Romans 3_13-18： Total Depravity： The Wickedness of Humanity
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Summary
In this episode of Real Christianity, Dale continues teaching on the doctrine of Total Depravity and why no man can come to God on his own. In this episode, we cover Romans 3:13-18, The Wickedness of Humanity.
Transcript
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In this episode of Real Christianity, I continue my teaching on the doctrine of total depravity
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and why no man can come to God on his own.
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This is Essential Christian Doctrine, and I encourage you to grab your Bible,
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pay attention, and get ready for some powerful truths.
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Welcome to Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge. Today's episode is titled
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Romans 3, 13 through 18, Total Depravity, The Wickedness of Humanity. Now, as you guys know,
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slash donate all right guys we are going to dive in today we're going to be covering part two of
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our two-week series on the sermon called total depravity why no man can come to god that was part
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one this is the part two uh the wickedness of humanity now if this was one sermon it would be
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be broken down into three sections. Last episode, you heard us cover section one and section
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two, which is the universal condemnation of men, which is chapter three, verses nine through
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10, and the universal condition of man, which is verses 10 through 12. Today, we're going
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to be talking about the universal acts of men, which is verses 13 through 18. Now, last
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week, we talked all about the total depravity and what that really looks like, that doctrine
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He had it as the general charge of unrighteousness,
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disordered actions, the cause of the disordering.
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that essentially that will lead to defective thinking and that defective thinking will lead
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to defective living. And so it's really this waterfall cascading effect that begins in the
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heart. And so if the heart is sick, everything else is sick as well. And that's really what Paul
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is getting at in this passage of scripture. Proverbs 4.23 says, keep your heart with all
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vigilance, for from it flows the springs of life. Luke 645, Jesus says, the good person out of the
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good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his treasure produces evil.
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For out of the abundance of his heart, his mouth speaks. Mark 7, 21 to 23, Jesus says,
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for from within out of the heart of man come evil thoughts sexual immorality theft murder adultery
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coveting wickedness deceit sensuality envy slander pride foolishness all these things come from
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within and they defile a person so in scripture the heart of man is often closely related or even
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synonymous with the soul of man it depends on the passage of scripture in the context in the journal
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the Society of Biblical Literature of Exegesis, this is from 1882, I found this really great
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paragraph. It says, in the great majority of its occurrences in the scriptures, the word heart is
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used figuratively. It is said to stand for the, quote, central part in general, the inside,
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and so for the interior man as manifesting himself in all of his various activities,
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in all his desires, affections, emotions, passions, purposes, his thoughts, perceptions,
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imaginations, his wisdom, knowledge, skills, his beliefs, and his reasonings, his memory,
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and his consciousness, end quote. So in short, we have to learn that when the heart and the soul
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of a man is unregenerate, that his soul is dead because his soul is separated from the source of
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life which is god that only death will flow out of him that's essentially the teaching that we're
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going to be hitting today is that when the heart is dead and the heart is disconnected unregenerate
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the soul is separated from its life source that it is dead and therefore only death will come out
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of that individual because the source the heart is dead when that person is alive and life is flowing
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then life will be coming out of this individual and so uh the greatest prayer i would say in the
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entire psalter in the book of psalms is psalm 51 10 which reads create in me a clean heart oh god
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and renew a right spirit within me without this prayer being answered a man first cannot be
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righteous we know that but they cannot see they cannot understand and they cannot behave properly
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and so this is why i believe it's really just an essential prayer because it is the starting point
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to salvation regeneration fruitfulness faithfulness in life jesus speaks to those who have been given
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a new heart in matthew uh 5 8 he says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god
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Ultimately, a regenerated heart that has been made spiritually alive, again, or a spiritual
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resurrection, being born again is another way of saying that, is the act of God producing
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this new life and uniting that once dead heart that was separated from him. Now, uniting himself
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with that individual, with that soul, that soul is now alive because it is connected to Christ.
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And we know this because the Holy Spirit is actually coming in and dwelling within the individual.
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And there is a uniting there where you are separated from God and now you are united to God.
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There is actually an entire doctrine called the doctrine of union that we are united in Christ.
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Now, if you read the book of Ephesians, you will hear that trend and theme over and over again.
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Now, in this passage of scripture, Paul is attempting to clarify with the uttermost force.
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and distinction that outside of Christ, this is your biography. Outside of being born again and
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resurrected and regenerate, this is the description of who you are, or it is the description of who
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you were. It is the description of those people who have not been born again. And this is really
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the totality of the discussion over the last two weeks or last week and this week. And so
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the previous episode, we learned about humanity's unrighteous state, their inability to comprehend
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spiritual things because they're spiritually dead and you cannot comprehend spiritual matters if
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you're not spiritually alive. It was about their unwillingness to seek for God. There was no
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interest. There was no desire to seek for God. And we also learned about their powerlessness
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to do anything that was good because even their good works were filthy rags because they weren't
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done to the glory of God. They were done separated from the life of God, separated in a posture to
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bring self-glorification or self-righteousness to present themselves to God, but they weren't
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actually done from a regenerate heart to the glory of Christ. So today we shift the matter
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from the dead heart to the materialization of that heart in the life of an individual who is not
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saved and again this is a biography of who we were prior to christ and if you want to read
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ephesians chapter 2 where paul writes and you were dead this past tense you were dead and then
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it goes down to verse 4 in chapter 2 and it says but god made us alive and so there's this between
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verses 2 or chapter 2 verse 1 through 3 it gives you again a similar description of what we see here
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destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known there is no fear
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of God before their eyes okay so in describing a wicked person Jesus said in Luke 6 45 for out of
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the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks in this verse Paul really includes the fullness of
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the mouth or the organ of communication, which would be the throat, the lips, the tongue,
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and the mouth. And he's showing a totality that's occurring here. He's demonstrating
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that wicked men pour out their wickedness through or out of their mouths. And this is absolutely
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true. And we can see this in reality. We can see this in our own experiences. Now, some of you
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know that I have a somewhat significant following on social media and I get to see a lot of the
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mouth being poured out in the comment section of my posts. Just last week, I posted about
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the immodesty of women that occur during the Halloween season and how the normal cultural
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perspective on modesty somehow shifts and allows women essentially to dress like prostitutes
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and nobody notices uh actually we all know that they do notice it and we know that fallen men
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appreciate that and we know what's really going on but i made this post and on twitter it had over
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5 600 comments of the most vile evil demonic wicked dark comments from both men and women
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it was really like satan's sewer just draining out in my comment section of my post and this
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is what we should expect it's really a fire hose of of the heart and so if the heart is dead and
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it has no life and it loves sin and it's not united to christ it's actually united to sin
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it's not alive to christ it's actually alive to sin we should expect the mouth to be a fire hose
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of death. And that's exactly what is true with our own personal experience, especially if you're
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on social media. But it's also true if you just watch the news or you have your own personal
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experience with relationships. Now, words are no small thing. Words are no small thing. We know
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this because Jesus in Matthew 12, 36 to 37 says, I tell you, on the day of judgment, people will
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give an account for every careless word they speak for by your words you will be justified
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and by your words you will be condemned and quote there will actually be a time where every one of
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those individuals that are writing these vile comments in my comment section on twitter will
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actually stand before the judge and give an account for every word that they said against
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against God's law, against God's righteousness, against one of God's saints. This is absolutely
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true. And this is what this passage in principle is teaching. It also talks about how vital words
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are. We know that Romans 10, 9 through 10 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
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and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart,
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one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved this is another
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moment where you see the connection between the heart and the mouth and so the heart is when it's
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dead it spews out wickedness and evil but when the heart is made alive it says that for with the
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heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved so that the the
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really the substance of the mouth shifts when the heart shifts and that's what's being taught here
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in a very real way the mouth is a mirror to the state of the soul and so yes we know that
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that saints sin and saints still say terrible things but generally speaking the mouth is a
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mirror to the state of the soul. And there is one-off occurrences of failure and sin,
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but the general normative flow of a person's mouth can really tell you about the state of
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their heart. And so if, again, the soul is dead, then the mouth will spew out death.
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And if the soul is alive, the mouth will sing out life and will be fruitful and joyful and filled
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with things of the Lord. And this is the exact imagery that Paul is using here. The throat
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is really, the throat of the wicked, I should say, is really, as he says, is an open grave.
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And so the grave is the heart and the throat is opening and it really emits fumes of death. So
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there's some kind of unique poetic language here that is really articulate in explaining
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what is true. The tongue is a tool of deception is what Paul says here in, what is it? It says
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with their tongues, they keep on deceiving in verse 13. And it says their lips are poison
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and intended to kill. They are weapons intending to pierce. And so one thing that I think about
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is there's a relationship here that in doing my study, I thought this was really interesting.
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There's a relationship here. There's a parallel between, we know that the enemy, Satan, is
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basically explained as a serpent. And how do serpents kill? They kill with their mouths,
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with their fangs um and so there's some sort of association here with their lips being poison um
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you know i'll read the passage again with their tongues they keep on deceiving the poison of
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asp is under their lips whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness there is a relationship
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here a corollary between um the uh the serpent and those who are submitting to the to their
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master which is the serpent and there is a corollary between those who have been made alive
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and their relationship with their mouth uh to jesus christ and being redeemed and so
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some interesting stuff there but essentially they are venomous like their father the devil
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ultimately their mouths are just full of hate and so you can you can spend just about five minutes
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on my Twitter account and receive a full HD manifestation of this passage of scripture
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and you can go wow that is true that's exactly true of these people who don't love the Lord it's
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absolutely brutal and should by the evidence validate what the apostle is actually saying
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in this passage of scripture about the heart and soul of man.
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meaning that Paul is saying when you're spiritually dead,
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then we can say that that claim is also reliable.
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And so this is a very helpful way to examine and evaluate
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what the scriptures are saying is that they come back true.
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does not seek for God, does not allow for the righteousness of God, does not follow God,
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does not do any good. And he has proven that all those things are true by his mouth. He has
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proven that he is disinterested, doesn't understand, hates God, all those things come
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out of his mouth. And so he must be what? Mercifully, graciously, sovereignly resurrected
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from the heart in order for him to do anything that would be glorifying to God. So let's read
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verses 15 through 17. It says, their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery
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are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before
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their eyes so the apostle moves from the mouth to the body and so there's a sense of of he's
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covering different parts he was maybe covering the mind even before in verses 10 through 13.
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he's going to the mouth he's going to the body he's demonstrating a total depravity of the entire
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being of a lost person and that's really what that doctrine means it doesn't mean that we are
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as bad as we could be we know that common grace really prevents those things from occurring god's
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god's actually restraining evil in the world but there is a total depravity meaning that
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the heart uh the dead heart depraves our mind it depraves our thoughts it depraves our words
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it depraves our bodies it depraves our actions it depraves our entire being we are totally
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depraved and that's really what the doctrine means so bloodshed um as it talks about here
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their feet are swift to shed blood bloodshed is the biography of mankind we know this to be true
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history is violent and it's full of chaos and carnage um every war riot bombing shooting and
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murder a test to the truth of the apostles claim now you guys know that i'm a post-millennial
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and i do believe that we are going to start to see over the next centuries to come and millennia to
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come that as the gospel continues to be proclaimed and the lord continues to save and turn sinners
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into saints that there will be a reduction of evil in the world now it might not happen in the
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next 50 years but i believe that we are actually seeing a reduction of evil in the world i know it
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might not feel like that because we have amplified it with the internet but the reality is is that
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you know a millennia or two ago we were watching lions and bears eat people alive for sport and
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and we're not doing that now prostitution was widespread and legal that is not true now um
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there is far more laws and things that are going on that that have really shown that there is
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actually an improvement generally speaking in morality now we know that god's sanctification
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of the world and the progress of the great commission is like a uh can be viewed almost
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like a stock market from our perspective it looks like it's going up and then down and then up but
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if you zoom out generally the trend is going upward is that there are more christians in the
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world than there was 500 years ago and there were more christians then than there was 500 years
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before that and there were more christians then than there was 500 years before that that the
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lord is continuing to convert the masses and we should ask ourselves the question why would we
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we ever consider why would we ever think that that would stop if Christ is at the head of his
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church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it and the kingdom of God is like leaven
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that will leaven the entire lump why would we consider that the church would get smaller it's
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not it's going to continue to grow and get bigger but however we do have this historical reality
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that the fallenness of man is painted across the pages of history and and the wars and the shootings
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and the child uh school shootings and the suicides and all these things are all over here and I'm not
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saying that there will be a point where there will be no sin i am just saying that the lord
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is going to continue to permeate the earth with his gospel and the great commission will be
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fulfilled and we can have hope that the church will continue to grow and the world will continue
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to lose to king jesus and so when we talk about just the the raw numbers of wickedness you know
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because it's really easy self-love is blinding it's easy for us to think that we're not as bad
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as we really are let me just give you an idea just a picture historically john macarthur cited
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in one of his books from i think it's from maybe 20 30 years ago he says even in the united states
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with its christian heritage since the turn of the 20th century twice as many of its citizens
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have been slain in private acts of murder than have been killed in all the wars of its entire
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history so there has been more death in private acts of murder in america than we have experienced
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in all of the wars revolutionary civil uh war uh world war one world war ii you know korean war
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or all the Vietnam War and so forth, there has been more acts of private murder than casualties
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of all those wars combined. And so, we are absolutely experiencing and seeing the truth
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of this passage of scripture reign true here on earth historically. Now, he says in this passage
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here verse 17 and the path of peace they have not known so ultimately peace is foreign to
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mankind it's foreign uh civility is the only possible uh path uh which is in again by god's
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grace that keeps civility going is that it's uh you know what are some other things that keep
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civility the fear of punishment and consequences i'm not going to murder that person because i
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don't want to go to jail um or there's some sort of personal benefit for civility i i like it that
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my neighbors don't steal my things um so i'm gonna you know sustain my desire to steal and destroy
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because i i it actually benefits me um but true peace again that peace that's fueled by love
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is unknown to the world now again my argument earlier for the post-millennial view is that
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uh i don't believe that the world is going to change and all of a sudden uh everything's gonna
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start getting better i think that the gospel is going to continue to permeate and infiltrate the
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culture as it has we started with what 12 guys that uh basically go out with the great commission
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and so we're talking about 0.0.0 you know one percent of the population is christian in the
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world and now we're at 31 of the world's population confesses christ i know that's
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an inflated number and that not every individual actually is converted but the reality is is that
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number is massive and it's continuing to grow and it's because the great commission will not stop
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and jesus will not stop converting sinners into saints and so we can trust that we are going to
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see some sort of a reduction uh it doesn't mean that sin is going to go away and there's still
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going to always be true that people that are lost this biography will be true of them but we are
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going to see that there is hope for the church and that the world will continue to be redeemed
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because god loves the world um first john 4 8 says anyone who does not love does not know god
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because god is love so the the ability to love is dependent upon your relationship with the lord
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now the world's form of love which isn't real love because real love has a concern for eternity
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real love has a concern for your relationship with the lord um worldly love which is really a
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form of lust or a form of you know maybe camaraderie uh or whatever whatever it may be
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is not a biblical definition of love a biblical definition of love must be glorifying to god and
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so the people that don't know god don't actually love according to scripture they have a form of
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love but it's not a biblical form of love and so uh this is something that therefore because
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they don't have love they can't have uh it's it's it's again representative of their lack of a
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relationship with god god is love and therefore they can't have the other fruits of the spirit
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which is peace joy and so these are again we have superficial peace we have superficial joy
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uh but we're not actually having true peace we're not having true joy we're not having true love
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because those things are only true when our souls are connected the source of those realities which
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is god and so paul closes with this uh description of the cause and you know he just finished
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doing this awful you know comprehensive explanation of mankind and then he sums it up with
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the source of all of it why why is it like this why do we behave this way why do we not understand
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and why do we not seek for god and why do we have no desire why can't we do good and why do we let
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death flow out of our mouths and why do we uh you know try to kill people and murder people and why
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do we not have peace and why have we turned our own way why uh this the summation of that is really
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answered in verse 18 says there is no fear of god before their eyes and this statement is taken from
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psalm 36 1 which says transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart there is no fear of god
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before his eyes end quote um the fear of the lord is an important theological maxim i wish we had
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time to do an entire episode on the fear of the lord you could do a 25-part series on the fear
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of the lord the term the fear of the lord is used 127 times in the old testament and 25 times
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in the new testament now the frequency uh difference between those two testaments is
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only because the page count is different the old testament is much thicker and longer than the uh
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than the new testament so there is still a ongoing consistent trend of the fear of the lord in the
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Now the fear of the Lord is not being afraid of the Lord.
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that has a good relationship with his children,
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his children should have a reverential fear for their father
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And so there's far more metaphors and analogies
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are bookended with the concept of the fear of the Lord.
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the opening, the concluding stanza of that first proverb
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is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
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Now, so you have that as the opening side.
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Now, in the final stanza of the book of Ecclesiastes,
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which is Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived,
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So ultimately, the most essential principle in life
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And that creator has the right to tell his creation
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because this creator is perfect and holy and just, his creatures must know that God must punish those
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creatures who sin against his will. And that's how we have a just God. And this is really the exact
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problem that man has. There is no fear of God before their eyes, is what Paul says here. There
00:31:36.540
is no submission they are insubordinate they are rejecting god's right over his creation
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and there is no awe of his majesty there is no respect for his jurisdiction there's no reverence
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for his authority in their life there is no concern for his commands again man is insubordinate
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out of submission um self-ruling wanting to be god themselves uh this is again part of the fallen
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in genesis 3 is to be like god that is the fundamental flaw of mankind i i will say
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something as kind of a caveat just because we don't fear the lord as fallen man doesn't mean
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that we don't fear man is full of fear it's full of the wrong fear they fear rulers they fear
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consequences they fear death they fear worry they fear anxiety they fear uh you know conflict they
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fear all these different things they they fear shame and guilt they fear pain they fear sickness
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they fear these things and they fear them all more than they fear god i once counseled a
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gentleman who was looking at inappropriate content on the internet and i remember his statement to
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me that his chief fear was the anger of his wife that that continued to come out and for that
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reason he refused to tell her of his transgression against her in their marriage uh in other words
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really he feared his wife more than he feared god his main concern wasn't that he sinned against god
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he was afraid of the consequences it wasn't even a concern for his wife he was afraid of the
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consequences that would be afflicted upon him obviously this was indicative that he wasn't
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regenerate his concern wasn't for the lord he didn't have the fear of the lord before his eyes
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he had no problem sinning this way as long as his wife didn't need to know so yes he he didn't feel
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bad about the sin he felt guilty about getting caught he felt guilty about his uh shame um he
00:33:52.060
felt um concerned about uh you know the consequences would come as a result of being known about these
00:33:58.940
realities uh and his concern wasn't primarily with breaking god's will for his life but the
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consequences and shame that would come as a result and so that's pretty common we fear these things
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but it's a misplaced fear we have a misprioritization of fear i'm going to read you a
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couple quotes oswald chambers once said the remarkable thing about god is that when you
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fear god you fear nothing else whereas if you do not fear god you fear everything else
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the great puritan writer william gurnall said quote we fear men so much because we fear god
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so little a gk chesterton once said when man's terror scares you turn your thoughts to the wrath
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of god uh john flavel said the carnal person fears man not god the strong christian fears god not man
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the weak christian fears man too much and god too little end quote now i think out of all these
00:35:01.580
statements on fear these quotes on fear i think tozer a w tozer hits the nail on the head when
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he says no one can know the true grace of god who is not first known the fear of god see the fear of
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the lord is essential it's an essential ingredient to understand god in his gospel to understand the
00:35:25.100
grace and mercy that's been extended extended to us in christ we must also first know the fear of
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the lord for violating his commandments and the wrath of god coming for us essentially we have to
00:35:40.540
know the bad news before the good news can be good we have to know the sickness before the healing
00:35:46.780
will be accepted we have to be wounded by the law and the fear of the wrath of god before we can be
00:35:52.860
healed with the ointment of the gospel this is absolutely true and this is actually one of the
00:36:01.500
prime components uh and fundamental features of the new covenant and this constant maintenance
00:36:09.100
for maintaining a healthy fear of the lord it's something that every christian should cultivate
00:36:16.700
within themselves is a is a continuing sustaining fear of the lord according to scripture and the
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beautiful thing about the new covenant is that god promises to sustain the fear of himself
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in us and that's in jeremiah 32 40 he says i will make with them an everlasting covenant
00:36:39.340
that I will not turn away from doing good to them and I will put the fear of me in their hearts
00:36:47.680
that they may not turn from me. So there's a purpose clause there. The word that signifies
00:36:55.600
a purpose clause. It says, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts that for the purpose of
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the reason why, that they may not turn from me. The fear of the Lord is actually
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the means of maintaining our faithfulness to God. And so these individuals that Paul's talking
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about who don't have the fear of the Lord before their eyes, it's why they've turned their own way.
00:37:23.160
And they don't have a relationship with God. They don't seek the things of God
00:37:31.720
is the means for maintaining our faithfulness to God.
00:37:35.640
And God says that he will keep the fear of himself
00:37:56.860
he will maintain that in you to be assured that we will never turn from him but this is
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romans 3 9 through 18 or 10 through 18 is that sad state of man apart from god's grace we are
00:38:16.540
all outside of god guilty ignorant disinterested blind lost wayward evil and insubordinate that
0.67
00:38:26.540
is our biography uh charles spurgeon once said if any man thinks ill of you do not be angry with him
0.99
00:38:34.540
for you are far worse than he thinks you to be and this is true we are absolutely worse
00:38:42.460
than what people think we are we also again self-love is blinding and so it's very easy to
00:38:49.420
think highly of ourselves when in reality we need to actually study this passage of scripture
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to realize how totally depraved we were how helpless and hopeless we were without the saving
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and sovereign grace of christ coming in upon our lives and rescuing us and saving us not with our
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permission without our permissions if we had a choice we would absolutely reject it every single
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time and that's the doctrine of irresistible grace is that god will overcome our resistance
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to save his people this is the beautiful truth of the gospel and so an honest grasp of man
00:39:29.100
is utterly essential for an honest grasp of grace an honest grasp of man and your state
00:39:36.860
your moral state your depraved state is an is essential for your honest grasp of grace in the
00:39:43.100
gospel when we realize how impossible and grave our station was prior to christ we will see the
00:39:50.380
mercy of god with new eyes when the uh consequences that we were saved from are so grave we will
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appreciate in greater degree our savior and so this is again essential for us to experience
00:40:09.500
the grace of god we can truly understand what jesus meant when he said in john 6 44
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no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him we were incapable unless god acted
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first god needed to act first and regenerate our heart so that we would start seeking and searching
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and he would give us faith and he would sustain us and this is the grace of the gospel in the
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face of the total depravity of man so hopefully this episode was helpful as a conclusion of part
00:40:45.500
two on the doctrine of total depravity as we make our way through romans i'm excited to continue
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down the journey through romans finish out chapter three get into chapter four five six seven eight
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man these are some incredible chapters so stay on the journey with us uh thank you for listening to
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this episode if you are a regular listener to this podcast would you guys leave a review you don't
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need to write something you could just tap the stars but if you do write something i will read
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it and those uh those statements those comments are very encouraging and they do help getting
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the show more exposure to new people and so thank you for joining me on this episode of
00:41:23.180
real christianity my name is dale partridge and i'll see you next week