Self-Deception (Part 2)

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No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

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Dr. Mike Abendroff. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

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Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse with no compromise.

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If the God of the universe has invaded your life, you ought to be different. Perfect in practice?

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No. Growing? Maturing? Yes. If you're alive, you'll be growing.

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And as a pastor, it doesn't make me feel good to think there are people that listen to this message week in and week out and still have not bowed the knee to Christ Jesus.

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For whatever reason, they don't want to lose friends, they don't want to lose sin, I want you to go to heaven and I want you to know that there are times when you have to ask yourself the difficult questions.

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Our society, think about the noise pollution, been driving on the freeway from Virginia and you just look in cars and you know it's a little bit different on a long trip

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I guess. But every moment of every day, you wake up and the radio's on, you're in the car, the radio's on, the iTunes phones are on, everything's in and around and busy, busy, computer, all these things, and when do you stop and just say to yourself,

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I ought to consider my latter end. I'm going to die one day and stand before God and then

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I'm going to throw Jesus some religious bone, I'm going to say, well, you know, I did these Christian things like in Matthew 7, and then what, great is your destruction.

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Paul said to the church at Thessalonica, our gospel did not come to you in word only, but in power and in the

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Holy Spirit. You're different. Paul says, you Thessalonicans received my word, not as the word of men, but as it is the word of God, which effectually works in those that believe.

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The Bible teaches that there are false gods, false prophets, false Christs, another

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Jesus, another gospel, false brethren, false teachers, false apostles, and it teaches that there's a false faith too.

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I believe in Jesus. Our hearts can deceive us. How about this for an added trouble?

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Satan compounds that problem by blinding people's minds. So I know

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I see things clearly. If you're an unbeliever, you're a slave to your own sin and Satan's blinded your mind.

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So you think things like, well, I think I can just be good and go to heaven. I think I'll just buy into evolution.

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That sounds good to me. Friend, you're a slave to sin and you're blinded. You say, well, I don't know who that guy thinks he is, but that makes me mad.

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I don't think you're quite mad enough yet. I want you to be incensed with me.

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I want you to be so mad, you say, I'm going to pick up my Bible and I'll show him. I want you to learn the

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Bible. I want you to go to heaven. I don't want you to fall prey to an angel of light who masquerade around, mixes truth with error.

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So I'm going to ask you three questions, three questions in light of first Corinthians chapter two, one to five probably means

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I'm not going to get to too many, but just, let's just try three leading up for you to personally think about your own life first, then maybe your kids or other loved ones, but your life first, does your faith rest in man's wisdom or does your faith rest in the power of God?

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In other words, are you a demonstration of God's handiwork, what he does with a sinner, how he can take someone like a

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John Newton who used to be a slave owner and then becomes a sinner? Question one already said before, but for emphasis,

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I say it again. Did your life radically changed when the God of the universe made you born again?

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When he made you alive together with him, Colossians chapter two, did your life radically change?

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Now for me, as I look back in my life, again, I've lived for 30 years underneath this whole, well

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I believe, I'm out in California and I move in to a place where Kim and I had a friend and this lady was named

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Aria, I've told you about Aria before, and Aria liked to jog and I liked to jog and so we would run sometimes and Kim and Aria and I would do something together before we were married and go out and we began to talk about religion and Aria said that she follows

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Jesus. Kind of refreshing to be in California and have somebody follow Jesus, I grew up Lutheran and I was good to go and I had been baptized and I went on a missions trip and other things and so I was okay, do whatever

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I want, but at least I'm not going to hell like those other poor people. So I'm fine, I talked to Aria and she said, yeah

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I worship Jesus, hey great, because I can meet Muslims and Jews and other people,

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I worship Jesus. And then she said something quite interesting, she said, oh I have a picture of Jesus, probably you know blue eyes, blonde, no no she said

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I have a picture of Jesus, me and Jesus, I'm standing next to Jesus, he's in my house.

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So well, I've got to meet the guy. So I walked in and there was this kind of dweeby looking guy in a suit, there's

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Aria standing next to Jesus, and this was not some kind of Jesus kind of thing, she thought he was the

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Christ, she thought he was the Messiah, and there he stands. I said, that's Jesus, yes that's

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Jesus, and she was in a cult in Southern California that she wanted me to get into and I said,

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I'm not getting into the cult Jesus, Peter I know and Paul, but that's not Jesus, and I messed up the slogan.

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In my mind something like, you know, Larry Bird's not going to walk through those locker room doors, that was in my mind,

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I didn't want it to be, but it was. I was smart enough to know as an unbeliever, that's not

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Jesus. That's not the Jesus of the Bible. You can say, well I know the

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Jesus of the Bible, I know he healed blind people, I know he walked on water, I know he was virgin born,

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I know all these things, and still that doesn't demonstrate the power of God in a person.

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That's just an intellectual fact. When God changes people, he changes them. Just a quick list, 2

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Peter 1, he gives them a divine nature, Ephesians 4, a new self, 2

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Corinthians 5, a new creature, 1 Corinthians 2, a new mind, Romans 5, a new heart,

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Romans 6, a new will, Joseph Wilson was right, the change of a sinner's heart is as great a miracle as any

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Jesus Christ wrought on earth. Faith isn't some kind of creedal idea that I just confess.

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Would you think if I told you where I used to surf, San Onofre, California, and they had two nuclear reactors right there on the beach.

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If I was surfing one day and one of those broke open, and the green ooze nuclear waste came down so fast that there was kind of, it made it a swell, and I caught the swell of green nuclear waste ooze and rode it out about a quarter of a mile.

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I'm just here to tell you about it. You'd think, guys loon. It's just as loony to say,

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I've experienced and encountered and been affected by the God of the universe and I'm still the same, as it is for me to say,

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I've just walked into a nuclear waste up to here and everything's just the same in my life. No, you'd be like Charles Wesley, long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night, thine eyes diffused a quickening ray,

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I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed thee.

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Turn with me, if you would, to James chapter 2. You probably realized we were going to get here eventually, but I just feel compelled to make sure everyone here understands that there is a faith that doesn't save.

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There's a faith that's superficial, a faith that's built on the sinful deception of men, blinding by Satan, some kind of truncated gospel that you received, who knows?

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But 2nd chapter of James, verse 19, James is talking about faith that does something, a faith that has to have works follow, no works that save, but if God has changed you, you'll be different.

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And here we have what Lenski called the most stunning illustration of dead faith in the Bible. And this is like some kind of yellow jacket sting.

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You believe that God is one, James 2 .19, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder.

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Paul is going to shatter the faith that doesn't save. Confronting this objector.

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You believe that God is one, James doesn't say, now we are all together, we're apostles, we're all these people.

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No, you believe, I'm not going to associate with that kind of talk that just says you can believe something in your mind and it doesn't change you, because when

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God gives you faith, it's a faith that saves, it's a faith that sanctifies. You believe that God is one and the unity of the

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Godhead? For people today, you believe that you're a Trinitarian and you're better than Arians and Jehovah's Witnesses, that God is one, hear

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O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, you believe that?

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The most basic foundational truths, well that's interesting, the demons also believe.

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And by the way, they do something better than that. You say you believe, they, demons, have better faith than you do, because demons' faith is not just intellectual, it's emotional too.

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What do demons do? The demons also believe and shudder. What an amazing passage this is.

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I guess the only way I can try to teach it is to try to show you the sarcasm that's in there.

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You believe that there's a God. You believe that Jesus was born.

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You believe he died on the cross for sins. You believe that he was raised from the dead. You believe he's coming back.

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And that's all you believe? James says sarcastically, big deal.

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Because the demons believe all that and it causes them to react.

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Less than saving faith, I'm not saying demons are going to heaven, but demons know the Holy One of God is going to judge them and what do they do in the life of Jesus?

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They were afraid. I know judgment is coming, just not now. There's an emotional response.

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For me, maybe this hits so close to home, is because I knew all this stuff, but it made no impact on my life at all.

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I wasn't changed, I wasn't even afraid. Because I had a little inoculation. I had some water sprinkled on my head as an infant and I was good to go.

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And I had more inoculation, because when I would go to the Lutheran funerals, what would happen? Very first thing, out comes some kind of person dressed in some kind of formal robe with crosses and lambs and sticks and things, and then they'd say, based on this person's baptism as an infant, they're in heaven now, we know that, oh

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Lord. More inoculation, more inoculation. When we know that person who died couldn't have cared less about Jesus, worshipped their own life with all their heart, soul, mind and strength, and now some kind of false teacher is going to further inoculate me by saying, he's in heaven.

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His faith, a person on earth, if God hadn't changed him, isn't even as good as a demon's who says, yikes, the

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Latin word for shudder is horao, I'm horrified by this. You say, this is no way to build a church.

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This is no way to get people to come, we're supposed to feel light. By the way, this is my Mother's Day message today.

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Happy Mother's Day. I'm not after a mega church.

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I'm after everybody who's sitting in this room, who I will have to bury if you live long enough, and I do too.

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And I want your faith to be found in Christ Jesus, to the effect that it has changed you, has made you born again.

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If you really believe, you will be different. I don't care if people like,

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I mean, I do care, I want people to like me, but I want something more than that. With fear and trembling, here's the message,

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Lord, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living

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God. Oh, I had this experience, I spoke in tongues,

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I had a feeling, God gave me just kind of a peaceful feeling in my heart, I had kind of a burning in my bosom,

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I had this and I had that. Some people have intellectual faith and emotional, and that's still not saving.

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Because James is saying this, intellectual, emotional, that yields itself in the work of the

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Lord. Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is less than demonic.

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They have a faith that is afraid, but they don't do the works of Christ Jesus. One man said this,

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I didn't say it, but he did. He said, this is a sarcastic compliment. You have achieved a place lower than demons, if you just say you believe.

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When God saves you, you have this view of Christ now that you say, he is precious, he is wonderful, he is majestic, he is holy, he's the king, he's my king,

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I'll follow him, I'll worship him. Demons don't see the beauty of Christ Jesus.

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If you're really saved, your life will begin to change on the inside out. God declares you righteous based on Christ's work, and then he begins to rot in your soul.

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I don't even know how to say it. To rot in your soul? No. He began to rot in your soul, that doesn't sound right either.

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He begins to work in your soul. And there's this direction now of, I want to please. I'm not saying if you're an immature

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Christian, you're not a Christian. There are baby steps, there are steps, there's growth.

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But the growth begins at justification, because that's when God regenerates, and you begin to change your life.

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You begin to be transformed in the same image from glory to glory, as 2 Corinthians 3 says. You begin to say, you know,

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I used to just do things because I had to and I was told to, and now, although sometimes I struggle and still say that,

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I do lots of things because I want to. I get enjoyment serving the Lord and serving the king. Probably the most, probably the largest group in this church of people who struggle with creedal faith alone that won't save, are you ready, is our children.

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Because our children, I believe, have been taught the right things. And if you hear our children say you can get to heaven by another way, well we correct that.

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And our children know, creedally, the right things. And so it's our responsibility, it's our privilege, yes, to teach the

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Bible and to tell the children, not just, well, you know, you accepted Jesus in your heart 15 years ago and you're good to go, never go back to that time, to say, you say you believe, good.

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That's better than if a kid comes to you and says, I don't believe, daddy. When your kid says, I believe, you say, good, and you encourage that faith.

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But you never say, well, that particular moment you believed and therefore will always go back to there. And as you see their lives change, you start becoming more assured that it's a

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Holy Spirit -wrought change. It's harder, see, in our circumstances, because if you meet the heroin addict, if you meet the transgendered, if you meet the adulterer, and God saves them and they run away from heroin, they run away from transgender, and they run away from adultery, we see it because it's a change on the outside.

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But it is hard to see that change on the inside of a pastor's kid, the deacon's kid.

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I do not want you to stand before God on that day when you will, if you're without Christ, shudder.

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You'll finally shudder. The demons shudder now because they know how bad it is. And if you're without Christ and you stand before God Almighty on Judgment Day, you will shudder and shudder and shudder and shudder and shudder and shudder.

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You say, that's unloving. It's love incarnate to tell people, consider your soul.

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There are no unbelievers in hell. Oh, they believe, all right. First Corinthians 15, it talks about holding fast the word which

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I preached to you unless you believed in vain. There's a faith that is a vain faith.

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How about Sardis? Jesus said to Sardis that you have a name that you're alive, but you are what?

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Dead. Well, I said three questions, so let me just give you the two rapid fire.

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Number two, did you respond to the biblical Jesus or the lowest common denominator

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Jesus? The truncated Jesus, the watered down Jesus, the

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Jesus without wrath, without holiness, without hell. You ever committed a sin?

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Yes, I've sinned. Okay. You're a sinner. You ever committed a lie? Yes, I've lied. Okay. You're a liar.

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Okay. Now you're good to go and let me tell you about Jesus. Romans chapter three, turn with me if you would to Romans chapter three.

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Just very quickly, I'm not going to get to all three questions, but that's all right.

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Romans chapter three, we are to preach to other people the law of God, the standard of God, the attributes of God till the point where they come to their senses and they say this, if what you say is true,

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I am undone and I'm going to hell, I need help. Then we present the savior.

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Too often people offer Jesus for what? They don't understand the gravity of sin and the heinousness of sin.

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The object of one that they sin against. But Romans chapter three, I think is very, very helpful.

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Don't offer Jesus too soon because Jesus came to save those who knew they weren't righteous.

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Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law. So that what?

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Every mouth may give an excuse, oh, evolution, oh, I'm good, I'm not as bad as other people.

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Some have been loud and still worse. I've been baptized. I've been catechized. I went on a missions trip.

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I go to church. My dad's a pastor. All these rationalizations are not right. You preach the standard of God, the holiness of God, the attributes of God, the law of God, the law of Christ.

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And what did the person say? The person, if God is drawing them and working in their heart, here's what they say.

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If you're right, look at the text so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world be held accountable to God.

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Because every answer they give is a works answer. So Paul says in verse 24, by the works of the law, no human being, no

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Jew, no Gentile will be justified in his sight. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin and then the skies open.

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But now, hallelujah, the righteousness of God has been manifested.

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It's shown up apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

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For all who believe, there's no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

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Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show

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God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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And what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law?

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By a law of works? No, by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

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I want your faith to be in Christ Jesus alone.

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And I want it to not be superficial. I want it to be saving. And I want your faith to be such that when you look and others look, the response is it was by the grace of God and God's power and God's might and God's spirit that that person is who he is.

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You said the DL Moody was accosted on the streets of Chicago one day by a drunk who said, Aren't you

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Moody? Why, I'm one of your converts. Moody said,

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That must be true for you surely are not one of the Lord's converts. I want you to be one of the

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Lord's converts, and I want you to repent of your sins if you're not a believer and trust in Christ alone today.

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Our Heavenly Father, we are humbled this morning to know that for all of us here who are

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Christians, we didn't become Christians because we were good or we did something.

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Father, we are probably greater sinners than those today who are sitting here not saved.

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Father, but you opened your eyes and you taught us that we have sinned an infinite sin against an all glorious being, taught us about sin and holiness.

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And Lord, because of Christ's work, because of the Spirit's work, you've helped us no longer love our sin, but to hate it, not to follow after the world, but to reject it, not to play like we know

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God, but to have a desire to know him and to be known by him. So Father, I pray today for Bethlehem Bible Church and friends and family members, elders, deacons, kids, that your

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Spirit would do its heart work and let those not sleep nor rest until they are convinced in their mind that there's no longer no condemnation in them because in fact

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Jesus paid for their condemnation. And they believe that by faith. So Lord, would you reap a harvest today?

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Would you do something wonderful in our church? And may you show us the fruit, if it would be your will, in regeneration and baptism to follow.