Systematic Theology (part 32)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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Today, let me give you a little background. We're going to be talking about progressive sanctification

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What I say in the next two or three or four weeks will not be exhaustive But and it will be probably a reminder to a well -taught

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Church And BBC is a well -taught Church But we need to be reminded about the basis and means of progressive

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Sanctification that is our growing in Christ our Realizing what it means that we are predestined to be conformed to his image

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We need to be reminded of that often Because we are worksy people and I'll talk about that in a bit as we as we come to that.

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Let me move these Well, let me give you a little background about why we're going there as some of you know,

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I teach a Bible study to the Hardwick tribe on Sunday nights to the

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Hardwick Ian's and It's kind of a new tribes project. No, that's not right.

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If you're if you're from Hardwick Forgive me. All right Now we have folks in that Bible study from several churches from several towns

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It's not thousands. Okay And we've even had a lady that has come two or three times from Providence, Rhode Island and I I Kid myself that she has come for the scintillating teaching.

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But anyway She has we have folks that come from Spencer and a variety of churches some of them are

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Pretty mature are mature Christians who have been well taught some of them are

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Believers in the Lord, but they have not been well taught. In fact, they have they have in their pursuit of Christ likeness

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They have some of them have fallen into worksiness And we won't talk about that during these during these weeks

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We even have one dear lady That has come when she first came

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She had no idea what believer Was about at all and here's what we've been doing.

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I don't know if you're aware of this I don't mean to walk away from you guys, but you're sitting on the minority side

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And if my saying that causes you to want to scurry to a safe space Why don't you just fasten your seatbelt and get a life?

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Okay, that'd be Anyway She she's a lady in her 80s

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She came once and then the next time she came Her background is Roman Catholic.

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That's about par for the course in New England, of course The next time she came she came with a

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Bible brand -new Bible That she had bought which was the first Bible that she had ever owned in her life

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Okay During the last year actually more than a year we have been doing what new tribes missionaries do when they go to when they go to tribes

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In the case of new tribes missionaries They may go to a tribe Where the language has never been heard where it certainly has never been written where the culture and language have to be

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Learned and all of that. I was able to do that pretty quickly in Hardwick. Okay But for new drivers, it takes longer but the problem there is

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The Problem there is they get to places where the people will tell some of the people will tell them

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I think about the Palawanos in the Philippines When the first new driver got there, they said well, we're all

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Christians well, it was not more than about a day and a half or two then he realized they thought they were

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Christians because They came to meetings that were called they didn't chew as much beetle nut they didn't beat their wives as much and that so so what he concluded was that Somebody has come along given him

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John 3 16 said say the prayer now you're Christians and tribal folks will do that because no matter how

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Poorly you are supported as a missionary you are fabulously wealthy

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Compared to folks that have never Have never in a few cases ever seen anybody

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That has come from the outside. And so anyway, these guys did that. So this guy went home, man

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What am I going to do? And so what he finally concluded was After trying to start in Romans after doing gospel of Mark because it's short and fairly easy to translate and all of that After doing all of that he concluded

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I'm just going to start at the beginning and so we went to Genesis and started there and Ended up at Christ What he did that a lot of us don't do is he wrote down what he did

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That came to be known in new tribes mission as the chronological gospel

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If you are familiar with other mission boards up to 40 of them You will realize that that has become the standard operating procedure

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In delivering the gospel for many mission boards African -inland mission

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SIM Southern Baptist Convention all of that that began with a frustrated

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Australian new driver in the Philippines back in the early part of the 80s and And if we have time sometime

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I'll show you the video etal where you see this being done with tribal people now for the hardwickian tribe

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We just decided okay put aside all you know about Bible background and we're going to start at the beginning and we're going to go from in the beginning

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God Let there be light and all of that and we're going to end up over here at Christ And it is useful to do that even with people that have some

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Bible background And the reason it's useful is there are many people sitting in churches probably not so many and be at BBC but in many churches who cannot figure out if this

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God of the Old Testament is The same God of the

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New Testament and you will hear unbelievers complain about that regularly How is all this murder and mayhem and all the stuff that goes on in the

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Old Testament? How does that relate to? the New Testament And many of these folks in the

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Bible study that we began out there Did not understand that and so for that reason we had been doing that and by the way

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Let me say for those of you that may have that same confusion in your mind

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And What you find in the Old Testament is is one end of the word propitiation, you know what propitiation is, right?

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Propitiation is not just that Jesus died on the cross and he paid the legal price for my sin

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It is that he also took away the wrath of God in the process

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The illustration I usually use is about my 17 year old Dodge Durango Okay, good old truck

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Only has 60 ,000 miles on it. I pull my trailer with it. I like it.

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Okay But if I'm driving my Dodge Durango down the road and you t -bone me with your dump truck

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Okay, my Durango is gonna be totaled and you know what the insurance company is gonna say 17 year old

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Dodge Durango. Well, we think that's worth We think that's worth a couple thousand dollars and So they'll give me a check for $2 ,000.

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Now. Let me ask you a question What can you do with $2 ,000 to get wheels in?

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2016 nothing That's what you can do. And so now

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I have been paid the legal price. Have I not? Yes, I have

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That's not propitiation. That's expiation The legal price has been paid and that happened at the cross concerning my sin

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But while I have been expiated by the insurance company, I have not been propitiated

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Because I am sitting over here in the corner Without wheels Still burning at you for hitting me with your dump truck

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And I can't and I do not have the means to solve the problem However, you could propitiate me you could say

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Bob Let's go up to Salvador Chrysler in Gardner I Will buy you a brand new

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Dodge Ram 2 ,500 with the diesel engine in it and the whole nine yards, okay

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And I would say okay, let's go do that. And you know what between here and Gardner my anger

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Would be assuaged it would go right down and when I drove out of there and that brand new

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Dodge Ram 2 ,500 with the diesel engine and all that I wouldn't be angry at you at all.

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Not at all. I Would have been propitiated Now you say what does that have to do with the cross?

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It has this to do with the cross when you read the Old Testament and You read about all of the things that went on Particularly in the conquest of Canaan well at the flood

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Say how big is the wrath of God about sin killed everybody, but eight people in the world wants over it

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That's pretty that's pretty wrathful. That's pretty angry okay, and Then we have the conquest of Canaan and we have orders to go in kill everything all the animals all the kids all the women

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All the children and we're going. Oh my heads exploding How can this be and so on what it is is an illustration of the wrath of God?

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We get to the exile Guys are going to be tied up in Jerusalem while the siege goes on you're going to eat each other

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You're going to eat your kid. Oh, no, how can this be? How can God permit all of that to happen?

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It is an illustration of the wrath of God at sin at the cross

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All of that that so makes our heads explode in the Old Testament Was poured out on Jesus and so when we read the

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New Testament We do not find all of that same

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God We would have no in America. We can have no idea about the wrath of God because we have no sin in this country

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We don't we have we have hang -ups we have boo -boos a few of us are neurotic a few are psychotic okay, and we have troubles and we and we need safe spaces and crayons and play -doh and And some of those things if anybody should say anything that would

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Cause us to be fearful, okay we need those things, but we don't have sin and So we don't we don't understand the wrath of God But that propitiation was made at the cross.

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So John writes doesn't he I Write this so that nobody sins, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the

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Father Jesus Christ the righteous Who is the propitiation for our sin?

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He has not only paid the legal price He has borne the anger

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When Paul writes to the Romans having been justified by faith, we have peace with God Here's how

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Americans translate that we have peace with God having been justified by faith. We have peace of God Waves of peace weep over me.

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I think I am in a safe space Nobody is saying anything that upsets me

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There is nothing to upset waves of ecstasy and peace we that isn't what that means

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What that means is we have peace with God meaning God is not out to kill you anymore

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We are no longer at war with God so when you deliver the gospel from Genesis to Jesus as they do in the tribes and As we did in Hardwick When you do that Then we understand all about the wrath of God over here in the

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Old Testament We also understand about the promise of a Messiah We understand about all the looking forward to the redemption of people and all of that Okay, and so when we get to Jesus over here

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Everybody understands why he came what the necessity is for his presence and so on all of that takes a year to do that in The tribes they do it this way.

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They teach three months for five days a week Twice a day and you get it done in less than a year that way

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Doesn't work quite like that in Hardwick Anyway, we had a chance to speak to this dear lady after she had just come a few weeks

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In the conversation other man, and I were talking with her the conversation got around like this

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Wow Look if you were to die tonight and stand before God and He was to say why should

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I let you into my heaven? What would you say? Her answer was

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Pretty typical American folk theology well She was thoughtful She said

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I would say I Would say I've been a good kid

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We went well That might be what you say, and we didn't say oh, no, that's wrong bear

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You know and so on but we understand that she did not understand anything about salvation but several

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Weeks later really a couple two or three months later. We were walking away, and she has come faithfully

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We were walking away After the Bible study, and I was walking beside her and I I asked her

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I said well Are you believing and she said absolutely? Absolutely and Her understanding of what she believes has come from the scriptures

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And that was of course that was a great blessing for us to hear you said what does all that have to do with progressive?

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Sanctification well it has this to do We have folks that now have understood the gospel

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Genesis to Jesus okay, I have believed I'm a believer in Christ.

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I have learned that I am predestined to be conformed to his image We talk about Christian maturity we talk about growing in Christ and all of that But I am a believer now.

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I have been justified All right, they even know what justified is about when you go from Genesis to Jesus all right

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My sin has been credited to Christ's account his righteousness has been credited to my account.

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I'm to grow in Christ Now what? How am

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I to proceed if I'm given 70 years or so on the planet That's that was a statement for you young guys

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Some of us have already used that up all right If I'm given 70 years or so on the planet, and I am a

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Christian. How am I to proceed? And Here's where the danger comes of falling into works in us

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And so we have begun to talk about how do I proceed? To grow in Christ well when for deep and I were talking and and I said

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I could give him a break I thought well, that's what I'll do So I'll just talk to you like I talked to the hard Wiccans, okay?

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And we'll and we'll go from there But I want to build that from the scriptures

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Okay, and it'll take me more than today to do that. Yeah, so let's have a word of prayer before we get going here

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Heavenly Father we pray now as we come to your word as we come to the matter of growing in Christ We pray that you would inform us encourage us

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And then challenge us To do the things that are effective necessary In order to in order to grow in Christ to find ourselves being conformed to his image the becoming mature

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We pray that you would by your Holy Spirit bear us along as you bore along the prophets of old in The word that you have inspired and in the word which you illumine to our hearts

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We pray that that Jesus might be glorified in our lives Monday through Saturday until we meet together here again

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Around your word. It's in his name. We pray this morning Amen Now I have a handout, okay?

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This handout is four pages four pages I can't even I Can't even keep these one -pagers more than a week they end up on the floor of the car and every place else

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We don't want to give out four pagers every Sunday for a couple of reasons as you know

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Computer people that are in the printer business are not actually in the printer business. They're in the ink business and So we don't want to be copying these over and over again, and I have given out four pages because at some point down the

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Road when you're feeling like you are and sensing that you are not being conformed to the image of Christ this week

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You might go back to some of this stuff and look at it again So maybe it's a little

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I don't want to call it a how -to manual because it's not exhaustive But it will take you through what we have talked about All right

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Well, let's talk about And so what I'm saying is bring this back

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Hang on to it The next I think falling the next if they have to have a second one those are five bucks a piece, right?

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Something like that, okay so anyway Hang on to it

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Because we're going to need it over the next two three four weeks. However long this takes so let's talk about the whole business of Sanctification all right

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Sanctification has two ends One of them is and the word sanctify simply means its equivalent is holy

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Okay, it means to be set aside All of the hardware in the tabernacle all of the hardware in the temple

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Even the stuff that was used to shovel up ashes and carry blood and all of that stuff all of those dishes are

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Said to be sanctified He said sanctified. I thought that was some

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Superannuated Spirituality that Christians are supposed to have none. Oh, it means they have been set aside for a particular purpose

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And you'll recall that even up to the exile when those utensils were carried off into Babylon that They came back

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Finally to Jerusalem and the Babylonians were destroyed why because the Babylonians had taken those

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Utensils which were set aside for God's purpose which were sanctified which were said to be holy okay, and some of them were probably just pot metal and They were used for very mean things and that worship the sacrificial worship of the tabernacle and the temple

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But they were sanctified So I would call that positional

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Sanctification when you and I came to Christ and we trusted him as Savior we were sanctified

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We were set apart from the rest of the world and That cannot change

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No matter what your behavior is tomorrow and the next day and the next day until we meet back here together

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You remain all week no matter how bad the week goes you remain sanctified

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You are set aside You are God's own possession and that cannot change

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But then there is the matter that we're going to discuss over the next few weeks the matter of progressive sanctification

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We talked about that Progressive sanctification means

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I am being more sanctified I am being more holy my behavior is changing in some way or other and if you're saying that sounds oxymoronic

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You're correct How can I be no more sanctified at any time this week than I already am and Yet at the same time have a whole discussion about being more sanctified

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The nexus of those two things the intersection of those two things comes together in one of my favorite verses

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I assume that pastor Mike is going to get to it, but I'll give it to you this morning because it's clear over in Hebrews chapter 10 and Perhaps we'll even have the funeral before he gets there and I will not be able to give you this.

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All right Hebrews chapter 10 verse 14 this amazing verse He has made perfect forever

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Got that he has made perfect forever if I were to ask you this morning And by the way, if you have questions or comments stick your hand up I'm not as good as some of these other teachers that Asking the probing question.

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Okay, I tend to just run on and so if you need to stick your hand up and go whoa

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Then by all means do it Okay He has made perfect forever

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That's a perfect tense verb in a passive voice For you

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Greek scholars and that means somebody else has done this Something happened here the results of it continue on infinitely toward eternity

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Okay, and that is the perfection that I have been made when I came to Christ All right, and so there we have in the beginning of that verse positional sanctification

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He has made perfect forever now watch this in a striking

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Verb tense change which is missed by some I don't know what the ESV says

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So I'm going to give you the 1984 NIV. Okay, which I think is the best translation

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He has made perfect forever those Who are being made holy?

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It's a present participle, that's why they translate being made holy

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Okay, so so there's the intersection of the two things positional sanctification and Experiential sanctification now, here's a working definition, which is not in the handout.

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You may have to scribble on the handout, but that's all right Progressive sanctification is

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Is a lifetime of learning and adjusting to what

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God says I am Okay.

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Now we read things like this If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation Old things are passed away

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Behold all things become new if I were to ask you this question, you'd have to raise your hand about this

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If I were to ask you this question can the new life in Christ that I have obtained by grace alone

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Through faith alone, okay Can that new life in Christ is it capable of sin my experience says absolutely

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If you know what I say sometimes if you know what I think sometimes if you know what I do

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Sometimes if you know what I don't do sometimes when I should It's quite plain to look at me that apparently even though I'm a

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Christian this new life in Christ Still is blood plagued by sin

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The answer to that which we're not going to get into here is in Romans chapter 7, but the answer to it basically is no

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He has made perfect forever Those who are being made holy when you talk about your experience

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That's the being made holy part and it goes on day by day But it goes on from a position of perfection

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That new creation in Christ is not capable of sin It does not sin.

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I'm not teaching sinless perfection here. Okay? I'm just saying that what we have in Christ what we are in Christ that new life that has been given to us is

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Perfect forever perfect perfect you get it Even though In the during the week my experience does not look like that.

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Okay now in order to consider Progressive sanctification, we got to locate ourselves correctly

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Okay. The reason we have to locate ourselves correctly is that we are work see people

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And by that I mean we will always revert Left to ourselves cut loose from the word

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We will always revert to works And that's why there are only two religions in the world

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One of them goes by a thousand names but it essentially is salvation by works

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Doesn't matter what it is. Doesn't matter whether it's some of the standard religions

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Hinduism Buddhism Islam whatever there's a certain kind of muggish that you have to do and if you do the muggish right and enough of it and All of that then you will be accepted by whatever the conception of God in that religion is

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Even if it's American folk religion. Well, I gaze at crystals and I feel so spiritual and That's the muggish you have to do in order to find acceptance with God.

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All right The other religion, of course is salvation by grace

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Grace alone faith alone Christ alone the scriptures alone Your part in it is to receive what

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God has done You can contribute nothing by your effort

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Nevertheless once we come to Christ Then we have this impulse Okay, now

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I'm gonna be a good Christian You may have read the end of Galatians the fruit of the Spirit is love joy.

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Peace patience goodness kindness all of those things All right And you go, okay,

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I get it tomorrow Tomorrow I'm gonna be loving And anybody that says

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I'm not loving tomorrow. We'll find out how wrong they are because I'm gonna be loving tomorrow

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You will absolutely not be loving tomorrow Okay, if you attempt to be loving by that so we got to get ourselves located properly in that first sheet on this handout

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Give some slides Some Of you may be sitting there thinking oh my goodness

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This looks like trichotomy Or this looks like tri part tightness and so on So I don't know whether you're a bipartite er or a tri part tighter.

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It doesn't matter. You say what? That's how you look at the nature of man okay, and There's a considerable discussion about that in seminaries

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It's whether man is a body and a soul Or whether man is a body a soul and a spirit

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All of that the the actual fact of the matter is the Bible speaks of both things

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Sometimes it's plain that we can distinguish between our body and the immaterial part of us, okay

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That's not too tough for anybody But when when the Bible speaks of the immaterial part of us the invisible part of us the part of us that is not material sometimes it distinct distinguishes between The soul the spirit the heart and all of those things.

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All right, but sometimes it distinguishes those things quite plainly as Separate things.

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I do not like the term by the way for you that have discussed this in seminary.

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I And I have not so I have not used this term. All right, I do not like trichotomy and Bicotomy, okay

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Cotomy that that root of that word is to cut you cannot You cannot take a human being and say okay.

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Here's a body. Here's a soul. Here's a spirit Can't do that Man is a unity

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Now those that see a distinction between the soul the spirit and the body Which the

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Bible sometimes does they say well, there's good reasons for that for one thing

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God is a unity that exists in three persons And so if man is looked at that way as the

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Bible sometimes looks at man If man is looked at that way, it's reflective of the

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Trinity I don't have a complaint about that But the Bible doesn't always the

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Bible doesn't always talk in those terms Now, why is this significant? This business about man and his spirit

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And let me go to some places in Scripture, this is not exhaustive, okay

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Some places in Scripture Where the Bible seems to distinguish between the spirit and the soul and almost every commentator from the church fathers on Says something like this the spirit of man

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Seems to be the higher level of the immaterial Than the soul the soul in fact the

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Bible sometimes uses the term soul ishness to indicate the sinfulness of man All right

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The soul seems to be something else where the Bible distinguishes between those things

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And what I'm going to do is we position ourselves here to begin the discussion of progressive sanctification

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I'm going to talk to you as if we are always distinguishing between the soul and the spirit

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Okay, and I distinguish those things where the Bible does here are some places. I Okay Dr.

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Ryrie, for example Absolutely doesn't believe this Says it flat out

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Okay But dr. Ryrie is not here. Okay. I am and so that's what you're gonna hear.

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All right The other thing the other thing I think dr. Ryrie maybe is really not here, right?

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Think he might be dead so anyway Anyway, Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 these familiar words and the

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Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature

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And what I'm going to tell you is there is a thread that connects the words for spirit and breath and wind and Air moving and all of that you say why why are all those things hooked together?

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Because the words in the Old Testament and the new That are translated by those terms the wind the spirit the breath and so on That's all the same word in the

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New Testament. It's new ma Okay So God so God forms the man of dust to the ground breeze into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living

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Creature dr. Ryrie would say that just means man got animated Means, uh, you know, he jumped up and ran around and was adamant the thing

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I would point out to dr Ryrie and others I guess is that such a thing is never intimated about any of the animals who are already running around Okay, and so there seems to be something

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Special about the idea that God breathed into Adam What is called the breath of life and I understand at the flood everything with the breath of life was killed and so on I got that.

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Okay, but he breathed into Adam The breath of life and the man became now watch this a living.

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Can I add this? spiritual creature Okay Human beings are the only beings on the earth

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That have a spiritual side to them that have a side to them that looks to God That seeks

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God that finds a big empty place when they are estranged from God All right, you say well

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That's not necessarily definitive. Let me give you some other things Job chapter 27 Job's the oldest book in the

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Bible Job Job predates the writing of the five books of Moses which described creation

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And here's what Job says at chapter 27 verse 3 As long as my breath is in me.

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She's saying I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna curse God in essence I'm gonna maintain my righteousness as long as my breath is in me and the

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Spirit of God is in my nostrils I'm gonna you see there seems to be a distinction there and there seems to be a connection there

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Between God breathed into Adam the breath of life Job talks about that at 32 80 says

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But it is the Spirit in man the breath of the Almighty that makes him understand at Isaiah Thus says

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God the Lord who created the heavens stretched them out who spread out the earth. This is 42 5 and what comes from it who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it got it

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He gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it All right

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Isaiah 57 I will not contend forever nor will I always be angry for the spirit in man

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Would grow faint before me and the breath of life that I made there seems to be a connection between the breath of God and the

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Spirit of Man Which is the essential? The essential connection to God what is

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John chapter 4 verse 24 say? John 4 24 says God is spirit they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in Truth all right, and so there is a spirit to spirit connection between human beings and God Let me skip some of this for time's sake we'll never get out of here by 1230 if I don't all right

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The famous interview with John with Nicodemus in John chapter 3

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Nicodemus Jesus says to Nicodemus that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit

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Did not marvel that I said you must be born again the wind blows where we've got that the wind that new ma

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Same word again blows where it wishes and you hear it sound But you do not know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born of the new ma

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Of the spirit the words are the same the words are the same Okay And then at John chapter 20 this

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Significant and may I say and as I think back to the creation God takes

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Adam make some of the dust of the ground Lift some up Breeze into him the breath of life and Adam became a living and I say

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Spiritual creature as opposed say to our Fox terrier, okay? She hasn't had a thought about God that I could discern

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Ever all right Because she's different than a human being cute, but different all right

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So so now we go all the way from creation Genesis to Jesus Okay, and at John chapter 20 after Jesus is resurrected.

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I read this Jesus said to them This is a this he's with the the

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Apostles the disciples at this point. He is the resurrected Christ In about ten days from this point in about ten days.

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We will we will see the beginning of the church at Pentecost Jesus said to them again peace be with you as the

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Father has sent me even so I am sending you and When he had said this

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He breathed on them new ma, okay, and Said to them receive the

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Holy Spirit new ma you get it. It's it's the creation is ruined by sin but when

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Jesus comes and He redeems mankind The restoration is seen there's a little foretaste of the

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Holy Spirit coming to the church right there so he breathes on them and Said receive the

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Holy Spirit Paul writes to the Romans if Christ is in you verses. This is 8 10 although the body is dead because of sin

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Those of us that have exceeded the three score and ten Understand about bodies being dead because of sin

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Better than those of you who are still indestructible all right The body is dead because of sin

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The spirit is alive because of righteousness Even those of you that are holding a translation that has capital s spirit, which makes no sense

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We'll have a footnote that says or spirit is alive Probably at the bottom of that translation at Romans 8 16 the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit

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That we are children of God not with my mind certainly not with my emotions Okay, and and not with my decisions my will

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My mind or my will or my emotions but the spirit Bears witness with my spirit says the scriptures that I am a child of God Paul Ending his letter to the

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Thessalonians says now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely sanctify you completely

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Okay that you'll realize what being set apart being made perfect forever is all about and may your whole

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Spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ Seems like there's a distinction between the spirit and the soul there

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Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12 a familiar passage Mike will come to that Soon, no doubt

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Okay, the Word of God is living and active sharper than any two -edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow and Discerning the thoughts and intention of the heart there seems to be a distinction between soul and spirit 2nd

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Peter chapter 1 verse 20 and 21 Knowing this first of all no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation

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For no prophecy it was ever produced by the will of man But men spoke from God as they were carried along born along is a better translation by the

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Holy Spirit Say why is that a better translation? When it says that these these prophets were born along by the

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Holy Spirit The word that is there translated carried or born along Is a word that's used over in Acts chapter 27.

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It's the only other time. It's used in the New Testament in Acts chapter 27 Paul is in the ship that is going aground and that is going to be wrecked and Twice in that chapter as I recall it says that ship was driven along by the wind and it was driven across the

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Adriatic Sea and So there's a picture here at 2nd

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Peter chapter 1 and it is this The prophets of old are Carried along as a ship is carried along before the wind before the pneuma

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I think that word that is here translated carried or born is used just three times in the

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New Testament twice in Acts once here Okay, and because it is born along By the

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Holy Spirit God at wind bears the ship along the prophets of old were born along By what by the pneuma?

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Now we got to get out of here So let me just say what you see if you're sitting there thinking why is this guy belaboring that?

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Look at the first slide upper left -hand corner, and this is where we'll end

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As I practice the bailout school of homiletics, I'm bailing out after this all right

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I Have a diagram there of Adam Before he fell into sin

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Adam was created innocent He was not created sinless. He was created innocent

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That's another discussion The diagram for God is of course the triangle

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Because Adam had not yet sinned He had a connection to God which was spirit to spirit

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It was kind of like his spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am

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God's child Okay, Adam knew that God is spirit they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth so the connection between Adam and God at the beginning

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Is a spirit to spirit connection? Adam has a soul now.

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I define the soul sort of like this It's your mind your will

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Your emotions I Assigned those when we're distinguishing between spirit and soul, and we don't always do that don't get excited all right

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But when we distinguish between spirit and soul I would I would categorize the soul part as your mind your will your emotions, so God communicates with Adam spirit to spirit

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He says things like this to Adam spirit to spirit go name all the animals Tend the garden have dominion over the garden okay, and Adam Gets that in his mind

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His will says okay. I will do that and he does that I presume happily

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And skillfully because he does that and then hit with his body

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He walks over to name all the animals to tend the garden to have dominion over it

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And all of that So you get that that's why Paul says to the Thessalonians.

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I pray that your whole spirit and soul and body We always say body soul and spirit because we are all concentrating on our body

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We are all familiar with the appetites of our body. I'm hungry. I need this I need that I'm cold.

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I'm hot I got to figure it out that way when we get all of that information from our body then our will

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Bends to the appetites of our body, that's not things were at the beginning Adam got all his information from the top down from God who is spirit through his spirit and Carried those things out with his body.

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That's Adam before he fell into sin Look at the second slide next one down and I am watching the clock doesn't actually matter, but I am watching it.

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All right And when Adam sinned He died spiritually right then

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That spiritual connection between God and Adam was broken. You can see it there in that slide in the diagram and So Adam is left with a mind a will and emotion when

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Adam sinned. He didn't lose his mind He didn't lose his ability to make decisions He didn't lose his ability to be upset with his kids

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Or to love his wife or any of that sort of thing his emotions he didn't lose those things but those things became informed then by all that's left and All that's left is a body with all its appetites passions and all the rest

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Okay So I'm going to leave it there this morning. We'll pick it up next week We're going to leave it there.

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Adam has perfect connection to God spiritually But when he sins that connection is broken and so Adam is left with an

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I would say this in Reformer terms, I guess with an unregenerate mind and unregenerate emotions and an

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Unregenerate will and he basically is at the mercy of the appetites of his body

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Okay I'm gonna leave the rest. Don't throw these down on the floor of the car

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And not bring them back next week Because we're gonna pick it up there next week

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Okay now This is neither exhaustive or complete, but if you have questions or comments, go ahead.

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Yes, ma 'am Works and grace grace, right

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Mostly works Okay, if you're in if you're in the

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Mormon cult, for example You can you can gain? Worthiness, that's what it's called there.

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You can gain worthiness by Marrying more wives in the temple by being baptized in the temple by being you know

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That's just their list of works Okay, if you're in the Jehovah Witness cult

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There's another list of works which finds some of them on your doorstep on Saturday morning

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It's a list of works if you're in Roman Catholicism. There are the

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Sacraments that must be done Okay, it's always works. I do

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God pays off You know in the words of an old song God is the cosmic vending machine.

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I put in the nickel and he makes the scene That's how the works thing goes, okay

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But that doesn't get you salvation grace alone faith alone

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Christ alone scriptures alone That's the only way to be saved and what part do we have in that?

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nothing Except to receive it. Okay anything else quickly

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Good let's pray Lord we pray That you would cause us to value the fact that you have made us perfect forever

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We admit to you that that is an incredible mind -blowing Idea it is nevertheless what you say

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That you have made us perfect forever but tomorrow When we start out the day we are learning to look like what that says

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And we pray that tomorrow and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday We pray that we may experience what it means to be made holy

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Even though we start out from a position of perfection We pray you'd teach us that Lord We pray that you would help us to experience that We Ask it that Jesus would be glorified and that others would see him because we are present