Is Total Depravity True? (Part 2)

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Inside the Mind of Manson: Part 3

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John 635, so we're in our study of the doctrines of grace. People call this the five points of Calvinism, Calvinism.

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It's an aspect of Reformed theology, of course, but I prefer that, the doctrines of grace, the teachings about grace.

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And that's what this study is really about. What does the Bible say about grace? What does the Bible say about our condition? How does

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God save? And does God save perfectly? Can people thwart

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God's purposes in saving lost people? What is so gracious about grace?

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And so we're in John chapter 635 to start today. That'll be the opening of God's word today.

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We're spending our time going through sections of scripture as we unpack the doctrines of grace.

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Today, we're in total depravity, or I think better defined, total inability. What is the condition of a fallen person, a son and daughter of Adam and Eve?

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What is their condition before God saves them? On what basis should we make the decision?

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What's true? Is it on the basis of fallible and uninspired men in history who often contradict themselves and sometimes say things that are thoroughly biblical and amazing?

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How should we settle this dispute? Is it based upon our own traditions, our feelings, our emotions, or is it based upon the word of the living

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God, the consistent testimony of all of the word of God? And that's where we're gonna go today and spend the majority of our time talking about what does

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God say? What does God say? So we're starting in John 6 today, 35.

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Hear now the words of the living and the true God. Jesus said to them,

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I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

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But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me,

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I will never cast out. For I've come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.

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And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

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For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day.

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So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven. They said, is not this

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Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say

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I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.

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No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

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And I will raise him up on the last day. Thus far as the reading of God's holy and inspired word, let's pray together.

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Father, we come before your holy and inspired word. Lord, we recognize first and foremost that this is such a gift to have your revelation, this special revelation in front of us.

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We recognize God that in some places, it's dangerous to carry this.

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We recognize that in some places, it's against the law to hold this. And yet you've given it to us and we get to have it.

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We get to have it in our laps. We get to have it in our heads. We get to have it on our cell phones and devices.

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We have so much. And so we recognize right away, Lord, this is a gift from you.

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You're shouting to the world constantly, father, about your presence, the knowledge of yourself.

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It is all around us. It's inescapable and it's being suppressed actively by those who don't know you.

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Your voice is so clear in what you've made so that you say that we are without excuse.

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You say, God, that the fool says in his heart, there is no God. And you also have this amazing special revelation.

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Your very words preserved through time and delivered to us in this very moment so that we can know what you say with certainty.

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Lord, thank you for the work of your church, the work of your spirit in your church through 2000 years of history, guarding your church, protecting your church, sanctifying your church, sharpening your church.

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We thank you, Lord, that you have preserved your church by your spirit and through your word.

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And we ask God that you would change us today by your word. Challenge us, challenge us, challenge our traditions.

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Show us what the truth is in your word. And God, please get the speaker out of the way, the teacher out of the way today.

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Lord, I pray that you'd guard my mouth from error and that you would teach your people all to the praise of you.

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I pray that this would not be a study that just becomes something that is heady for us or these are theological camps we like to be in.

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I pray that this would be stuff that settles our souls and our minds. Allow this teaching,

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Lord, not to make us into arrogant people, but into humble people. Let this word do what it's supposed to do in us and humble us and embolden us.

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And I pray that, Lord, people would forget me in this, remember you and what you've said. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So the doctrines of grace, there it is. Grace, the teachings of grace. We talked just a bit last week about the foundation,

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TULIP, that acrostic in history and the conflict that brought it about, the remonstrance and the protest of the

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Arminians that bring about the five points and the response of the church to the five points of protest.

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We talked a bit about in history how this came about, but it's really not really about a man named

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Jacob Arminius or a man named John Calvin or really anybody involved in that battle. Thankful we have such great heroes that fought hard with scripture in these fights.

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The issue is about grace. What does the Bible say about grace? You have to understand that when we talk about TULIP, T -U -L -I -P, when we talk about this issue in history, we're talking about something that has been talked about throughout church history, but came to a head at a certain point, not very far behind us.

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And the question is, what is our condition? How gracious is God's grace? What does

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God do to save? When the Bible talks about predestining and the Bible talks about the elect, what does that mean?

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How does God elect or predestine somebody? Is it on the basis of their own will, their own internal choices and strength?

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Is it on the basis of their own abilities or is it on the basis of God's own sovereign will and grace?

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When Jesus died on the cross, was it a death that generally made people save a bull?

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Was that death for anybody in particular? Can you say about the death of Jesus, Jesus was dying for my sins on the cross.

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It is finished was for me on the cross. He was taking the full wrath of the father in my place on that cross and exhausted it.

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It was diverted away from me and poured out on Jesus. It was particular. It was for me, it was personal or was the death of Jesus general to make people save a bull, but not ultimately saving them.

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When God reaches into a sinner's life and desires to save a sinner and wills to save that sinner, can

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God the sovereign be thwarted by the sinful creature and his quote free will?

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And when God saves somebody, when the father chooses to save and Jesus dies a death in their place, lives perfectly in their place and rises again from the dead.

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And when the Holy Spirit of God regenerates and applies that salvation, can God preserve that person to the end or will they or can they be lost?

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These are important questions. And here's the thing, this isn't about just choose your camp and like which click do you like more, which satisfies you personally.

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This really is a question of the preservation of what the Bible says about grace. That's the issue.

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How gracious is God's grace? Is God sovereign over salvation? Can he save and save perfectly and keep you till the end?

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You see, these are issues that go beyond the theological debate at the coffee shop or the sometimes nasty debate on social media.

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These are the kinds of discussions that really bring satisfaction to your soul. These are important issues, not because we've chosen to make them important.

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These are important issues because Jesus has whole discourses on this subject. Clear, unequivocal, very easily understood.

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The apostle Paul has whole discourses on this subject. And we have to say, if the inspired writers of scripture chose to talk about these issues and clearly communicate what the

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Bible teaches about these issues, should they matter to us? Should we defend these truths?

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These truths matter. And I want to say, when we talk about the purpose of this study, it's not because we're a reformed church and a

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Calvinistic church, we've got to affirm our commitments to our team. We want to go through this study together as a church because we want to defend the biblical view of grace.

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We want to defend what the Bible says about grace. We want to protect the biblical gospel.

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You heard me mention last week, people will often say, do you need to be a Calvinist to be saved?

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The answer is no. No, I didn't know anything about these issues when God opened my eyes to the truth and I trusted in Jesus.

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However, while you don't need to be a Calvinist to be saved, I do believe that a proper understanding of these issues and the doctrines of grace protects the biblical gospel.

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It creates guardrails around the biblical gospel where we don't fall into error. If we have the wrong view of the nature of man, it'll actually impact how we do ministry.

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If we think that men are somewhat capable of saving themselves and we just really need to manipulate somehow or convince them enough ourselves in our own arguments or maybe in what we do up here, we'll create whole ministries that work on manipulating their emotions and creating the emotional experience so that they'll give

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Jesus a try. You see, these issues will impact even practically in praxis how you do ministry.

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You see, if we have a wrong view of the atonement of Jesus Christ, it lends itself to all kinds of errors, theologically, practically.

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You see, if you work out the details and thinking about the atonement itself, it can lead to universalism.

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The idea that, well, Jesus died for everybody's sins. He paid for them in full. And so that must mean everybody will ultimately be saved.

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Why? Because Jesus paid for their sins. They're done. It's finished.

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Love wins. Some of you guys caught that. Rob Hell, I mean,

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Bell. You see, this is an important issue.

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Of course, historically, when you think about this debate, know this. This is not a fiery debate or a creative debate that was created during the time or around the time of the

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Reformation. This is a historical debate. It's happened before. You see, here's what we have to see about church history.

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Church history is glorious and amazing and beautiful, and there's moments of tragedy and difficulty and victory and all the rest.

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We have giants of the faith in history, and we have to recognize that in history, there were times where there was a particular focus on, say, the

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Trinity. That was the big issue, the Trinity. You have all kinds of issues surrounding Arius of Alexandria and Arianism, and you have victories at times, and it looks like we're being swallowed up in Arianism now, and that fight is taking place, and you have

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God sanctifying his church and equipping his church and sharpening his church around the issue of the

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Trinity. Then you have other fights that took place in history, sometimes shorter, momentary, sometimes larger, more delved into and explained.

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I'll give you an example here. The particular issues of grace that we're talking about and man's condition, it's not like a new fight that happened during the time of the

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Reformation. It's a fight that happened before. You had the issue of the

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Pelagians and the Augustinians. Pelagius challenging or removing the truths concerning original sin.

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Now, this isn't gonna be a big historical study today, but just in terms of reference, the question about fallen man, what is his or her condition in the fall?

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What are their capabilities? How deep is the impact of the fall on a person?

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What did it do to them? What abilities do they have as people who are dead in their sins and trespasses?

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Are they spiritually sick? Are they spiritually wounded? Are they dead? Are they able to cooperate with the grace of God in a fallen state?

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Or must God be the one who moves and makes alive and changes them and grants gifts of faith and repentance?

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These are important issues. And in history, this fight had a germ or a beginning, an important one in the fight between the

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Pelagians and the Augustinians. Then you had after that semi -Pelagianism.

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And then of course, at the time of the Reformation, you have the epic fight between Luther and Erasmus.

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If you haven't read it yet, go read the bondage of the will. Important work historically.

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And of course, after that, we have the Arminians versus the Calvinists. Now, just to set this up in terms of anybody who is new to this discussion, because it's very, very important.

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This discussion ultimately has nothing to do with a man named Arminius and nothing to do with a man named

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John Calvin. Those are titles put over a discussion. They are titles put over a doctrine.

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So for example, Jesus didn't use the word Trinity. Neither did Paul. Christians later began to use that terminology as a quick way to reference a particular belief system.

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What do you believe about God? I'm Trinitarian. Well, show me the word Trinity in the Bible. No, it's not in the

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Bible. It's a word that describes what I believe fundamentally about God's nature.

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Who is God? Those questions. When we talk about this debate between Arminianism and Calvinism, we're not talking about following a man named

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John Calvin. I mentioned to you guys, and I sort of smacked my hand for this. I have purposefully not read

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John Calvin, purposefully, because I came to these beliefs through a reading of the

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Bible itself, nothing to do with a man named John Calvin. And I rather like being able to say to people,

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I've never read a thing the man wrote. I've seen quotes here or there, but I haven't actually read sections of his book.

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I was told it's time to read his book. So I'm sorry, Pastor James. I guess

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I have to now. I'm gonna lose that important debate strategy. See, here's the thing, the most important thing.

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What does the Bible teach about our condition in the fall? You see, as I said, church history has its moments, its glances at this particular discussion.

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And we praise God for the giants of the faith surrounding this discussion. We talk about this fight taking place with plagianism and Augustinianism, in Augustine, all those things, they're an amazing thing to happen in history.

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Praise God for those moments. But I wanna say this, even in that discussion, uninspired and fallible men are not the ultimate standard.

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For example, while Augustine was the victor and he clearly was the biblical one in the fight and promoting what the

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Bible says about man's condition in the fall, those sorts of things, Augustine was an uninspired and fallible man.

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You'll see Augustine saying things that are right along with scripture and they're solid and amazing. And you're gonna see him in other places as a fallible man contradicting himself.

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He's an uninspired and fallible man. We praise God for him, but we don't believe in what we believe about man's condition because of a man named

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Augustine. We believe what we believe because Jesus said, Paul says, the

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Bible teaches. That's our standard. That is our standard. We wanna go to the record of the ancient church, which is the scriptures.

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What did the apostles teach? What did Jesus teach? Now, I wanna get to this point here and we talk about TULIP, total depravity, total inability, unconditional election, limited atonement or particular redemption.

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We talk about irresistible grace or effectual grace and preservation of the saints or perseverance of the saints.

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We're not saying when we say total depravity that the image of God has been erased.

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That's very important. When people hear total depravity, which was the response of the Calvinist to the

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Arminian protest in terms of the condition of man, how fallen is man? What are his capabilities spiritually outside of God and his regenerating grace?

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We're not saying that the image of God has been erased. So when we say, biblically speaking, total depravity, everyone who's a son and daughter of Adam and Eve, totally depraved.

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We're not saying that the image of God has been erased and that fallen people don't do things that look like image bearers of God.

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We're not saying that the fall has made people into beasts. They're still the image of God.

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For example, if you take a coin and you throw it into the mud and you pick up that coin out of the mud, that coin has been muddied and dirtied, but the image is still there.

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It's marred, but it hasn't lost its image. And that's what we're talking about when we talk about total depravity.

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What we're really talking about is total inability. What we're saying is that people are not sick.

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They're not spiritually wounded. People in the fall are dead. They're enemies of God.

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They're hostile. They're rebels. They are slaves to sin. The image of God hasn't been erased, but they're at war with their creator.

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The relationship isn't a relationship where they're neutral with their creator. The relationship is a relationship of hostility and enemy of God.

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That's what we're saying in total inability, that people are in the fall, unable to come to God in the state that they're in on their own.

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We're saying that there is none righteous. No, not one. There is no God seeker.

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No one is seeking for God. The fall has so impacted us that we know the true

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God, but we don't want to know him. And so we are actively in a fallen state, suppressing the truth to the point we are self -deceived.

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The Bible says things like the fool says in his heart, there is no God, that we know God, but we don't want to acknowledge him as God.

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And so we switch him for other things. But total depravity does not mean that people are as bad as they could possibly be.

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Know that and give God the glory for that. In the fallen state, we could be much worse than we are.

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One of the things that Pastor James has said over the years in his ministry, and that I've picked up on, I think it's very, very helpful.

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We're always quick to point to all the evil in the world. It's easy to see. And image bearers of God know injustice when they see it.

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They know evil when they see it, even if they don't acknowledge the God of the Bible, because we're in God's image. His law is within us.

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We know the true God. When we see evil, it's easy to spot. And we say, that's evil.

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I was talking to an atheist recently. Some of you guys may have seen this on Provoked, our new program with Desi and Pastor Zach.

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I was talking to an atheist on the program. I encourage you to go listen to it. I was really just trying to push him and push him and push him to consistency.

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And it was amazing as I brought up the issue of morality. This atheist says, well, you know, there's never been an ultimate morality in history.

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It's always been relative, always, right? It's never been like, it has to be this way.

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I said, so, okay, based upon that, has there ever been a time in history where it was okay to rape people?

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It's all relative. There's no objective morality. Nothing is ultimately true. It's changing through time.

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And he didn't like where that was going. And I said, now I know if you saw somebody being violated in that way, you would go to stop him.

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And he said, yes, I would. But morality is relative. It's never been ultimate. It's never been objective.

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And we pushed this atheist and pushed him and pushed him and pushed him. And we talked about eating other human beings.

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Like, hey, if we're just random results of evolutionary processes, if this is just all a cosmic accident, you know,

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I eat other creatures. Can I eat a human? What if society determines it's okay to eat human beings?

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Can we eat human beings? And here's what this atheist says. He thought about his position.

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He tried to be really consistent as an atheist. He said, well, I guess if we dispatch them quickly and make sure we clean our plates,

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I guess it isn't a moral atrocity. Now, the amazing thing is I told him, I know you don't really believe that.

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I know you're trying to be consistent as an atheist with your worldview, but you're in the image of God and you know that's evil.

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And of course he did. And he granted that he did, but he's trying to be consistent. You see, when we talk about evil in the world, it's easy to spot it.

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But what Pastor James has pointed out and noted many times before is we never really thank God for his restraining of evil in the world.

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He is constantly restraining evil. I'll give you one biblical example and we'll move on to the next point.

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The ministry of Jesus. How many times in the ministry of Jesus do we see those examples of people picking up stones to kill

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Jesus? They wanna kill Jesus. They're angry with Jesus. And Jesus just slips out of the crowd and they can't kill

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Jesus, right? And why? Because at a particular point, you see near the end of Matthew, we started on Matthew 20, you see that Jesus finally says, okay, now is the time.

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I'm going to Jerusalem. They're gonna crucify me and three days later, I'll rise again. It was when his time came, he said that nobody takes his life from him.

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He lays it down of his own accord. And so you even see in a situation like that, these people, they want within them to kill

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Jesus. It's their desire to kill Jesus. They would love to kill Jesus, but God restrains even their will and what they desire to do to Jesus.

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Their evil is restrained by God. We never quite thank God enough for his restraining of evil all the time, but people are not as bad as they could be by the grace of God.

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We're talking about total inability. That's a better term to use than total depravity.

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I think to codify, what are we talking about? It does not mean that people as fallen people and dead spiritually are not making choices.

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You see, this gets into the question of free will and here we go. We're all back. Here are the words, free will.

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It is the ultimate tradition to preserve, right? People will say it all the time and use it as a loosey -goosey argument wherever they can.

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Oh, but free will, free will. And people, I think, actually diminish the glory of God thinking that free will is a good argument to sort of safeguard

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God. For example, people will talk about evil that happens in the world and somebody like an atheist will challenge the modern evangelical.

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They'll say, hey, look at this awful thing that happened in the world. Look at this evil thing. What happened with this?

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And they'll say, free will, bro. You know, God really wants to do something about it.

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You know, he'd love to do something about that. But you know, he's decided to give people free will. So they're sort of like, God's, his hands, they're tied because he has this overarching principle of free will.

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He just can't manipulate it. It can't be, you know, he can't really involve himself. He'd love to do, he's a good God, but you know, that evil happened right there because his hands are tied, you know, because he's got this principle of free will.

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Free will becomes the chestnut argument for the modern evangelical, right? We just say free will is the answer.

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Free will is the answer. We say, ah, but he has a free will. The question to be asked is this.

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Are people's wills free according to God's word or are they enslaved to sin?

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Are fallen people who are dead spiritually, hostile towards their creator, suppressing the truth and unrighteousness, slaves to sin, are their wills free?

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We're not saying that people don't have wills. We're not saying that people aren't making choices that they want to make.

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See, this is what's really important. I wanna make sure I put this down right away to answer the objection. When you acknowledge the biblical doctrine of total inability, you are not saying that people are robots.

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What we're saying with total inability is that people's wills are enslaved to sin and when you are dead spiritually and alienated from your creator, your will will operate on the basis of your fallen nature and so what you want to do will be consistent with what your nature is, fallen.

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Fallen natures make fallen choices and now I did not make this up.

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I got it from a pastor many years ago and I've always used it since then because I think it perfectly expresses the situation in terms of people's wills being enslaved and the choices they make.

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So for example, I'll make a bold statement. Free will isn't biblical. Okay, no one left.

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Okay, good, so I still have you. Okay, free will is not a biblical doctrine. I'm not denying that human beings are making choices.

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Yes, they are, but their wills are enslaved to sin and they are dead, not sick.

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When we talk about people who are fallen, one of my pastor friends said it like this.

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Imagine you have a room and in that room, you have a pile of carrots and you have a pile of meat.

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All right, now you go with me to this room. There's a little window looking into the room, pile of carrots, pile of meat.

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We let a vulture go into the room and we shut the door behind the vulture and we stand outside looking through this window into the room.

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It's a vulture with a pile of carrots and a pile of meat. I want you to think about it.

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Take it in for a minute. Think about the nature of a vulture and think about the carrots and the meat. Now, question, which pile will the vulture freely choose?

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Didn't have to think about it very long, did you? The meat, because the nature determines the activity of the will.

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The nature determines the activity of the will. No one has to coerce the vulture.

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You don't need to go in there and start speaking vulture and try to convince it, hey, those carrots, they're better for your eyes, good for your gut or whatever weird crunchy thing you wanna say about the carrots, okay?

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Right, you don't go in there and start having a conversation with the vulture trying to convince it and like nudge it over to the carrots.

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The nature of the vulture determines the activity of the will. What it wants is the meat because it's a vulture.

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Now, change the scenario. Pull the vulture out of the room and put the bunny rabbit into the room. Put the rabbit into the room, shut the door, don't influence in any way and just look through the window and look at the pile of carrots and the pile of meat.

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Which one will the rabbit freely choose? The carrots, now change the scenario.

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Put a hostile, fallen, rebel, son or daughter of Adam and Eve into God's world and put the true

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God before them and a false God on the other side. Because of the fallen nature, what will the fallen creature always choose because of its nature?

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The false God and not the true God, why? Because the nature determines the activity of the will.

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If you're a fallen son or daughter of Adam and Eve, you will always choose the creature over the creator.

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You will always choose the false God, you've switched the true God for. If you are a fallen person at war with your creator, you are suppressing the truth,

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Paul says, and you will switch God for the creature and you will rebel against God. That's the issue.

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Can point you, of course, to the issue of the murder of Jesus. In the book of Acts, it was clearly stated in the murder of Jesus, gathered in the city against your holy servant,

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Jesus, Pontius Pilate, Herod, the peoples of Israel, the Gentiles to do whatever your hand predestined to occur, whatever your hand,

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God, predestined to occur. Yes, God predestined the murder of Jesus.

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And all the people who were involved were guilty. God didn't make them do something they didn't want to do.

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If they could have killed Jesus earlier, they would have, but they were restrained because no one takes my life from me.

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I lay it down of my own accord. It was only when God said, now you can kill my son.

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For what purpose? To bring glory to himself, all to the praise of his glorious grace.

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So the question is this, in the discussion of total depravity or total inability, is the will free or is it enslaved?

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Enslaved. Remember that statement, the will operates on the basis of the nature.

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The nature will feed the will. So let's go straight to the scriptures, brothers and sisters.

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That's where this has to come from. I realize, of course, in doing a study like this on a doctrine like this, we can't make this exhaustive.

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You know that I'd love to spend six weeks on total depravity, two hours each session.

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You know that I would. I'm not gonna do that. And we have baptisms today. So today I know I have to give you the scripture dump.

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And I wanna just say this. I recognize and I'll say at the outset that proof texting can be dangerous, right?

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Whipping out passages from scripture and tossing them out. I recognize that. I acknowledge that at the start.

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But when studying what does the entire Bible say about something, we can't help but actually going to the text that proves something.

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But what we'll see here in entire discourses in context, that this is the consistent teaching of the

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Bible on this subject of the fallen nature of mankind. So let's start at the beginning of the

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Bible first to get the picture. What did the Bible say at the beginning about what happened to human beings, the image bearers of God?

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First thing, Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter two and verse 17.

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Genesis two, 17. God said after he says, "'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden.'"

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Sorry. And the Lord God commanded the man in verse 16 saying, "'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, "'but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, "'you shall not eat, "'for in the day you eat of it, "'you shall surely die.

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"'In the day you eat of it, "'you shall surely die.'" And that becomes an overarching theme throughout

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God's entire narrative, throughout the entire history of redemption. From that point, the curse, the promise of Messiah, humanity experiences separation from God, alienation from God, spiritual death.

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We are not sick. We are not limping along spiritually. We haven't been wounded.

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The teaching from the very beginning of the Bible is we are dead spiritually.

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Next. And again, we can't spend a ton of time today exhaustively looking at this, but just starting in the

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Old Testament, if you go to Psalm 51, five, another example, these are important passages to have memorized, to know where we get these truths from.

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Psalm 51, five, and the powerful Psalm about David and asking for God's mercy and the whole issue of Bathsheba.

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This is an important text. It's been appealed to throughout church history.

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Psalm 51, verse five.

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Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

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Next, Jeremiah 13, Jeremiah 13, 23.

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And a study like this, I want everybody going to your Bibles, getting to these scriptures rather than just having them read to you.

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Jeremiah 13, 23. Can the

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Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?

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Some woke people today would be like, yeah, it's possible. Can Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots?

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Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. Jeremiah 17, nine.

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The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

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Some say sick beyond cure. Who can understand it? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.

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Who can understand it? So we have testimony really, of course, throughout the entire Bible, but all the way through the

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Old Testament, you have constant testimony to man's fallen condition, his deadness and sin, the fact that we cannot trust our own hearts.

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We are not righteous, not God -seeking throughout the entire Old Testament. Now, if we look at the inspired writers of scripture in the

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New Testament, we see a consistency too. And again, not exhausted today, but I want you to see it from the

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Apostle Paul. Go to Romans chapter one, Romans chapter one. We're going to move through this quickly.

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So I want you to stay with me. Open your Bibles, Romans chapter one. This is the Apostle Paul's systematic explanation of the gospel with clarity from soup to nuts, from beginning to end.

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In Romans chapter one, verse 18, the

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Apostle Paul says, "'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven "'against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men "'who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.'"

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That's active. It's an active suppression. They are suppressing the truth.

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They are holding it down. That's Paul's explanation of fallen people.

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They are suppressing the truth. "'For what can be known about God.'" Please hear this. This is very, very important.

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"'For what can be known about God is plain to them "'because God has shown it to them.'"

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Stop there. This is so vital. It's so important to get. This has implications in this discussion about total inability.

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It has implications in the discussion about apologetic methodology, defending the faith, our bringing the gospel to our atheist or agnostic friends and family.

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The text says that fallen people are suppressing the truth, and it says that which is known about God is plain to them.

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So question, do unbelievers have an excuse to say,

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I can't see them? What does scripture say? That which is known about God is evident to them.

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It is plain to them. Here it is. "'For his invisible attributes, "'namely his eternal power and divine nature, "'have been clearly perceived "'ever since the creation of the world "'and the things that have been made, "'so they are without excuse.'"

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And the word there is the same word we use for defense. We talk about apologetics.

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They are without an apologetic. They are without a defense. So here's the deal. There will never be an unbeliever anywhere from history or anywhere in the world that will be before the throne of God in judgment that will say,

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I didn't know that you were there. It says there is suppression of truth. They know the true

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God. That which is known about God is evident within them for God has shown it to them.

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Brothers and sisters, here's the question to ask. If God has made the evidence of himself clear to every image bearer of God, the question is this.

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Does the message get through? Yes or no? It gets through. So everyone says this.

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If the message of God's existence and his presence is known so clearly and he's made himself known to everybody, well then, how come there's unbelievers?

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How come there's atheists? And the answer is right there in the text. It is suppression of the truth.

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And Paul goes on. He says, for although they knew

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God, they knew God. They did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.

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Here it is. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal

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God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore, God gave them up and the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who was blessed forever, amen.

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Watch what it says here. Verse 26, in terms of what? Think about the relationship between God and the creature, the rebellion,

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God making himself known to them, the act of suppression of the truth, knowing God and then switching them for idols, not wanting to know

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God, saying no to the true God, yes to the false God. Here's what it says.

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Says verse 26, for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature.

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And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.

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Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves a due penalty for their error.

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That's true, and we still believe that even if we get canceled. But notice what it says.

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They switch God for the idol. They worship and serve the creature rather than the creator. They know

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God, but they don't want him in their knowledge. They suppress that truth. And so what does it say happens?

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God gave them over. It is the sovereign

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God who gives people up to their sin. Do you notice that?

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You think about the restraining hand, the restraining hand of God, holding back rebels from their sin and what they want with their nature and their hearts.

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And it says, God gave them over. You want it, I'll give it to you. It says a lot today to all of us as the church, when we see the culture around about us, the way that it is today, with all the sexual perversion, with the destruction of gender and the destruction of male and female.

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You look at the world around us, we see, we should see judgment. It's a judgment of God.

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God handing people over to their sin, but that's not all, here we go. Next, it says this in verse 28.

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And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.

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They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

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They are gossips, slanderers, here it is, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

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Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them.

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That's what people do who have been handed over to their sin. They not only do these evil things, but they applaud and approve of others who do them.

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But I want you to pay close attention to what it says about fallen people.

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It says they are haters of God. We've painted a picture, brothers and sisters, that doesn't help us in our evangelistic efforts.

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It doesn't. It might sound loving, it isn't. If you love somebody, you'll tell them the truth.

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We've painted a picture of fallen people that maybe they're neutral towards God, you know?

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Maybe they're not so lost and they're just sort of mixed up spiritually, you know?

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Sinful, of course, tainted by sin, kind of, but, you know, able to come to God. So we gotta work with them and, you know, make them feel good and speak nicely to them always.

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Never confront things with a heavy hand. Never speak the truth that could offend. We don't wanna do that because we wanna really lead them on a right path to really fall in love with Jesus, you know?

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Maybe they're not so dead, but the Bible says they're a hater of God. That's the condition they're really in.

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They're a rebel against their creator. They know the true God. What they need is to be freed from their sin.

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They need salvation. If the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. If you want people to see how beautiful Jesus truly is and to have that grace of their eyes being opened, you have to teach the truth about their condition and their hostility towards their creator.

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We need more preachers. We need more teachers, more mothers, fathers, children talking about the holiness of God and our absolute corruption in sin.

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What does our society need today? Encouragement, right?

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So I'll come alongside you and not really speak about the evil of this decision. I won't really talk about the holiness of God because I really want people to know that I'm for them.

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I want people to know that I'm on their side and that I love my neighbor. Really? Is that how the great awakening broke out?

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Jonathan Edwards was giving this really great sermon about their best life now, right?

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Do you ever read? Do you ever read Edwards? That sermon centers in the hands of an angry

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God. It's a sermon where people were terrified, broken over their sin, wailing, talking about the wrath of God against sin,

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God's holiness. We talk about, we want to see the world change with the gospel, then you got to tell the truth. The apostle

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Paul is the master evangelist and how does he open the story? Your deadness and sin, your hostility towards God, the wrath of God against sin.

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This is your condition. And it moves on to Romans chapter three. We're talking about total inability.

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Where are we at? We know the true God. We're suppressing the truth, switching God for idols.

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We are haters of God. And of course, this Katina of verses in Romans chapter three can't be missed.

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Listen, here's what's important here. Here's the inspired apostle. Do you notice where this is broken out in your

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Bibles? Most of your Bibles have this section kind of broken out here, if you see the page, most of our

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Bibles do that. It's because the apostle Paul is quoting from the Old Testament. He's pulling texts from the

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Old Testament to show you that this is God's consistent testimony about our condition.

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And I want you to stop for a second, please hear me on this. I mean, it's very humbly. When we're asking the question about our true condition before God, how fallen are we?

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How gracious is grace? We got to take this seriously. So deal with me real fast. Look at the text.

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It says there in verse 10 of chapter three, here it is. None is righteous.

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No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God.

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Now stop. I've said it before. We do this. I do this. I confess completely.

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You read a section of scripture, a verse of scripture, you have it in your heart and your mind for forever. Forever. And you never really stop to think about the implications of the text.

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Like it's there, you have it, but you don't really think about like all the network of things that are true because of that.

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But what we do is we tend to look at a passage or a section like this and we go, none is righteous. No, not one.

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No one understands. No one seeks for God. We either, one, don't think about the implications of that or two, we're thinking about who that person is out there and not reflecting that this is me.

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It's me. You know what I mean? You read Romans three and you're like, none righteous, turned aside, worthless, venom of ass, feet swift to shed blood.

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And you're like, I know that guy. He lives down the street from me. Right, he's always riding his car down the street at two in the morning.

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Like you think about the evil guy, the guy, you're like, I know the guy. I know the political guy that's like that.

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I know the person who doesn't understand. It's Biden, clearly. Really nothing.

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I'm teasing, but you get what I'm saying. You're always thinking about who's the person, who is it out there that's like that?

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But here's the truth in scripture. That's me, that's us. That's our condition before God. And so here's what

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I want us to pay attention to. There is none who seeks for God.

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Stop there. What are the implications of that? There is none who seeks for God. Do you believe it?

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Do we accept it? There is none who seeks for God. Everyone goes, but wait, Pastor Jeff, there's a room full of people in here right now who are seeking for God.

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They love Jesus. They trust in Jesus. They're in here singing songs to Jesus. Right, and this is the description of the person who has fallen.

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None who seeks for God. So how do you get God seekers when no one's doing it? Answer, the grace of God.

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The power and sovereign will of God because there is no God seeker.

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Now jump ahead again, Romans 5. This is, read it later. This is the description of all of humanity.

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You're in Adam or you're in Jesus. You're dead or you're gonna be made alive and given the gift of eternal life and righteousness in Jesus.

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In Romans 5, pay attention to verse 10 in terms of condition.

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Are we sick? Are we neutral towards God? Are we wounded? Here's what it says.

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The apostle Paul says this, for if while we were enemies, notice that, very important.

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He says we. So Romans 1, he's not talking about a special class of sinners who are enemies of God.

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He includes himself and other Christians who have been redeemed in this. He says, if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life?

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So question, what according to the inspired apostle is the status, the condition of the person who is outside of Jesus Christ?

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Enemy, enemy. That's the condition.

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Next, if you look ahead to chapter six, I just want you to have these texts on the ready.

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Chapter six and verse 20, in terms of condition. He says, for when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

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So what do we have here? Non -God seeking, enemy of God, not righteous, not good, hostile towards their creator, suppressing the truth and unrighteousness.

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And he says this, for when you were slaves of sin. So brothers and sisters, I have a question. If the apostle

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Paul says that we were enemies, actively suppressing the truth of God, non -God seeking, and we're slaves to sin, how did we ever get the idea that our wills are free?

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Where does that come from? Does it come from Romans? Does it come from the lips of Jesus?

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Or does it come from man -made tradition and philosophy? Again, we're not saying people don't make choices.

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They do, and they're making choices they want to make. But it says here that we are slaves of sin before Jesus saves us.

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And final one here in Romans, go to the text, Romans chapter eight. Again, this is not exhaustive, but I want you to have these texts.

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In Romans chapter eight, very important section.

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As the apostle Paul talks about no condemnation in verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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He talks about those who are in the flesh and those who walk according to the spirit.

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So unbelievers versus believers, those who have the spirit of God and those who are quote, in the flesh.

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What is in the flesh? In the flesh is fallen, in Adam. Because what do we have in Romans five?

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You're either in Adam or you're in who? Christ, say with me now, Adam or who?

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So now you have the contrast here between in Romans six, dead and alive, and those who are what?

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In the flesh and in the spirit. And here's what he says about those who are in the flesh. In verse five, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.

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But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind of the flesh is death.

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But to set the mind of the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

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Here it is, total inability, total depravity. Indeed it cannot.

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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Let me read that last verse again.

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For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

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Indeed it, what? Cannot, it cannot submit to God's law.

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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Okay, come back with me now, quick question now. Is repenting and believing in Jesus Christ for salvation something that's pleasing to God?

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Yes, those who are in the flesh cannot please

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God. They are outside of the context of that ability.

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They are dead. They are hostile. They are non -God seeking. They are slaves to sin.

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They were enemies. We were enemies, Paul says. Quick verse here, move over to 1

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Corinthians to show you that this is not a one -off for the apostle Paul. It is the consistent testimony.

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Again, not exhaustive today, but I want you to have these verses. 1 Corinthians chapter one.

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1 Corinthians chapter one, verse 18, here it is. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

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The word of the cross is folly, foolishness to those who are perishing.

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And you wonder how when you preach the gospel and you preach the excellencies of Jesus Christ, the supremacy of Jesus Christ over all things, you know how amazing

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Jesus is and you preach Christ to the world and they think you're a fool. They think you're an idiot.

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If you want to know how the world thinks about us and our message, go watch the debate Dr. White and I had with Dr.

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Carter, Clark. Yes, Clark, sorry. Dr. Clark, we're idiots.

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We're idiots. You guys are stupid. Come on guys, show me your God. Show me your God. So foolish, so dumb.

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You're dumb Christians, so ignorant to believe these myths and these fairy tales and these silly stories.

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The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God.

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Next, 1 Corinthians 2 .14. 1

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Corinthians 2 .14, here it is again. The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

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You wonder how you could preach Christ and preach the truth to people and they can hear it and they're in the image of God and they're here and they're taking it all in and they just can't understand it.

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They can't embrace it. They don't get it. The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God.

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Don't you love it when you, some of you guys have this experience. Like you heard about Christ your whole life.

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Maybe you were raised in a Christian home or around a Christian context. You heard about Christ, you heard about Christ. You just dismissive, dismissive, like whatever, not important, don't care, right?

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Just put a pin in it and keep it somewhere else or outright just we're vicious and hostile to the message of Jesus.

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And then all of a sudden, one day, Jesus looks glorious and amazing and beautiful and you can't imagine the universe without him and you fall at his feet and you trust him because the light comes on.

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All of a sudden, you go from a place where you couldn't understand any of this and then you trust in Jesus. Was that you?

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All of a sudden, you got really spiritually minded. All of a sudden, you grew and you got some wisdom and saw, oh yes,

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Jesus, he's the way. What was it? How'd you get there? How'd your life change?

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Was it you? How'd the lights come on like that? How all of a sudden did you hear the same message that you heard so many times before and now it broke you?

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And now it's stung when you heard it. The message of sinners and a holy

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God and the glory of Jesus. Like how come in the past, you may be heard of the crucifixion of Jesus.

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Maybe you watched the movie. Maybe you saw the passion of the Christ and you're like, meh, whatever.

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And all of a sudden, you go from a place of thinking about the crucifixion of the son of God like that, like who cares, to now when you reflect on the crucifixion of the son of God, it makes you weep.

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It breaks you. How'd you get there? Is it you? The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God.

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They are folly to him. That's our condition. And I'll end with this for the apostle Paul.

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And I wanna get to baptisms today. We could do this all day, but I wanna end with this for Paul and give you one from Jesus.

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Ephesians chapter two. It can't be missed. Here it is, verse one. Let the text speak.

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And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

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Pause. What do we have there? We have to embrace it. If we're gonna embrace the biblical testimony about our condition.

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Words from the apostle Paul. He says, dead, dead, and were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

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Now, Paul's talking to Christians now, saying you were dead and you were like everybody else.

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But let's back it up now. If we were there like everyone else, then what is all mankind?

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Children of God or children of the devil? Children of wrath. The Bible says children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

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And here's the glorious truth. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

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By grace, you've been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

01:00:01

So, when we're thinking about things like the ordo salutis, the order of salvation, like how does this take place?

01:00:10

Here's what Paul says, you're dead, child of wrath. But God made you alive together with him by grace, you've been saved.

01:00:17

So that really is a substance of it. You wanna see it? In terms that we're talking about the doctrines of grace, our condition,

01:00:23

God's effectual grace. He says, you're dead, God made you alive. God did that.

01:00:30

How does Jesus look beautiful to people who don't seek him? They go from a place of spiritual death, being in the flesh, not able to please

01:00:40

God, to all of a sudden, I'm alive. I see, I can trust in Jesus.

01:00:47

But how do you get there but God? You were dead, but God. You know what's awesome about this room?

01:00:55

As a pastor, is I got to watch the moment for some of you guys. That was the amazing thing.

01:01:01

Seeing the face light up, hearing the message, being rebels and hostile. I got to see it and it's awesome.

01:01:08

It's so cool to see it. I won't point you out right now to make you feel bad. But I even remember being in rooms and like a drug rehab and some people in this room were coming in like,

01:01:18

I'm gonna refute the pastor. I'm gonna come in here and fight with this dumb pastor. I got nothing else to do in this place. I remember your faces, you disgruntled, angry faces.

01:01:26

I preach the same message every night about the gospel and Christ. I challenge your position. And some of you guys had the poo face on, right?

01:01:35

Coming into chapel, angry with the pastor. And all of a sudden, one night, preach the gospel and it's like, boom, the eyes open and I see your accountants changes and your life changes.

01:01:46

I got to watch it happen. So I can see in scripture how God says that he does it. And I have practical experience about what

01:01:53

I've seen God do in your own lives. Let's end on this. John 8,

01:02:00

I read to you John 6. We're gonna spend lots of time there, I'm sure. But in John 8,

01:02:06

I want you to see this moment in terms of the condition of the fall from the mouth of the

01:02:12

Lord Jesus. Spend time here, read this text, go back later. But in John 8, verse 23, this is from the mouth of the

01:02:22

Lord Jesus. Again, we started with John 6 today. John 6, 44, no man is able to come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

01:02:30

So total inability, John 6, 44. No man is able to come to me.

01:02:36

It's over, the discussion is over. No man is able to come to me.

01:02:41

No ability, unless what happens? The father who has sent me draws him. And then what's God say he's gonna do?

01:02:47

And I will raise him up. Who? The one the father draws that couldn't come. Total inability, there it is.

01:02:55

But here, Jesus says in John 8, verse 23, he said to them, you are from below,

01:03:04

I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

01:03:18

There's a lot that could be said about that. But in verse 31, that's what he's saying. He's challenging them.

01:03:24

You're gonna die in your sins. You're gonna die in your sins. This is your state and you're gonna die in it.

01:03:32

In verse 31, so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, if you abide my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

01:03:44

Now you gotta really take this in because it is amazing. We're almost done here, so listen to how this works out with Jesus in conflict here.

01:03:54

And you'll see the substance of this. This discussion about our abilities and our deadness and sin.

01:04:02

You'll know the truth and the truth will set you free. You're gonna die in your sins.

01:04:08

You'll know the truth. The truth will set you free. They answered him, we are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.

01:04:17

How is it that you say you will become free? What? Aren't you

01:04:23

Jews? You've got the whole Roman context.

01:04:30

You've got the exile, the Babylon. You've got the Exodus. What do you mean you've never been enslaved to anyone?

01:04:38

They're so blind. They're blind to their own history. They can't see their spiritual slavery and they're ignorant about their own history.

01:04:47

We've never been enslaved to anybody. How arrogant. You're lost, you can't see it. But here's what

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Jesus says. Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

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Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. And I wanna say, brothers and sisters, if we only had this section of scripture in front of us, it'd be enough to disrupt the tradition of free will.

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Whoever practices sin is a slave to sin. Now, let's stop for a second. Who does that? Everyone raise your hand, right, okay, right.

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Who does that out there? Everyone. So the context of all of human history is a bunch of image bearers of God who sin, amen, yes, all sinners.

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And Jesus says, whoever does that, practices sin, is a slave. Brothers and sisters, slaves need to be set free, to be free.

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And if you are a slave to sin and you haven't been set free by the son, then you're a slave, you're enslaved to your sin.

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So when we talk about total inability, we're talking about that condition in the fall is somebody who was dead in their sins and trespasses, suppressing the truth of God and unrighteousness, who is an enemy of God, who is a slave to sin, who cannot, in their condition, please

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God or submit to God's law. They are unable to come to Jesus apart from the father drawing them.

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That's their condition. They are totally unable in a fallen state to turn to God on their own.

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So what do they need? Regeneration. What do they need? Spiritual life. What do they need?

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The gospel, which is the power of God for salvation. So I'll answer this quick question because I know it comes up often and we're done.

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Why preach? If people are dead in sins and trespasses, if they're hostile to God, enslaved to their sin, unable to come to God, if they're non -God seeking, then why preach the gospel?

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Well, the same apostle who told us all that says in that same book, Romans chapter one, the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

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The gospel is the power of God for salvation. Nobody's getting saved because you're nice to them.

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Can we just explain that? We love this new evangelical method of evangelism that says what we should do is be liked by the culture around us.

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We should really love them and come alongside them. I'm all for loving neighbor and coming alongside them, but nobody's getting saved unless you preach the gospel to them because the gospel is the power of God for salvation.

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The Holy Spirit of God empowers that message itself to bring dead people to life, but God made you alive together with him.

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You preach the gospel. That's how people come to Jesus. Dead people come to life through the proclamation of the gospel.

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So that's what we need to tell them. Why preach the gospel? Because that's the means God uses to save dead people and to bring them to life.

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Also, people say, well, if people are unable to come to God on their own, why preach the gospel? I think there's a distortion of what it means to preach the gospel because the

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Bible says that preaching the gospel comes as a command to repent and believe.

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Please hear that. Maybe we're preaching the gospel wrongly.

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For example, I often tell the story of being in a coffee shop and getting to be a fly in the wall to this guy who comes in preaching the gospel to somebody.

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And he comes in and he just, he says, hey man, it wasn't to me. It was to somebody across from me.

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He says, hey bro, God loves you, man. He just loves you so much. He just wants to wrap you up in his arms.

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He wants to hug you. He just loves you, bro. He loves you so much. Like Jesus just wants to be your friend.

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You gotta give him a chance. You just gotta, you gotta let him in, bro. You gotta let him in. He so wants to love you.

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It's like this message of Jesus who wants to cuddle you. Would you give him a shot? Or we say things like this.

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Let's go tell people that Jesus died for their sins. That's what they need to hear. I challenge you with this. You show me anywhere in the

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New Testament through the preaching of the gospel where the apostles or evangelists went into a place and told people, hey,

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Jesus died for your sins. Won't you give him a chance? You won't see it. What will you see in the gospels?

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The proclamation of who Jesus is, what Jesus accomplished, he died and he rose again, and the call to repent and to believe the gospel.

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That's the call that goes out. Maybe we're preaching the gospel in a way that isn't biblical.

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The call to the gospel comes as a command to repent and to believe. But why preach the gospel if they are dead in their sins and trespasses and unable to come on their own?

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Here's the reason. Image bearers of God are culpable and responsible before God. They know the true

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God. They're suppressing the truth of God. Even in a dead spiritual state, they're in the image of God and they're culpable.

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They are responsible to their creator. You see, the message of the gospel proclamation isn't

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Jesus loves you, won't you give him a chance? Jesus loves you, won't you give him a chance?

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Paul doesn't start that way. Paul explains the gospel in a different way. He says, here's your condition.

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This is where you're at. You're hopeless without Jesus. This is who God is. This is what

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Jesus accomplished. But it starts with the bad news of your condition and your rebellion against your creator.

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The call is to come to Christ for life, for forgiveness and peace and reconciliation.

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And so why preach the gospel? If people are dead and unable to come on their own, why preach the gospel?

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Here it is, because we have confidence in a God who can give life to the dead.

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You see, that's a hope I have. You say, how do you go out and do the hard ministry outside the abortion mill?

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How do you do a hard ministry outside the Mormon temple? How do you do the hard ministry on a stage during debates? How do you do that kind of hard ministry?

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The answer is not in me. I'm not special. I'm not powerful or overly amazing or intellectual.

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My going is with confidence that this message is the truth. And this is the message that saves.

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And God is the one who's at work and he's using this thing as the means to save people. So if I have a crowd of 10 very hostile people,

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I know that even when I'm getting spit on and things are being thrown at me, I'm being cursed at, this message is what saves.

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I'm scattering seed, baby. I'm just scattering seed. I'm scattering seed. I'm scattering seed. And I will tell you this story quickly because I think it's one of my favorite.

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Outside the Mormon temple years ago, surrounded by people just being screamed at, yelled at by this girl.

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She's so mad. She's taking up tracks and throwing them and she spits in my face. Crowd of people, right?

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You go home after a night like that and you're like, man, I don't know if this is worth it. Right? Tracks, spit in my face, all the rest.

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He's had Arby's sandwich thrown in the back of his head. Oh, in the chest.

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That's right, in the chest. And so you leave a night like that where you have all these people around you, you're preaching the truth and you get stuff thrown at you and she spits at me.

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A year later, it's like midnight at my house. We're having like an all night prayer thing at my house, just hanging out, eating food, praying, just being

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Christians. And my friend John's coming and I opened the door and it's

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John and a girl and a guy. And I don't know them, but John's there. It's like, hey, he's like, hey, they were at Starbucks.

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They heard that we were gonna do this prayer thing. They asked if they can come. And next thing you know, she burst out in tears.

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I don't know her or him. And so I'm like, sure, come on in. And then they walk in and I'm like,

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John, why is she crying? He goes, I don't know, I just met her. So like we have a bunch of Christians over and we're hanging out in this house in my apartment.

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It's a year later, she's against the wall, just hanging out, crying silently in the corner. And we just sort of left her alone and did our thing, right, while she sits there and cries.

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And finally, at some point she broke in and she said, Jeff, do you recognize me? And I said, no.

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And she said, a year ago, you were outside the Mormon temple in Mesa. You were talking to all my friends and some missionaries.

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She said, I took your tracts, I tore them up and threw at you and I spit in your face. And I was like, no, I don't recall.

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And I was like, oh yeah, I remember, you were Superman. She said, I got one of your tracts, I went home and I committed,

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I was gonna go through this tract, I was gonna study, I was gonna come back next year and I was gonna refute you.

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And she said, and a couple of months into reading the tract, God used that tract and those verses to open my eyes and now

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I'm a believer and I'm in Jesus. That's what

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God does. He does the work. You go give the message, sometimes you get kicked, sometimes you get spit on, sometimes guys pull guns on you outside of abortion mills, sometimes they try to run you down with their car and sometimes you save a baby.

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And sometimes this person comes to life and sometimes that person comes to life. And you get to be a spectator to God working out this glorious plan that he's had from all eternity to save people and bring glory to himself.

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And that's why you preach the gospel. So let's do it, let's pray. Father, I pray that you'd use the message that went out today for your glory, firm us up in these truths and use this church to preach