Sin, It's Nature and History - Part 5 — Paris Reidhead

Oh, to a town in the Atlantic. That's where my forefathers were. I'm a British Isles mongrel. Scotch, Irish, English, about anything but the Scotch, really. You know, we Scottish have a lot of racial pride, and we have to...

...with some pretty good rebounds at Baramathea and Nicodemus and perhaps others went to England, while Rome was still there before they had left it and gone back and withdrawn their forces. But the church was established in England.

The Church Established Through Persecution

That's the thing you've got to understand. The church was established. And the Romans, in persecution, didn't like it, so they persecuted it. And the people that were there weren't happy with it, so they persecuted it.

But, you know, the seed of the church is the blood of the martyrs, isn't it? And so, in the forest, in wherever, it's the priests or officials in Westchester had it for the third ecumenical business that loved the Lord.

Expel them. Now, stop thinking this way, because these were heretics. They didn't worship the saints and the idols. They didn't offer incense. They didn't burn candles. They didn't attend Holy Days. All they did was worship Jesus Christ and revel in the word that they'd memorized and passed on from one generation to another.

30 years later, it must not have been too successful in that first go-round, because 30 years later, 150 of the descendants of the 30 bakers were punished and the stocks had beaten and scourged and driven out of the city because they refused.

...emerged from underground. Persecution the pilgrims got was from the Puritans, because the pilgrims did not... ...church of Jesus Christ planted it in the marshes of England so that it could... ...Puritans at Salem.

And it's from persecution that we are seeking a haven. ...it was a pilgrim, John Locke, who associated with that movement, and Edmund Burke and some of the others who wrote the essays... ...philosophical foundation on which our Constitution was written.

It did not come from the Puritans. If it had, we would have had the church in New York City that governed it, as we had the church in Cambridge that was trying to run the civil life of the community. A totally different concept than that which the Puritans brought with them from England was the concept that we had.

We're going to take a break and see afterwards some of the implications of what this has for us in our days of evangelism and our days of responsibility for the Lord. Harry, would you lead us in a word of prayer while we break?

Fifteen minutes from now, Dick, is that all right? Fine. The other day, University of Minnesota, I was seated. Testament. He saw what I was reading, and he said, well, what's that you're reading? And I told him the New Testament.

The Moral Responsibility of Sinners

Read that. That's outmoded. There's nothing to that. It's outmoded. I think it's for today. It's for May. We got to talking, and in the course of time, he said, well, what do you mean saved? What am I going to be saved from?

He said, yeah, I've sinned. All those things you've talked about, I've done. The answer I should have given to him at that time was I wanted to do sin through coitus, a fallen nature of that sin. And I said, let me get this straight.

I want to see your thinking. You've told me now the reason I sinned was because I inherited a fallen sinful nature. I had to sin. They sentenced me to hell because I sinned. The biggest monster in the universe.

What they couldn't help doing. Possibly be called a good. No, I've sinned, but up until talking to you, I always figured the reason I sinned was because I want to. I've never done anything against my will, and I only get drunk when I want to.

Adultery on my terms and my time, and if I can choose when I do it, I can choose not to do it, and don't try to tell me I have to do it. In fact, he said I can even remember a period of three weeks I went when I didn't commit adultery once.

That's the cross we have to bear. That's what it is. Make any sense. And it does to him, but that's what I was taught. So that's what it's got to be. Answered by all men of sin. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Why did everyone born of man sin? I've searched the Bible through from end to end, cover to cover, and I do not find any biblical explanation as to why the statement... You see, what Augustine did that was wrong was he answered a question he never should have asked.

The Bible didn't answer it. He never should have tried to develop an answer. What he did was to delve into metaphysics to try to answer the question. There's going to be lots of questions that people ask you, and the only honest thing for you to do is to say, I don't know.

Wrong with saying I don't know. You have to know why I do know that. Against God and traitors, but they did. Tried to answer it. Answer when the scripture doesn't give us. Reason why is because the choice has been made.

But why everyone chose except the Lord Jesus Christ is a question I didn't know the answer. The scripture is absolutely clear. Doesn't it seem the course of wisdom for us simply stand on what the scripture states?

And to invent our own metaphysics and systems of rationalization and explanation. I sinned, said the fellow, because I wanted to. That's what happened to him. He chose to do it. That's what happened to me.

You would say that's what you did. You chose. Sin is a crime. Nowhere in the scripture does God treat it as a disease. He always treats it as a crime. Now we're living in a world that is dominated. At least this American part.

Augustine, Arminius, and Prevenient Grace

Philosophy of Augustine. You say, well, what about the man to do the works of Arminius? Jacob Arminius is who, by the way, was a student under Theodore of Baysa, who was a successor to Calvin in Geneva.

And he rejected, he accepted. He accepted and he wrote to the bishops who were examining him for heresy, because he was charged with being a heretic in Holland, in his home. But he said, I give absolute loyalty and unswerving allegiance.

I seem to see in the scripture and feel in the spirit of the word. Because of Calvary, God has released into the affairs of men something I choose to call prevenient grace. And he explained prevenient grace as being that grace that God gave because of the work of Christ at the cross, whereby any sinner could choose to repent and would be enabled to, because God had before the call to the sinner released this, because prevenient means before the call.

It's this prevenient grace that made sinners responsible to repent and enable them to repent. But Arminius was, by his own testimony, totally dedicated to and unswervingly loyal to Augustine's invention of total moral inability.

So both camps, both from the Methodist camp on the one hand, Puritan Baptist camp on the other, the same adherence to this doctrine has permeated American Christianity. The only group that ever took root on American soil did not hold to this, was that Williams in Rhode Island and in parts of Connecticut, which was successor to the work at Plymouth in Massachusetts, Augustine's total.

So every place you go in America, wherever anyone has been exposed to any kind of, that this is one of the basic tenets. And you hit, you're going to be ringing one of those bells that's going to make them get angry.

Sin as a Chosen Crime and Human Responsibility

I've discovered in my own personal witness that I can state to a person, as I should have stated to the young man at the campus of the University of Minnesota, the reason you sinned is because you chose to sin.

And nine times out of ten, they never argue. They admit to that's true, even though theologically they may have another explanation as to why they do it. So common sense tells them that the reason they did it is because they want to do it.

All civil law is based upon the proposition, responsible. We're responsible for our acts. To break the law, it's not done out of, because of some, well, now we have that group of psychologists that are endeavoring to get criminals off because they were insane at the time they did it on the assumption that to break the law and expose oneself to the death penalty certainly is insane.

They must have been insane to do it. But the law otherwise states that they're responsible. You're responsible to know the law. You're responsible to obey the law. And our legal system is based upon responsibility.

If you say to someone that the reason you drove 75 miles an hour in a 55-mile zone was because you inherited a fallen, sinful nature from your mother and your parents, I have news for you. You're the one that's going to pay the fine.

And the police is not going to look your parents up and hold them responsible. You chose how fast your car goes. They didn't predispose you to do it. The policeman that drives up alongside with a little sir with a cherry on top, he knows why you did it.

You did it because you wanted to do it. That's why you did it. He's holding you responsible. It's not nice. I think anybody who drives 75 in a 55-mile zone surely ought to be willing to admit that they were breaking the law.

I got a little upset the other day. I moved from one county to the other. In the county where I lived, it was legal to drive when you had a yellow line at 35 miles an hour, and maybe a couple of miles over.

But in this county, if there was a house that you could see from where you were, on either side of the street, you automatically had to drive 25 miles an hour, 38 miles an hour. My home county, I didn't know.

He said, if it weren't for some fellas like you that come from that county, he said, I wouldn't get my quota tickets. I'm going to drive responsible. 25-mile school zone sign, and it wasn't flashing.

Now, why in the world would they put a 25-mile school zone sign on a 25-mile zone street? Why do you do that? He said, well, we fool a lot of people that way. So they think it is 35 miles because we got a 25.

But it's just to reinforce it. I knew what the reinforcement was. You got poor guys like me. Point being, there's a law. He didn't even send a letter saying, I'm a preacher and I'm so sorry. Because he didn't say, you're a sorry preacher.

Repentance, Conviction, and the Gospel

I talked yesterday about the law. Those people I talked to in Africa, they know why they broke the law. Why did you do it? Because the rights matter. The reason you broke God's law is because you wanted to.

Is that right? 99 out of 100. Philosophical church history, in order to come to Christ, all you got to do is repent and receive the Lord. Repent of sin, and sin is a crime. The things they did, by choice, were proof that they're criminals at heart.

That they've sinned against God. And that they must repent. I'm telling you, I'm explaining you to this so that you'll know the kind of acclaim it. But I'm not suggesting to you that you take what I've been giving you and you go out and you have to give them everything.

And get them to understand about Plato and about Manny and about Augustine. In order for them to get under conviction of sin. No way. You don't have to do that. But you have to understand. Christ and a witness for Christ, you've got to understand.

Opposition thinks. And so you come in and you just hit them right smack. You did what you did because. Look what I did. I lost that university student. Poisoned his mind. Can you imagine what's happening to this generation of sinners as they tune in on the television.

And they hear some preacher telling them about the fact that they had a fallen sinful nature. And that they are responsible and all God wants them to do is to accept Jesus. Have you ever thought convincing them that the God of the Bible is either a moron or a monster.

To expect people to take seriously something of this sort. Where they're damned for doing what they couldn't help doing. We're expecting people to get under conviction of sin. And cry out for forgiveness.

When all they have. Listen. Somebody that goes to the doctor and finds out they have congenital venereal disease. Can feel sorry for themselves but they can't feel conviction. They got a disease. They haven't committed a crime.

You can feel sorry for yourself. That you have an inherited disease. But you can realize the nature of your crime if you acquired it through your own stupidity and your own rebellion and your disobedience.

Feel conviction for an inherited illness. They feel sorry for themselves but they won't feel conviction. That's why we have such precious little conviction today. We have to reduce the gospel down to just tipping your hat to Jesus and saying uh-huh at four places.

And signing your card and walking a little distance. And then assuming from what you've done that in so doing you have been born again. Salvation becomes an assumption. No, no, no. What we're seeking to see is conviction of sin.

We're seeking to see people discover the enormity of their crime and repent of their sin. And savingly embrace the son of God. And of course, you understand, do you not? The universe has the right to tell another human being that they're born again.

You know that, don't you? It's the spirit of adoption. Responsibility. And he's never given it to nice folks like us. He serves it for himself. He is the spirit of adoption. And since we, what did they say?

God in the fullness of time sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. That we might receive the adoption of sons. And since we are sons, he has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts.

Crying, Abba, Father. I say it again in another way. The only person in the universe that has the right to tell another human being they've been born of God is God the Holy Ghost. You tell them how. You tell them how holy God is.

And how sinful they are. You tell them what God did and what they must do. And then you say, and when you have done what you must do, God will do what he promised to do. And when he has done it, you'll know.

And when you know, you tell me. Stillborn, aborted. Things that are nothing but statistics. Names without faces. You won't do that. It isn't hard to make dolls. They say the cabbage patch dolls will roll off that assembly line.

But it's hard to have babies. Nine months to have a living child. And I submit to you that we don't need to have any more of these porcelain figures that are coming out as the products of our evangelism.

Seasoned Speech and Wise Evangelism

How holy God is. And tell them how sinful they are. And tell them what God did. And tell them what they must do. And then tell them that when they've done what they must do, God will do what he promised to do.

And when he's done it, they'll know it. And when they know it, come and tell us. That's the order. That's the way it ought to be. So I'm submitting to you that I don't think that in your personal work with the people you're going to be meeting and talking to, it's quite necessary for you to take them through the whole long pilgrimage of histories in which you've come with me this afternoon.

But I think it's important that you know it. And you know why you do certain things. And why you say certain things. And why you don't say other things. And why some things that some people say are wrong.

They're not correct. They're going to mislead people to understand. People need Christ. You don't need to give them that or all of that. You know the scripture says let your speech be seasoned with salt.

But sometimes when we get to talk to a sinner, we forget about that. Gun truck up with a whole gun truck load of salt. We get over to that sinner and he said well tell me more. And so we just pull on the little button there and put it in the grind.

And then we push the lever down. And that big ten ton truck goes up. And salt is poured. It's totally submerged in salt. He wakes his way up through it, shakes his head, brushes it out of his hair, out of his ears.

And said my, you do know a lot of theology. Thank you. But you've oversold. Your speech ought to be seasoned with salt. Always give answers. Look, don't answer questions people haven't asked yet. Just because you've got more answers than they've got questions, don't show how smart they are.

Just tell them what they need to know to get where you want them to go. That's all. You've got to understand what happened. And I believe the time is going to come when we're going to see some efforts put forth to deal with some of these issues.

I believe they're things in the air now and they're going to come in the future. But we're going to have some head-on encounters with Augustinism and with Manichaeism. I don't think it's necessary to have that encounter with a person you're going to be working by tomorrow at the factory or in the office or in the shop.

Intellectual Preparation and Local Witness

You've got to live two lives. Talk to the person that's here that needs to know Christ. And then you've got to have another whole life, an intellectual life, a mental life, a spiritual life, where you understand the major issues that we have in our day.

Issues that have to be fought. Something's going to have to be done. We're going to have to get these things, but they're going to have to be fought out on another battlefield than that man that lives next door to you, who's been watching you, and to whom you're the best Christian he's ever met, if he ever comes to Christ.

It's going to be because he's living next door to you. You don't need to take him into all this. But you need to know something about it so you know how to talk to him. All of this should issue him your being a better witness for Jesus Christ, where you live and where you work and where you study.

If it doesn't have that effect, there's been something amiss. We're to become more effective. He gave evangelists and pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints into the work of the ministry, under the building up of the body of Christ.

And the net result of all that you've heard from the speakers here this weekend ought to be to give you a greater zeal for the lost, a greater love for the Lord, a greater hunger for God, a greater burden to see lost men come to Christ.

If it hasn't had that issue, we've been deficient in some form. Because that is, after all, a primary concern, that those for whom he died might learn of his death. You have some people that live in the same place you live, that are just as lost as people in Asia and Africa and South America, and just as far removed from the gospel.

And if you have a heart that's burdened for Africa and South America, that isn't burdened for the people right near you, there's something wrong. The light that shines the farthest shall always shine the brightest at its base.

And I'm trusting and praying that this seminar, this conference, this time together is going to mean that all of us have a greater zeal in our witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, right where we are. Let us fall in prayer.

Thanksgiving for the Word and the Call to Witness

Father in heaven, we lift our hearts to thee with thanksgiving for the high and the holy, the glorious privilege that we've had of being together, sitting together, fellowship together, one with another.

And truly as those two disciples on the road to Emmaus would say, did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us by the way? So Father with us, our hearts have burned with joy and rejoicing as we've considered thy word, thy truth, and saw again our Lord Jesus in all his loveliness and all of his authority and power.

Father, we would not have thee our God, Father, Holy, Holy Spirit, eternal Son, other than thou art, not to change in any particular. Father, we adore thee, we worship thee, we love thee, and all we are and have is thine, and our one desire is to glorify thee.

And so we ask thee that by thy grace and continual moving in our hearts, each of us may have the joy in the days and weeks to come of bringing someone else to meet and know the Lord Jesus Christ, whom we love and whom we serve, and in whose name we pray, amen.