John Samson Covers the 5 Solas on Today's Dividing Line

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We once again welcome John Samson as our substitute host while James travels to Kiev Ukraine. John covered the 5 Solas of the Reformation and took a call about his book "12 What Abouts"

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Hello and welcome to today's broadcast of The Dividing Line.
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My name is Jon Sampson, filling in for our friend, illustrious apologist, Dr. James White.
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Such a joy to be with you, I've been receiving some very encouraging feedback on the last show and just regarding that, isn't
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Jesus wonderful? I hope you're blessed by knowing his truth, his gospel. Just a quote
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I came across since the last show from Spurgeon on the subject we were looking at, which is law and gospel.
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He said this, There is no point upon which men make greater mistakes than upon the relation which exists between the law and the gospel.
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Some men put the law instead of the gospel, others put the gospel instead of the law, some modify the law and the gospel and preach neither law nor gospel, and others entirely abrogate the law by bringing in the gospel.
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Many there are who think that the law is the gospel, and who teach that men by good works of benevolence, honesty, righteousness, and sobriety may be saved.
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Such men do err. On the other hand, many teach that the gospel is a law, that it has certain commands in it by obedience to which men are meritoriously saved.
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Such men err from the truth and understand it not. A certain class maintain that the law and the gospel are mixed, and that partly by observance of the law and partly by God's grace men are saved.
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These men understand not the truth and are false teachers. This morning I shall attempt,
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God helping me, to show you what is the design of the law and then what is the end of the gospel. The coming of the law is explained in regard to its objects.
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Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. Then comes the mission of the gospel.
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But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That was from a sermon you can find on Spurgeon .org.
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Just Google law and grace and you'll come across the entire sermon. Someone wrote to me personally, said, why don't you explain a little bit who you are.
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You just show up on the James White show and don't tell people who you are. Well, my name is John Samson. I've had it most of my life.
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I was born at a very early age, which is why I'm not so big for my size. And I was born in Chester, England.
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You might say, can anything good come out of Chester, England? Well, it's only when I came to the States I found out that Matthew Henry had pastored in that city for many a year.
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And I'm sure many of you have known him through his commentaries and other books. I pastor King's Church in Phoenix, Arizona, on the west side of the city.
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The author of a book called Twelve Whatabouts, Answering Common Objections.
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I don't know if you guys can see that. Oh, hold it up. Hold it up. Here it is. Answering Common Objections to God's Sovereignty in Election.
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We have that book in our bookstore. You have it in your bookstore. That's right. That's terrific. And I'm a writer at monogism .com,
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the blog site for many years since 2005. Their blog site is called reformationtheology .com,
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and that has really sharpened me. You write an article, and then you get all the feedback and questions and criticisms, and it's very much a refining process to be involved in that.
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And that's a site, monogism .com, run by John Hendricks, who encouraged me to write the book, and he wrote the foreword to the book, which
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I'm very, very grateful for. Okay. Wait a minute here. It's a refining process? Yes. Is that the polite way of saying you get beat up a lot?
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You get beat up a lot. And on last week's show, I was fresh meat, and we'll see how we go today.
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I'm hoping to take some calls later on in the show, and that's when the refining process begins. Yes. Now, every now and then, just so we're kind of getting comfortable with the show and all that.
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Comfortable. That's a strong word. What's that? Comfortable is a very strong word. Comfortable. Every now and then, look to your right.
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No, down. You've got a screen there, and see, every now and then, you're going to notice that I'm going to leave you a little note.
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Okay. See, there on the deal, what's that note say right now? It says, argument is weak here, shout loudly.
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It says, don't forget to mention taking calls. There you go. Which you did. But, you know, just to kind of get you a feel for this is kind of how we've got all these little bells and whistles.
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James has a lot more bells and whistles. This is more bells and whistles than I can handle. And the other thing is, just every now and then, also now, on the other screen, glance to your left, and you're going to see the
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Twitter feed. So every now and then, and the new ones come in on the top. And that'll refresh,
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I don't know, every minute or so. And so if folks want to send you little short 140 character theological treatises, they can send that to you at AOMinOrg on Twitter.
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The A and the O are capitalized. So that's our ministry address.
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We don't usually use that, but these are kind of, you know. Experimental. Well, they're unusual.
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Okay. And so we're going to kind of take an unusual approach to things. So every now and then, you know, somebody wants to, you know, make a remark about where you're from and, you know, stuff like that, you know, talk about how much more authentic your
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British accent is than anything James would ever try or attempt or even achieve.
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So, you know, in those regards. So anyway, just thought I'd jump in and, you know. Thank you. Thank you.
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Jump in any time. Break some ice. Yes. My personal blog site is effectualgrace .com
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and you can check that out some other time, I'm sure. But what I want to talk about today is the five solas.
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I just want to take us through the scriptures and I hope it'll be an edification process for all of us that we will come out of this refined in knowing what it is we believe, why we believe it.
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But let me start with something that happened to me when I started believing this and embracing this. Someone said to me,
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I don't get it. The word sola means alone, right?
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I said, yes. Well, there are five solas. I said, yes. Well, how is it possible for five things together to be alone?
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And I looked at him with the kind of Superman expression that says, this is a thing
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I can handle. And then I just petered out, wilted and said, you know what? I don't know. But over time,
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I thought of an illustration that I think really has helped me and perhaps it can help you to explain why five things together can all be alone.
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One alone, two's company. How does five things be alone?
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Well, later on, I kind of got back to this guy and said, I've come up with a way of explaining why five things are alone, by which time he'd already said the whole thing is hogwash.
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And I didn't really understand that expression, but realized it's probably not a good thing to have water that hog has been washing in.
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And I realized it's probably not a positive comment. He was saying when he said the whole thing's hogwash, it isn't hogwash, but let me explain why.
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If I was asked that question now, why or how can five things together be alone?
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Let me give you an illustration. It's a bit like an analogy, a parable, but let's, let's see how we go with this.
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The American space organization, NASA has a desire to put a man on the moon and for him to walk on it with their best personnel.
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They form a highly skilled team and take what they know of the laws of science and set about the task of designing and building a rocket capable of accomplishing their goal.
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They build a launch site for the rocket and fill the rocket with specially designed rocket fuel and to cut a long story short, the man goes inside the rocket, the countdown, the countdown takes place from 10 down to zero, blast off the rocket, the rocket launches.
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Many days later, the man lands, walks on the moon. Every goal was achieved. The mission was successful.
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All right, you got the picture. We could summarize the mission as follows. Based on the laws of science alone, the man walked on the moon by means of rocket fuel alone through enclosing himself in his space suit alone because of the rocket alone for the glory of NASA alone.
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Let me explain that a little bit more. It was not the laws of science plus something else added. It was not rocket fuel plus hamburger meat thrown in.
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It was not the space suit plus a 30 minute moonwalk wearing only his favorite football jersey. It was the rocket alone that got him there and not some sea hovercraft added in.
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And when NASA got him there, the fishermen of Iceland could take no credit for the event because they had nothing to do with it.
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It was NASA alone that got the man to the moon. In a similar way, the
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Protestant reformers in articulating the five solas of the Reformation to state the central truths of the
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Bible, they were explaining how five things all work together in the plan of God, yet each is distinct in itself without mixture, without anything else added to it.
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The words can be really capitalized if we look at a sentence like this. It's based on scripture alone.
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We can affirm that justification is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
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Do you see what I'm highlighting? Based on scripture alone. We can affirm that justification is by God's grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
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When we understand that, we see the contrast between what the reformers were teaching based on the
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Bible itself and the Roman Catholic Church, because Rome believed then as it does now, that justification is by grace, through faith, because of Christ.
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That's a shock to many Protestants and Christians in our day to say, well, wow, Rome believes in grace.
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They've always believed in grace, just not grace alone. They believe that grace is necessary for salvation.
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You cannot be saved without grace, but grace is necessary.
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They would never say grace is sufficient. You've got to add to it. You've got to do something as well. Rome would say justification is by grace, through faith, because of Christ.
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What Rome does not believe is that justification, God declaring a sinner right in his sight, is by faith alone or by grace alone or because of Christ alone.
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For Rome, justification is by grace plus human merit, through faith plus human works, by Christ plus the sinner's contribution of being inherently righteous.
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In contrast, the reformers called the church back to the one true biblical gospel. Christ saves by himself alone.
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He does not need a co -redemptrix in Mary or the added righteousness of Mary and the saints in the treasury of merit, which merit is available to the masses in the form of indulgences by decree of the
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Pope, who alone possesses the keys of the treasury. First Timothy 2 .5 says there is one
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God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
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Salvation is by God's grace alone, received through faith alone, because of Jesus Christ alone, all based on what the scriptures say, alone to the glory of God alone.
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What I want to say is God has done something even more remarkable, much more remarkable than anything science and NASA could do.
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Seeing our desperate need, God has come to us in the person of his son, born of a virgin, living a sinless life, dying an atoning death, being raised up from the dead and has provided this great and wondrous salvation for all who'll come to Christ as their perfect sin -bearing savior and Lord.
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And so I'm one amongst many who celebrate the solas of the Reformation, not because of a mere historical interest, but because this is the only way
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God does in fact save anyone. These five central truths of the gospel stand together and forever and always alone.
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In those five simple solas of the Reformation, I believe the Protestant reformers were protesting false doctrine and rightly declaring what the word of God says, and it was the heart of the gospel.
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The Bible has not changed one iota since the 16th century. I remember a gentleman saying to me, the
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Holy Spirit is not stuck in the 16th century. And I would have to agree with that.
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Thankfully, we've moved on in terms of culture. I appreciate the technology that is actually all around me right now in a way
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I've not really experienced before. I appreciate technology. I appreciate the music of our century probably more than other centuries, but it's not the culture
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I'm celebrating of the 16th century. It was the fact that God, the Holy Spirit, raised up men and women who for the sake of the gospel were prepared to give their lives, and many of them did, for the central truths of what the
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Bible says, how God saves sinners. The cry of the reformers was not faith or grace or Christ or even scripture or even the glory of God.
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It was faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, scripture alone to the glory of God alone with scripture being the sure foundation.
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The reformers affirmed justification is by God's grace alone, received through faith alone because of Christ alone for the glory of God alone.
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The central or material issue of that reformation was justification by faith alone.
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The Latin phrase is sola fide. You might have heard it many times, sola meaning alone, fide the word for faith, yet often overlooked is the other controversy which was raging just as serious for the life of the church regarding the formal issue, as it's called, the structure in which the whole debate ensued.
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That was who has final authority, who or what speaks for God.
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It was here that Luther and the reformers believed the Holy Scriptures alone is the final and infallible and in fact the sole, the only rule of faith for the people of God.
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Sola Scriptura was the first of these solas, sola Scriptura meaning scripture alone.
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What the idea is here is not that we cannot benefit from the great teachers of the church. In fact, the scriptures would tell us that God gives leaders in the church, that they are gifts to the church.
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Many of the gifts are people who've now passed on from the scene of history and are instructors still in our own day.
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I benefit greatly from those who've gone before. I want to stand on the shoulders of giants, but neither one of them individually or all of them collectively are what we would call infallible.
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They make mistakes. They make mistakes just as we do in our day, but they don't make the same mistakes oftentimes.
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And if you and I come up with an idea that has never been heard of in church history, it could be that we alone are right, but more likely it is we need to check our tradition at the door and throw out our interpretation.
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If God, the Holy Spirit, has not revealed to the gifts in his church something that we alone have received, it could be that God was waiting for us to show up on the scene of time to give us the revelation that we now possess, but it's more likely that we've got something very, very wrong.
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I'm not interested in a new idea. The old, old story suffices.
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And in church history, people have gone through rigorous effort to outline what the
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Bible teaches about God, about the Holy Trinity, that he is one God in essence, three in persons.
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And places like Chalcedon and other places where these were fought and really verified by the church, because for the intervening years and before the years previously, people were hearing all sorts of ridiculous and outrageous and misguided ideas about who
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God is, who Jesus is, that he's one person with two natures, fully human, fully divine, not half
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God and half man, but fully God, fully man. These things have been fought for on a scriptural basis, and we don't need to come up with something new.
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And if we do, it's probably going to be wrong, because God, the Holy Spirit, has always been giving his people access to the truth, leading his people into the truth.
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Jesus said he would. He will guide you and lead you into all truth. The idea of scripture alone is not the idea that we only read a
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Bible and we don't become familiar with other teachers in the church and what they have said over time.
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But what we're saying is only scripture is Theonoustos, God breathed, having the full weight of authority of God himself to bind the conscience.
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And it was Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521 where he outlined that famous expression,
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Here I stand. He was able to say when he was asked to recant, unless I'm convinced by sacred scripture or by evident reason,
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I will not, I cannot recant for my conscience. Here it is. My conscience is held captive to the word of God and to act against conscience is neither right nor safe.
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Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Luther and Calvin who followed and other great leaders in the church would certainly verify the ideal of looking to other men of God and the gifts of the church leadership to understand what
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God has revealed in his word. But no one speaks for God more than God himself. And God has spoken in and through and by his word.
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And every thought, every doctrine needs to be held up to the light of scripture to see if God's word, the
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Bible affirms the doctrine. And if it doesn't, let's throw it out. Let God be true.
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Every man a liar. Every doctrine needs to have its foundation in scripture to carry the weight of divine authority and bind the human conscience.
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I was really thrilled one day when I could remember that speech of Luther and began to quote it.
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The problem is I quoted it to a man called Dr. James White. And he said, you're not fully reformed unless you can quote that in German, the original
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German. And so I went back to my little study and I came back with, here I stand,
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I can do no God help me. And he said, that's good. But that's not all of the quote is it?
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I said, oh gosh, this guy, he knows his stuff. I've learned so much from Dr. James White and I just appreciate his ministry so much.
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He was instrumental in my own life, along with Dr. R .C. Sproul, of just awakening me to what the scripture says.
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The book by Sproul called Chosen by God, tremendous. They carry it here in the bookstore. And Dr.
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James White's book, The Potter's Freedom, was just so instrumental and carried me all over the way into five point
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Calvinism. Not because I am a follower of Calvin. There are things I would disagree with on him, with him regarding certain aspects of the faith, but regarding the expression of Calvinism, which is an unfortunate title.
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Just let me say this for a moment. Calvin would not want his doctrines to be called Calvinism.
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He was very, very self -effacing. If you read any of his sermons, it's very, very hard to even find a personal reference in his sermons about himself.
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You've got to read his letters to find out about his conversion. You've got to really dig deeply.
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He actually wanted for his grave to be unmarked so there wouldn't be this religious devotion given to him.
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He knew how depraved and idolatrous the human heart is. And even though he was mightily used of God, he didn't want people to know where he was buried.
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And I've been to Geneva. I've looked for his grave site. Just to kind of acknowledge
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Calvin in some sense, there's a great Geneva wall of reformation. He's one of the figures there amongst others.
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But to this day, people don't know where Calvin was buried because that was his desire.
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Very self -effacing. So Calvin would not be thrilled with the term Calvinism. It's almost an unfortunate title in church history that that's what it's become.
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But basically, as Spurgeon said, I have no desire to be a Calvinist in the
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Corinthian sense. I'm of Calvin. But do I affirm the doctrines that he held dear regarding God's predestination, regarding the solace of the
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Reformation? Absolutely. Certainly, I do. So Sola Scriptura was the first of these five.
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The second is Sola Fide, which was the material principle of the Reformation. Sola Fide meaning faith alone.
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And that means that faith alone is the instrument of justification without any meritorious works of man added to it.
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In Romans 3, 28, the Apostle Paul declared, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
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Though the phrase faith alone is not in that text, the idea is certainly there. The concept certainly is by faith apart from works, faith alone.
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Romans 4, 4 and 5, which I think is the clearest expression of this in the entire New Testament. In the gospel of Paul, if you like, in Romans, you could call it his gospel.
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He did at the end of Romans 16. He said this, now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due, but to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.
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It was Dr. White who helped me understand that in the original text, the phrase in English, put into English would go like this, to the working one, verse 4, and then verse 5, to the not working one.
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Total contrast. To the working one, what you do is considered what?
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Not a gift when you're given receipt and given monetary benefit for working.
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You're not considering it a gift in any way at all. If you work the 40 hours, you're not just on the floor in great sobbings of thanksgiving to the employer who's now paid you what you were owed.
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In fact, you're ticked, you're angry if you don't get paid because you are owed that money.
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But if that same employer walks up to someone who he doesn't know and just hands the same amount of money to someone you don't know, that's mercy.
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That's grace. Especially if that's someone who's been shaking his fist at the employer all his life.
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That's the message of grace. To the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor at all, but as what is due, but to the one who does not work.
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No works involved, but believes that we have the idea of faith alone, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly.
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His faith is credited as righteousness. Grace is such a powerful message that it boggles the mind.
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It's radical. For God to justify the ungodly is a radical concept.
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People who in and of themselves are not righteous, God declares righteous.
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How so? How can God do that without negotiating his holiness? They say it's not real.
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This is a fabric. This is a fairy story. This is not real. Well, it is real because really, in all reality, there was an atonement.
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Jesus went to the cross for real people with real sin, and all the sins of all those who would ever believe on him were placed on him.
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Isaiah 53. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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He did it. He literally bore our sins in his body on the tree, 1
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Peter 2, 24. And real righteousness is credited to the account of those who believe.
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And so it's a real righteousness that has been imputed, credited to the account of those who believe in Christ.
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Many other scriptures would affirm that this doctrine, justification by faith alone, sola fide, is at the very heart of the gospel.
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Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast.
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Martin Luther called this doctrine the article of the standing or falling church, the article upon which the church stands or falls.
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In his estimation, a church preaching this doctrine was standing and one not preaching it was or already had fallen.
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The third sola is sola gratia, grace alone. A pure Pelagian, which was really
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Pelagius was a British monk, and he had the idea that man was basically good, in fact, inherently good, and he would argue against grace being necessary.
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He believed that man apart from God's grace could inherit eternal life.
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He could pull himself up by his bootstraps, so to speak, to become pleasing to God. Surely Rome at the time of the 16th century, they'd agree with grace alone, wouldn't they?
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Well, not at all. You see, the religions of men are usually comfortable with the idea of God's grace being necessary.
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Rome's always believed that. So does the Mormon Church in our day, the Latter -day Saints. But as Dr.
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White says so well, the issue has never been the necessity of grace. It's always the sufficiency of grace.
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The question is this, is grace able to save or is it merely a help to save with man's will being the final deciding factor?
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The reformers affirmed that grace actually saves, that Jesus saves.
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Grace alone means grace at the start, grace all the way to the end, grace in the middle, grace that does not fail, grace without mixture, grace without addition, grace that allows no boasting, grace that precludes all glorying but in the
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Lord. It's here we get to the arena of monogism. I mentioned that website, monogism .com,
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M -O -N -E -R -G -I -S -M. Monogism means one power working.
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Erg is a unit of work. The word mono we know from its contrast stereo, stereo meaning more than one, two or more.
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Mono means one. Monogism means one power working. The contrast to monogism would be synergism, more than one party working.
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And in the arena of salvation, the reformers were monogists. They believe one power does the work rather than synergists who believe it's one plus someone else contributing.
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God plus our efforts, God plus our cooperation. No, all the reformers were monogists believing that God's grace is the essential and deciding factor that enables someone to believe.
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As Augustine, who without doubt was probably, well, I just said without doubt, so you don't say probably in the same sentence, but was the greatest theologian of the first millennia of the church.
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He said, God chooses us not because we believe, but that we may believe.
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What do you attribute your faith to? Well, I made a decision. Well, why did you make the decision?
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And someone else who heard the gospel didn't make that decision. Was it because you were more spiritually sensitive?
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Well, I humbled myself. Yes, I did. But really, you were more sensitive than the other person that didn't.
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You're in heaven because you are more righteous than someone else because you made a righteous decision.
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Well, no, I wouldn't say that. Well, was it more righteous to accept and receive the gospel than to reject it?
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Well, yes. So you're in heaven because you made your decision, right? Well, I don't like going there.
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Well, I know you don't like going there, but let's go there. How and why are you a believer? If you attribute your salvation in the least to something in you, you've not understood the
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Protestant understanding of the Bible, grace alone, grace alone as the ancient hymn,
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Amazing Grace says, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.
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How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. As many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name."
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Well, that's something we do, right? Yes, yes. But continue reading 1 John 1, excuse me,
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John 1, verses 12 and 13. We've read verse 12. Verse 13 says, "'Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.'
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Yes, we believe. We believe because we've been born of God. For to you, it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to suffer, not only to suffer for his sake, but also to believe in him.'"
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Philippians 1, 29. "'To you, it's been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake.'"
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God's grace captures the heart, does divine surgery, takes out the heart of stone, puts in a heart of flesh that actually wants the savior.
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Romans 9, 16. "'It does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, man's effort, but on God who has mercy.
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It's by his doing that you're in Christ Jesus.'" 1 Corinthians 1, 30. Grace alone is affirmed by these and other scriptures.
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Even the faith we have is God's gift to his people. And let me just say this,
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Romans 11, 6. You cannot mix grace and human merit or works and it still be grace.
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Grace is 100 % an operation of God alone.
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If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace.
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Romans 11, 6. We're going to go to some commercials just for a moment.
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I'll be back right after these messages. The Trinity is a basic teaching of the
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Christian faith. It defines God's essence and describes how he relates to us. James White's book,
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The Forgotten Trinity, is a concise, understandable explanation of what the Trinity is and why it matters. It refutes cultic distortions of God, as well as showing how a grasp of this significant teaching leads to renewed worship and deeper understanding of what it means to be a
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Christian. And amid today's emphasis on the renewing work of the Holy Spirit, The Forgotten Trinity is a balanced look at all three persons of the
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Trinity. Dr. John MacArthur, Senior Pastor of Grace Community Church says, James White's lucid presentation will help layperson and pastor alike.
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Highly recommended. You can order The Forgotten Trinity by going to our website at aomin .org.
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Pulpit Crimes. The criminal mishandling of God's Word may be James White's most provocative book yet.
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White sets out to examine numerous crimes being committed in pulpits throughout our land every week, as he seeks to leave no stone unturned.
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Based firmly upon the bedrock of Scripture, one crime after another is laid bare for all to see.
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The pulpit is to be a place where God speaks from His Word. What has happened to this sacred duty in our day?
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The charges are as follows. Prostitution, using the gospel for financial gain. Pandering to pluralism.
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Cowardice under fire. Felonious eisegesis. Entertainment without a license. And cross -dressing, ignoring
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God's ordinance regarding the roles of men and women. Is a pulpit crime occurring in your town? Get Pulpit Crimes in the bookstore at aomin .org.
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All right, well I want to break in just a second here, and take the moment with some of the new powers that I have recently acquired here, and do a little bit of a demonstration for the website.
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Just a quick thing here, you're looking at our donations page, and sometimes our shopping cart is still a work in progress.
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As a matter of fact, the entire ministry is a work in progress. But the thing that I like to point out to folks is, one of the things that I can show you now live, is how the categories work as you're going across the website here.
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And for instance, if you want to just look at Christian Apologetics, now this is actually a page that is a work in progress.
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Eventually, the goal is for this page to look like that.
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See, I'm sitting here, I'm psyching myself out and looking at the wrong screen. I've got like three or four screens up here.
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And so here, I'll bring John up. He can't really see what we're looking at, but everybody else is.
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So eventually, the goal is to have all the pages look like this.
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Where'd my pointer go? There we go. And you can go down, and obviously I've got all these different ones.
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But in the sections here at the top, the goal is to have the books, and the audios, and everything separated.
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And for instance, in this one, you can see the Michael Brown Debate right here on Predestination.
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You've got the description there. I'll bring this up so you can all see. Obviously, you can select from MP3, CD, DVD, and even
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Blu -ray. Yes, we make that available on a Blu -ray. If you want to show that to a large group on say, like a big screen for your church, you can just select that one and order it.
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And it's 12 ADP. It's really nice and big.
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So I just wanted to show folks that. Also over on the donation page, there is the ministry resource list that you can look at.
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And the purpose of the ministry resource list, yeah, it is a donation too, but these are things that James needs for his upcoming studies, etc.
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There's a real expensive one there from Bart Ehrman. But the fact is, is that James has to read this stuff in order to properly prepare for how to critique these guys, etc.
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And at the same time, I'm going to put a little plug in here too, that you've got all these different bells and whistles, things that we're looking to upgrade the broadcast with so that in time, we're able to bring in one of the new fancy dancy high def cameras.
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In order to hook that in, we have to have HDMI connectors into our computer and a number of more monitors that we're going to need.
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And that's going to take some more horsepower than we actually currently have in the computer we're working with, which is three years, it turned three years old last month.
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And it was all set up and designed for audio broadcasting. And now we simulcast live, both the audio and the video side through that same machine.
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And it pushes it. I see this thing run up to about 50, 60 % of its capacity every now and then.
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But for the most part, it's hanging in. But if we're going to put anything more on it, we've got to change out motherboards and upgrade it and bring in some of the new technology.
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So anyway, I just wanted to take a moment here. I'm going to put the show back to you, sir. And you're back on screen.
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And it's all yours. Go ahead. Thanks, Rich. Well, I can attest the fact that around the offices here, there are no gold faucets.
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The dogs are not in air -conditioned kennels. They use their money wisely here.
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And it's a great ministry to support, not only one time, but regularly. We're talking about the five soldiers on today's program.
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And we're going to be taking calls. Hopefully, if you call in, the number to call is 877 -753 -3341.
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And the last 10 or 15 minutes of the show, we're going to open up for calls. That number again, 877 -753 -3341.
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We've dealt with three of the five solas. And the fourth is, or am
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I right? No, we've dealt with two. My math is not working that great. We've dealt with scripture alone. We've dealt with faith alone.
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And we've dealt with grace alone. Yeah, we've done three. They've done three. Okay. Let's go to the fourth.
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And that's Solus Christus, Christ alone. The next sola, Solus Christus, Christ alone.
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And that's the affirmation that Christ alone saves by himself. It's not
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Christ plus someone or something else. Christ saves by himself alone.
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He does not need anyone alongside him to help him. He does not need a co -redeemer, Mary, or the added righteousness of both her and the saints in the treasury of merit.
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He doesn't need anyone else. He can do it all himself. As the angel said to Joseph, Matthew 1, verse 21, you shall call his name
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Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
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Jesus said about himself, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father but or except through me.
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Acts 4, verses 10 and 12. By the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom
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God raised from the dead, by this name, this man stands here before you in good health, and there is salvation in no one else.
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Hear that, Christ alone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that's been given among men by which we must be saved.
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When we talk about the doctrine of justification by faith alone, it's really theological shorthand for God saving through grace alone, through Christ alone.
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God saving all by himself. The final solar of the Reformation was solely
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Deo Gloria. To God alone be the glory. God will not share his glory with another.
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Isaiah 48, verse 11. Salvation was designed to give
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God's glory the maximum amount of exposure. It resounds to the praise of the glory of his grace,
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Ephesians 1 says. According to the riches of his grace, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory.
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Verse 12 of that same chapter. With a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of his glory.
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That's verse 14. Only God gets glory for our salvation. Human merit or works play no part whatsoever in a person's salvation, but are merely the byproduct, the fruit of a relationship with God, established by God's grace alone.
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Let me read a scripture to you from the book of Isaiah. Remember this, chapter 46, verse 8.
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Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old.
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For I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.
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Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.
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I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it.
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The message of Calvinism in that sense is of a God who accomplishes everything he sets out to do.
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He will accomplish all his purpose. Isaiah 46, verse 10. The God of the
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Bible makes plans and accomplishes every one of them. Before the foundation of the world, the cross of Christ was ordained to take place.
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And that means that the sin that would mean the cross was indeed necessary was ordained by God. Think about that.
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The most heinous sin in this universe, the crucifixion of the son of God himself was ordained by God.
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And though man's purpose in it was evil, God's purpose in those same events, all of the events that led up to the cross was entirely good.
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Acts chapter 4, 27. For truly in this city, there was gathered together against your holy servant
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Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
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The cross was no accident. It was the plan of God from before there ever was a world.
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He was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. All these events of time were ordained by God and means they have a purpose.
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Without that, we are left with purposelessness. There are no accidents in the universe, things that happen that take
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God by surprise. Some people have a very hard time accepting that fact. But the opposite would be that the events are senseless, purposeless.
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And as a pastor, it's a great comfort to be able to say, I don't know why, but I know what has happened in your family will serve
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God's purpose. That's a comfort at the bleakest and the most hellish of times when people go through the storms of life, certainly that were never foreseen.
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The events of our lives are not senseless, but purposeful. God has a purpose in all things and even promised to the people of God that all things work together for the good of those who love
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Him and are called according to His purpose. History is His story.
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As Dr. Sproul once said, there is no single. Let me get the quote right.
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There is not one maverick molecule in the universe. Imagine if there was some molecule that got in the lungs of Jesus as an early child and just killed him off, the whole plan of redemption would have failed.
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Now, God is in control. Here's what I came to understand. God and the glory of his attributes being put on display is the ultimate purpose for everything.
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I want to say that one more time. God and the glory of his attributes being put on display is the ultimate purpose for everything.
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That's the key to understand the Bible and the God of the Bible. What is the end to which we are working?
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Is it our happiness? No, it's the glory of God. And God will find people thrilled with Him.
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Our enjoyment of God will be what heaven is all about, enjoying Him forever.
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The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And the chief end of God is to enjoy himself.
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It's as if God's looked around the universe and thought, you know what, there's no other God here.
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There's no other God anywhere. And the ultimate reason for anything is my glory.
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And that's why the universe, by the way, is so big and vast. We don't need some of the planets out there for Earth to continue.
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There are so many planets that we have just letters and numbers for a number of them. That's P17486. Why do we need that?
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It's not regulating any tides here. It's not helping us in any way at all. We've only just found out about it.
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We've just seen it with the most powerful telescope imaginable in our day. We've seen it. It's been there as long as anything's been there.
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And why is it there? It doesn't affect us. And God says in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God.
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That's why it's there. God made that not for you or me, but for Him. God made it for Him.
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Powerful stuff. So that means that if anything was created, it was not for us and for Him.
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That means the purpose for everything is not us, but Him. And God putting all of His attributes on display means something to God.
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It may not mean something to us, but at the end of time, every one of His attributes, like a conveyor belt, will be seen in its full manifestation.
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His love, His mercy, but also His holiness, His justice. His love and mercy seen on a people praising the
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Lamb forever in salvation and redemption, and His justice being seen on those receiving
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His wrath. And in each case, if you read Romans 9, God does not say,
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I hope that's okay with you. I hope it's okay that I live for my pleasure and my glory. He says, does that sit well with you?
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My reading of Romans 9 was like bumping into Mount Everest every day. I looked at it. It couldn't be avoided.
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It was there. It was always there. And when I woke up the next day, it was still there. And understanding that's the
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God I have to deal with. Some people say I could never love a God like that who just lives for Himself.
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Well, for Him to live for less than perfection would be sinful. And the only perfect thing is actually
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Him. And He's not a thing. He's the being of God. And God works out
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His purposes for His glory. And then in His loves invites us to share in the enjoyment of Him because He knows in His presence, there's fullness of joy.
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And at His right hand, pleasures forevermore. If all we got in heaven was freedom from taxes and a place to stay, or even eternal golf courses and tennis matches to watch and the enjoyment of things on this earth, and we didn't have
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Him, God wouldn't love us. But God loves us so much that He sent
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His Son to deliver us from God's own wrath so that we can enjoy
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His presence forever in fellowship with Him. That's the most loving thing, for God to show
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His glory to us. And that was Jesus' prayer in John 17.
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It's a fascinating concept to understand the whole purpose of the Bible is God revealing
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Himself as this glorious God who gets everything He wants done and then invites us to share in a plan that His purpose from all eternity that will without fail achieve all
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His objectives. Jesus came on a mission, save the elect. And Revelation 5 tells us
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He did that. He redeemed a people for God by His blood out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
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The purpose of everything is the glory of God. The purpose is His attributes being put on display.
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Vessels of wrath, vessels of mercy, but in each case, God being glorified. I pray that God will allow us to see
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His glory. We've got a call now from a gentleman called
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Rick in Greenville, Pennsylvania. Is that correct? Here we go.
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Hello. Hey, Rick. Sorry about the long pause there. That's all right. You're calling from Greenville?
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Yeah, we've got some snow out here. You probably don't have to worry about that in Arizona. Yeah, northern parts of Arizona, but not here in the big city.
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That's right. I guess Flagstaff is like the fifth most snowiest city in America.
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They're ranked number five. People don't even know that. Oh, I didn't realize that. Wow. Yeah. But anyway, I've really enjoyed your book, 12
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Whatabouts. Oh, terrific. You're the guy that read it. Yeah, I have it on my Kindle. In fact,
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I have a prayer meeting or a Bible study on Friday mornings with the guys from a lot of different churches, and it's really been helpful with our
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Armenian friends, which I used to be one. Wow. Can I just ask, what did you find helpful about it?
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I like how you go into the context.
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I think that their main argument with us as Calvinists is that we just pick verses out of context, and I just like how you've shown that really in context, it's a harder question for them.
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It's almost embarrassing to them when they actually do see it in context, that things are not as they seem because of traditions.
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But my question was, the subtitle is Answering Common Objections Concerning God's Sovereignty in Election.
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Yes. I just wondered if that was a clue that there might be more books like this coming down the pike concerning God's sovereignty in things other than election.
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That's a very good question, and my answer is, I think so. I think so.
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I've actually just written a tract. You might be interested if you go to the blog of effectualgrace .com and just scroll down the last few items there, and it's called
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The Trial. I've just written that, and it's being now translated into Malayalam in India.
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I've been to the state of Kerala four times, and they're going to use that tract over there,
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I believe, just praying some money in to be able to do the printing for them. They're not the most prosperous of people, so that's something that's in the works.
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But you're not the first person to say this needs to be a series, and I hear that in what you're saying.
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And the first book was certainly about election. I wanted to write for the layman who maybe has just been introduced to the
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Christian faith. And one of the most encouraging comments I received from the book was, this is the book
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I'd wish I'd read as a young Christian. Someone said that. My hope is that it'll just do what you say it does, and that's show the context of these verses that many just quote and don't even take time to study.
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And my own experience was I did that for decades as a Christian, and I appreciate your call because that's what
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I set out to do. Look at these well -known Arminian so -called verses and then realize,
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I believe this, there are no Arminian verses in the Bible, because the message is of God who gets everything he wants done.
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So I appreciate your call, Rick. Thanks for calling in. It's an encouragement to hear from you. Sure. We need to get you in on our channel line, and you'd enjoy the conversation to go on there,
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I'm sure. Well, that's great. Thanks again, Rick. God bless. Rick calling from Greenville.
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We've just got a few minutes left. Anyone else want to call in, they can do so. My prayer is that in these sessions while James is away, if Rick doesn't pull a plug and say it's all over,
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John, I could be back on Thursday. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, no. I was going to say, you know, in following up to Thursday's show, a couple things came up.
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One of them, I actually got a private message on Facebook, and I don't actually encourage people to use that because I'm not – there are certain aspects of Facebook I'm not a big fan of, and that's one of them.
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But the gentleman asked a question, or part of his question was along the lines of something else, and that is the
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Reconstructionists will take the position that when we look at what goes on, for instance, what's going on morally in the
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United States today, that they're the only ones that are consistently able to actually hold the, if you will,
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Gentiles, the secular aspect of our civilization, accountable because they're the only ones that actually have that in their doctrine.
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We believe that men are morally depraved, which ironically I think the Reconstructionist does too.
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But anyway, we won't go there. So how does the world fall into the law and gospel that you presented the other day?
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And I know we only have a couple minutes left of the show, but that's really kind of one of those overarching questions.
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When we look at the world and we see their endorsement of, quote -unquote, gay marriage and all these other social issues, how is it that we have that moral authority from Scripture when we believe that those men are spiritually dead in the first place?
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Richard Averbeck I think we come back to the ground rules of everything, which is law and gospel, and that is applicable for the saved and the unsaved, and that everybody is accountable to the law and everybody needs the gospel.
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One of the things I love about the message of the Bible is you can go to any country and they may not even believe in God, but their own conscience affirms the law when it comes to them.
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I was talking with someone recently who described their journey to Japan, witnessing the people who don't believe in a
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God. The law itself converts the soul, according to the Book of Psalms. And just repeating some of those
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Ten Commandments, their heads go down. They realize, yes, yes, I have lied. Yes, yes, I have used
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God's name in vain, even though I don't believe in him, and so on. So everyone in society is accountable to the law and needs the gospel.
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And I think in broad terms, in that we've only got a minute or so, the message of the and after we're saved, the law still tells us what
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God's command is. And the gospel tells us how he saves those who cannot keep those demands and who have no, in fact, desire to.
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And so God, in his grace, gives us law and gospel. And to depart from that is to depart from the message of the
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Bible. And wherever we find ourselves and people who have other opinions, it's back to the ground rules to deal with anything.
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It's God's message and his message entirely. So thanks again for joining us on The Dividing Line.
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We'll be back on Thursday. Thank you so much. God is good, isn't he? The word of God is true.