Beyond The Basics 5 - The Need For And The Necessity Of The Work Of Christ

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

1 view

0 comments

00:00
Father, we thank you this morning for this opportunity to gather together to consider your son who he is and What he has done on our behalf and for your glory
00:16
Lord, would you bless our time this morning as we look to your word? Where you reveal yourself to us in Christ's name we pray.
00:23
Amen. All right. Well, we've been talking about the
00:30
Person of Christ and this morning we are going to continue doing that we should finish it
00:36
Otherwise, I just copied 80 copies of the work of Christ for absolutely no reason whatsoever, so last week we got to We were talking about his attributes and how we know that he is
00:51
God based on what the Bible tells us about him And we talked about several of them Attributes that are true only of God and yet also
01:02
Are used in discussing Christ his sovereignty the fact that he's eternal and not created the fact that he is self -existent
01:09
Or that he has the attribute of a saiyan II which is so cool throw that into a conversation sometime
01:16
He is immutable. He doesn't change. He's omnipotent, which means he has all power
01:25
And he is sinless or perfect 2nd Corinthians 5 21
01:31
Says he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him and we talked about the importance of the doctrine of What was that doctrine?
01:46
Imputation we talked about that a little bit But you know just this week it was very interesting because we were down in Orlando, Florida and there was a question that came up about the
02:01
Impeccability and the peccability of Christ who knows what impeccability is perfection
02:11
Okay, it's good To expand that a little bit. It's the question about whether in the perfection of Christ whether he could sin or not
02:22
You can go ahead and hand those out. I mean That's fine, and I have some more here whether he could sin or not so impeccability would mean he could not sin and Peccability would mean that it was possible for him to sin
02:41
And it was interesting listening to RC Sproul and Sinclair Ferguson go back and forth on this issue and trying to keep up with him
02:48
Which was almost impossible? But the idea that and here's here's the effect of it
02:54
And it's not something we're gonna resolve this morning I just want to throw this out here so that you'll be completely boggled and won't listen anything.
03:00
I say for the rest of morning as God if we look at it solely from the position that Christ was
03:09
God was it possible for him to sin? No then if we look at Christ as man and We say it was absolutely impossible for him to sin
03:20
Then our C's argument was well if it was absolutely impossible for him to sin then all the
03:26
Things that are said about him from the human perspective where he was tempted just as we are
03:32
But did not sin are rendered meaningless and I was like you know getting towed around by those guys it was deep and So it's just kind of it.
03:46
It really brought into focus the tension That exists in Christ being 100 %
03:52
God and 100 % man and the answer to so many questions is yes What yes,
03:59
I don't know so it was just deep Okay, so sinless what we do know is he never sinned
04:07
That's the key we absolutely know that for sure never sinned and as God he could not sin as man
04:13
He was tempted we know all those things. Why do we know them? The Bible says them okay
04:20
H, which is the right place for this to be since it's holy and righteous Acts 3 14 and 15 and as always if you beat me to the scripture you get a free piece of candy
04:34
No, that's not correct but if you do then certainly raise your hand and I will call upon you to read the scripture and I would expect you to do so with great aplomb and excitement, but I Will read verse 14, but you disowned the
04:54
Holy and Righteous One and Asked for a murder to be granted to you but put to death the
05:01
Prince of life the one whom God raised from the dead a Fact to which we are witnesses.
05:07
Who's that speaking in Acts 3? Can we get some coffee in here?
05:18
Who is this speaking who is Luke quoting here Peter, right?
05:25
And who's he speaking to? He's got a Jewish audience, right?
05:31
And so it is interesting. They says you disowned It's pretty harsh language the
05:38
Holy and Righteous One and instead of asking for Jesus to be released They asked for a murderer to be released
05:45
But the point of that whole scripture there is he is holy and righteous and what does it mean to be holy?
05:54
Without sin and but I would always take it a step beyond that set apart
06:01
Other yeah, I really like that that whole idea of otherliness You know, we are sinful and that so it's true that God is sinless
06:09
But there's an otherliness like another Level a level beyond which we you know where we can only think about and contemplate righteous meaning he always did everything correctly and Here's an interesting one.
06:22
I Jesus says in John 14 6. I am the way the truth
06:30
This is another thing that came up in Orlando this week, you know, you want to know why? Men hate
06:36
Jesus Christ. I think it's right this right here because he said I am the truth
06:42
We live in a time where the truth is Relative the concept of there being a singular truth
06:52
It's horrible people hate it. And so if you say if Christ says
06:58
I am the embodiment of truth I Am the truth then he's saying please if you hate the truth
07:07
Hate me. That's not what he asked But that's the essence of it now if he says he is the truth.
07:15
They hate the truth. They hate him all these are absolutely Attributes of God when we think about the truth, is there another source of truth other than God?
07:30
I mean there may be things that are true that exist outside of the Bible Because the
07:35
Bible doesn't talk about everything you can't get the derivative of you know some fancy -pants calculus equation, but Everything that the
07:45
Bible says is true. So he is the source of truth Completely God. All right scriptural declarations of the deity of Christ Does the
07:54
Bible declare Jesus to be God? Yes We're going to go through those
08:04
Colossians 2 verses 9 and 10 anybody have that memorized? Okay in him the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form
08:16
That is right. Is that I don't know if that's both of them, but that's
08:22
Yeah, I think that's verse 9 I don't know I Don't know why Steve wants verse 10 as well
08:29
Let's ask him. Okay verse 10 and In him you have been made complete and he is the head over all rule and authority
08:40
That's why I wanted it because it just kind of stresses his authority too. But yes the fullness of deity dwells in him
08:48
Does that mean that he is all? That there is concerning God Well, no because we have the the
08:58
Father and the Spirit but it means that he is fully holy God in the flesh
09:08
In John 14 verses 8 through 11 he compares seeing him to seeing God now as You're turning there so that I can have somebody else read this.
09:17
What is and As I walk up to the stage to get a some water because I do have a cold so you'll have to excuse me for a minute
09:25
John 14 8 through 11 When he says That he is if you've seen him you've seen the father
09:39
Does he mean that The father looks just like him the essence is right, but you know what if you read that passage and You don't properly do your hermeneutics you can wind up doing how many of you have ever seen
10:01
You know, maybe I shouldn't even ask this how many of you have ever interacted with the Mormons to the degree that you have seen their movie of The first vision that Joseph Smith supposedly had you ever seen that?
10:15
Joseph Smith 14 years old confused about which church to join Goes into the forest in New York praise to God and says, you know
10:24
Which church church should I join because James 1 5 says if any of you lack wisdom let her mask of God Never mind that the context is talking about a trial
10:33
He goes in he prays and he fervently prays the Mormons will tell you and guess what
10:40
Two personages appear to him and they look exactly alike The father and the son and if you've ever seen that movie, they're twins
10:52
And it's because they look at John 14 8 through 11. They go. Well, they look exactly like who has that 8 through 11
11:47
Okay, so he wasn't saying That if you look at me you are looking at a dead ringer for the father
11:57
He was saying when you look at me you see the essence you see You see the the basically this the same
12:11
Truth I'm doing the father's will I'm saying what he wants me to say the father abides in me and I and him and I and the father are one and None of that means that we are exactly the same.
12:25
We don't look exactly alike You know other places he says
12:34
The father is a spirit and those who will worship him will worship him in spirit and truth So, I mean did you know apples and oranges,
12:41
I mean they're just making it's bad hermeneutics and this is what Colts do The father and son are both
12:47
God John 10 verse 30 and it simply says
13:05
Jesus again saying I and the father are one and Of course, we know that's a statement of deity because of how the crowd
13:13
Responds verse 31 the Jews picked up stones again to stone him and then they go on to say the reason we're doing is for Blasphemy that because you being a man make yourself out to be
13:22
God I am his statement of deity referring again to a saty his self existence
13:30
Where he says before Abraham was I am Point e he is the mighty
13:36
God Isaiah 9 6 One of our Christmas verses as it were
13:45
Oftentimes we hear of The book of Isaiah referred to as The fifth gospel because it has so much talks so much about Jesus Isaiah 9 verse 6 for a child will be born to us a
14:04
Son will be given to us and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty
14:12
God Eternal father prince of peace No mere man why because it says here mighty
14:20
God Point F. He has the authority to forgive sins who can do that Who can forgive sins?
14:32
God mark 2 verses 5 to 12
14:45
No, it's in the previous one. We're finishing up the last one. So sorry for that confusion
14:53
Mark 2 verses 5 and we'll obviously be doing this one that I handed out this morning for a week or two verses 5 to 12 in Mark chapter 2
15:08
And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic son your sins are forgiven
15:14
But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts Now think about this
15:20
Jesus in front of you and he says your sins are forgiven. Of course They're questioning why because there aren't believers verse 7.
15:26
Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming Who can forgive sins but God alone?
15:34
Immediately Jesus aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves
15:40
Now, what does that mean that he was aware in? his spirits omniscience
15:48
He knew Something that you know, a regular human being would not know because he's
15:55
God in the flesh Said to them why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?
16:03
Which is easier to say to the paralytic your sins are forgiven or to say get up and pick up your pallets your bed and walk
16:11
Verse 10 but so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins
16:16
He said to the paralytic I say to you get up pick up your pallet and go home And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone
16:27
So that they were all amazed that were glorifying God saying we have never seen anything like this
16:35
Which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven or to say to a man who's been paralyzed get up pick up your bed and leave
16:43
What's easier to do? Well, they're both impossible for man
16:49
Which is easier to say in other words if I see a guy who's paralyzed and I have my choice of saying two things
16:54
I could say your sins are forgiven or I can say pick up your bed and walk I'm gonna say your sins are forgiven and then go
17:03
But he didn't do that He said pick up your bed and walk and the man picked up his bed
17:13
He did say his sins are forgiven and I'm sure they were all But he didn't walk away He healed him right then and there
17:20
So he has the authority to forgive sins that's implicit in that if he could do the greater From the physical perspective he could certainly do the greater from the spiritual perspective, which was to forgive the man's sins
17:34
You know I I saw this Video clip yesterday of this football coach who has adopted a couple children from Ukraine and One of them has something
17:47
I forget and what the what the syndrome is called, but just causes these facial deformities and I thought you know again as I often do if the gift of healing were
18:00
Present with us today if someone had the capacity to heal people a I would argue that they would never be allowed to sleep
18:06
Because they would be hunted down And dragged all over the earth, but secondly how can you have that power?
18:14
And not go To the orphanages not go to the children's hospitals not go to the cancer wards and just clear them out
18:22
How can you not do that? What sort of person would not do that well, that's true.
18:59
He's saying that He was not able to Do certain things at certain times, but I mean the bigger restriction was what what did
19:07
Jesus always do the Father's will and there are times We certainly see Jesus basically escaping the crowds running
19:15
You know I don't mean not running, but eluding them going off to be by himself I'm telling you.
19:22
I think he was probably exhausted a lot of the times Physically exhausted you know so he'd go to pray
19:29
Even thinking about how he fell asleep out on the lake. I think just a lot of times he was physically tired because of all the
19:39
Things that were demanded of his time but certainly He certainly healed a lot of people.
19:47
I think that's very clear in the scripture. Okay. He is
19:53
God with us Let's look at Matthew 1 23 since that's closer
19:59
Isaiah 7 14 just says that a Child will be born of a virgin.
20:04
He will be called what God with us Emanuel and Basically, that's what
20:09
Matthew 1 23 is quoting Behold the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name
20:25
Emanuel which translated means God with us This is Jesus.
20:30
He is God with us Sent here by the
20:35
Father to do the Father's will so what should we do with all these truths we can
20:43
Contemplate them we can write books about them But we have an obligation really to learn about him there are things this week
20:51
You know Mike said you know I he he said at one point. He goes. You know I've been a believer for 20 years
20:57
He says some of the things that Sinclair Ferguson said this week. He says they're true, but I never thought about him in 20 years
21:03
He is it was it was deep and the point of that is if you know someone
21:09
Maybe you do this studies more than Pastor Mike. I'd like to meet him because the guy Doesn't sleep so We can always learn more about Christ.
21:23
We can always contemplate more about His person and his work we should stand in all of him
21:31
We should express our gratitude to him when we get up in the morning When we go to bed at night and during the day,
21:39
I'm just think of all the Lord has done on your behalf Should worship him was reading this week a book
21:49
Now I'm gonna forget the name of it. I could see the cover It's gonna be the
21:56
The textbook for Pastor Mike's IBS class coming up here, which I would highly commend to you just talks about Christ and about the doctrine of who he is all that he's done, and you know it's interesting because the
22:14
Disciples worshiped him the Throughout the New Testament there are instances of him being worshiped and he never one time says don't worship me
22:26
But when men fell down at the disciples feet, they said don't worship me
22:32
When men fell down at angels feet, they said don't worship me But when they fell down at Christ's feet, he never said don't worship me
22:42
Point E obey him if you love me you will keep my commandments he said
22:48
Do we we should love him?
22:53
We should adore him we should proclaim him Had the opportunity this week while I was down there in the
23:01
Gym guy who came in and wanted to watch the news Started talking to him and It really doesn't matter what somebody wants to talk to if you are
23:11
Or what they want to talk about if you are persistent enough you can bring it around to the gospel Now being in the south seems like everybody's a
23:19
Christian When I asked the man what his favorite books were I can only remember one that he said
23:25
You know said he was a Christian described the church He went to I knew right away that it was fairly weak, but he said his favorite spiritual book of all time
23:34
Was the road less traveled by M. Scott Peck? He said hmm well, you know
23:41
I might have had a slightly higher view if you would have said Lord of the Rings, you know, so So yeah, but you don't know you just don't know
23:52
I mean Yeah, you give the gospel to somebody anyway, and I always like to you know Here's a kind of a tricky way to give somebody the gospel
23:59
You say, you know, it's great that you love the Lord and everything And I was just wondering if you came across somebody and you were to say
24:05
You you know, you knew you only had a minute or two to give him the gospel. What would you say to them? And he said
24:12
He said You need to accept Jesus I'm going I don't know what that means, you know
24:22
So talked more about sin and stuff like that and he agreed with everything So, you know, but you can take any if you are
24:30
Determined from the outset of a conversation to turn it into a gospel presentation. You can do it
24:37
Okay, let's go to the next one the need for and effect of the work of Christ The need for and effect of the work of Christ.
24:46
Basically what I'm saying in that convoluted title is there is a compelling need
24:55
For Jesus to come to this world and what is that compelling need? To save sinners if he doesn't come from heaven to earth and take on a fleshly body to save sinners we have no hope and The effect of the work of Christ if he came from heaven to earth took on a body lived a perfect life
25:17
Never did anything wrong always did everything right? And those are two important Aspects of his work.
25:23
He never sinned meaning he never did anything negatively wrong and he always did everything
25:29
Right always obeyed his parents always honored them Everything right if he did not come down and do that or when he did come down and do that Did it have?
25:43
Necessarily an effect Did he just come down and establish the possibility for some to go to heaven or did he actually?
25:52
purchase a pardon for sin and was that pardon actually applied to sinners
25:59
So first let's talk about the need for Christ's work.
26:05
The need is that we're all guilty of sin Let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter 3 verses 10 to 12.
26:12
We often hear this quoted We're going to take a little walk down the
26:20
Romans Road here for a moment. This is such a compelling
26:28
Segment of Scripture as Paul walks through Romans chapter 1 and Romans chapter 2 and he says, you know what?
26:39
chapter 1 the entire Gentile world guilty of sin chapter 2 the entire
26:46
Jewish world guilty of sin and He's not done yet because he comes to chapter 3 and he says, you know, basically to summarize
26:55
Everyone's guilty listen verse 10 as it is written
27:02
There is none righteous Not even one. What does that mean?
27:10
There's none righteous nobody's righteous meaning
27:27
Come factory quipped headed to hell nobody's righteous meaning if they stand before God They stand condemned.
27:36
They're not righteous. They don't have any inherent righteousness of their own. And by the way, like I said
27:42
Last week seems like a long time ago. They cannot stand before God and say
27:49
I'm not righteous But I'm claiming the righteousness of st. Jude I'm taking a transfer from the account of st.
27:58
Joseph Joseph Jude Mary Bartholomew Who all these, you know, st.
28:13
Squid whoever it is They didn't have enough righteousness to enter into the kingdom of heaven
28:21
Because it says here there is none righteous not even one
28:27
No one no man ever born
28:33
No woman ever born had sufficient righteousness to stand before God and say God I've done everything that you've ever asked.
28:41
I've obeyed every single one of your questions your Commandments. I deserve heaven
28:50
No one verse 11 there is none who understands
28:59
There are not even anybody who even gets this who understands their depravity. There is none who seeks for God Why I mean we could go to other passages to look at this but they are not capable of seeking after God You know in my own life.
29:19
I could say that there was a time that I was looking for God But what would the truth be
29:28
I'm sorry, can I see a hand Frank Frank says he was looking for me an even stronger language.
29:35
Maybe that he was Drawing me there's none who seeks for God all have turned aside together.
29:43
They have become useless Why is mankind useless? Well because they don't understand because they don't seek after God Because they are not willing vessels to do his will there is none who does good.
29:58
There is not even one little problem there They are unrighteous
30:04
Roman numeral one Little I there says they have an absence of righteousness.
30:10
They can't stand before God and say listen, I'm righteous I've done all that you've asked they don't understand they lack spiritual insights
30:18
They're not seeking God. There are no seekers there. Well, there is one seeker, you know, if you want to seek her sensitive service
30:24
Need to be sensitive to God. He is the seeker Turning aside they seek other gods
30:34
Love it this week st. Claire Ferguson. I Was really really good and he says, oh you think you don't have you know, he's
30:42
Scottish So if I go into some mark foe Scottish accent, you know, please forgive me.
30:47
He says, you know, you think you don't have gods he says Almighty computer screen.
30:53
Oh Mighty Blackberry and he's you know, just carrying on and and he's right
30:59
He's right Not doing good
31:06
Listen if you're not doing if you're not performing perfectly the commandments of God, you're not doing good the summary the summary statement
31:14
Romans 3 23 says for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God There is a measure there is a measuring rod there is a standard
31:30
God's standard is perfection And you know you've heard this illustration before you know, it's like this will mean nothing to you
31:38
East Coasters, but let's go for it Anyway, you're standing you're standing in Malibu and you have to jump to Catalina, which is 26 miles
31:45
You get a running head start You're never gonna make it. I don't care how many times you jump
31:53
It's just not gonna happen. It's the same thing. We look at the perfection of God We see the standard of God and we get a running head start.
32:02
It's not it's just not gonna happen We're not gonna make it All are guilty all fall short all stand condemned because of sin point
32:15
B the effects the effects of Adams fall on all
32:22
Hmm might have to change that it sounds to rhyme any The effects of Adams fall on all
32:29
Romans 512. Let's look at Romans 512 Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin and So spread to all men because all sinned
32:50
Now let's just kind of take that apart a little bit Therefore just as through one man sin entered into the world.
32:57
Who's that one man? Adam and how did sin enter into the world through that one man
33:03
Adam because he sinned he disobeyed God he did what?
33:11
He ate of the fruit he was told not to eat up. Hi Tom. Hi Felicia. Just want to say Is this being recorded?
33:17
Okay? He ate of the fruit. He was told not to and what was the result of that? death
33:27
Death what kind of death? Spiritual and physical good
33:34
You had to think about it for a minute and so death spread to all men all men because all sinned every single person born into this world because of Adam sin has a
33:53
Sin nature we inherit from Adam our proclivity to sin now.
34:07
What if I said this? we believe That all men are responsible for their own sins and not for Adams transgression
34:17
What would you say? We believe that all men are Responsible for their own sins and not for Adams transgression.
34:29
I'll tell you what you should say What's that? We've all inherited our sin.
34:39
Yes, you should say that definitely We're still responsible for our own sins.
34:46
Yes Charlie We were all present in that and that's exactly right because you know what
34:52
I just quoted some of you may know That is from the Articles of Faith in the Mormon Church We believe that all but why would they say that?
35:03
Because they don't believe That all men are fallen in Adam They believe that we are born with a free will and so they take
35:13
Romans 512 and they get it give it some unnatural meaning All you have to do is just walk through it.
35:20
All men have sinned in Adam as Charlie was saying We are all responsible and here's the picture.
35:26
The picture is he is our To use some theological terminology. He is our federal head he is our representative and the idea being that if we were in the if we were in the
35:36
Garden of Eden we would have Done absolutely no better than Adam himself. Did he was our representative?
35:42
He fell and in him we all fell We're all born with a sin nature.
35:50
So we have slavery and inability not to sin we have a
35:57
Capacity for sin and only to sin let's look at Romans 6 since we're in Romans Man is a slave to sin
36:06
Romans 6 verses 15 and 22. It is pretty dramatic language
36:13
When we think about being a slave to sin verse 15
36:20
What then shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Well, we're certainly under grace, right so do we have the freedom of sin he says may it never be
36:32
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience?
36:38
Your slaves are the one whom you obey either of sin resulting in death or of obedience resulting in righteousness
36:46
And you might say well, that sounds like free will well listen verse 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin
36:54
Keep in mind the context he's just got through arguing in verse or in chapter 5 that we all fell in Adam that we're all
37:03
Born with a sin nature and here he says we were all slaves of sin you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed and Having been freed from sin.
37:16
You became slaves of righteousness. I Speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh for just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness resulting in further lawlessness so now
37:32
Present your members as slaves to righteousness resulting in sanctification verse 20 for when you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness in other words when you were a slave of Sin before salvation you had no obligation to righteousness
37:50
Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed
37:55
For the outcome of these things or those things is death But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification and the outcome eternal life
38:07
Here's the picture you were in bondage to sin. You were a slave you were Chained as it were by sin
38:15
Christ has set you free. And in fact, he says that when he has set you free you are
38:21
Free indeed, and he set you free from the power of sin
38:26
You are no longer a slave to sin, but Paul tells us you are a slave of righteousness
38:32
You are obligated to do what is right. You're obligated to follow Christ number two
38:43
Man has no ability to come to God No ability to come to God.
38:50
Let's look at John 6 44 it's a pretty shocking concept because you are a slave to sin
38:59
Yes Mm -hmm.
39:43
Yeah, let's let's just talk about that before good point Mike Because before you are saved
39:51
Can you? Obey God No, because Romans 11 or I'm sorry
39:57
Hebrews 11 would tell us without faith it is Impossible to please God you cannot obey him.
40:03
You don't have the capacity to do that after salvation You finally have an option
40:11
Are you going to sin? Yes until the day that you die in some way shape or form you are still going to sin
40:18
But you now have the capacity the ability to obey God to follow him
40:23
And that's what we are called to do Okay, he has no ability to come to God.
40:31
Let's look at John 6 44 now listen to this wording here
40:40
No one can come to me. This is Jesus speaking No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day
40:54
Now again, no one can no one has the capacity And if we were to look through this entire section,
41:03
I don't intend to do that this morning but look up at verse 37 all that the father gives me will come to me and The one who comes to me.
41:12
I will certainly not cast out Here's the picture and we could see it in other passages including Ephesians 1 in an eternity past the father chooses some people
41:23
He gives them to the Son and the Son says I will redeem all that you have given me
41:30
He died for them and the Spirit sanctifies them and it's all quite evident, but the point here the main one is
41:39
Man has no ability to come to God. No one can means no one can and I've said this a few times.
41:47
I read you know debating Calvinism by James White and Dave Hunt and Dave Hunt says well no one can
41:56
Doesn't mean that no one can it means everyone can and I'm just going
42:02
I don't see that and his his His rationale was this he says well
42:07
There are literally hundreds of scriptures that suggest we have the ability to choose and so John 644 can't mean no one can
42:17
You know, I had a seminary prof one time who said this he said listen Somebody was asking him that it was in the hallway.
42:23
It wasn't even a classroom. He said, you know Luke Uses this word here, but Paul uses it this way and you know
42:31
How do you reconcile those two and the professor looked at him and he said something that isn't that profound?
42:36
But it was profound at that time. He said listen, he says maybe you can do that You know skip around from author to author until you find the meaning you want.
42:44
I Can't do that. I have to understand everything within the content I mean, what do we say the primary rules of hermeneutics are?
42:52
Context context context you need to understand everything within the context because otherwise you don't get authorial intent
42:59
We can't know what John Intended here what Jesus said here if we're hop skipping and jumping around the scriptures going to the
43:08
Old Testament Choose you this day whom you will serve. Well, what does that have to do with no one can come to me?
43:16
Yes Yes, I mean
43:54
Yeah, I like to put it this way, you know Well, you know would God work against our will well, no, but he so inclines our will which is a nice way of saying
44:04
Changing our will he so inclines our will that is no longer the struggle that it once was He takes us from having no ability to come to the
44:12
Sun and he gives us that ability. He draws us he pulls us he drags us if you will, but it's not kicking and screaming anymore because he has given us a heart that is
44:25
Aware of our sinfulness a heart that longs to be forgiven and a heart that is open to Christ Charlie And I think that's a good point.
44:57
I think you know when we receive that new nature when we are regenerated Then our affections are transferred our affections change, you know the direction of our life, you know
45:07
What does it mean to repent means I'm walking this way and when I repent I'm walking that way
45:14
God changes people You know the idea that you can be saved and continue walking in the same direction not have any change in your life
45:21
That is not a biblical concept and we're gonna we're gonna look at that.
45:27
Yes, Mike and and yeah, what did
45:45
Jesus say? My yoke is Yeah, my yoke is easy.
45:51
My Lord is light. Yeah, and without a vision the people.
45:57
Oh, never mind. Okay All right, so man has no ability we have no independent ability before we're saved to come to God to choose
46:09
God as it Were let's look at number three met one another reason man is dead in trespasses and sins
46:17
Dead in trespasses and sins and maybe I mean this is just to me My wife worked she was the only volunteer
46:26
Janet was for the Martin Lloyd -Jones Trust for a while and You know, they would give out this free sermon and I listened to it
46:34
I thought you know, it's a pretty good sermon, but I don't think Martin Lloyd -Jones is all that so the The guy who was running the trust upon hearing that Gave me the next sermon in this series and you know,
46:47
Martin Lloyd -Jones He would say, you know would go a little something like this. I would invite you to open your
46:52
Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2 And he's very professorial in tone and actually that as I listen
47:00
I go wow, I sound like a dead ringer from Martin Lloyd -Jones But then he gets going
47:07
Look gold, you know, and he just and I'm listening and I'm boy. Let's Ephesians.
47:13
He he was a Serious preacher man is dead in trespasses and sins
47:18
Ephesians 2 verse 1 And by the way, Paul is not talking to one person. He's talking to every believer here
47:24
He says and you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked
47:31
According to the course of this world according to the Prince of the power of the air of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience
47:38
Among them we too all Formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature
47:47
Children of wrath even as the rest. What is Paul saying Paul saying simply this that before salvation?
47:55
Every single man woman and child did whatever they wanted. They did what was right in their own eyes
48:01
They had no care for God why because they were spiritually dead. They were spiritual zombies as it were walking around Dead dead to the things of God caring only for themselves for their own desires
48:15
And what do dead people if you if you ask a dead person what they would like to eat for dinner What do they say to you?
48:21
nothing Nothing Pastor Mike has people go over and preach to graveyards.
48:27
And what is the response? Nothing, we had no capacity but here and I'm gonna close with this the greatest two words in all the
48:40
Bible verse 4 but God Listen here is the course that every single one of you would have chosen for yourself because you were dead in your sins and trespasses
48:53
But God God had different plans. You had your own plan. You said, you know what?
48:58
I will go to hell. Thank you very much Because you didn't have a choice
49:06
Because you had no capacity to do it because you were born in sin You were dead in your sins and trespasses.
49:12
All you wanted to do was make yourself happy But God made you alive
49:20
Being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us Even when we were dead he emphasizes again in our transgressions
49:30
Made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved. That's grace You were dead.
49:37
You had no capacity to sell it to save yourself, but God Being rich in mercy saved you brought you to spiritual life
49:46
That is the truth of the gospel That it is all of God that God did it all that the effect on Adamsfall upon you
49:57
Adamsfall meant that we were all born alive Physically and born dead spiritually and we will continue this next week
50:08
Let's pray father.
50:13
What a marvel it is to think That you would take those who formerly hated you
50:20
Who were slaves to sin? slaves to their own desires
50:26
Dead to the things of God that you would give us spiritual life That we might flee to the cross not because of what we wanted but because of your mercy that you would open our eyes
50:38
To forgiveness that you would open our eyes to the cross That we might have new wills new desires new affections all by your design