Sin (Part 1)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you."

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. Yes, this is

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Mike Abendroth, but I feel like I am under water. I'm looking at the different levels here. I have my guest level, host level, caller level, headphones level, theologically accurate level.

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For Pastor Steve, I make sure I turn that up. He needs the boost. Today we have an exciting show, and it's exciting because although the topic is maybe gloomy, there is hope at the end of the rainbow.

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So here's the scoop. Today we're going to talk about sin, and here's why we're going to talk about sin.

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A, we're realists because we know we sin. B, when you realize how great your sin is, your sins are, then you realize how great the

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Savior is and how great the Savior should be perceived.

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That is to say, there's a contrast. And so if your sins aren't that bad, and maybe it's a hang -up, maybe it's a minor faux pas, maybe it's just a little white lie, maybe it's an indiscretion, maybe you have a disease, maybe you have an illness, maybe you have a syndrome—did

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I say hang -up? I think I did. If you just think you have a minor piccadillo when it comes to your sin, then the gulf that has to be bridged isn't that great, because usually people that have a low view of sin also have a low view of God.

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He's not holy—he might be kind of holy, but he's not holy, holy, holy. He is transcendent, but not really that transcendent.

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He is righteous, but he's not really immutably righteous. I think it was

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Edwards who said, it's the immutable part that makes people mad. If God's holy, that's one thing, we'd expect

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God to be holy. But immutably holy, always holy, ever holy, eternally holy—that can grind on people.

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Because you know, once in a while, if God doesn't act in a holy fashion or perceive what you do through his holy gaze, then you would be able to slip up once in a while.

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You'd be able to have a minor transgression once in a while, maybe a little tiny, itty -bitsy, teeny -weeny transgression or trespass.

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So it's the immutable part. He's not just righteous and then takes a nap once in a while, and we do unrighteous things, but he's immutably righteous.

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And so today on No Compromise Radio, we are going to talk about sin, because we want to understand what the text teaches about sin, so that we can see how great the

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Savior is. There's the contrast. When we see sin as infinitely against a holy

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God, and what it deserves, and what it means as creatures sinning against our

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Creator, then the value of Christ's death in our eyes is greater.

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Now, of course, Christ's death is of an infinite value, no matter if an unbeliever thinks of it as valuable or not.

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If an immature Christian thinks of it as valuable or not, it's still valuable. But our perception, our view of Christ is greater, and so that's one of the things we strive to do.

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By the Spirit's power, we want to say to ourselves that God's atoning work in the person of Christ Jesus, that we have an exceeding, a more surpassing value and estimation of that today than we did yesterday.

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We're more thankful today because we've grown in our faith and we've realized just how pervasive and how invasive sin is, and how we can't scrub away our sins, and someone has to take them away.

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It reminds me of the day that Kim and I were flying from Phoenix, actually from Los Angeles to Omaha, with a stopover in Phoenix.

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This was probably, I don't know, 20 years ago, and in Phoenix it happened to be 80 degrees outside.

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It was Christmas time. We were going to go fly back and see my mother and family members. When we arrived to Omaha, Epley Airport, it was 20 below, not with wind chill, not with some kind of coldness factor, whatever they call it.

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They don't call it wind chill anymore, they call it something else, don't they? It was really 20 below, and so they had

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TV cameras at the gate, or outside the gate, interviewing people, what's it like to experience 100 degree temperature change.

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I remember I made it on CVS and I had to call Grandma, who lived in Omaha at the time, and said, Grandma, you've got to watch the

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TV to see me. I think at the time I had my hair shaved on the side, but long on the top, pulled back, and I had a big hoop earring on my left ear at the time.

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I tried to put an earring in my ear the other day and it just wouldn't fit. I was going to put some kind of crazy earring in my ear that my daughters have and run around the house wild.

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So for whatever that's worth, I don't wear earrings anymore, especially girls' earrings. So Grandma's sitting there looking at Crazy Man on TV, but at least

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I made it on CVS. So the contrast was great. So it was easy to see, easy to feel, easy to perceive, and so when we talk about sin, it's not one of these issues where we say, well, we've already had sin dealt with.

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We never want to think about sin anymore. Because A, again, we're realists, and B, it will remind us how great our

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Savior is. It is humbling to say, C, it is humbling to say we're still sinful people.

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We're justified, yes, but we still sin and we need to rely on the gospel, not only for justification, but for sanctification as well.

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John Calvin said, to magnify his grace by a comparison, he focuses light strongly on the riches of the divine grace.

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He reminds them, he's talking about Paul in Ephesians, Paul reminds them how wretched they were before they were called to Christ.

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For we never become duly sensible of how much we owe to Christ, nor estimate sufficiently his kindness toward us until the unhappiness of our state outside him has been set before our eyes.

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So that's what we'd like to do in No Compromise Radio. We'd like to talk about sin. We'd like to talk about how great

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Jesus is, that he can overcome our depravity. The Westminster Confession says,

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Man by his fall into a state of sin hath wholly lost, w -h -o -l -l -y, wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation.

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So as a natural man, being altogether averse from good and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself.

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As the late Walt Kelly said with his cartoon character Pogo comic strip, we have met the enemy and he is us.

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If you'd like to use other pop culture commercials, I've fallen and I can't get up. We are sinful, we are depraved, if we want to use the word theologically.

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Depravity does not mean everybody is as bad as they could be, but it means we are so bad we cannot do anything that would help us spiritually.

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We're spiritually unable, we have spiritual inability, we are spiritually corrupt, and we are spiritually like Tommy.

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He might play a mean pinball, but he's deaf, dumb, and blind spiritually. No ability, one man said, as blind as Cyclops with his one eye poked out.

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John Gershner said, there's always room for deprovement, so while we aren't as bad as we could be, that's not total depravity, depravity to the utmost.

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It means every fiber of our being, heart, soul, mind, will, everything that we have is depraved and we are sinful.

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I said on the show before, quoting Jonathan Edwards, if a servant only spits in his master's face once a year, this would surely label him a bad servant, no matter how impeccable his behavior the rest of the time.

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Fallen mankind can do no spiritual good on their own. Depravity manifests itself in lots of ways, but maybe at the end, we are like Herod, who did not give

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God glory. Remember Herod, who was eaten by worms and died in Acts 12. Peter Jeffrey said this, much that we take for granted in a civilized society is based upon the assumption of human sin.

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Nearly all legislation has grown up because human beings cannot be trusted to settle their own disputes with justice and without self -interest.

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A promise is not enough, we need a contract. Doors are not enough, we have to have locks and bolt them. The payment of fares is not enough.

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Tickets have to be issued, inspected, and collected. Law and order are not enough, we need the police to enforce them.

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All this is due to man's sin. We cannot trust each other, we need protection from one another.

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It is a terrible indictment of human nature. So that's true. You go to a court and if you have to put your hand on the

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Bible and swear, why do people have to swear on the Bible? Because we know people don't tell the truth.

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I'm not even going to tell the truth then, but that's what's assumed. So we are sinful, and it's everywhere in the

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Bible. So for those like Robert Shuley, wasn't there a

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Philadelphia coach, Philadelphia 76ers coaching Julius Irving, George McGinnis, Andrew Toney.

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Who was the other tall guy, seven foot one, oh, I should know that by now. Doug Collins, and who was the seven foot one center that played alongside of, not

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Daryl Dawkins, he played on that team too, but there's another really tall guy that I liked. But anyway, I think that was, what's that name,

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Gene Shue was his name. Robert Shuley, it's the wrong way to say it again,

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Robert Shuler, saying that self -esteem really that is, a lack of self -esteem is the new sin.

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That aside, Joel Shuley, I did that on purpose,

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Joel Osteen aside, the Bible says in Genesis 6, 5, then the

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Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

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It's one of the reasons for the flood, right? That's the main reason for the flood, wipe out these people.

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Can you imagine the intent, every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

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Man could not be coddled into doing the right thing, cheered up, J .C.

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Ryle said, there are very few errors in false doctrine of which the beginning may not be traced up to an unsound view of the corruption of the human nature.

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It is a verity, it is a truth that we are sinful people.

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Adam sinned, God credited Adam's sin to our account, and consequently we are by nature sinners, sinful and sinners as well, and then we do sins.

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So, what do we do about it? Can you imagine? Just like I was talking to my 11 -year -old daughter the other night, and you're a sinner, she knows she is, and you've had thoughts of jealousy, and thoughts of covetousness, and selfish thoughts before, and not always worshiping

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God, and she knows that. So, what are you going to do about your sin?

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Because somebody's got to pay for them. And she looked at me and she said, I need a substitute, and Daddy was very happy.

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Now, I don't know if that's an expression of saving faith, but that's an expression of biblical truth. We have to have a substitute.

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All this sin talk should force us to say, we need to have a substitute, and to think that God did not have to provide.

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What does God owe sinful rebels? He doesn't owe them anything, except justice and judgment.

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But God, because he's merciful, Ephesians 2 says, he's kind, Ephesians 2 says, he's gracious,

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Ephesians 2 says, he wants to display his glory, Ephesians 2 says, that he's provided a substitute to take our place, to be exchanged for us.

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And so, when Barabbas was let go, and he was the wicked one, the guilty one, and Jesus, the innocent one, is now condemned, that was the only person

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Jesus was a physical substitute for, but Jesus is the believer's spiritual substitute.

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That is to say, Jesus, because he has divine righteousness, has an infinite amount of righteousness to cloak as many as would believe, all the elect, he cloaks with righteousness.

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And Jesus was cloaked with our, bore our sins on his body, on the tree.

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Of course, in the society today, talking about sin, oh, you're a sinner?

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I told you the story before about meeting people at Walmart. How are you today? Oh, I'm fine, they'll say. And then they ask me the question, and compared to what

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I deserve, and we go down that rabbit trail, and then I say, she said, what do you deserve?

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I think her name was Kara. What do you deserve? And I said, I deserve death and judgment.

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She looked at me like, you do what? You do. I was on 150 feet up in the air, and doing a ropes course in the redwood forest in Santa Cruz, and I said something about, pointing for man once to die and then judgment, laughing with the other people there because it's scary, you fall, you're dead, et cetera.

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They looked at me like I was quoting some obscure verse that some aliens had left in a time capsule pod or something like that.

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Winston Churchill didn't really like Clement Attlee, his political rival, and he didn't really say many good things about him.

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So his friends were surprised when Churchill reputedly, that's the right word, said,

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Clement Attlee is a very humble man. I know to say that, that's kind of a compliment. And then with the

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Churchillian twinkle that he would have in his eye, he said, but of course he has a lot to be humble about.

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And so sin is humbling, especially in our day and age, but it's a fact. It is a fact. Aren't you thankful that grace is greater than all your sin?

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To quote the hymn, aren't you glad that you have a savior? When John Calvin said, no one knows the 100th part of the sin that clings to his soul.

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If we only know the 100th part, I'm glad for the 100th part that I know that's covered, let alone he covered everything else.

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That's one of the fallacies of sacramentalism. In my liberal

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Lutheran days, our liberal Methodist days, our liberal Catholic days, our mainstream

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Catholic days, to think that at night, if you don't have all your sins confessed, you forget some, and then you die and don't die in a state of grace.

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If I had to figure out all the sins I did, I'm never going to sleep. Boy, what kind of life would that be?

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Yet Jesus Christ pays for all Colossians 2, all of our sins, past, present, and future.

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It reminds me of the Dear Abby line. Someone wrote to her and said, I am 44 and would like to meet a man my age with no bad habits, signed

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Rose. Dear Rose, so would I. We are dead,

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Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, and you were dead in your trespasses and sins. This is the true tale of the crypt, right?

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Tales from the crypt, remember that? Except the Ephesians 2 situation is not a science fiction show.

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It's not a redo. It's not a fairy tale. From society's perspective, it's made up.

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Ephesians 2 is less real than the movie Tales from the Crypt.

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When did that come out? 1980 something. I'm not exactly sure when I was a kid.

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I remember watching some, and I think they were fairly inane when they're redone.

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They just become more sinister if memory serves. You know you're old when you say that, if memory serves.

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Realizing, I guess the good news is I realize that the memory sometimes doesn't serve.

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Paul says to the church at Ephesus, and then the other churches around there because it was a circular letter, and you emphatically, you were dead in your trespasses, plural, and sins, plural.

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That is a great summary word that summarizes all of mankind.

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Lost men summarized by one word, and it's not sick. It's not unconscious.

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It's not semi -conscious. It's not comatose. It's not bleary -eyed.

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It's not sleepy. It's dead, necros, figure of speech, because this isn't to be describing physical death, although that's around the bend.

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Soon is eternity. But here we're describing people and their spiritual state, spiritually dead.

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Remember when Jesus said in Matthew chapter 8, follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead.

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They're used in a spiritual way and a physical way. Let the spiritual dead bury their own physical dead.

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And so when we are without Christ and everybody who's not a believer, they're so dead, they are dead to see the greatness of Christ.

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That's one of the marks of salvation, that God implants in you the indwelling ministry of the

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Spirit of God, and he shows you how great Christ is. And when I read the Bible, back in the old days when

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I was not a sinner, I was not saved, I would say, well, that's fine.

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He's a good man. He's a good teacher. But I wouldn't value his glory. I was deaf to the Spirit's illuminating power in the word.

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I didn't have an awareness of how great God was. It was like having someone walk over to a dead corpse on NCIS, take the reflex hammer and hit the knee and nothing happens.

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One man said it was like a dog who sits there and watches Niagara Falls but sees no beauty in it at all.

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The Bible teaches that we are dead in our trespasses. And so, what do we do? Just what do we do?

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Ephesians 4 is a similar passage to Genesis chapter 6, showing the all -encompassing, all -pervasive sin that we have.

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By the way, if you're listening today and you're not a Christian, you're in bad shape. You're in such bad shape that you can't extricate yourself from yourself because yourself is the problem.

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That's why when I first began to think through, am I a Christian or not? I was newly married and I got in a,

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I don't know, I was selfish somehow, got in an argument with my newlywed bride,

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Kim, and I took the dresser in the bedroom. I never hit Kim or anything like that, but I took the dresser and I was mad and I slammed it down on the ground.

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It was Ikea dresser and so it looked good but it was made cheaply and it just shattered.

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That was really dumb of me, very sinful of me. But it began the process in my mind, as a spirit

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I'm sure was working, that I was saying to myself, I'm the problem. It's not that I just have a problem.

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And so that's kind of our society today. They'll realize, yes, oh I've told sin,

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I've told lies before, I've done sins, I've, you know, been lustful,

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I've done X, Y, and Z. I think people today, still even in America in a post -Christian society, they realize that.

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But what they don't think through is what the Spirit of God graciously allowed me to think through, because this is what

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God used to help my mind process things as God was drawing me to Himself before He saved me.

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It was I am the problem. It's not I have a problem. I'm the problem. And so if I'm the problem, if I'm not the problem and I have a problem,

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I can help the problem. But if the problem is me, then how do I help that? Because I can't help myself.

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I can't somehow change my own nature. I can't change my skin color, and I certainly can't change my own nature.

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And so if Ethiopians can't change skin color and leopards can't change spots, I can't change who

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I am. That is how bad sin is. And Ephesians 4 says, being darkened of their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, and they having become callous, having given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

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That's what we call an unregenerate person who is dead in transgressions and sins.

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Colossians chapter 2 says that as well. Can you imagine when Jesus is talking to the people in John 5, you are unwilling to come to me that you might have life.

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Sin is so bad that we can't come to Christ. We can't make it. We are unable. And that is why the only reason we do come to Christ is

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God, the triune God, brings us to Christ. We don't seek after God.

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The mindset on the flesh is hostile toward God. It does not subject itself to the law of God, nor is it even able to do so.

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And those who are in the flesh, Romans 8, cannot please God. So aren't you thankful?

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First of all, I'm humbled, and I'm sad that I'm such a great sinner against God, and even as a

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Christian, how I sin. Yet I'm very thankful that although no one can come to the

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Father alone, people can come to the Father as He draws them, and then

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Jesus raises them up the last day. So today, if you're listening, there's a Savior named

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Christ Jesus who's greater than all your sins. So humble yourself and confess that you are a sinner, and then turn from your sins and place your faith in Christ Jesus, the substitute who became the risen

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Savior. God bless you. No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.