Salvation: God's Power VS. Man's Power

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Alright, so the first thing I want to talk about is salvation. So maybe

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I can start picking your brains. There's a couple different answers to this, but just to get your head going in the right direction because we don't have the what's -its.

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Salvation is a question of what? Faith, okay, yeah, that's certainly a correct answer.

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Grace, absolutely. Absolutely. What else? Uh, no,

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I wouldn't, but certainly the obedience of faith would be along the lines.

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What as, as Reformed Baptists, it's a question of God, which is to say it's a question of power, right?

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It's a question of powers, power. God's power or man's power.

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So there's two options that Christians can look at. One is called monergism, okay, mono meaning one, erg meaning energy or power.

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It's one power that saves us. Or synergism, synergism is more or many.

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It's more than one power or cooperation, working together for salvation.

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So we have monergism. Salvation is the work of God and God alone or synergism.

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Salvation is the work of God plus something else or someone else. So is salvation monergistic?

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Thank you. Or is it synergistic? Is it a cooperative effort of man and God?

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So tonight, obviously I want to go through some of the scriptures that are going to talk about this and hope that, I am going to include that on the video forever, forever.

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So you guys all know this, this scripture, right? For I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the

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Jew first and also the Greek. So right there, the gospel is the power of whom, right?

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So the phrase, it is, it is for it is the power of God is translated literally, it is the operation of God's power or it is

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God's working that, that accomplishes this, right?

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And that word power is a word dunamis, right? You hear people using this to describe the word dynamite.

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Now that's an anachronistic. They're reading that back into the text. That's not what the word means. It just means power.

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However, when we look up this word in the scriptures in the New Testament, the word dunamis is also the word for miracle.

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So when you see signs, wonders and miracles, that last word miracle is dunamis, dunamis power.

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So when we talk about the, the, the power of God, the gospel is the power of God.

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We're talking about the miracle of God's work in our heart. The fact that anybody is saved is a miracle of God because it is not man's cooperation or man's effort that achieves that.

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This is going to exalt God. This is going to give God glory for saving people, for saving sinners who don't deserve to be saved.

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This is not God up here, you down here and God saying, come on, just jump a little higher.

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Come on, just, just reach out your hand. It's not what this is. This is God's power.

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As Jonah says, salvation belongs to the Lord. Salvation is of the

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Lord from beginning to end. And that's real, real important. So before we talk about God's power,

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I want to talk about man's power or man's inability. So I'm going to go through something called the 10 cannots.

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Now I'm going to go, I'm going to list them all and then I'm going to go through them one by one. So if you, if you see them and you want to write them down, don't worry, we're going to go through them one by one.

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So the Bible informs us that men are finite sinners who cannot bring forth good fruit, cannot hear

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Christ's word so that they may have life, cannot subject themselves to the law of God, cannot please

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God, cannot discern the truths of the spirit of God, cannot confess from the heart

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Jesus as Lord, cannot control the tongue, cannot come to Christ, cannot even receive the

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Holy Spirit, and last, cannot see the kingdom unless they're born again.

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This highlights man's inability. This is basically man's resume.

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So if he applies for the job, you're like, you cannot do it. This is what the

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Bible says. You can't accomplish what you think you can, and that's very important to understand.

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So let's go through them one by one. We'll read them in context, okay, and talk about each one.

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So the Bible informs us that men are finite sinners who cannot bring forth good fruit. Matthew 7, 18 says, a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.

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Again, in Luke 6, for no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its fruit.

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So if I had an apple tree and I commanded the apple tree to produce oranges, what would happen?

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Nothing. Thank you. Because the apple tree cannot produce oranges.

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Why? Because it's an apple tree. That's its nature. The same, in the same way, we by nature are sinners.

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So all we can do, anything we do in and of ourselves, of our own efforts, is going to be tainted by sin because of our nature.

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So the illustration I always like to use is a lion. If you put a plate of raw meat in front of a lion, or a plate of healthy vegetables, which is the lion going to go after?

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The raw meat, why? That's his nature. Exactly. He may taste the vegetables and spit them out like I do, eventually he's going to go back to the raw meat because that's what he loves, that's his nature.

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It's the same thing with a sinner. We don't sin and then become sinners, we come out of our mother's womb sinful.

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Our nature is sinful, therefore everything that comes out of us, out of our mouths and in our works is tainted by sin because we're sinners by nature.

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So this is a question of nature for man. Man's nature is sinful, therefore everything he does is sinful.

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Not utterly sinful. Everything that we do is touched by sin, but it's not as bad as we could be.

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The old adage is, even Hitler loved his mother. So although Hitler's a really, really bad guy, worse than most of us in here, and most of us haven't killed 12 million people, we've murdered people in our heart, but even

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Hitler loved his mother. In fact, he loved his wife, but that's another story. So the

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Bible informs us that men are finite sinners who cannot hear Christ's word that they might have life. John 8 .43,

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Jesus says, why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear my word.

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Remember, the word hear for the Jews meant it was combined with hearing and doing.

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So, when I tell my kids, listen to me, I'm not commanding them to just hear the words

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I'm saying, I want them to hear those words and then act on them. So although the

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Jews could hear the words of Jesus, they were unable to accomplish them because hearing and doing are one thing to the

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Jews. Now, how many times does Jesus say, he who has ears, let them hear?

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Number of times. Why would he say that if they could hear him and understand what he said? That'd be very odd.

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He who has ears, hear what I'm saying. What is he saying? He's saying, listen, physically, you'll hear what

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I'm saying. Spiritually, this is a whole different ballgame. You by nature are not spiritual, but by the power of God, when he commands something, okay,

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Jesus says, I know my sheep, my sheep know me. His sheep are going to hear his words and then act on them.

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Because it's God's power, not man's power. So far, man cannot hear, and what was the first one?

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Cannot bear good fruit. Next, the Bible informs us that men are finite sinners who cannot subject themselves to the law of God.

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Romans 8, 7. The mind set on the flesh is hostile towards God, does not subject itself to the law of God.

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It is not even able to do so. Now that word enmity, hostile, is that word enmity, okay, which means hate on steroids.

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It's like mega hate. You are at enmity. God is your enemy, and you are his enemy.

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Okay, this actually happened back in the garden. One of God's promises to Adam and Eve was,

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I'm going to put enmity between you and the serpent. Now, did it ever dawn on you, why did

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God have to put enmity between us and the serpent? Exactly, because there was no enmity.

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We were sitting on his side and loving it. So he had to place the enmity between us, that was between us and God, and redirect it.

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Now the enmity is between us and our enemy, properly. We should hate the things that God hates, which would be what

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Satan stands for. He's the father of lies. So our enmity was between us and God.

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We started off that way. He shifts that enmity to between us and Satan, okay.

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So we're not even able to submit ourselves to the law of God because in our flesh we suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

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We love our sin. Men loved darkness and hated the light because their deeds were evil.

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So we are born into this world loving our sin, and that needs to be changed.

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Again, it's a question of nature. Next we cannot please God, Romans 8 .8. This is like the one -two punch,

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Romans 8 .7, 8 .8. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

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In the flesh, you cannot please God. So here's the question I usually ask my friends who hold to synergism, there's only two natures you can possibly be in.

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You are either in the flesh, or you are in the spirit. Is there a third option?

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No. Okay. If you are in the flesh, can you please

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God? No. Would repenting be pleasing to God?

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Would confessing Jesus as Lord be pleasing to God? Would trusting in Jesus be pleasing to God?

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Can you do that in your flesh? Good. Alright. So you have to be in the spirit.

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Then you can confess Jesus as Lord. Then you can repent. Then you can trust in Him. So the question becomes, a human being hears the gospel.

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How can a man in the flesh respond? The synergist will say, okay,

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God gives prevenient grace. He opens your eyes and gives you an opportunity to choose

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Him or reject Him at that point. Here's the question you want to ask. At that point, is

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He in the spirit or is He in the flesh? Where is He? If He's in the flesh,

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He cannot please God. If He's in the spirit, He's regenerated already.

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Okay? How can a man in the flesh, dead to the things of God, now all of a sudden have eyes to see?

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Ears to hear? A human being with eyes that can see and ears that can hear is alive.

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Right? Please shake your head. Okay. Thank you. Don't worry me.

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So, in order for you to make a move towards God, something has to happen to you spiritually.

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The gospel is the power of God for salvation. He brings you to life.

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Okay? Draws you to Him such that now you hear the gospel and you cling to it. You recognize that your life, everything you've done up until that point is sinful, worthy of God's judgment.

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God offers you a pardon. You run and you cling to it. That cannot happen to a man in the flesh.

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Has to be in the spirit. So, what's the question you're going to ask? In this act of provenient grace where God's spirit does something to the heart and mind of man, is

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He in the flesh or is He in the spirit at that moment? That's the question. If He's in the spirit, well then

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He's spiritually alive. If He's in the flesh, He's dead and can't answer. Okay? Alright, good.

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So, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Next, the Bible informs us that men are sinners who cannot discern the truths of the spirit of God.

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1 Corinthians 2 .14 The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are folly to him.

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He is not able to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. Okay?

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It would be like if somebody came to you and started speaking Swahili. You'd be like, great!

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Unless anybody in here knows Swahili, it's not going to make sense to you at all. In the same way, the

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Gospel doesn't make sense to people who are dead in their sins, who are alive to the flesh. The Gospel is only going to make sense to somebody who has ears to hear and eyes to see.

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So, the man in the flesh cannot understand the things of the spirit. God has to open your understanding.

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Again, if God opens your understanding, are you in the flesh or in the spirit? You're in the spirit.

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Which means you have spiritual life already. Now, some people are like, so you're telling me

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God commands us to be born again, but He births us and then we have to confess Jesus as Lord?

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I'm like, well, let me ask you something about your birth. When your mother gave birth to you and you came out of your mother's womb, did you breathe in order to become alive?

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Or did you breathe because you were alive? Exactly. Same thing spiritually.

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You don't breathe physically and then come to life. You breathe physically because you're alive.

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Same thing spiritually. You don't confess Jesus as Lord in order to be born spiritually.

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You confess Jesus as Lord because the Spirit has birthed you already. Making sense? Good. This is important.

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Most people are going to reject man's inability. This is the hinge, this is what

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Luther says, this is the hinge upon which everything swings. If you don't get this right, nothing else is going to make sense when it comes to the doctrines of grace.

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And again, this is God honoring. We're not elevating man to the point where he's able to do something and God's not able to save him.

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Psalm 115, what can God do? Whatever He pleases.

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Thank you. Oh, gosh. If that hasn't been drummed into your head. Keep going.

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The Bible informs us that men are finite sinners who cannot come to Christ. Do you know this verse? No one can come to me unless the

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Father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. Now, there's two ways to look at that word, draw.

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One of them is right and one of them is wrong. Most synergists are going to say, oh, that's when God woos you.

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He's wooing you. Like He sends you a flower, a card. I'm over here, come on, let's date.

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He's not a boyfriend, no. It's a bad analogy. Wooing is not the right word. The word in Greek means to drag.

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They were dragging Paul and Silas into court. The word for drag is the same word for draw here.

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God is doing a work. This is the power of God. He's pulling you to Him. Why does

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He have to pull you to Him? You're pulling away. We don't want the things of God.

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I was explaining to a buddy of mine last night. I had a great opportunity to witness to Him and we're going to pray for Him tonight. He's like, well, what happened?

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I said, God pulled me in. I didn't ask for this. My God was a little white ball and green lawns, 18 holes on a

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Sunday morning. Offer me that or church, I'm playing golf. I never would have chose

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Christ. He chose me, changed me. So my desires are different. No one, no human being can come unless the

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Father pulls that person to Him. The Bible informs us that men are finite sinners who cannot confess from the heart

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Jesus is Lord. 1 Corinthians 12 .3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says

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Jesus is accursed. No one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit.

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There are people who can mouth those words. That's not what this is saying. When it says confess Jesus, does it say confess?

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No one can say Jesus except in the Holy Spirit. If you truly are born of God's spirit, you're going to tell people that Jesus is

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Lord. That's going to be something that you cherish, not something that you use as a means to gain approval or just to act

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Christian. You're going to mean it from the heart. There are many who are going to come to Jesus on the last day and say,

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Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name, cast out demons, perform miracles? He's going to say, depart from me,

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I never knew you. So confessing Jesus as Lord from the heart is something wrought by the spirit and done through us, to us.

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The Bible informs us that men are sinners who cannot control the tongue. But no human being contains the tongue.

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It's a restless evil full of deadly poison. Everybody agree with that one?

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Should, it's the truth. Come to my house, you'll see it in action. Alright, sorry. Anyway, the

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Bible informs us that men are finite sinners who cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Think about this. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you.

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The world, all of the people in the world, cannot receive the spirit. Again, because they're in the flesh.

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They don't want the things of the spirit. John would later say, or earlier say, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it's given to him from heaven.

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Unless God gives you his spirit, you will not be able to receive it. Okay? Yes?

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Do you agree then that people tend to misconstrue John 3, 16? Sure. When they say, who all will believe it?

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They assume that that means that their view of synergism is correct? Yes. Correctly speaking, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

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Literally, the Greek says, all the believing ones. Okay? What does

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John 3, 16 tell us about man's ability? Huh? Nothing.

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It's an indicative. It's a description. Whoever trusts in Jesus, whoever believes on Jesus will be saved.

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Do we believe that? Yeah. That tells us nothing about the ability of us to come to Jesus.

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In fact, three chapters later John would say, no one can come to me unless. No one, universal, unless.

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Right? It's a qualifier. God has to do the work. And even if somebody does believe on Jesus and it's their own choice and let's say synergism is true.

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How many times a day do they have to believe on Jesus? How many times a week?

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How many times a month? How many times a year? Do you think in one day, one week, one month, one year, they may not believe in Jesus?

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If they don't believe in Jesus for that moment, does that exclude them from eternal life? If it's a question of your will, well then you have to be believing on him.

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And that word believe in John 3 .16 is ongoing active belief. It's something only the spirit of God can do in our hearts.

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Every time you sin, is that belief or unbelief? Unbelief. So if it's a question of man's ability and he sins and that means that you're not believing in God, well then he's excluded from eternal life.

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That verse works contrary to the synergistic point of view. Let's move on.

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So the Bible informs that men are finite sinners who cannot. That's how we should describe men.

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He cannot. Man cannot. Man does not equal power. You have no power.

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I don't care what kind of energizer bunny you've got running up and down your hallway, you don't have enough power.

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Such that even the doctor, Luke would say this, then who can be saved?

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But he said what is impossible with man is possible with God. So after you list all these cannots for your friend, what's the next word out of their mouths?

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Well then who can be saved? Ha! This is impossible. You're right. If it depended on you, it would be impossible.

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That's the point. That's why the gospel is such good news. Because it's God's work from beginning to end. So it's impossible with man, possible with God.

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Because God has the power to regenerate us, to sustain us, sanctify and glorify us.

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He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it. God doesn't start something like we do and then

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I leave my tools in the yard and it never gets done. What he starts, he finishes. We have that promise from God.

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I'm going to give you a picture right now of a guy who thinks he can choose Jesus and he can get to heaven based on his own will.

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He's not plugged into the power. He thinks he is because the power is himself.

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Is there any power running through that cord? No. But he thinks it is.

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We have to remember the Holy Spirit has to plug into us. Light us up by his power.

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Power stronger than any power we understand or know. A power that's going to sustain us from beginning to end.

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Remember Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. So we talked about God. We talked about man.

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Let's now talk about the ten nevers or cannots of God. The Bible informs us that those born of God will never perish, never thirst, never be judged, never hunger, never be cast out, never be lost, never die, never in darkness, never abandoned, and never left unguarded.

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So do you want to be saved by God's power or your power? God's power.

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Let's go through these. This is important. The Bible informs us that those born of God will never perish.

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John 3 .16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

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If you're believing on God, you're trusting in his son's perfect finished work on the cross, you have eternal life.

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Now what's the definition of eternal? Forever. Can you have eternal life and then not have eternal life?

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No. It wouldn't be eternal. So you want to remind the synergist that he doesn't have eternal life.

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He has temporary life as long as he carries it with him wherever he goes. Because it's up to him.

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If he opted in to Christianity by his own free will and that's what it's based on, then he can opt out.

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It's up to him. That's not good news. The whole Old Testament is designed to show us people opting in and never making it.

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They didn't make it. They can't. Because it's God's power that brings them in. The only reason they entered the

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Promised Land is because God delivered them out of Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land.

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It was designed to get them dependent on God. They'll never thirst. John 4 .14 But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

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The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The spirit of God, rivers of water will flow from our belly when

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God births us. Is that something coming from us? Or is that something coming from God?

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It comes from God. With the analogy with the little plug in the thing. When you're plugged into a real outlet that electric is flowing through those wires.

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The same thing when the Holy Spirit indwells you. It's His power that is going to be running through you to keep you believing.

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To keep you from falling. He's sustaining us every second of the day.

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Some people say, what about my free will? I say, what about your free will with your heart beat? How do you maintain that?

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Do you think about that all the time? I hope

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I don't forget to help my heart beat. You're not even doing that. We're so dependent on God for everything.

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Once the spirit indwells us that will flow continually. Now obviously the more you yield yourself over to God, the more

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God's going to flow through you and expand your faith. The Bible informs us that we will never be judged.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes in Him who sent me has eternal life.

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He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. We will not be judged whether we're going to heaven or hell.

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We will be judged based on all good works and receive rewards. Judgment, as far as in the presence of God or out of the presence of God, that judgment is gone.

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We've been judged already. Oh, I thought you were raising your hand Bob. Sorry.

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John 6, 35, we will never hunger. I like this one. Jesus said to them, I'm the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall never hunger and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

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So we're never going to have this hungering for something else in life or this thirst for something.

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We're going to be satisfied in Him. Now, again, this comes through the process of sanctification.

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The more you make, you avail yourself to the means of grace, Sunday, Monday at our house,

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Sunday night at Chris' house, Wednesday, the more you avail yourself to the means of grace, the more you're going to see yourself starting to hunger for this.

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I so look forward to Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, because I'm with the people of God and there's there's a grace that you experience to know that this, it's like we're shielded from the world.

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I hate to say, I hate to use the word bubble because it's not a bubble, because we're going to bubble wrap the whole earth, right, because that's what we are.

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We're going to take over. We're going to take dominion, but it's this peace that you have on Sunday mornings.

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It's the peace that I have on Wednesday when I come to prayer and hear teaching, hear God's word expounded upon.

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Okay. The Bible informs us that we'll never be cast out. All that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me,

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I will never cast out. Right? All that the Father gives me. What has to happen before you come to God, to Jesus?

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You have to be given to Him. You don't come to Jesus first and then the Father says, oh yeah,

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I'm going to give you to Him. Well, you're there already. The giving precedes the coming. So the

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Father gives a people to the Son. Right? They believe on Him. Right?

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The Son dies on their behalf and the Holy Spirit brings them to life. Again, this is something else

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I like to tell my synergistic friends. If you believe that it's a cooperative effort, you have

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God the Father electing a people, a group of people in Christ before the foundation of the earth.

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You have working with one group of people. Then you have Jesus dying for everyone. That's another group of people.

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Then you have the Holy Spirit wooing whoever He can to Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working with three different groups of people trying their best to save people.

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Whereas with the doctrines of grace, which is what the Bible teaches, you have the Father giving a people, a bride to His Son.

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You have the Son dying on behalf of the bride that He loves. Then you have the Holy Spirit bringing them to life and walking them down the aisle in preparation for the wedding supper of the

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Lamb. You have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working in perfect unity to bring about the salvation of His children.

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Gosh, that's beautiful. That's unbelievable. That's every romance story we've ever read or watched on TV where the prince goes and gets the...

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and you're like, oh, this is amazing. That's the gospel. Right? That's the gospel.

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Alright. I'm getting too mushy, right? It's not becoming for a

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Calvinist, you know. You'll never be lost. John 6, 39. This is the will of Him who sent me that I shall lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

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So, Mr. Synergist, how can you be lost if you're in God's hands? If this is the work of God, you can't be lost.

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If it's the work of man, not only can you be lost, you will be lost. Because you're not going to be able to sustain human belief, human faith in God from the moment you chose

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Him to the moment you die. Somewhere along the line, you're going to falter. Everyone does. So, you're either going to rest and trust in the power of God to save you, or you're going to rest and trust in the power of yourself to save you.

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Like that little strip. You're going to plug yourself into yourself. It's a recipe for disaster. Okay.

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The Bible informs us that those born of God will never die. John 11, 26. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

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Do you believe this? That's my question. Do you believe that? Do you believe that if you really believe and trust in Jesus that you have eternal life?

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That you will never die? Not physically. Die means separation from God.

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You will always be in God's presence. You will always experience His joy, His peace, His love.

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Do you believe that? Never darkness. John 12, 46.

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I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. Again, importance is the work of God.

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The Bible informs us that those of us who are born of God will never be abandoned. John 14, 18.

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I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live.

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You also will live. He's not going to leave us as orphans. We are adopted into the family of God.

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Never to be let go. He's going to hold onto us forever. We're never going to be unguarded.

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John 17, 12. While I was with them, I kept them in your name which you have given me. I have guarded them and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction that the

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Scripture might be fulfilled. What was it in the garden that Adam didn't do?

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He didn't guard his wife. He had one person to protect.

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You had one job. He had one woman to protect. What was he doing?

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Guard her. Where Adam fails in the garden, Jesus never fails to guard his wife.

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He will bring her home safely. He will keep her from falling. I love the benediction in you to him who is able to keep you from falling and present you before the throne without spot or blemish.

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Ah, thank you, Jesus. Okay, so the Bible informs us that God can do whatever he pleases.

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God equals power. When you're saved by God, when you're saved by God's power, you can have assurance.

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You can have confidence. You can be bold because you know that it's his power who saved you from beginning to end.

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This is not a work of man. Right? If it's by your power, your free will, you can never have assurance.

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Right? How many times have you changed your mind in your life? How many times have you changed your mind today?

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Right? How many times has God changed his mind? Never. He says, be grateful that I don't change.

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If I changed, you'd be consumed. Right? It's only because of Jesus' perfect work on the cross and his appeasement of God's wrath and the expiation.

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He takes our sin away from us and he absorbs God's wrath. Now God's disposition towards us is loving.

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The same way he loves the Son, he loves us. And because he's not a God who changes, that love that he bestowed upon us the moment we were born again is the love that he continues to bestow on us for all eternity.

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It doesn't end either. So, the question again becomes, who then can be saved?

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What is impossible, man? It's possible with God. It's only through God's power that any of us are saved.

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Okay? Questions? Concerns? When you mentioned before,

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John 8, 43, I'll read it. Why do you not, this is what

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Jesus was saying, why do you not understand what I am saying is because you cannot hear my word.

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I think that's more, not a physical hearing, but more of a hearing of understanding and of interest.

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Sure, absolutely. Absolutely. No, no. It's like the person who goes to church on Sunday, they hear the gospel, but they're so disinterested that they don't understand it because they're not applying themselves to understand it.

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This actually is in John chapter 1, I think it's verse 12. No one can see the

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Father unless the Son reveals Him. Now that word see doesn't mean see physically.

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No one can see God physically because He's a spirit. Okay? So the word see means understand.

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See what I'm saying? That's what it means. So no one can understand God except the

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Son reveal Him to us. That word reveal is exegesis. That's where we get the word exegesis. We pull out of the scriptures what it means and explain it to people.

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Jesus is the only one who can explain God perfectly because He is God. The Son. He's with the

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Father for all eternity and explains Him to us. So yeah, it's not physical ears. Like I said,

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Jesus says, He who has ears, let him hear. Everybody who was standing in front of Him had physical ears.

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So that's not what He means. He's talking about a spiritual understanding. Again, when the Spirit of God comes in and opens your eyes and opens your ears and changes your heart, now you can see, hear, and understand and accept.

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Did you have a question, Chris, or a comment? Alright. I guess that's that'll wrap it up.