F4F | Proof Bethel Embraces the Pelagian Heresy

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ and this is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the

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Word of God. Now if you've ever heard of Bethel Church, Redding, California, you know Bill Johnson, Chris Vallotton.

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Yeah, go ahead and like the video. Don't forget to subscribe down below and ring the bell.

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It'll help you when we play Prophecy Bingo. Now what we're gonna do today, we don't have any video or audio to show you, but what we're going to do is we're going to take a look at a recent post on the

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Bethel Church, Redding, California Facebook, and we're going to note that this particular post embraces a heresy, and it is a heresy, it's not an error, it's a heresy, the heresy known as Pelagianism.

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Pelagianism was originally taught by Pelagius, and it denied, this doctrine denies, that man is sinful.

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Yeah, fallen into sin. It denies the biblical doctrine of original sin, and it will note that the reason why it's a heresy is because when you do not properly understand the bad news regarding humanity, you will not understand the good news of the gospel.

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So this ends up messing up the gospel, and the Apostle John himself explicitly states what happens when somebody denies that they are sinners.

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So let's head over to the...there's my desktop, hang on a second here, pull this up, there we go.

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This was posted by Bethel Church, Redding, California on their Facebook, I will read this out,

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November 6th at 2 12 p .m. One of the highest honors and privileges of a kingdom leader is to believe in people before they believe in themselves, just as Jesus does with us.

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What? So Jesus apparently believes in us? No, he doesn't. If he believed in me, then he wouldn't have had to die for me.

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I'll explain that in a minute. So to raise a generation of powerful people, we must build trust.

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We must have the core belief that people are good.

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Yeah, like I said, this is the Pelagian heresy. So what we're gonna do today, and in preparation for this,

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I put together a resource. So I'm going to pull up, to begin with, in my web browser, and I'm gonna switch over to the

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Fighting for the Faith website at piratechristian .com, and I'm gonna put a link to this in the description down below.

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And we've put together a new portion, a new section of our website, and the website is called

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Sound Doctrine, and the initial post, post number one is the

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Doctrine of Original Sin. And this is a non -negotiable doctrine, because the

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Church has historically recognized what the Scriptures teach in this regard, that when you deny that you have sinned, that you make

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God out to be a liar, and the truth is not in you. I'll explain that in a minute, but you'll note the

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Doctrine of Original Sin will give a definition of what that is, and when we talk about humanity and humanity's fall into sin, we have to look at humanity kind of in different chunks of human history and creation history.

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First, in man's original state, then after the temptation into sin and mankind's fall into sin, then you could also talk about the state of a

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Christian after conversion or regeneration, but then farther down the road after the return of Christ, you can then talk about man's state after the resurrection.

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So what ends up happening oftentimes is that slick Bible -twisting churches, you know like Bethel Church right in California, and by the way, this makes them heretical.

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This puts them outside of Christianity, if you didn't already think that they were. But the idea here is that churches like Bethel Church, they are really keen to zero in on like Genesis 1 and 2 while ignoring chapter 3 and the consequences that are so clearly spelled out in Scripture.

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So you got the idea. So what we did here is we adapted some definitions from the

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Book of Concord, as well as a resource that I found most helpful. It's Graebner's Outlines of Doctrinal Theology.

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So the definition then of Original Sin. Since the fall of Adam, all men begotten in the natural way...notice,

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since the fall of Adam, all men begotten in the natural way are born with sin, that is, without the fear of God, without trust in God, and with concupiscence.

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Concupiscence is like a constant lusting and pursuing after sin itself.

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And that this disease then, or vice of origin, is truly sin, even now condemning and bringing to eternal death upon those not born again.

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Condemned then are the Pelagians. And you'll note that the Lutheran Confessions in the Book of Concord, they explicitly, along with the

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Church historically, condemn the Pelagians and others who deny that original depravity is sin, and who obscure the glory of Christ's merits and benefits, argue that man can be justified before God by his own strength and reason.

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And then following Graebner's Outlines of Doctrinal Theology, in man's original state, a man was not only sound in body and soul, without a germ or disease of death, or a taint of sin, but endowed with actual spiritual wisdom and knowledge, and with perfect natural righteousness, goodness, holiness, in the image and the likeness of the

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Triune God. This is most certainly true. So you can say that you see this exemplified in Genesis 1 and 2.

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Then you have the fall of man, so this then changes everything. Before the conception of their first offspring, our first parents,

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Eve tempted by Satan, and Adam voluntarily transgressed a commandment of God, and by this sin they fell from their primeval state, they lost the image of God, became entirely depraved in spiritual death, and obnoxious in temporal death and eternal damnation.

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This is also true. And then the idea then is that we have to make a distinction then between hereditary guilt and actual sins, and you'll note that every human being is made a sinner by the sin of Adam.

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This is what Scripture says, and so you can talk about hereditary guilt and actual sins.

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Now all that being said, again, the link to the resource is down below, and in the future as we cover, as we counteract bad teaching, what we're gonna try to do is point you to this resource where we will give you what the

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Bible truly teaches in this regard. And so that's what we're going to be doing. But all of that being said, we've got to now get into our biblical texts, and I've put aside several biblical texts for us today, and let's see here...there

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we go. And so we'll be spending the rest of our time working through these biblical texts, and note that this is not a core

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Christian belief that man is good, far from it. And we'll start with Jesus, and I'm going to just quote him out of context here, and I'm gonna come back then to Luke chapter 18, which is a text that is oftentimes misunderstood because you miss what

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Jesus says here. So I'll just start the story, we'll finish the story toward the end of the lesson today.

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So a ruler asked Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Bad question, by the way.

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What must I do to inherit eternal life? And by the way, eternal life is an inheritance, at least he got that right.

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So Jesus said to him, and note Jesus immediately begins with a question, why do you call me good?

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No one is good except God alone.

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No one is good except God alone.

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Let me say that again. No one is good except God alone.

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That rules you out, it rules me out, it rules everybody out.

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It doesn't rule Jesus out, because Jesus is God in human flesh. So there it is out of context, but the statement of Jesus stands on its own.

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No one is good except God alone. Now let me then explain to you why historically, in fact let me duplicate this tab right here, why historically the

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Pelagian heresy is considered to be a heresy, and it has to do with what is stated in the epistle of 1st

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John chapter 1. 1st John chapter 1, and here's what it says, and I'll read verses 8 and 9 and 10.

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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

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Now if somebody says, well I'm just saying I'm good, I didn't say that I don't sin, if you are a sinner, you are not good.

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Straight out. You are ungodly. So if you say you are good, you are denying that you're a sinner.

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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and note what it says, the truth is not in us at all, okay?

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If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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If we say we have not sinned, we make him, and who's the him here?

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God. We make God a liar and his word is not in us.

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So to deny that you are a sinner, to say that you are good rather than evil, is to say that God is a liar and Scripture says

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God's Word is not in you. This is non -negotiable. So you either believe what

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Scripture says about humanity and yourself, that you are ungodly, that you have sinned against God, that you are a sinner, that you are not good, that you are in need of a

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Savior, or as Jesus says, no one is good except God, or if you believe to the contrary, you're making

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God out to be a liar, God's Word is not in you, the truth is not in you, this is why the

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Pelagian heresy is considered to be a heresy. This is the type of error that puts one outside the

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Christian faith, that you are no longer a Christian when you believe that humanity is inherently good rather than sinful.

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Yeah, so keep that in mind. Alright, so you'll note then, let's do a little bit of historical work talking about pre -fall humanity.

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In Genesis chapter 1 it said, God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, so we were originally created in the image of God.

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Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens, over the livestock, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so God created man in his own image.

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In the image of God, he created him male and female, he created them. And it's important to note that prior to the fall, humanity did not face death as we face it now, because God makes it very clear that Adam and Eve, that it's when they sin that they become subject to death.

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Genesis 2 15 says, the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, took the man, put him in the

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Garden of Eden to work it and to keep it, and Yahweh commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

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Romans 6 says, the wages of sin is death. So then note, all human beings conceived, all human beings conceived, are well, susceptible to death.

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At various ages and stages, no human being is safe from death, because the wages of sin is death.

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This, you'll note then, kind of building off of this, in Psalm 51, Psalm 51, which is

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David's famous psalm that he penned after he committed his sin against God and Bathsheba, where he says,

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Psalm 51 .1, I'll just read up to the important part, but we'll add a little context. Have mercy on me,

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O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions.

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Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you, and you only have

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I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

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

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Now, he's not saying that his mother was a loose woman, he's saying that he was conceived in sin.

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He was conceived a sinner. So were you, so was

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I. No one is good, Christ says, except God alone.

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That is going to include embryonic human beings who are in their mommy's tummies, that are microscopic, that have just been conceived.

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They are not good either. No one is good except God alone.

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Now, other texts then bear this out. So in Genesis 3, I won't read the account of mankind's fall into sin, but let's read

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Romans 5 to take a look at what the ramifications are and the consequence of Adam and Eve's disobedience against God's command.

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Romans 5, 6 says, For while we were still weak, at the right time

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Christ died for the ungodly. And listen to what I'm gonna say here.

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Christ died for the ungodly. He did not die for the good. You qualify as one of the ungodly, and if you do not believe that, the truth is not in you.

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You see, Christ died for the ungodly. If you're good, you don't need a Savior. But you're not.

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No one is good except God alone. So Christ died for the ungodly.

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One will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

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But God shows, or while we were still sinners,

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Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

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For if while we were enemies, that's mankind's state before being saved, if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his

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Son, how much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life? More than that, we also rejoice in God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. And now here comes the impact of Adam and Eve's sin against God.

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Adam's in particular. Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man,

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Adam, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

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For sin was indeed in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

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But the free gift is not like the trespass, for if many died through one man's trespass, how much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of the one man

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Jesus Christ abounded for many? And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin, for judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.

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For if because of one man's trespass death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man

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Jesus Christ? Therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

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For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous."

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So note the text explicitly says, by the one man's disobedience, all of us, we were made sinners.

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And this theme is explicitly spelled out all over Scripture.

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All right, Romans chapter 3 then says, what then, are we

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Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both

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Jews and Greeks, that's every human being, all Jews and Greeks are under sin, as it is written.

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None is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God.

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All have turned aside and together they have become worthless, no one does good, not even one.

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Their throat is an open grave, they use their tongues to deceive, the venom of asps is under their lips, their mouth is full of curses and bitterness, their feet are swift to shed blood, in their paths are ruin and misery, in the way of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes.

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And that is describing all of us, all of humanity. No one's righteous, not even one, not even one.

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Ephesians 2 makes this also explicitly clear. Paul, writing to the

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Christians in the church at Ephesus, describing what they were before they were regenerated, before the gospel came to them, before they were made alive in Christ, he says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

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So, you know, let me kind of just lay it out. Until you understand the depth and the magnitude of the bad news, the law showing you that you're a sinner and eater of a

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Savior, and as long as you are under the delusion that you are a good person, you're not ready to hear the gospel.

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The gospel tells you that Christ died for the ungodly, He died for our sins, that each and every one of us, we were dead in trespasses and sins, under the dominion of darkness, under the power of the devil, following the prince of the power of the air, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the entire rest of mankind.

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I'll throw this in as a bonus text. John chapter 3, John chapter 3, verse 16, we're all familiar with that, but there's something at the end of the chapter that I think is worth noting.

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So John chapter 3, 16, says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

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Consider this. Why should somebody who doesn't believe in Jesus perish? Because they're not trusting in Him for the forgiveness of their sins, which is exactly what they need.

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And so those who do not believe and trust in God's only begotten

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Son, they will perish. But note this, then the text goes on to say that God did not send

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His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already.

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Why would God condemn good people for not believing in Jesus? That's because they're not good.

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And then you'll note at the very end of the chapter, it says something quite interesting.

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It says, verse 36, John chapter 3, verse 36, Whoever believes in the

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Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

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Why would God's wrath remain on good people? It wouldn't.

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That would mean that God would be evil. So you get the idea here. This is a consistent teaching throughout the

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Scriptures, going all the way back into the book of Genesis. In fact, let me do this little

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Old Testament work here, let's see if I can find this off the top of my head. I think it's Genesis 6.

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It may be 8 or 9, but hang on a second here. Yeah, here we go.

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Genesis 6, 5, Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

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Uh -huh. Consistent from Genesis all the way to the book of Revelation. Absolutely consistent.

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No one is good except God alone.

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And now let's take a look at this story that I said we'll take a look at, where Jesus makes the statement, no one is good except God alone.

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And we'll take a look at what Jesus is getting at here. So, and when you see it, it's like, oh, you can't unsee it.

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You'll always be able to understand this text, then, based upon Jesus' statement. And what's the statement?

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No one is good except God alone. So a ruler asked

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Jesus, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And inheritance is a gift, it's not a wage given.

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So you'll note he's thinking, what do I have to do? You know, this is not how this works.

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So Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.

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So note, Jesus lays down the rules, okay? And this guy, having heard

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Jesus' words, no one is good except God alone is going to just ignore them.

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Flat -out ignore them. So Jesus said, all right, you know the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.

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Every one of these commandments, by the way, come from what's called the second table of the Ten Commandments. Second table of the

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Ten Commandments deals with humanity's relationship to each other. It's a horizontal relationship.

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First table of the Ten Commandments deals with humanity's relationship with God. You know, so it's vertical.

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So Jesus here quotes all of the commandments related to our horizontal relationship with each other, and then this fellow says something really foolish, because remember what

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Jesus said, no one is good except God alone.

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So he said, all of these I have kept from my youth, all right?

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Face palm, were you not paying attention? Let me repeat these words to you again, you rich young ruler.

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No one is good except God alone. Do you really think that you have perfectly kept the second table of the law perfectly, where you have not committed adultery, either in thought, in word, or in deed, by the things you've done and left undone, that you haven't murdered, you haven't stolen, you've never lied or bore false witness against somebody, you've never gossiped or slandered, and you've perfectly honored your father and mother.

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Again, no one is good except God alone, and first John said what?

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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

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If we say we have no sin, we make God out to be a liar, all right?

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Jesus said no one is good except God alone. So all these I've kept from my youth.

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Now, when Jesus heard this, he said to him, all right, all right, so one thing you lack.

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You go sell all that you have, distribute it to the poor, and you'll have treasure in heaven, and then come follow me.

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Now this is going to touch on the first table of the Ten Commandments. First commandment, you will have no other gods.

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What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.

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So you'll note here, well, he's wealthy, all right, so Jesus says you go sell everything and you follow me.

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But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. So Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said how difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

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It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Those who heard then said, who can be saved?

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Listen to what he says. What is impossible with man is possible with God.

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It is impossible for you to save yourself. It is impossible for you to keep these commandments and live as a result of your self -righteous obedience.

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And this then gets at the purpose of the law. Romans 3, which said there's none righteous, not even one, saying that there's no fear before the eyes of any person, tells us what the purpose of the law then is.

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So now we know that whatever the law speaks it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, so the whole world may be held accountable to God.

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For by works of the law no human being will be justified in God's sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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And so you'll note, the bad news condemns every one of us, says that we are all guilty before God, we are all sinners, that none of us is righteous, that each and every one of us, given what we deserve, would end up in an eternity in hell, me included.

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So then the purpose of the law is to show you were you're a sinner and to cause you to zip it, to be quiet, to be silent before God.

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But there is another word, and that word is the gospel. The gospel teaches us that Christ died for our sins, every one of them, in accordance with the

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Scripture. So that's why Paul then goes on to say, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets they bear witness to it.

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The righteousness of God that is through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction.

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All have sinned, all, you and me included, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation, or you can say atoning sacrifice, by His blood to be received by faith.

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So you get the idea then. If you get the bad news wrong, and you think that people are good, or that you are good, then you will not preach the gospel to them, and you will not call them to repent of their sins and to be forgiven.

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Christ died for the ungodly, He did not die for the good. The good do not need Jesus to die for them, but Scripture says all of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, or as Christ says, no one is good except God alone.

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Now, let's go back real quick here, and let's reconsider what

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Bethel Church Redding, California said. So one of the highest honors and privileges of a kingdom leader is to believe in people before they believe in themselves, just as Jesus does with us.

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I said Jesus didn't believe in me, and Jesus doesn't believe in you either, at all. You'll note that if Jesus believed in you,

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He would have given you motivational speeches to encourage you to save yourself, but Scripture says, and we saw this in our text, that God demonstrates

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His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for our sins, while we were enemies of God, which means that God didn't believe in us at all.

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No, He did everything for us so that we can be saved, and He calls us to repent and to believe what

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Jesus has done. We are to be believers in Jesus. Jesus never, once, anywhere, is said to be believers in us.

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So to raise a generation of powerful people, we must build trust, they say, and we must have the core belief that people are good.

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Well, if you have the core belief that people are good, then you make God out to be a liar, and the truth is not in you.

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That's what Scripture says. Now hopefully you found this helpful as a teaching, and we'll put a link to the

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Doctrine of Original Sin document that we put together on our website down below in the description, and so if you found this helpful, please share this video with other people.

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And of course, I need to remind you, Fighting for the Faith, we're supported by the people we serve, so if you don't already support us financially, all the information on how you can support us financially by becoming a crew member, patron on Patreon, or sending in a one -time contribution, that's all down below in the description as well.

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So until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ, and His vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.