friend didn't By my own faith by my own bootstraps.
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I believed and my friend didn't is there such a thing as free will
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Can you believe in grace and free will at the same time? Sam you're leaving already. I offend you the youth of America Does God make everyone neutral and you have some pervenient grace?
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So then you're able to make a decision Others don't here's the real question.
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Is it grace that makes you different? Than your unbelieving friend.
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Is it grace that makes you different than your unbelieving friend? We believe and we teach at this church that sinners are fallen and totally unable to cooperate with God for salvation, isn't that what we believe?
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That's exactly what we believe. We believe that salvation is divinely initiated and accomplished
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So if you're going to heaven and your friends not going to heaven What is the difference and the answer is the difference is not found in you.
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The difference is found in the sovereign Distinguishing grace of God as God said in Hosea 14.
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I have loved you freely and Here's what's happening. I think there's a coalescence between two issues
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The first issue is Genesis 1 is being attacked by people and people are saying Evolution is true matter of fact the
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Bombs aren't coming just from the outside. They're coming from the inside as well Tim Keller of all people saying now that Genesis 1 is poetry
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Tim Keller said even though in this paper I argue for the importance of a belief in a literal Adam and Eve I have shown here that there are several ways to hold that and still believe in God using evolutionary biological processes
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I think you're gonna see tonight that if you believe in evolution in Genesis 1 It's going to affect the way you believe in salvation and you're gonna believe in salvation by evolution
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If you believe in the God who said let there be light and there was for physical creation
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Then it's gonna be very easy for you when Paul ties these two pictures together for you to say when
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God said for me in 1989 September let there be light and he made me born again with that same
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Direct divine Initiating grace no evolution. No gap theory
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No day age theory in my in my in my evolution. I was gonna say in my salvation.
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It was let there be light divine Sovereign Initiative so I'm thinking as I'm looking at the world.
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No wonder Genesis 1 is attacked It's attacked for two reasons because if you can get rid of God You can live an immoral life and sleep at night
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Nietzsche said but it's also being attacked because over time it's eroding
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Salvation and how we see salvation by God alone if You know what?
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I'm gonna give myself away and I don't want to do it yet. Let me continue to build this up Mr. Keller if God used evolution to create then can't we take
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Genesis 1? Literally, we can't take it literally and if we do Why do we take any part of the
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Bible literally Answer Tim Keller the way to respect the authority of the biblical writers is to take them as they want to be taken sometimes they want to be taken literally sometimes they don't we must listen to them nor impose our thinking and agenda on them and Then he tries to get around the obvious with lots of flowery words
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He said so what genre is Genesis 1? Is it pose or poetry in this case?
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It's a false choice and he goes on and on and on so you can still believe in Genesis 1
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Being in the Bible, but it's not literal The literal part starts in chapter 2.
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So here's what I'm after tonight I want you to believe in Genesis chapter 1 properly So you believe in salvation properly in other words if Genesis chapter 1 is by evolution
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So too is your salvation and you should call yourself a Roman Catholic because you have a gradual salvation
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So we're gonna have some fun tonight Based on the look of your faces so far. It doesn't look too fun to me
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But we're gonna just preach anyway preach the word in season out of season whether some of you are like What did I get into tonight?
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At least there's ice cream afterwards because I want you to enjoy yourself That's what I'm after. So here's what we're gonna do
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Here's the paradigm again, if you get Genesis 1 wrong, you get a lot of stuff wrong We think the proto gospel the initial
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Gospels in Genesis chapter 3, that's true But the way you see Genesis 1 with the vine fiat
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Creation it's going to affect the way you see your salvation and it's also by divine fiat mess up Genesis 1 with evolution
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You're going to be Pelagian or semi Pelagian or you're going to be gradual evolving
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Slowly becoming more and more justified. So here's we're gonna do Genesis 1 to start Genesis 1 1 let's start there
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I won't read you all these other Tim Keller quotes There's no sense Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 to 5 and let's just see if in fact the
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Bible does teach self Creation by divine fiat.
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I don't think you have to look at this with any, New York IQ to see it
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I believe the Bible is written to people who were blue -collar and you can easily with the blue -collar hermeneutic with a sheet metal hermeneutic a plumber's hermeneutic a
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Janitor's hermeneutic figure out exactly what he's trying to say and we know that this isn't poetry
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This is what God says about salvation about creation Genesis 1 1 in the beginning
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God created God created the heavens and the earth The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep
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The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water And God said you don't want to remember this verse
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Let there be light And there was light God saw that the light was good and separated the light from the darkness
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God called the light day in the darkness. He called night and there was evening and there was morning the first day
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Many many times I believe nine times in chapter 1 God said God said God said
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God said He spoke and it came to be as Psalm 33 says and what does he do?
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He separates the light from the darkness. Now. This is kind of interesting. When was the
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Sun made? Has the Sun been made yet? This is kind of interesting.
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I think the Sun is made in day four. So what do you do? How could there be light and there's no Sun there's light, but there's no light container as it were
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Here's what John Whitcomb said It was a created light localized somewhere in the universe and Possibly incorporated into the stellar universe on the fourth day of creation week after its unique and temporary function was accomplished
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Perhaps this was to speak out against the future pagan worship of the Creator's Son The false religious science of astrology and the evolutionary idea of the earth's coming from the
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Sun So how it happened, I don't know but we have light before the Sun it's pretty amazing
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Now seeing this passage again God said let there be light and then what does the next sentence say there was light
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We're gonna notice that it doesn't say and the light cooperated with God to allow itself to be made
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You watch let's go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 and see that Paul Uses creation language when it comes to the
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Apostles and then by principle for us when we get saved it's like Creation with divine initiative except for us.
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It's recreation. It's Salvation. Here's what I'm after I'm after that God alone saves and God alone gets all the glory and if you're a
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Christian It's because God made you a Christian, of course, you responded with faith, but that faith didn't save you
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He even gave you that if you get Genesis 1 wrong I think you're gonna get 2nd
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Corinthians 4 wrong And if you get 2nd Corinthians 4 wrong, you're gonna get Genesis 1 wrong 2nd Corinthians chapter 4
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Paul's writing to the Church of Corinth a year later After he's written 1st Corinthians, and now he's going to say this in chapter 4 verse 1.
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This is just great I read this I thought I've got to go home and preach this Therefore having this ministry by the mercy of God we do not lose heart
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But we compare to these false teachers We have renounced disgraceful underhanded ways.
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Guess what? The false teachers were like they were disgraceful and underhanded We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word Remember that big scare we had a while ago with Tylenol ten years ago twenty years ago and people were sneaking into the store
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Putting bad things in the Tylenol and then now you have what kind of proof Tylenol caps
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There you go. You're pretty smart. I Left Steve in charge for those six weeks when
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I was gone, and I think that was a pretty good decision Tamper could mean tamper to do something with and put something bad into it
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But this word tamper is more used of if you've got for instance some wine, but you want to make it go a little farther
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You just put some water in it to dilute it this is a tamper not with strychnine This is a tamper diluting something.
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So it just goes farther. They're diluting the gospel. They're watering down the gospel but by open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God and Even if our gospel is veiled, it's veiled to those who are perishing.
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Yes. I preach the gospel. Not everybody responds That's not the Gospels problem. That's not my problem as a preacher of the gospel.
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They have been blinded by Satan Verse 4 in their case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers
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See if these Apostles are saying look at Paul He preaches and people don't even believe and Paul is Standing up for the gospel and what does
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Satan do to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ? Who is the image of God?
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verse 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves kind of sounds familiar doesn't it this morning?
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But Jesus Christ is Lord with ourselves as your servants for Christ's sake and Now we come to the big one now
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We come to Genesis one language and if you've got some kind of silly notions of day age picture age gap theory
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Evolution I can believe in theistic evolution. You are not going to be able to think logically and correctly about salvation
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The text doesn't say anything about that now look at the tie -in for God who said
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I'm going to give you a reason why verse 5 is true. Paul says we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus is
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Lord Why is that? Why do we preach Jesus and not other people? Why do we preach Christ and not ourselves?
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Why don't we preach ourselves like these other false preachers do? for God who said
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And now this is going to be illustrative of not just Paul's conversion and the
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Apostles conversion, but ours as well Let light shine out of darkness
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What's he doing he's saying conversion is like creation when God says let there be light it was light didn't cooperate light didn't
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Accept, you know the Creator in his heart light didn't have that that sounds funny Doesn't it light didn't say by my own free will we work together?
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You and me light doesn't say together we did it but by divine fiat it happened It was divinely orchestrated and light was passive So now
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Paul is going to say so too in salvation You are passive in redemption. It's something that's done to you.
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You don't initiate it. You didn't start it It wasn't when I was in 1989. I thought to myself, you know based on all the evidence out there
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I think it's just probably a good and wise decision if I if I believe in Jesus I Have a friend in his name
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Scott I've told you about Scott before and Scott now has a beard down to about here and he looks like a
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ZZ top guitar Guy, that's what he looks like Sorry for all the pop culture stuff this morning, you know
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Bachman turned to overdrive, but at least it's not journey and Down here. He's got this beard and he's bald and his nickname is the anvil
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There's nothing wrong with a beard and nothing wrong with the ball thing But he just if you met this guy and I told you
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I grew up with him. We were best friends We had a cabin on the lake. Our parents did together.
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Our parents were best friends. Our parents did everything together. He's my age we're we were friends and all of a sudden you go, how could this guy be a drunk and Someone who tried to kill his wife.
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It was his girlfriend and How could I be a Christian? Does the answer lie within me?
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I just knew that was a bad lifestyle. I knew it was going nowhere I just figured out on my own and I myself
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Figured out salvation was the best. No God. You didn't help me in any way shape or form
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I alone can you imagine getting down on your knees praying that dear God? I'm so glad I'm a
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Christian when all my friends they didn't accept you they didn't believe in you They didn't repent but I had enough sense
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Unaided by the Holy Spirit to analyze this and now I believe could you ever pray that way?
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I could even go further Matter of fact, I will go further. Well, why would why would a preacher say that I could go further, you know, what's coming next?
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I am gonna go further When you pray for your loved ones You pray like Genesis one language
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How do you pray for your loved ones? dear Lord I'd really like this person to go to heaven and I'm sure you'd like him go to heaven too and But I don't want to tamper with anything.
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I don't want him to make I don't want him to be a robot I don't want him to be some kind of puppet. I don't want them to Be coerced in any way
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Could you work? Providentially in the circumstances and orchestrate things in such a way that by their own bootstraps by their own free will with any outside Solicitations by the
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Spirit of God just using something else. Could you please help them make themselves become a Christian?
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What do you pray? I've loved ones who aren't Christians. You have loved ones who aren't Christians. And what do you do you get down and you say what?
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Let there be light That's exactly what you should pray God. Let there be light.
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You've tried you've cajoled if you're a parent You've you know, try to force them if you're a spouse you've tried to You know
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Contrive certain ways to get them saved and you realize you can't save anybody So you say
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God let there be light and what does Paul say in verse 6 let light shine out of darkness that Genesis 1 3 language
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Has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus God you illumined our mind
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God you did it This is so far away from if I get the last rites
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I go to heaven if I get baptized I go to heaven if I get Consecrated I go to heaven if I get irrigated
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I go to heaven. I go get consecrated I go to heaven if I do anything I go to heaven. How does anybody go to heaven?
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Let there be light and If you could do something to get to heaven verse 5 wouldn't be true
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Paul would say we preach ourselves because gee mom. Look what a good boy. I am I believe when you didn't
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Paul says no, but when it comes to Christ Jesus Genesis 1 is illustrative of what
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God does in the hearts of people like you and the hearts of people that he will save in the future
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Let there be light Back in Genesis chapter 1 was there anyone around saying please give me light.
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I really want a lot of light This is dark here. It's cold. Please give me light I mean, it just sounds funny, but God says let there be light and there was light
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That's a neat way to think of salvation. Let there be light and God illumines the dark depraved mind
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Wonder what Paul was thinking about when he was writing this Was there any kind of light that Paul had in his?
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Experience of salvation where here's a light that really did shine for us. It's spiritual for us.
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It's figurative There's no real light. It's just the turning on the light bulb But with Paul he was on a road a
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Damascus Road and guess what? Let's turn there Acts chapter 26 this is amazing.
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You're gonna see no cooperation with free will or some kind of other way that Paul says
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You know, it's you and me It's grace plus what I do. I think that sounds more
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Mormon than anything else You've been saved by grace after all you can do. Let's take a look at Chapter 26
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Paul's conversion. I know he's talking about this. This is Paul When you see this word brightness come out when you see this word that this shown around me brighter than the
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Sun language That's related to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 Acts 26 12 let's go to 12 in this connection.
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I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priest At midday
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Oh King I saw on the way a Light from heaven When we get saved we don't see the light but Paul saw this light from heaven brighter than the
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Sun That shone around me and those who journeyed with me and when we had fallen to the ground
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I heard heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew language Saul Saul. Why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the goads
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Who are you Lord? Jesus whom you are persecuting but rise and stand upon your feet for I have appeared to you for this purpose to Appoint you a servant and a witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which
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I will appear to you Delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom
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I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to Light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by Faith in me.
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I believe in Genesis chapter 1. I believe it's not poetry. I believe in literal four days and not because Evening and morning in the
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Bible is a 24 -hour cycle Not because every time you have an ordinal number like first second and third it limits it to a normal day
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Not because of Exodus chapter 20 I do for all those reasons, but I mainly believe it because if I tamper with Genesis 1 ones
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Straight meaning of let there be light then what do I do in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6?
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They're tied together Light shines out of the darkness Who did it
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God did he commanded it? Now let me just stop for a second take a breath If you have a hard time believing that salvation is by grace alone by divine fiat
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God alone doing the work Of course, we respond we'll get to that if you have a hard time There's something
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I want to remind you of that it will really really help and it's called the fall
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It's called the fall I talked to a lot of people in California over the last six weeks and many of them said what's it
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Like to live in New England and without question most of them didn't think they'd like to live here except for The fall they have a nice fall there
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I'm just happy to hear the word because nobody talks about the fall at all. I'm surprised.
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There's not been some kind of satanic Diversion and people never say the fall anymore
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It's always autumn people don't want to think about the fall But if you remember the fall and depravity you have to say to yourself if I'm depraved if I'm sinful
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If I'm blind if I cannot reach out to God God's going to have to initiate salvation
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Steve and I would always joke around when it comes to salvation Remember the salvation little analogy on how
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God saves and there's someone in a boat. I noticed last week in California. Somebody was drowned
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And they rescued them a bunch of people on the beach began to pray and There's a picture did you see the picture where they were carrying the man the teenager out of the water, and he was just dead
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Seemingly dead and they carried him and then went and did CPR and in the hospital he was revived
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So what about life -saving? What about all that stuff? Can you imagine if the picture of salvation is?
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God is somehow in a boat and he rose over to you and you're kind of Drowning and you know you're kind of going up for the last gulp and and I remember when
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I was with the kids and stuff I would pretend like I'm going up and down with water And then I would finally put my head under the water and I put my hand up and I would go like this
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And then down I would go. Why did I just do that? You cannot show this tape to MacArthur.
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You cannot do it This is horrible But salvation is not
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I reach down God says and then you reach up and we clasp each other and then together we did it
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That's not salvation Salvation is God rose over and you're down on the bottom of the ocean and the
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Marianas Trench and there's not even anything there except some bones and God has to give you new life
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And he has to create life where there's no life because the text says we are dead. I looked up this week
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We are spiritually dead spiritually blind deaf hardened rebels Polluted unable to change unable to come to Christ unable to receive spiritual truth
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Our intellect is controlled by our sin. Our emotions are controlled by our sin. Our will is controlled by our sin
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Spurgeon said anyone who believes that man's will is entirely free and that he can be saved by it does not believe in the fall
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If you're a saved you are saved by God alone If you're saved God made you
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Alive and you responded with faith So the two words I want to talk about for the rest of the night are monergism and synergism monergism and synergism
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Monergism is mono God alone works. What is an erg? Anybody I know force equals mass times acceleration.
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What's some kind of Equation with work in it. What's work anyway
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W What Chris Chris, what is it? Yeah, you know what when my kids do that Did you do that to your sister?
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Did I do that to my sister? You're just already so lost force times distance.
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Yeah, that's right. How much did WPI cost you a lot of money Okay Erg it's a unit of work and so God alone works why it is
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God alone work because we're dead and we have to be worked upon and Synergism is not s
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I n you ever heard synergism and you think you know s is s I n Practically it is synergism, but it's this is s
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Y n. This is together This is together. God alone works or we work with I want you to turn your
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Bibles of 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and let's just see which one is true Does God alone work in salvation or do we work with God?
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Do we cooperate with God? Is it the Holy Spirit the only efficient agent in regeneration or do we work with him?
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Does he do 90 % of the work and we kind of let him? By the way, when we first are born
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We're always thinking we can do something to achieve the results then when we get saved we think you know what?
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Maybe that's not true. It's by grace, but I did believe but then after we studied the Bible We realized that we're not
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Pelagians. We're not semi Pelagians We believe in what Jesus taught and what Paul taught and the rest of the
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Apostles 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 Why should you not boast in? Leaders are who you are because God saves
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Sinners and it's all of him When you get to heaven your praise is going to be great because you had nothing to do with salvation 1st
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Corinthians chapter 1 verse 30, but by his doing you are in Christ Jesus By his doing you want to know if you're a
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Christian or not, or how did you become a Christian by the work of God? God's work alone
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No one else his power his mercy not us not because of us
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The efficient cause the effectual cause of salvation is God And I know you know that by the exercise of his will he brought us forth by the word of truth
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James chapter 1 verse 18 Verse 30 goes on to say who became to us wisdom from God You guys are all into wisdom in chapter 1.
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Here's what wisdom of God really looks like wisdom from God. That is righteousness sanctification and redemption
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God alone saves by his doing when you get to heaven I guarantee you you'll say
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I didn't deserve to be here. I just just can imagine for just a second What is it gonna be like that first moment when you're in heaven?
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Never just stop and think about that I'm pretty much in the fourth quarter of my life. I'm 51
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My dad died at 55. My mother died at 66. And so I'm on borrowed time.
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Basically now I might live to be 90 But I'm not gonna ask to live to 90 because Hezekiah he wanted another 10 years and look what that got him
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So I'll just take what I get. How often do we think just about that moment in heaven?
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What is it going to be to pass from this life to the next? This is gonna sound really cheesy probably
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When I see those ads for speakers and it shows the guy sitting there on the speaker and it's like this
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And his hair is blowing back and there's just like g -forces on his face Can you imagine standing before this
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Holy God and you don't even have to fall on your face because your sins are forgiven and you're in heaven
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I'm just thinking that's got to be an amazing thing when my mother was dying and I said, you know mom We got to shut off some of this machinery and this that and the other and we're just making you have pain
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We're prolonging the agony I've never believed it more in my life absent from the body present with the
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Lord. It's okay. We can turn this stuff off It's no big deal because she had earlier asked me when she was lucid
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Mike. Don't turn this stuff off without my permission Mom I think it's gonna be okay.
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I talked to the doctor. We know where you're going. You're gonna see Jesus face to face It's gonna be grand. It's gonna be glorious.
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Why are we delaying this trying to keep you alive? I Can understand keeping unbelievers alive as long as you possibly can right but for Christians Why are we prolonging this life on earth when
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We believe what the text says, so I said, you know what it's gonna be. Okay, mom God is faithful and she was laying there kind of morphine laced and she couldn't even open her eyes
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I could tell she was trying to open her eyes. Have you ever seen somebody they just can't open their eyes She was trying and she said awesome
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That's right And when we get there though, I guarantee you
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Isn't this gonna be good? There's gonna be no Pelagian semi Pelagian. I did this I accept
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Jesus my heart I'm better than the anvil because I believed and he didn't it's gonna just be all we have received
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It's going to be how did God rescue each Israel out of Egypt We have like a
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Rodney Howard Brown laughing revival back here or what? Where are the ushers? This family integrated church stuff has gone way too far that's for certain by the way,
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I want to talk about that sometime but not tonight This whole divided thing and family integrated churches and everything
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I don't buy it at all so Okay When you're standing in heaven
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How great is it going to be to have all our vestiges of human achievement merit?
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We work and we achieve and we're Americans and we're individualists and we do things by our
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Sheer will all that's gonna be removed and we're just gonna go. You know what? I'm here for one reason alone God you did it by your doing it's not because we're clever or influent influential or high status
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What does verse 29 say of 1st Corinthians 1 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God if you've got one?
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Iota of something you did so God could make you savable one thing that you did so God would think that you're lovable Then you might boast and can you picture just for a second talk about Dante's Inferno?
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The real Dante's Inferno would be people in heaven praising themselves Can you imagine in heaven people doing some kind of football?
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Spike in the end zone like look at me you watch these guys that whether it's the Celtics or the
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Lakers It doesn't matter. I know the Lakers are a little more sanctified than the Celtics But either way they both fall short all this taunting and look at me.
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Can you imagine in heaven? Can you imagine I see Brad Arnold and I look across the the the swirling angels and I look at him and I go
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Now it would be I can't believe I made it Now that might be look at me. I made it.
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How could I make it? That would be horrible to get to heaven and say, you know what we got ourselves there.
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Let there be light That's how we got to heaven John Hendricks who runs the monergism dot -com
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Site, he says this is a prayer that a sinner just won't pray Synergism means God working along with man man and God together.
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This is a prayer that a sinner just won't pray God I give you glory for everything else, but not my faith
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This is the one thing that is my very own that I produced of my fallen natural capacities For this little bit of glory is mine
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So I thank you Lord that I am NOT like other men who do not have faith When you extended your grace to all men some did not make use of it, but I did
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While you deserve glory for all I have Lord my faith was the one part that I contributed to the price of my redemption apart from and independent of the effectual work of your
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Holy Spirit I Notice there's no in Jesus name. Amen at the bottom. That is why friends stop and let this sink in regeneration precedes faith
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Regeneration precedes faith because if faith precedes regeneration Then it's something the natural fallen man does in order for God to save regeneration logically biblically precedes faith
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Why does one man believe in another not believe what the answer because it pleased
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God to have one person believe and not another Let's turn our Bibles of Ephesians chapter 1 if that kind of bugs you a little bit
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In one sense. I'm kind of saying it in such a way that I'm trying to get you to be a little bit bugged
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Why is one person in heaven and another not? the answer is
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Going back to the covenant of redemption God the Father chose some to give to the
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Son and then the Son died for those some rescued those some the Spirit of God regenerated those some
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And then they're handed back to the Father for worship But here Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3
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Paul never got over his salvation blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every blessing in the heavenly places and Before he praises
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God for Jesus's death. He praises God for election for Predestination everybody here believes in it because it's right here
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Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world That we should be holy and blameless before him.
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Oh Predestination so unloving in love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will
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To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has blessed us in the beloved Why is anybody chosen because God wants to choose them?
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It does not depend on man's desire or effort, but on God who has mercy
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If you're going to heaven if you're a Christian today, you're going because God opened your heart Wasn't that good?
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We were reading Acts 16 this morning. God opened what? Lydia's heart and she responded you must be born again
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Jesus said the wind blows wherever it pleases you hear it sound But you cannot tell where it comes from or where it's going.
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So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit Using Genesis language.
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Let me quote a quote that I don't have The footnote for it, but it's one of those quotes that you're gonna go
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I need to write that down The unsaved person might create the universe then save himself
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Be harder to create the universe than it would be to save yourself. That's why
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Wesley even though his theology sometimes flickered Sometimes it was great long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night
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Dying I diffused a quick ring quickening ray I woke the dungeon flame with light my chains fell off.
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My heart was free. I rose went forth and We and Followed thee that's good.
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That's very excellent. Thank you
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Lord. I'm not like other men I made better use of your pervenient grace and others I had the wisdom and humility to see with clarity and embrace
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Christ while my neighbor just didn't get it. That's bad
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All the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me. I will never cast out Let's turn to one more passage and times pretty much gone first John chapter 5 verse 1 first John 5 1
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I don't know why I don't go to this passage more often I'm usually into the acts 16 or James chapter 1 verse 18 or John chapter 6 or Ephesians chapter 1 or Romans chapter 9
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But first John chapter 5 verse 1 is classic and I think we kind of just skip by it too fast
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Too often, so I think this is probably the last passage. We'll go to tonight 1st John chapter 5 verse 1 1st
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John 5 verse 1 everyone who believes that Jesus is the
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Christ has been born of God and Everyone who loves the
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Father, excuse me, and everyone who loves the Father loves. Whoever has been born of Themselves has been born of God God makes them born again 1st
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Peter chapter 1 says God makes people born again Now, of course you have to believe but I'm telling you that's a response and it's not the cause
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This is people who were born of God God Bears them say well if this is all true,
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I've got a major major problem and here's my problem That means
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God doesn't choose some people and those some people are gonna go straight to hell There's nothing they can do about it
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That means if there is an election unto salvation There is a reprobation unto damnation if the only people that go to heaven are those that God has chosen in This arranged marriage where the father chooses the bride for the son if that's true
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Anyone who's not chosen? Doesn't stand a chance and people say you know what?
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I don't really like that. That means there's a reprobation
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The Proverbs 16 for the Lord works out everything for his own ends even the wicked for the day of disaster
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John chapter 12 our Lord Jesus said they could not believe because as Isaiah says elsewhere
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He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts So they neither can see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts nor turn and I would heal them
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First Peter chapter 2 now to those who believe this stone Jesus is precious but to those who do not believe the stone that the builders rejected has become a capstone a
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Stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall They stumble listen because they disobey the message which is also what they were destined for But here's what
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I want you to remember Even though this is all true the unbeliever gets what he wants if you meet someone and they say
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I don't want to believe in Jesus I don't want to follow him. I'm not a sinner I don't need salvation get out of my face
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That person is going to get what they want eternally, aren't they? They're gonna get what they want.
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They don't want Jesus they're not going to get him and the person that God has changed and saved they want fellowship with Jesus and communion with Jesus and Forgiveness of sins and they get exactly what they want.
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You say well How can reprobation glorify God? When you say that question,
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I think it is eliciting in the back of people's minds Betraying that God has to do something
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And I would say this as I try to look people in the eyes to close this up if you believe God is Obligated you don't understand grace
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Is God's grace Under any obligation for anything to sinners
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No God's purpose hasn't failed. There's going to be a reprobation
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Salvation is entirely of grace And grace alone I love s
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Lewis Johnson one of my treats in the last few weeks was I got to hang out a little bit with Stanley Toussaint who is a professor at Dallas Seminary and Stanley Toussaint told me that he was personally discipled by s
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Lewis Johnson so I said Forget talking about stories of Dallas Seminary I want to hear how s
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Lewis Johnson discipled you and he said, you know, the thing is about it He didn't even tell me he was discipling me.
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He would just say let's go to the rest home together Let's go visit this person together. Let's go make this call together
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And then as we went we talked we talked about ministry and he discipled me said oh, you've got to tell me some stories and so It was just wonderful sitting there
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Thinking about how God uses men and here's what s Lewis Johnson would say If you're not a
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Christian right now, and you want to know are you elect or not? There's a very easy way to understand if you're elect or not
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Simply right now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll know you're elect Right now don't trust in your own merit in your own righteousness in your own baptism but looking away from those things and looking to the finished work of Christ Jesus who died on the cross for sinners like you and It was raised from the dead look to him and live and if you do, you know, you're elect
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Don't you love that am I elect am I not elect look and live and you're elect You know, you're elect
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Not that you're elect because you've looked but you looked because you're elect now
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For the last 40 minutes, I haven't thought about my bad back.
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I thought about a bill Thought about the musty house I moved back to Closed up house for a while.
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I Haven't even thought about ice cream And today's a sugar day. I'm having sugar.
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I'm having a double bowl what you think about God Tozer said is the most important thing about you and I want to think of God in the way he shows me that he is to be thought of and Anything you think about God that's not scriptural is simply sin
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And aren't you glad by the way that you weren't damned to hell for being an
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Arminian Five years ago ten years ago or twenty years ago, you know, our minions can go to heaven.
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Did you know that? And if they're gonna go to heaven, why don't we who have been revealed by who have been shown the truth by God Why don't we be nice to our friends who are
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Arminian? I think that'd be good. I think we should be nice I'm gonna declare tomorrow be nice to our minions day all across New England by the power vested in me.
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I now declare Friends if we believe this we believe it because God has shown us not because we're better What are we gonna do let there be light for our salvation?
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But when it comes to our learning our doctrine our IBS our pulpit our Sunday school our
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VBS It hasn't be let there be light. I know this better than you because I'm smarter Therefore I'm not an
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Arminian you are and sad for you because I'm smarter than you that kid needs to repent and get born again
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That's true. So many babies born at Bethlehem Bible Church.
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We have more pagans here than you think And that's difficult for people to look at a baby and think you know what just like the
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Pearson said these are precious vipers in the plural
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We Know these things because God has shown us and so Don't you think people that believe these things should be the most gracious to other people the kindest the most patient?
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Most of your Christian friends outside this church aren't gonna believe these things and so we want to be kind to them
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All right, let's pray. Let's have some ice cream father in heaven. We just are thankful today that you for many people here today have
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Been the recipient of let there be light Salvation in our hearts we thank you for that to know that we're one of the elect how
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The simple question ask and answer. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? It's good to know that I pray if there's anyone here tonight that doesn't know
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Christ Jesus They think they're too bad to be forgiven. They think that they're Beyond your realm of salvation.
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I pray that you would say Let there be light and they would respond with faith and love and trust and it follow you
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The God of the universe who says I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy
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To think that you had mercy on us Bethlehem Bible Church and many many people here, that's amazing