Calvinism Sermon: Unconditional Election (Part 3 in series)

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Calvinism Sermon: God Saves. Not Man. (Part 4 in series)

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You can open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1,

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Ephesians chapter 1. This is one of those premier passages in the

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Scriptures that cuts against much of our human tradition and philosophy, many of the things that we build up in terms of how we think

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God should do what He does. This is one of those passages that many times

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Christians come to and they get a feeling they can understand so much of what the

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Scriptures say, there's so much clarity, and the Bible says that. The Word of God is able to make wise the simple.

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The Bible is clear. There's the perspicuity of Scripture, we call it. It's clear. Yet there are passages, of course, that Peter says are hard to understand in the

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Scriptures, deep things that take time. You have to work through and think hard and apply what you know about the

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Scriptures. And Ephesians chapter 1 is one of those passages that many times Christians, with a basic understanding of what the

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Bible teaches in many respects, they'll approach Ephesians 1 and it'll turn into gobbledygook, gibberish, because it cuts against so much of what we think about our own condition, the grace of God, the sovereignty of God.

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And so we're going to start today our study of the sovereign grace of God and salvation by reading

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Ephesians chapter 1. Hear now the words of the living and true God, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the

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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

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In love, He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace with which

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He has blessed us in the beloved. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which

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He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which

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He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and on earth.

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In Him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

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In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised

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Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory.

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Amen. That's huge. As far as the reading of God's Word, let's pray.

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Father, help me, Lord, help me to speak to Your people.

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Help me, God, to open Your words and present

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Your truth to Your people in such a way as that it causes us to love

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You deeply. It causes us, Lord, to worship You, to be before You in awe.

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Help us, God, to understand Your Word through Your Spirit in such a way that it transforms us, that it causes us to fall on our knees, that we have moments of being breathless.

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Lord, help us to understand Your grace for what it really is, unmerited favor, undeserved, nothing in us.

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Help us, God, to be humbled by Your work in the cross.

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Please work through this jar of clay to make so much of Jesus and so little of me and us.

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Bless God through the work of Your Spirit and the power of Your Word. Change us.

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Use us. In Jesus' name, amen. Ephesians chapter 1, how powerful is that passage?

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How do you get around it? How do you walk away from Ephesians chapter 1 and not see the sovereignty of God in salvation?

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How do you walk away from Ephesians 1 and come away with anything other than the sovereign will and grace of God?

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How do you walk away from Ephesians chapter 1 unchanged as a Christian? How do you walk with Jesus and have weak legs, be out of strength, and come to Ephesians 1 and not be refreshed by it?

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We have to see in Ephesians 1 just the glory of God, the strength of God, the power of God, the love of God, the mercy of God.

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There are passages throughout the Bible that tell us honestly terrifying things about God.

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There are. There are passages that tell us things about God that are terrifying. That God is the consuming fire, that God is the judge of all the earth and He will always do right.

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We see passages that speak about the holiness of God. You can think back to Isaiah's experience where he gets this glimpse of the holiness of God in Isaiah chapter 6.

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It's the angels now before God's throne and they're saying, holy, holy, holy.

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And Isaiah gets this immediate revelation about his own sin. He's just aware immediately the presence of God.

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It's not how some people describe their experience before the throne of God as people write books about I went to heaven for seven minutes or I went to heaven and met

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Elvis and Jesus or whatever the case may be. Whatever the strange book and I had this out -of -body experience where I went to heaven and saw

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God and I'm just chilling with Jesus, like kind of weird experiences. Isaiah's like seeing this vision of God and his first response isn't to hang out with his broseph, right?

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It's not how it's handled by the people that actually get to face the glory of God.

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His first response with the holiness of God is to be aware immediately of his own sin, his own unworthiness.

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And what does he do? He said immediately, he's covering his mouth and he's aware of his own foul nature and he says,

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I'm a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean lips. He says, woe is me.

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I'm undone. It's literally describing, I'm unraveling,

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I'm coming apart at the seams, I'm busted apart with the holiness of God.

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That's Isaiah, right? That's terrifying, granted. People say, you know, you should fear

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God because the Bible teaches that. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

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You need to fear God. You should have a healthy fear, a righteous and godly fear of God.

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Not a fear of God in the sense of he's uncontrollable, he's the kind of person that has a temper that flares and so you should be afraid of him because he's sort of volatile.

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Not that kind of fear. The fear of God that a creature ought to have of this God. People today, oftentimes in our culture, they always say, no, you shouldn't treat

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God like that. Like, Jesus is wearing like the wedding dress. He's like the baby

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Jesus, soft, meek, and mild, right? You don't need to be afraid of this God. But that's such a perversion, it's twisted because, yes, you ought to have a fear of God.

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There are things about God that are terrifying. Sinners before a holy God, that's terrifying.

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When the great awakening happened and Jonathan Edwards preaches this famous message, sinners in the hands of an angry

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God, he was highlighting those aspects of our nature and our relationship with God and God's own nature that ought to cause fear, godly fear, the kind of fear that causes introspection, that you look inside yourself and you say, okay, now where am

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I with him? How am I with him? Do I know him?

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Do I have peace with him? Am I forgiven? Am I reconciled to God? Like those things are good to think about, but there's passages you look through in the

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Bible and you see that causes godly fear. I don't think that this is one of those passages for Christians, the saints, that causes that kind of trepidation and fear before God.

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It's a passage that should lift you up and really allow you to shake loose all of the human, unrighteous, ungodly, not grounded in the

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Bible fears, the kind of fears you have about the future that you ought not have as a

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Christian, the kind of anxieties that you embrace as a Christian. This passage ought to remove that from you because what do you see in this passage?

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This God who loves the unworthy so much that before the world began knowing all about you when he did it, he chose to lavish his love upon you.

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That's before the world started. That's before all your problems, before all the brokenness, before all your failures, all your stumbling, all your face plants, before the world began,

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God knowing your past, present and future, he chose to actually give you his grace.

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To do what? To make much of you? No. What's it say?

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What's the purpose of this predestining, this choosing before the foundation of the world? It's this adoption that God gives to us as sons.

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He brings us into his family and what is it for? What does the text say? What is it actually for?

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Look at the end of verse 14, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it?

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To the praise of his glory. There's the ending of all this salvation to the praise of his glory, but the amazing thing in the text itself is this predestining, this grace of God is ultimately to the praise of his glorious grace.

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Why does God save you and me? Is it to make you the centerpiece of the whole story?

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Oftentimes you hear preachers today saying that sort of a thing on television and I get the, I understand why.

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Like I get it, the reasoning behind why is you want to show people that they're not worthless, that they're image of God, that they're valuable in God's eyes.

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And all that's true, but people turn the cross and salvation, this whole entire story, instead of making it about God and his glory and his grace and making

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God the one who can boast in all of this, you hear people today saying things like, well, the reason

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Jesus saved you is because he saw how valuable you were. You hear it preached like that.

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I heard a man the other day, a famous guy today, I won't mention his name, lots of dreadlocks. He's popular and he's just in so many circles today like, oh, this guy says so much, it's so uplifting.

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I'm like, yeah, it's encouraging, it's all about you. Jesus died because you're so valuable.

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Jesus saw in you just how wonderful and beautiful and amazing you were and he said, this is how much

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I need you, I'll die for you. When in reality, you know what? While that sounds on the surface so amazing and valuable and yes, and God saw in me something that he wanted to purchase because he needed me, while that seems on the surface so glorious and so big, the story is so much better than that.

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Take it in. It's so much better than that. It's bigger than that. It's fuller than that. What's the story?

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It's that you are a wretch, a wreck, you're broken, you are, before God, an enemy.

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See it's bigger. It's not that God saw you and thought, oh, so valuable and loves me so much and I really need that in my life and God's somehow lacking.

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No, if God were to look through time and learn something, he doesn't, by the way, but if he were to look through time to learn something and to see your life and my life, he would see a rebel.

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He would see an enemy. He would see somebody that's so diametrically opposed to God and his ways that you're as far as you can possibly be, fallen short of the glory of God.

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And here's the real story. Yes, you're valuable, image of God. You have dignity and value and purpose and it's so much bigger than we give it in our culture, but it's really bigger than this.

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It's God took an enemy and he made that enemy his son, his daughter.

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Some of you guys, listen, I say this a lot, right? Like some people say, I was raised in a

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Christian home and I don't have one of those really powerful testimonies, right? Like my testimony kind of stinks.

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Like I was just raised in a Christian home, I was saved when I was like four and I don't have like a drug story and I didn't go to jail and so I hear some of these stories and I'm like,

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I kind of want a story like that. I'm like, no, no, right? Like that's so much love that God preserved you, right?

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People say that, like I want that great, amazing story. It's a display of God's love and grace and compassion in your life that he takes you at this young age and he pours his mercy and grace on you and he protects you from yourself.

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That's amazing. But for those of you guys that do have a story where God in his grace chose a time later in your life where he comes to you in the midst of like this awful rebellion and brokenness, you know, you know, you know where your mind was.

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You know how utterly depraved you were. You know the dark rooms that you were in, the things you were putting into your arms.

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You know the kind of person that you were. You know that where your pursuits were. You know how much darkness and loneliness and hurt was in that place and God saw you in your mess and you heard the story of good news and salvation.

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You heard it and you thought, how could that God love me so much? And you turned to Christ and you believed and your heart was changed and all of that.

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You know what it's like to be a foul enemy and all of a sudden turn into a son of God.

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You know what it's like. But the truth is, is that wherever you were at, whether you were raised in a

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Christian home and heard the grace of God and the gospel and you turned to Christ early or if you were in your mess, an enemy of God and turned to Christ, wherever you are, this is the real story.

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Before the world began, God saw this lot of sinners and He chose to make

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His grace the centerpiece of His praise. That He'd take people who don't love

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Him, who wouldn't love Him, who refuse Him. He took those people and He loved them.

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He gave them what they needed for reconciliation and peace. Jesus wasn't dying for people who wanted

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Him. Jesus died for people and absorbed and exhausted the wrath of God on behalf of people who did not want

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Him, non -God seekers, people who are opposed to God.

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And listen, if you read Ephesians 1 as a Christian and you're not changed by it, don't read anything else until you are.

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Don't. Ephesians 1, place it on the tablet of your heart, put it in there, let it change you because that's the grace of God.

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And listen, and why do this study? Listen, why do the study on the doctrines of grace? It's so controversial.

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You clear out your parking lot, clear out your churches. Visitors come in and they're like, oh, Calvinism, good grief, right?

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Why do it? Why risk it? The answer, we've talked about over the last couple of weeks, we choose to risk reputation, to risk offense for the sake of the gospel of grace.

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Because if you get this wrong, if you get God's grace wrong, if you get His sovereignty wrong, you wreck grace.

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You distort the Scriptures. And if you get grace wrong and sin wrong and our condition wrong, then you are no different than all the man -made religious attempts to explain sin and grace in all the world.

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All the cults, all the religions, all the isms. Listen, they may have different gods, different religious texts, but listen, they have fundamentally the same understanding of the nature of fallen human beings.

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You know what it is? Sinners, yes, but not so sinful. Dead in sins and trespasses, well, yeah, it says that, but what it really means is, is that you're a sinner.

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But can you cooperate with God? Sure. And God and His sovereignty, He would never manipulate your free will.

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You see, you have to some way, with your free will choices, you know, you have to come to God a certain way, do certain rituals, do certain things to sort of work your way through till you finally get to the grace of God.

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God has to see something in you. There must be some activity where God can say, okay, now I'll give you the grace.

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Now I'll give you the reconciliation. You see, the God of the Bible is so much bigger. Nothing in you drew you or God to you.

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Nothing in your hands you brought to God where God said, okay, now we're okay. It's a

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God who loves rebels, and it doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense.

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Humanly speaking, you can't make this up. You know, biblical grace is so offensive to the heart of the natural man.

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So many people, I believe, are opposed to the truths and the doctrines of grace because biblical grace is the kind of thing that human beings can't come up with.

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Why? Because it takes you and I, and it makes us very, very small in the story and insignificant and ultimately not part of it.

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It's God, not you. It's God who gets the glory. It's God who does the work.

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It's God who's at every single stage the one that deserves the worship and the glory. And here's the thing, when you think about where am

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I in this story, you're the recipient. Where am I in terms of the power and the activity? Where am

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I where I get the credit and the glory? And you know what? The grace of God in Scripture, it takes you and I out, and it makes much of God, and it shows that God for all eternity gets the praise for His grace, and not you.

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And that's offensive. It's offensive. Expect this.

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When you share the truth about God's grace with people, expect opposition. Wait, are you saying it has nothing to do with me?

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Right, it's all the glory of God. Are you saying that it was nothing in me? Right, it's all the glory of God. You're saying

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I didn't do anything for this? No, it's all the glory of God. It's all to the praise of His glorious grace.

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That offends people. Why? Because I want some credit. I want some part of this story.

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I want it to be about me in some way. And even if we don't say it overtly, that's ultimately what it comes back to.

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Why are these so offensive? Here's why. Because we want to be the sovereign. Why are the doctrines of grace so offensive?

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Because we want to be the sovereign. We don't like God being the sovereign. Proof that we like being the sovereign, it's in our first parents.

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What was the first trial? The first temptation? Adam and Eve. Here's the blessing. All this. And bam, look, giraffe.

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I made that. Look at how amazing that is. Look, and then whales, and lions, and tigers, and bears, and people, and all this is yours.

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Just don't do this. Totally arbitrary. Don't do that. Nothing poisoned.

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Nothing evil in the fruit. Don't do that. When you do, you'll die the day you do.

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Satan comes along and he goes, ah, hath God said? Did God really say not to eat of any tree?

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You won't. You won't die. You'll be like God. What? Knowing good and evil.

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And oftentimes people read that and they go, oh, like experientially, like then you'll really know good and evil experimentally.

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No. No. When he said you'll be like God knowing good and evil, it was you'll be like God determining what is good and what is evil for yourself.

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First thing, first temptation was about the sovereignty of man against the sovereignty of God.

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Why are people opposed to the doctrines of grace? Because we have a natural bent to war against his sovereignty.

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That's the truth, I believe. That's why there's so much resistance to the grace and freedom of God and salvation because we don't want him to be the sovereign.

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We want to be the sovereign. So that's why. Now, if you know the history, if you're visiting today for the first time, you need to catch up.

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We're in unconditional election right now. We're going through TULIP. We call them the doctrines of grace. They're known elsewhere as the five points of Calvinism.

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You need to know quickly Calvinism has nothing to do with a man named John Calvin. John Calvin wouldn't have known what you were talking about if you said, what's

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TULIP? He would have pointed you to something in his garden. He was dead and gone when this happened.

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There was a controversy where there was a remonstrance, a protest against the church at large in Dortrecht and they had the

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Synod of Dort, the followers of a man named Jacob Arminius protested the grace of God and sovereignty of God in salvation and they formed an official protest and the response after dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of meetings with scholars and missionaries and pastors and theologians.

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They responded with what we have today as the acrostic TULIP. They responded to their view, the

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Arminian's view of the nature of the fall with total inability.

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They said, no, no, no. You make choices and you have a will, of course. You want to do what you do.

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Nobody's a robot, but our wills are not free. They are what Jesus says, enslaved.

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Whoever commits sin is a what? Slave of sin. But if the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed.

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They were saying, no, no, no. We're not just sick. We're spiritually dead and alienated and at war with God and unable to come to God because of our sin.

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We are non -God seeking enemies, haters of God, children of disobedience, children of wrath.

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I'm quoting scriptures, of course, right now. That's how the Bible describes us. No, it's not pretty.

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They said, no, it's total inability, total depravity. We cannot in ourselves cooperate with God in some synergistic relationship so that we can make it work, so that we can be saved.

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And then they, of course, had the you we have in the acrostic unconditional election. They said this, look, because of the nature of the fall, because of how sinful we are, there's nothing in us where God would like look through time to see who would believe in Him and on that basis choose them.

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Because if He did look through time and He saw us, what would He see? Not a lot of people climbing and clamoring for God.

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He would have saw a graveyard of rebels, dead people who could not in themselves believe.

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So when God chose to save, what they were saying was Ephesians 1, He chose us before the foundation of the world.

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Why? To the praise, the glory of His grace. That's what they were saying, that God is the one who's a sovereign over all of this.

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And then when it came to the atonement, they said, no, no, listen, everybody limits the atonement. You see, the

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Arminians, you guys limit the atonement in terms of its actual ability to save.

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Because what you're saying is that Jesus didn't die for anybody in particular and actually pay for their sins and buy them and settle the issue.

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You're saying that Jesus died to make people savable. And they were saying, no, no, no, that's not how the Bible describes the atonement.

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We're saying that it's limited in its number, its scope. You limited its power to save?

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We just say it's limited in its number and scope, but it actually accomplishes what God wanted it to accomplish.

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And in terms of irresistible grace, in TULIP they were saying this, look, when God wants to save,

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He saves, bro. Like when God takes a dead sinner and He raises them to spiritual life and gives them a resurrection.

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By the way, that's what the Bible calls it, new birth, resurrection unto life. When you've believed in Christ, you've been made alive.

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They were saying God takes dead sinners, raises them to life so that they can cling to Christ and believe in Him.

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No one could stop them. And then perseverance of the saints, you know what they meant? When God saves somebody, Ephesians 1, what's it say?

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He predestines you, He chooses you. And what's He deposit in you? The Holy Spirit who is our guarantee.

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It's that deposit, the guarantee of that future inheritance. They were saying this, watch, that when

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God saves somebody, He does something, like legitimately does something. They are now alive, they know

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God, God lives in them, and God will in them produce good works.

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He will cause them to persevere to the end. And it's what Jesus says, you ready?

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John 10, here's what it is. I know my sheep, they know me.

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I give them eternal life. They're in my hand, nothing can snatch them out of my hand.

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They're in my Father's hand, nothing can snatch them out of my Father's hand. Perseverance of the saints, can you lose your salvation?

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Absolutely not. Well, Jeff, what about the people that say they believed and they fell away? What's John say about that? They went out from us in order to show they were never of us.

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Their faith wasn't real, they didn't really know God, it was a pseudo faith. It was the kind of seed that goes under soil that sprouts up and looks like it's a legit thing and then all of a sudden it has no root and it dies away, same way

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Jesus described. So that's what we're on now, we're on the unconditional election part.

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What's that mean? Unconditional election, watch, God, Ephesians 1, predestines, He chooses before the foundation of the world.

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On what basis? Something in you, some work, some faith, some activity of the will?

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No, He chooses on the basis of His own sovereign will.

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He chooses so that you would praise Him and His grace. Unconditional election,

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God doesn't look through time to foresee faith and then choose you on the basis of that faith.

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If He looked through time, He would see dead people. And brothers and sisters, I've got to ask you this, Ephesians 2 says, we were by nature children of wrath, dead in our sins and trespasses.

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Let's take that seriously for a moment and let me ask you, what can a dead man do? What can a dead man do?

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Nothing. We rob the Bible of its meaning when we say, well, yeah, we're dead, but I mean, not really.

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I mean, you're dead, but not so dead. The Bible says you're dead in your sins and trespasses, but what does it say?

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Watch, Ephesians 2, you were dead in your sins and trespasses, but God made you alive together with Him.

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By grace, you've been saved. I wonder if the modern evangelicals, 21st century

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American Christian church have thought hard and deep about that, because we love that text, don't we? Don't we love it?

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Wait, you know the text, right? Ephesians 2, 8, 9, every Christian knows it, ready? By grace, you've been saved, ah, see?

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You know it. I go all over the world. I ask that question. By grace, you've been saved, everyone goes through faith.

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That's Australia, by the way, okay? They say that. They just continue, because we love that passage.

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By grace, you've been saved through faith, and that, the grace and the faith, that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

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What's the gift of God? The grace and the faith, the gift of God, not according to works, lest any man should boast.

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And we go, right, saved by grace through faith, nothing else. You know what it says in that passage? Before it says that, it says, you were dead.

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You were dead by nature, child of wrath, and it says what? God made you alive together with Him.

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By grace, you've been saved. Paul's definition, by the way, of, by grace, you've been saved, is you were dead.

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God made you alive. God made you alive in the sort of way that He made

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Lazarus alive, I told you last week. Think about it. That's a real historical event, by the way.

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It's not just a metaphor, an allegory in some way. That's you. It's a true story, it really happened.

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He really stank, stunk, stunk. He really stunk.

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He was really dead four days. He really had a stone over His tomb. And when Jesus calls into His tomb and says,

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Lazarus, come forth, Lazarus doesn't have a will to cooperate and turn.

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He's dead. There's nothing there. He's not like, Lazarus, please,

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Lazarus, do you want to? He says, Lazarus, and He commands it, come forth.

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And He comes hopping out of that tomb. Why? Because He was brought to life. He was brought to life.

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That's a story, it's a picture. It really is a sign pointing to what Jesus does.

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That's what He did with you. You know your own story. They're all different.

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Maybe for you, you can't quite place it in picture, but you know something changed, you know you believed in Jesus. Some of you guys were in a hospital room at three in the morning and all of a sudden your sin was right in front of you and you wanted

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Jesus and you trusted Him. Some of you guys were on the street with a needle in your arm. Some of you guys were in a broken place in your life and you're sitting before a

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Bible and you're reading the text and all of a sudden your heart comes alive and you see Jesus and you fall and you believe.

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And I remember so many times in this hospital every day I'd be in front of people who were in the worst possible place of their life.

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I remember there were times where I'd be talking to somebody and I'd be just walking them through calmly through the gospel. I'm just like reading the text and it says, all of sin to fall short of the glory of God, none righteous, not even one, none who does good.

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And all of a sudden I look up and I just see lips trembling, I see eyes filling with tears and I can tell you there are numerous instances where I'm just walking through the text totally calm and the

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Bible says this and I look up and the person is in tears and they fall on their knees.

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I've had people fall on their knees in front of me and just start sobbing over their sin and then they cling to Christ.

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That's what takes place. That's Lazarus over and over and over and over and over again.

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That's how it happens. All of a sudden you see Jesus and He's glorious and beautiful. I know there's an ex -Mormon in here today, went on his mission, two years ago came to Christ.

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What was that like? All of a sudden you're opposed to the biblical Christ, you're clinging on to this idea, this figment of Joseph Smith's imagination, you're clinging to it your whole life and you're following and you can't leave and you can't leave the culture, you can't leave the place and you can't leave that book and it's your whole story and all of a sudden now the scales they fall off and you see

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Jesus and He's majestic and all you want is Him and you're willing to let everything go. Where's that come from do you think?

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Where's that come from? The strength to abandon family, stuff, job, reputation, where's it come from?

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The desire to give everything up and follow Christ and to trust in Him, where's it come from? From you?

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Some strength in you? Some intellectual superpower that nobody else has?

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No, it's life. That is the story. All right, so let's talk quickly, just quickly about the condition of man.

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The condition of man because you've got to lay that down first to understand God's election and His choice.

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You're not going to have a biblical answer as to what is really the grace of God if you don't have a biblical view of sin and our condition.

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So that's fundamental. Listen, if you get this wrong, it will creep its way into every other part of your theology.

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If you get the nature of the fall wrong, everything else is broken to pieces.

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So let's talk about it quickly, a couple passages. Last week I gave you a dozen or 15 or so.

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Let's just look at a couple passages, quickly to your Bibles to John 6, 44. John 6, 44, okay.

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You want some Bible verses to memorize, this is one. It's important. Now think through it with me, okay?

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Jesus has just in John 6 presented before people the fact that He's the bread of life and He says that He's come down from heaven to do what?

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Not to do His own will, but the will of Him who has sent Him and He says this, watch. This is the will of Him who has sent me,

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He said, that I lose nothing of all that's been given to me. So I have something been given to me,

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Jesus says, watch, I have something given to me, these people given to me, and this is

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God's, the Father's will, that I lose none of it, nothing.

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By the way, perseverance of the saints, holla, okay, perseverance of the saints.

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I'm not going to lose any of it, right?

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And then He actually says, no man can come to me.

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Now stop and think for a moment. Let it, take it in, absorb it. Let the Word of God speak.

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No man, it says literally, no man is able to come to me. No man is able to come to me, watch, unless the

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Father who sent me draws Him. Got it, so lay that down.

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There is no ability to come to Jesus apart from the Father drawing.

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Can we grant that? Now watch this, whether you are Calvinist or Arminian, we generally grant that together.

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Even the Arminian doesn't want to say that you don't have the Father drawing in order for this to take place.

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So we all grant it. Does Jesus say no man is able unless the Father draws? Everyone says, yeah, that Father has to draw.

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I want to highlight something that's actually there though that's missed. It says, watch, no man can come to me.

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Do we believe the Bible when it speaks? Do we believe God when He speaks? No man is able, there is no ability to come to Jesus apart from the

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Father drawing. Now watch the next part, and it says, and I will raise

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Him up. He says, I raise up the one the Father draws, the one that could not come.

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So think about it for a moment. If nobody is able unless the Father draws, and when the

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Father draws, Jesus raises Him up, then that means, watch, if the

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Father draws anybody, they're coming. And Jesus says, what about them?

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I'll lose none of it, nothing. No one can.

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The Father draws, and I'm not losing anybody. How do you not like shout?

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This is like shouting church, right? Like for a moment, charismatic, maybe, right? Calm, okay.

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The people up here with flags and, right? That's like, I don't know, like I kind of get it, right?

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Like this, wow, that's grace. I wasn't able, the Father draws, and He raises up everyone the

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Father draws. How do you get away from that? How do you challenge that? That's our nature, not able.

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What do you need? The Father drawing. And if He does draw for salvation, what happens? Jesus raises them up, guaranteed.

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Here's the question, can God lie? If you say that the

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Father can draw someone for salvation and then they're lost, it makes Jesus out to be a liar.

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If Jesus is a liar, He's not God. If Jesus isn't God, His atonement accomplishes nothing.

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If you don't have His atonement, you don't have salvation. Do you see the logical order now? If He loses one,

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He's a liar. What do you think is a better answer? That we're wrong about losing our salvation?

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I think it's that we're wrong if we say that Jesus can lose those who have been given to Him.

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John 6, 44, that's our condition. No man is able. How about Romans 3? How about Romans chapter 3?

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What's the text say? You already know it. That catena of verses in Romans chapter 3 from the

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Old Testament, there is none righteous, no, not one. What's it say? There is no

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God seeker. Here's the thing really, in reality, like,

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Jeff, what do you think about people say, Jeff, what do you think about seeker -sensitive churches? I'm like, kind of a bad strategy.

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Think about it. What do you think about seeker -sensitive churches? It's a really bad strategy.

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Because if it was true, then no one's showing up. Because what's the text say?

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There is none who seeks for God. Nobody seeks for God.

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Nobody is righteous. No fear of God before their eyes. Their throats are an open tomb. The poison of asps is under their lips.

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. That's our condition. Anything else is not biblical, no matter how much

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Christian terminology you put. That's our condition. Romans 3. How about Romans chapter 8?

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This is a big one. Romans chapter 8. We're going to be here again today, but go here quickly. Romans chapter 8, verse 1.

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Watch this. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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Pause. Stop. Stop. I have another point I'd like to make after this, but I don't want to pass that up.

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As a pastor, I can't. Every time, I can't pass it up. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

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Are you in Christ Jesus? Yes? Through faith? Are you in him? Then there is no condemnation.

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Why do you, as a Christian, fall into these bouts of depression and brokenness, and you feel like God is so far away from you?

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Why do you do that? Do you think it's God pushing you there, or do you think it's your own stubbornness and your own pride thinking that you know the condition of your soul in relationship with God, that you know somehow something about God that he's really far off, that he really is distant from you?

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The text says that if you're in Christ Jesus, there is therefore now no condemnation.

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None. You will not be condemned by the Father. Not ever. Not ever. Not for all eternity.

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No sins brought up in terms of condemnation. Will there be reward and lack of reward before Christ?

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Yep. As a child in the house. You're already in the house. Reward or lack of reward, but there is no condemnation.

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Never a time where God brings your sins up to you ever again. Never a time where God says, yeah, but you, and you need to pay.

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There is not that. But look at the text. No condemnation. Verse two, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death, for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin he condemns sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

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Here we go. Romans 5. Listen close. This is big. It's huge. It ties the whole book together.

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Romans 5. You're either in Christ or in Adam. That is, you're fallen or you're alive.

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You're dead or alive. Adam or Jesus. Two representatives in either one. Life or death.

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Condemnation, eternal life. Then in Romans 8, he makes a distinction between not

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Adam and Jesus, but flesh and spirit. Same story. If you're in Adam, what are you in? The flesh.

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If you're in Christ, what are you in? The spirit. See the parallels there? Contrast, I should say. Adam, Jesus, flesh, spirit.

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In this text, here's what he says about those who are still in Adam, those who are in the flesh. He says this about those who are still fallen.

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Verse 5. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit, for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

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And here it is. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.

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Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please

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God. Adam or Jesus, condemnation, eternal life, flesh or spirit.

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If you're in the flesh, you cannot submit to the law of God. You're not even able to do so.

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Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. So you're either alive in Jesus or you are dead, alienated from God, in the flesh, unable to submit to the law of God.

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Here's the question that's often asked by my friend Dr. White. He says, are repentance and faith pleasing to God?

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What do you think? Easy questions today. No tough ones. Okay. Are repentance and faith pleasing to God?

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Yes. Those who are in the flesh cannot do what is pleasing to God. No ability.

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Can't submit to His law. They're dead, alienated from God. And you might say, watch, here's the thing.

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Well, how in the world, if you're non -God seeking, dead in your sins and trespasses, unable to come to Christ apart from the

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Father drawing, if you are in the flesh, hostile to God, unable to submit to His law, unable to do what's pleasing to God, how does anybody come to Jesus?

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Answer, resurrection, grace, God. Did you ever think about that?

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Like, you preach the gospel to a room full of people, you know, like 10 people, and you have, like, same message that goes out.

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Same one, same message that goes out. And it's two people over here, the most unexpected, all of a sudden believe in Jesus and totally transform.

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And you're like, I must have said something really convincing to them, right? What was it? Was it smarter?

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Just the right time? Like, something in them? Like, same message went out. How come they got it?

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I got to say this, my experience isn't like the story here, but I got to say this. In my years full -time as a chaplain at this hospital,

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I got to see the worst of the worst all the time and hear the worst of the worst all the time. And I got to say this,

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God really humbled me, humbled me greatly. Because I would see as I preached the gospel,

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I would think I saw a room, and I think I'd go, I think that person's close. I think that person may be, you know, just,

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I don't know, it's kind of perverse, but I'd be like, you know, maybe he's a goner, like, you know, I don't know, it's just, okay. No, but I'd see a room and I'd go,

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I think I know, like, who maybe is kind of, like, on the edge, I don't know. And it was always the people that were the least likely to turn to Jesus, the ones who seemed so far off and so hostile, the most broken.

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It's like God loves to display His power and glory in taking the worst, the most broken, and going saving them.

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He always surprised me. He genuinely surprised me by changing the people that I thought, that I thought,

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He never, that can't happen, and He did. First Corinthians 2, verse 14, last one, the nature of the fall, grappling with that.

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First Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14, last text on this as we spring into election.

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Here we go. The natural person, that's a fallen person, someone who doesn't know

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Jesus, the natural person does not accept the things of the

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Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

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The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.

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And he's not able to understand them. So listen, it ought not surprise us as children of God, as believers, as followers of Jesus, it shouldn't surprise you when you preach the gospel, you tell people about Jesus, and you talk about the

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Bible, and people say, you idiot, you guys are morons, Christians are dummies, right?

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You do, you tell people about Jesus and these things in Scripture about our sin and the grace of God, you're foolish.

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Like people love, the militant atheist of today loves to act like Christians are just complete fools and dummies.

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And you preach the gospel to people, sometimes they say, you're a fool, here's the thing, you shouldn't expect that. When you preach the gospel, people think you're crazy.

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Yesterday, outside the abortion mill, all recorded, the whole world can see, we want the world to see, we engage their argumentation, we're listening to them saying, come talk to us, we'll listen, we'll stand here, we'll engage.

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And when they give their arguments, we respond, refutation, next argument. We respond, next argument.

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We respond, next argument. You know what they finally fell back on? You're an extremist, right?

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Like, you guys are idiots, you're stupid, like you're so crazy, extremist, you're nutcases, you're out there.

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No rational argumentation, no engagement with what's actually said, no ability to respond to the objections.

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What do they say? What do they fall back on? Fool, you're a fool. You're not going with the crowd, you're not going with the flow of things, you're a fool.

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You're stubborn. That's what the world says. You tell them about Jesus and spiritual things, they say, I don't get it.

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I don't see how you could be so foolish to follow a man in Palestine 2 ,000 years ago who died as a criminal on a cross and rose from the dead.

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Your whole life is his, it's wrapped up in him, you're a fool. Here's the thing, when the world says that, you ought to anticipate it.

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Watch, to the world who is perishing, when they hear the gospel, for those who are perishing, it's the stench of death, it's foolishness, but to those who are being saved, it's the very power of God.

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That's what the Bible says. Let's talk quickly about the sovereignty of God. Get your pen and paper ready right now because I'm going to give you a bunch of texts.

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We're not going to read every single one of them. I'm going to give these to you guys for the purposes of going back later and reading through all these texts.

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This could go on for days. This is just nicking the surface, but I want you to write it down. Okay, I'm going to actually put this up on my page later, monergism .com

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is a great website, monergism versus synergism. Listen, I don't want to ever treat anybody that's new to church like you ought to know these things, so if you hear that word and you're like,

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I have no clue what that means and I don't care, just listen for a moment. Monergism is the idea that God saves sinners by himself through his own power.

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He does it. There's hope for you. Synergism is the idea that you somehow have to cooperate with God and do enough, believe enough, perform enough so that you can get ultimately salvation working.

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Every man -made religion in the world, no matter the color, no matter the stripe, believes some form of synergism.

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What the Bible teaches is monergistic. One God, one power at work,

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God saves mightily. Monergism .com, great website. Here's a list of verses.

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We'll just work through it together quickly. Number one, God exercises sovereignty in actively ordaining everything.

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Deuteronomy 32, 39, 1 Samuel 2, 6 through 8,

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Job 9, 12, Job 12, 6 through 10.

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Psalm 33, 11, Psalm 115, 3.

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I'm going to read that one for you. Psalm 115, 3. Here's the text. We did it before, but here it is again.

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Easy to memorize. Our God is in the heavens.

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He does all that He pleases. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases.

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Now watch. What is He sovereign over? These are big. Get your Bibles ready. He is sovereign, including matters of, quote, chance.

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Go to your Bibles to Proverbs 16 .33, Proverbs 16 .33. This is

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God's sovereignty, even over things that we would term our chance. Proverbs 16 .33,

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and the text says, the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the

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Lord. Is God sovereign over every detail, even the minutia, even the small details, the things we would term chance occurrences?

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Is He sovereign even over those? According to the Bible, yes, He is. You can also check out 1

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Kings 22, verse 20. How about this? Is God sovereign over the wicked actions of men?

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Is He sovereign even over the wicked actions of men? Genesis 45 .5,

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Genesis 50 .20. Now these are texts that you should already be familiar with. You've been here for any length of time, but here's a powerful one.

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You know the story. We talked about it a bit. Genesis chapter 50, verse 20 is a text, watch, where after Joseph is in Egypt and he rescues his family and the surrounding nations, and he's dad now, and brothers come now to where he is after they sold him into slavery.

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Now his dad dies. And what did he say to his brothers? Listen, already his brothers sell him into slavery.

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What's he say to them? He says, you didn't send me here. God did. But from their perspective, they're like, you're nutty.

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Yeah we did. Yeah we did. We hated you. We wanted you dead.

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We threw you into that pit. We took that stupid coat off of you. Yes, yes, yes we did. We did it.

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He says, you didn't send me here. God did in order to preserve for you a remnant alive.

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Now you move the story ahead. Dad dies. And what do the brothers think? They go, he was chill with us because dad wouldn't have liked him killing us.

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So now dad's dead. And what's their response? Watch. Verse 15 of chapter 50 in Genesis.

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When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.

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So they sent a message to Joseph. Don't you love it? Watch. They don't even come to talk to him. They're not like, hey

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Joseph, can we talk? They sent a message. They're so terrified of what he might do to them.

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They sent a message to him, to Joseph saying, your father gave this command before he died.

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Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you.

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And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Watch Joseph's response.

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Watch. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we're your servants.

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But Joseph said to them, do not fear for am I in the place of God? Watch. Watch. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.

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To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today, so do not fear.

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Did you catch it? Sell them into slavery, throw them into a pit, Potiphar's house in a dungeon.

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They come back. They see Joseph in power. They did all this. He says, what?

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You didn't send me here. God did. Now they're like, please don't kill us. And what's he saying? You meant evil against me.

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There's no robots. There's no fatalism here. People say, oh,

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Calvinism is fatalistic. Uh, no. There's no fatalism here where your actions mean nothing and you're a robot in some sense.

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He says, you meant evil. You're guilty. My brothers, you're guilty.

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You're guilty. You meant it. Watch. But in the Hebrew, it's parallel. You meant it for evil.

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Watch. God meant it for good. Their intention was evil.

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God's intention in bringing this about was good and for what purpose? Watch.

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Don't you love it? They sinned against Joseph. They meant it for evil, right? Their sin, God orchestrated their meaning, their intention for sin.

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He orchestrated it to do what? To do, to bless them, to save them a remnant.

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That God even uses your own sin and my sin, watch, to bring about his glory.

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He's sovereign even over your sin. So the wicked actions of men, you can look at Exodus 40, or sorry, 421,

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Judges 14, one through four, Psalm 7610, Proverbs 16 .4. Don't worry.

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It's recorded. Isaiah 44, 28, Amos 3 .6, Acts 2, 22 through 23,

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Acts 4, 27 through 28. Again, it's recorded. You can go get them later. God is even sovereign over the actions of evil spirits.

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First Samuel 16, 14 through 16. First Kings 22, 19 through 23.

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God is sovereign over the good actions of men. John 15, 16,

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Ephesians 2, 10, Philippians 2, 12 through 13. God is sovereign over the actions of good angels.

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Psalm 103, 20, Psalm 104, 4. Here's a big one. God is sovereign over the actions of animals.

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You're like, seriously? That would probably encourage my wife.

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She hates my dogs. I'll make sure I make a note of this. God is sovereign over the operations of all creation.

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Genesis 8, 22, Psalm 104, 5 through 10, Psalm 104, 13 through 14,

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Psalm 104, 19 through 20, Mark 4, 39. Here we go. Ready? Election.

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Keep following now. Election. Election. God, watch, predestines, chooses, foreordains.

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Again, these notes will be up for you later. One, His angels. Go to your Bibles to 1 Timothy 5, 21.

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First Timothy, let's see who's there first. First Timothy 5, 21. I win.

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First Timothy 5, 21. Listen to how this is described. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and, watch, of the elect angels,

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I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality. Okay, in the presence of God, watch, and the elect angels, wait, what's that sound like?

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What's it sound like? Don't we know that there are these creatures, creations of God, that are called demons?

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And aren't they fallen angels, angels who went into sin?

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And you might say, well, what's their story? What's their story? Was God somehow out of control?

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Like Satan's like somehow like God's adversary and foe, and it's like Jesus versus the devil, and it's like, right?

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Like, is it like somehow adversarial? Or is God really the sovereign and He has elect angels and non -elect angels?

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That's what the text says. There are elect angels. God is sovereign and has elected or chosen

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His people Israel. Now here's the thing, watch. This is what becomes interesting for me.

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Typically the modern evangelical Arminian will say with no struggle, no difficulty, and you know what

01:00:00

I'm saying about this, that the Jews are what? God's chosen people.

01:00:08

And somehow there's no problem with that. God is sovereign to choose Israel out of all the nations. I ask the question, did

01:00:14

God choose Israel? What do you say? Yes. You know what that means? It means

01:00:20

He did not choose the Philistines. It means He didn't choose the

01:00:25

Babylonians. It means He didn't choose the Romans. It means

01:00:31

He didn't choose the Hittites. It means He didn't choose a number of people.

01:00:36

And we say, watch, to the modern evangelical Arminian, we say, why did God choose Israel? Were they somehow more in number?

01:00:44

Were they somehow stronger? Were they somehow more worthy? And they say, no, no, no, no. God chose the people of Israel solely by His grace.

01:00:53

And the text actually says that. Go to your Bibles. Exodus 6 -7.

01:01:00

Exodus 6 -7, God's choosing of His particular people, Israel. Exodus 6 -7, text says,

01:01:17

I will take you to be my people and I will be your God and you shall know that I am the

01:01:22

Lord your God who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. God chose

01:01:28

Israel. Now Deuteronomy 7. Move over now.

01:01:35

Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 6 -8.

01:01:42

Deuteronomy 7, 6 -8. Watch the text. For you are a people holy to the

01:01:48

Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

01:01:58

Stop. Question. Is that fair? Yeah, it's not fair.

01:02:06

Israel sinners, Philistines are sinners, the Egyptians are sinners, Pharaoh's a sinner, right?

01:02:13

You chose Israel. Is that fair? It's mercy, it's grace.

01:02:22

Fair is God taking the whole lump of clay and casting it into the fire.

01:02:30

Jews, Philistines, Hittites, Babylonians, Romans, Persians, Greeks, all of us, all of us sinners.

01:02:40

But what does God do? He says, Israel, I chose you. Watch, He answers this. Watch this.

01:02:45

Out of all the peoples who were on the face of the earth, it was not because, verse 7, you were more in number than any other people that the

01:02:54

Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you were of the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the

01:02:59

Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers that the

01:03:05

Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

01:03:13

We all grant it. God chose Israel. He says, it wasn't because you were more in number. He said, well, why was it?

01:03:20

He says, because I love you. And you, as a Christian, have to grant God that privilege.

01:03:26

When you ask Him, why would you save me, why would you save me? Same answer, because I love you.

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Because I love you. It doesn't make sense that you love me. I know.

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I love you. And I chose, I made a covenant,

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I promised to save. Before the world began, God chose a people in Jesus Christ.

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Jesus comes to purchase their salvation. The Holy Spirit brings that salvation together.

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It's Father, Son, Holy Spirit working together to bring about redemption to God's glory and what motivates it, love, love of God.

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The text teaches God chooses. There's more, by the way, but we'll move on. How about God choosing individuals to salvation?

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Psalm 65, 4, Matthew 24, 24, John 6, 37.

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Just go there because that's a premier text we've been hanging out in. Let's go to the text,

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John 6, 37, and let's read that text. It says, ready? Watch. All that the

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Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

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Now, everyone, listen. If you've been checking out, because I know this is a lot of verses, I know it's a lot to think about. I need you to come back because this is big.

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Stay with me now. This is a big one. Listen to what he says there. All that the

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Father gives me will come to me. Now, think about it. Which came first?

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What comes first? Coming to Jesus or the Father giving you to Jesus?

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Which comes first according to the text? All that the

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Father gives to me will come. It's not all who come to me the

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Father gives to me. All that the Father has given to me will come to me.

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Yes, all. All that the Father has given to me. God chooses particular people for salvation.

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John 15, 16, Acts 13, 48, Romans 8, 28 -30,

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Romans 9, 10 -24. And God, and this is where it gets controversial, but you got to ask the question, do

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I let God's Word speak? Do I let God's Word dictate what I believe or do

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I actually determine how it works through my own philosophy and tradition?

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God chooses people that He will allow to stay in their sin and experience condemnation.

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Texts, Exodus 4 -21, Romans 13, Romans 9, 17 -18,

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Romans 9, 21 -22, 1 Peter 2 -8. We're going to get to those texts in a moment and read through them.

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Now what's, watch, ready? What's God's motivation in election? It's a great resource of verses here, so make sure you guys go through them.

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Number one, His own good pleasure. What's God's motivation in election?

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Ready? It's profound. Write it down. Because He wanted to. Because He wanted to.

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Now watch, if your concern isn't the glory of God, if your concern isn't His fame, if your concern isn't making much of God, then you aren't satisfied with that answer and you never will be.

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But if you're concerned with the glory of God, His holiness, His justice, His mercy, His grace,

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Him being made majestic in the hearts and minds of everybody, if that's your focus and goal, then the answer, because God wanted to, settles your heart.

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He's that kind of sovereign. Why does God choose? For His own good pleasure. Ephesians 1, 5, you already read it earlier together with me.

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Second Timothy 1, 9, I'm going to read that text again because I want you to hear it before we pass it up because we're almost done here and I want you to hear that text, it's a big one.

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Ephesians 1, verse 5, here it is.

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He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will,

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His will, His purposes. Now why else did God save and elect people in this way?

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Choose to save, Isaiah 43, 6 through 7, for the display of His glory,

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Romans 9, 22, 24, First Corinthians 1, 27 through 31,

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Ephesians 2, 4 through 7. God did it to display His glory.

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That's why He saved. He saved because of His special love, Deuteronomy 7, 6 through 8, you just read that.

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He saves His motivation according to His foreknowledge, Romans 8, 29.

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Now here's what I want us to do at this point on the tail end as we're finishing up here. These are big.

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I'm not going to spend a lot of time unpacking these. I just want you to hear them. If you want to know like why,

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Jeff, why are you Reformed? Why do you think this is so important? Why do you care so much about preserving the grace of God in the way that you are?

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My answer is because of these texts. You want to know where the whole story is built?

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It's not a verse here or there. It's the entire story of the

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Scriptures. It's sometimes entire passages that address this issue in full detail, and so I want to read them.

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That's it. The last part of this message is just reading these texts. I want you to hear it.

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So I want you to do this. Keep one finger in John 6. Keep another finger in John 10.

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You've already read Ephesians 1, and the other finger we're going to look in Romans 8 and 9. So here we go,

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John chapter 6. Follow me. Listen.

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Verse 28, and they said to Him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom

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He has sent. So they said to Him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?

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Our fathers ate the manna, and the wilderness as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Jesus then said to them, truly, truly,

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I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is

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He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to Him, sir, give us this bread always.

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They want to eat. And what's He say? Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

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Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe.

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All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

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For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me, and this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

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For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise

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Him up on the last day. So the Jews grumbled about Him, because He said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

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And then they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

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How does He now say, I've come down from heaven? Jesus answered them, do not grumble among yourselves.

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No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws Him, and I will raise

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Him up on the last day. John 10, listen, verse 7.

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So Jesus again said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep do not listen to them.

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I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, and I will go in, and he will go in and out and find pasture.

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The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

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I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for who?

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The sheep. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.

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He flees because he's a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. Watch, watch.

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I know my own, and my own know me, just as the

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Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay my life down for who?

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The sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.

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I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice.

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So there'll be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason, the Father loves me because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.

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No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.

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This charge I have received from my Father." Now watch. Here's where it gets sticky. There was, again, a division among the

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Jews because of these words. Many of them said, he has a demon and is insane. Why listen to him?

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Others said, these are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Now watch.

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At the time of the Feast of the Dedication took place at Jerusalem, it was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple in a colonnade of Solomon.

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So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, how long will you keep us in suspense?

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If you're the Messiah, tell us plainly. Don't you love it? Why don't you just tell us,

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Jesus? And what's he say? He says, I told you, I told you, and you do not believe.

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The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but watch, you do not believe because you are not part of my flock.

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Watch. What's the foundation, guys? Why don't they believe?

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He told them they've seen his signs, but he says, you don't believe. And he says, you don't believe, foundationally, because you're not of my sheep.

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And he says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

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I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hands.

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My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

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I and the Father are one. I think we're good there. Go read

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Romans 9 later. We're going to do a bunch of that later on. Let's stop for a moment now and take that in.

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If you see Jesus, and to you he is glorious, and majestic, and beautiful, and you love him, and you trust him, even with like this much faith, even if it's this much faith, do you know what?

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The only way you could is because you belong to Jesus. The question is, never watch, am

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I chosen? That's not a question that's even asked in the Scriptures. Am I chosen? Am I chosen?

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Am I elect? The question is this, do you see Jesus, and know your sin, and desire

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Jesus? That's the question. That's the question. Here's the gospel, you're a sinner,

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I'm a sinner. If you don't have Christ, you're condemned already. The Bible says that God became a man in Jesus, he's the

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Messiah. He lived righteously, blamelessly, died for sinners, and rose from the dead.

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And here's the call. You want eternal life? You will find in Jesus a perfect Savior.

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All who turn from their sin to trust in Jesus have a perfect Savior, and the gift of eternal life.

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Jesus says this, truly, truly, I say to you, John 5, 24, he who hears my voice and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed, has passed from death to life.

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Do you hear it? Here's what you need to focus on, your sin before God, your need for Jesus.

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Do you believe? Trust him. You will find in him a perfect Savior.

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You will find him to be a perfect Savior, you will find the gift of eternal life. Do you believe? Here's the glory of it all,

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I think, one of my hopes in the most difficult moments. Jesus says, if you believe in him, he will never cast you out.

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If you believe in him, you're not condemned. If you believe in him, you have the gift of eternal life. If you believe in him, he'll never lose you.

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You're in his grip, grip. We didn't get to half of passages I wanted to today.

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Romans 8, this is the story, watch, watch. Those whom he foreknew, he predestined.

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By the way, foreknow there isn't knowing information about, it's an active word, it has to do with intimate knowledge.

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God foreknew you, intimately knew you, he predestined you.

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Watch, he called you, justifies you, glorifies you.

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That's the golden chain of redemption in Romans 8. He foreknew you, he chose to enter into intimate relationship with you.

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He said, I choose to save Matt.

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And in a certain time of Matt's life, God brought the gospel into his life.

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He raised him in the newness of life, Matt believed. God declared him righteous.

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God raises him up and in a sense glorifies him and also will glorify him.

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That's the story. Foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. You can't break that chain.

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And if you're in Christ, you're in it. He's going to raise you up. He'll never lose you or forsake you.

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That's the glory of God's grace. And brothers and sisters, that's the grace we must protect and preserve as Christians.

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My encouragement to you is this, if you're working through the grace of God in salvation, read

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John 6, read John 10, read Ephesians 1, read Romans 8 and 9, read those texts and let

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God speak. And if you look at those texts and you say, that's a sovereign God and he's huge and it's spectacular and that's a glorious grace,

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I think you've found it. I think you've found it. And what should it motivate you to?

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What should it motivate you to? Worship. What else should it motivate you to? Mission.

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Worship and mission. It ought to cause you to worship God and be in awe of him and it ought to motivate you to mission.

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Because here's what I say, watch this. I go out to preach the gospel and you know what my success rate is?

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You know what it is? 100 % success rate. How do you like them apples?

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Because I preach the gospel, repent and believe, repent and believe, repent and believe. Here's Jesus, look at him, he's glorious.

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Believe in Jesus. And I go tell that story, some people might come back and go, no one believed in Jesus today.

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Right? I go preach that gospel, I declare the glory of Jesus, repent and believe the gospel.

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And guess what? When I preach it and they don't respond, God is glorified and is what?

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Justice. But when I preach the gospel and then God in his love and mercy reaches into a person's life and he opens their eyes to his beauty and his glory and they believe, do you know what?

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To the glory of God. Success. Success. When God is proclaimed and the gospel is proclaimed, it is success.

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What does this study motivate you to? Worship and mission. So get about it.

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Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Please, God, draw your people to yourself this day.

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Lord, if there's anyone in this room right now that doesn't know you, Jesus, as the perfect savior,

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I pray with all my heart, God, that you open the eyes of the blind now. Give Lord, by your mercy and grace, according to your will, give repentance today.

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Turn from sin and put, Lord, trust in the hearts of those, Lord, who are far from you.

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Let them see Jesus and his life and death and resurrection and, Lord, give them the ability to believe.

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God draw, Lord, be glorified in the work of this church as we proclaim your excellencies in Jesus' name.