The NXR Podcast - SUNDAY SERMON - Christians Are NOT Totally Depraved

00:00:00.000 Our text for today is going to be 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 through 17.

00:00:04.660 Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's Word in order to show reverence and

00:00:09.440 respect for how God has chosen to reveal himself in Scripture? I'll read the text. When I finish

00:00:14.720 reading the text, I'm going to say this is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate

00:00:18.880 very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God. One final time, our text for today

00:00:24.340 is 1st Timothy chapter 1 verses 12 through 17. The Bible says this, I thank him who has given me

00:00:32.720 strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.

00:00:40.140 Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but I received mercy

00:00:47.420 because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord overflowed from me with the

00:00:55.240 faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance

00:01:02.360 that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But I received

00:01:12.400 mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost Christ Jesus, might display his perfect patience

00:01:20.280 as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the king of the ages,

00:01:27.680 immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This is the word

00:01:34.640 of the Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's begin. The first thing that I've written in your

00:01:41.020 notes is the following. In verse 15 of our text, Paul says, the saying is trustworthy and deserving

00:01:47.060 of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.

00:01:55.420 The first thing that we must recognize from our text today is this, the gospel is for sinners.

00:02:02.040 If you are not a sinner, Jesus is not for you. If you are not a sinner, the gospel is not for 0.62

00:02:11.000 you. If you are a basically good person who's made some mistakes along the way, the gospel is 0.97

00:02:18.220 not for you. If you are a victim, then ultimately all of your failures can be tracked back to the

00:02:25.780 sin of someone else. But you yourself, if protected in a vacuum, in a perfect scenario, a perfect

00:02:33.420 context, if it wasn't for all the toxic people around you, you would have done very well. If

00:02:38.800 that's you, then the gospel is not for you. Christ died for sinners. He died for sinners.

00:02:49.120 It is true that Christ came to save the world. John 3, 16, 17, 18 and following, we see, for God

00:02:56.560 so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whoever should believe in him shall not

00:03:01.480 perish, but have eternal life. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but

00:03:07.060 in order that the world might be saved through him.

00:03:11.180 Jesus came to save the world.

00:03:14.940 He came to save the world, to save humanity, to save people.

00:03:20.640 But throughout scripture, we find that there is a specific type of person

00:03:25.020 in a particular sense that Jesus came to save.

00:03:28.780 He came to save people, yes, but he came to save specifically sinners.

00:03:35.540 Now, the reality is that all people are sinners.

00:03:38.140 All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

00:03:40.640 If Christ came to save sinners,

00:03:43.000 then there is a sense in which Christ came to save all

00:03:45.880 because all fall into that category of sinners.

00:03:50.540 But what's unique in our text today,

00:03:53.340 what rises to the top of what Paul's saying

00:03:55.680 is not only that Paul is a sinner,

00:03:58.740 but what we should glean from the text

00:04:00.620 is that Paul has an acute recognition of his sinfulness.

00:04:05.200 It's not only that he is objectively sinful,

00:04:08.020 but it is that he is aware of his sinfulness.

00:04:12.320 The sinners that Christ came to save are not just great sinners,

00:04:16.060 but great sinners who are aware and acknowledge their great sinfulness.

00:04:23.120 Everyone is a sinner.

00:04:25.280 The determinative factor between the two,

00:04:28.580 the sinner and the self-righteous,

00:04:30.480 is not at the objective level of someone who actually didn't sin,

00:04:34.620 that person doesn't exist. Everyone at the objective level, he is in fact a sinner. The

00:04:39.340 determining factor between two different kinds of people, the sinner and the self-righteous,

00:04:44.740 is that the sinner admits his sin. He acknowledges his sin and he looks to Christ as the only savior

00:04:53.380 for his sin. And this is the gospel that Paul exalts in in our text today. Stephen J. Cole

00:05:02.320 and his commentary on this particular passage says this,

00:05:06.240 Christ came to save sinners.

00:05:07.800 If you're a basically good person, church-going person,

00:05:11.180 then Christ did not come to save you.

00:05:13.160 He came to save sinners only.

00:05:15.920 If you're a person with a few faults and shortcomings,

00:05:18.640 then Christ did not come to save you.

00:05:21.420 He came to save sinners only.

00:05:23.780 If you're a person with too much dignity,

00:05:26.480 too much self-worth, right?

00:05:28.940 You're just self-care, self-love, right?

00:05:31.500 You're just trying to, you know, love yourself so you can better love others, right?

00:05:34.480 Because you love your neighbor as yourself.

00:05:35.980 And we know that the proper, you know, exegesis of that text is I need to really focus on

00:05:40.300 myself right now, ultimately, so that I can be more caring towards others.

00:05:44.480 If that's you, guess what?

00:05:47.360 Jesus didn't die for you.

00:05:51.200 He's not your savior.

00:05:54.000 He's not.

00:05:54.760 Christ came to die for sinners not basically good people not church going people

00:06:01.760 not victims and not self-care enthusiast Jesus came to die for wretches 0.61

00:06:10.540 Jesus came to die for sinners and this is years arguably even decades perhaps 25 years some

00:06:22.260 biblical historians and commentators would argue, after Paul had been converted, the Apostle Paul.

00:06:29.800 And yet he still is remembering, as though it was just yesterday, the severity of his sin.

00:06:38.720 The severity of his sin. And this is what it is to confess. When we confess our sin, we're not

00:06:47.900 informing God of our sin. God does not need to be informed. He is all-knowing. He is omniscient.

00:06:55.000 We're not bringing new information before the Lord that he previously was not aware of.

00:07:01.560 To confess our sin is not merely to inform God of our sinfulness. Confession is not informing God.

00:07:08.040 It's agreeing with God. It's not informing God of our sin. It is agreeing with God that we are,

00:07:15.580 in fact sinners, and not only agreeing with God about our sin, that we are sinners, but in regard

00:07:22.440 specifically to the severity of our sin. That when we confess sin, we are saying, let God be true,

00:07:30.340 though every man a liar. There's a sense in which David even says in his great prayer of confession

00:07:36.880 in Psalm 51, he says, so God may be proved blameless in his judgments. That's part of his

00:07:44.720 prayer of confession. What David is saying is that as he confesses his sin before the Lord,

00:07:49.800 one of the things that he's doing, one of his aims, his goal in confession of sin is, as it were,

00:07:56.820 in a subjective sense, to exonerate God. Now, God needs, in the objective sense, no exoneration.

00:08:06.460 David recognizes that God is just even if every person on the planet lied about him. God will

00:08:13.200 remain, in the objective, eternal, and truest sense, just in all his judgments. He is neither

00:08:20.120 harsh, nor cruel, nor petty, nor capricious. He is just. And David knows that God remains just

00:08:30.240 whether he acknowledges that God's judgments are fair or not. But in the subjective sense,

00:08:36.640 David, a man after God's own heart, who loves God above all other things. David wants to exonerate

00:08:43.860 God, as it were. You always have to add that phrase, as it were, right? Anytime you talk about

00:08:50.140 the Godhead and you're getting a little cute, just say, as it were, as it were, as it were, as it were,

00:08:55.540 and you usually can come through unscathed without being deemed a heretic, all right? So just as it

00:09:00.500 word. That's a, you know, pro tip right there. Jesus, or David, rather, is exonerating God

00:09:06.980 by saying he is blameless in his judgments. That's one of the things that we're doing when we

00:09:13.240 acknowledge our sinfulness, not just that we are sinners, but a step further acknowledging the

00:09:18.220 degree of our sin, the severity of our sin, is we are saying, in a sense, that God is just.

00:09:27.520 That God is not petty.

00:09:28.740 God is not cruel.

00:09:29.660 He is not capricious.

00:09:30.760 God is just.

00:09:33.020 And that all he does is fair.

00:09:35.120 All he does is right.

00:09:36.960 All he does is good.

00:09:39.860 And there are many in the world today,

00:09:41.780 and sadly, even many who would actively participate in churches,

00:09:46.080 they would think of something such as hell.

00:09:49.560 And they would wrestle with the concept of hell.

00:09:52.800 They would wrestle and think,

00:09:54.120 How in the world could a good and loving God punish people in such a severe way?

00:10:02.360 And the reason for this disconnect, this confusion is quite simple.

00:10:07.980 It's because we do not fully understand the holiness of God.

00:10:13.780 And by way of consequence, we fail to grasp the fullness of man's depravity.

00:10:20.440 That God doesn't send people to hell to be cruel

00:10:25.700 God sends people to hell in order to uphold his justice

00:10:32.100 That if God punished people in some lighter capacity

00:10:38.380 Then he would be compromising his own character

00:10:42.280 He would be compromising his own justice

00:10:46.500 that part of what it is to be a good king

00:10:49.980 is to uphold equal weights and measures,

00:10:55.000 to exact judgment and punishment

00:10:58.100 in proportion to the crime.

00:11:02.600 An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,

00:11:05.320 life for life.

00:11:08.080 And what is the only appropriate judgment

00:11:10.480 for someone who has sinned against

00:11:12.540 an infinitely kind and good God?

00:11:16.500 an infinitely holy God.

00:11:21.760 We misunderstand, we fail to grasp the fullness

00:11:25.980 of God's holiness and by way of consequence,

00:11:30.420 the severity of our sin.

00:11:33.940 Going on in your notes, I've written the following,

00:11:35.780 that Paul, the apostle, calls himself the chief of sinners

00:11:39.700 in the King James Version.

00:11:42.500 He does not say in the past tense

00:11:44.100 that I was the chief of sinners,

00:11:45.880 even though he certainly had a wicked past

00:11:48.640 and that's precisely what Paul is calling

00:11:51.740 to people's attention.

00:11:54.340 He's not speaking of present sin

00:11:56.740 although he is still a sinner.

00:11:58.640 He's speaking of past sin.

00:12:00.620 He's speaking of the worst things that he's ever done

00:12:03.260 over the course of his life.

00:12:05.340 The fact that he was a blasphemer, persecutor

00:12:08.240 and an insolent opponent.

00:12:11.020 That he was persecuting the very church of Jesus Christ

00:12:14.740 And yet, when it comes to categorize himself, to label himself, to give himself a name,

00:12:22.620 he uses the present tense.

00:12:25.520 Not that I was the chief of senators, but I am.

00:12:32.460 And Paul does not make this statement as a new believer.

00:12:35.940 As I've already said, he makes this statement in the dating of this writing,

00:12:40.900 arguably a decade or more after faithfully serving christ we can actually trace a chronological

00:12:49.780 progression and this is interesting to do of paul's statements about himself throughout his epistles

00:12:55.660 in the new testament now there's some contention with this in the dating of various new testament

00:13:01.440 books but i think that this is probably accurate and generally true in first corinthians chapter

00:13:07.160 15 verse 9, Paul says, I'm the least of the apostles. In Ephesians chapter 3 verse 8,

00:13:14.840 written a few years later, he says, I'm the very least of all the saints. And then here in 1

00:13:20.940 Timothy chapter 1 verse 15, written even still later, Paul says, I'm the chief of all sinners.

00:13:28.440 And notice that Paul begins chronologically by saying, I'm the worst of the best,

00:13:34.040 right the least but of the apostles all right so top shelf but bottom rung right i'm the worst

00:13:43.060 of the best but then you know he's gaining in his humility he begins to defend himself

00:13:48.620 or describe rather himself by saying well i'm not just the the least of the best the least of the

00:13:54.420 apostles but i'm the least of the christians not merely the apostles but but anyone who bears the

00:13:59.600 name of Christ, all those saints, all those born again by grace of faith in Jesus, not just Peter

00:14:04.940 and James and John, but of all the saints, I'm the least even of them. But then later on, as he's

00:14:11.380 writing to Timothy, the language shifts from being the worst of the best to being the chief of the

00:14:17.580 worst. He's no longer arguing, I'm the least of the apostles or the least of the saints, but I'm

00:14:24.300 actually, I'm actually the gold medal prize winner of the wretches, of sinners, the worst of the worst.

00:14:37.760 See, the closer a person walks with God, the more they become aware of God's holiness,

00:14:42.660 and again, the severity, degrees, and depths of their own sinfulness. C.S. Lewis, in Purging the

00:14:50.880 poisoned well within, writes the following, when a man is getting better, he understands more

00:14:57.400 clearly the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness

00:15:04.260 less and less. Let me read that once more. When a man is getting better, he understands more clearly

00:15:11.720 the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness

00:15:18.080 less and less. I think that perhaps not explicitly, but implicitly, there's an argument. This very

00:15:27.160 principle could be argued from the particular text of a woman who was caught in the midst of

00:15:31.860 adultery. They bring her before Jesus in order to trap him. It's not about her. It's not about

00:15:38.900 upholding standards of holiness and being faithful to the law of Moses. They're simply using her as

00:15:45.280 upon in order to trap Jesus because they know that Jesus is abundantly compassionate and merciful

00:15:51.560 but they also know that Jesus is righteous and holy they're trying to position him in such a way

00:15:58.820 where his sympathy for the woman might tempt him in order to compromise the law of Moses

00:16:03.500 and then they would be able to prove that he was in fact a heretic that he was a false teacher

00:16:09.480 and jesus kneels down and begins to write in the dirt many people have different speculations in

00:16:17.660 regards to what he was writing i'm of the position that it's likely he was writing out the ten

00:16:22.120 commandments or perhaps being god in the flesh instead of merely writing the ten commandments

00:16:30.920 in the general sense he may have been writing out individual specific sins of the people in

00:16:36.400 the crowd watching. Maybe in his kindness, just not adding their name to it. But in either sense,

00:16:45.180 what we see in that particular text is that one by one, the accusers of the women, they turn around

00:16:52.000 and leave. But what I want to draw out specifically is this, that it begins with the older ones and

00:16:59.960 then to the younger ones.

00:17:03.120 And think about that for a moment,

00:17:04.580 back in light of what C.S. Lewis says.

00:17:07.340 I'll read the quote once more.

00:17:09.100 When a man is getting better,

00:17:10.340 he understands more clearly the evil that is still in him.

00:17:13.640 When a man is getting worse,

00:17:14.840 he understands his own badness less and less.

00:17:18.100 Or back to our primary text,

00:17:21.320 the Apostle Paul later in life,

00:17:23.960 adopting the language, the label,

00:17:25.900 the name chief of sinners. 0.79

00:17:29.960 The older men are the ones who turn around and depart first.

00:17:34.400 And then eventually it's the younger men who walk away.

00:17:38.040 Jesus says, he who is without sin, let him be the one to cast the first stone.

00:17:44.240 And the younger men are the ones who realize the significance of what Jesus has just said.

00:17:49.680 It takes them the longest to realize that they're the butt of the joke.

00:17:55.140 but the older men they seem to be the ones who realize it much more quickly

00:18:00.700 not just because they're old and they've had more life more years to actually commit sin

00:18:08.460 but likely part of what's going on in this particular historical event is that these

00:18:15.500 older men not only have more sin to account for because they've lived more years as sinners on

00:18:21.620 the earth, but over the course of time through age, they've not only accrued more sin, but they

00:18:28.200 become more acutely in tune and aware of their sinfulness. And this would be a good sign.

00:18:37.580 We're not called by God to wallow in our sin. It is an objective fact that if you are in Christ,

00:18:48.020 you are a saint. You have a new heart. Even in regards to the doctrine of total depravity within

00:18:56.000 the Reformed tradition, yes, we uphold the doctrine of total depravity, but total depravity does not

00:19:02.660 apply for the Christian. It doesn't. The Christian is a new creature in Christ Jesus. He has been 1.00

00:19:12.760 born again his heart of stone has been removed and has been replaced now with a heart of flesh

00:19:18.920 a heart that by its very nature is soft and malleable and receptive to the voice of god

00:19:25.180 they are now sheep in a sense always were but now sheep that have been found

00:19:32.360 and are in the fold of the shepherd responding to the shepherd not only hearing his voice but loving

00:19:39.920 his voice. Now those who are born again, those who have been saved, are still sinners, but not in the

00:19:50.620 same way. The sin nature has been done away with. Now the flesh still remains, and I believe this

00:19:58.000 is precisely what the Apostle Paul addresses in Romans chapter 7. The sin still resides within

00:20:03.640 the members of my being. He says, and I believe this is not pre-conversion, but this is Paul

00:20:10.040 speaking as a Christian. He says, so I find this law at work, that when I want to do good, evil is

00:20:17.240 right there present with me, so that the good that I want to do, this I cannot carry out.

00:20:21.860 Oh, what a wretched man I am! Who will save me from this body of death? And that's key.

00:20:30.980 He doesn't say who will save my soul

00:20:33.060 or who will replace my heart of stone

00:20:36.280 with a heart of flesh.

00:20:38.200 No, these things have already occurred.

00:20:40.160 And yet Paul still recognizes

00:20:42.240 that although he has a new heart,

00:20:44.540 although his soul has been justified already,

00:20:48.760 his body is still fallen

00:20:50.900 and in need of redemption.

00:20:53.740 There is a sense in which

00:20:55.040 Paul is waiting to be saved.

00:20:57.780 Although in the same sense,

00:20:59.420 he recognizes that he has been saved. Salvation is a big banner. The simplest way that I could

00:21:07.000 explain it is like this. Justification, sanctification, glorification. Justification

00:21:13.400 pertaining to the soul, being declared righteous in an instant at the moment of conversion.

00:21:21.240 Sanctification, the lifelong process in between justification and natural death. Sanctification

00:21:28.000 is the renewing of the mind. So justification speaks to the declaring of righteousness with

00:21:34.740 the soul. Sanctification, the process of renewing the mind. And then glorification is the future

00:21:41.900 salvation and restoration of the body. Soul, mind, body. Justification, sanctification, glorification.

00:21:49.320 And in that sense, we can say truthfully that we have been saved. We are being saved. Ephesians

00:21:56.560 uses that present tense language, being saved and we will be saved. And the will be future tense is

00:22:03.300 the way that Paul speaks of salvation in Romans 7, who will save me from this body of death. He

00:22:10.040 recognizes that his soul has been justified. His mind, Romans 12, is being no longer conformed to

00:22:16.840 the pattern of this world, but rather transformed the renewing of his mind daily through the process

00:22:22.020 of sanctification, and yet he still recognizes there is still a fullness, a culmination of the

00:22:28.660 salvation that Jesus has purchased for him, that he is yet to receive, that is waiting for him in

00:22:35.060 the future, and that is the glorification of his flesh. And in the meantime, he recognizes sin still

00:22:42.260 resides within the members of my flesh, that there is, there remains in me in this life, in this

00:22:47.560 fallen flesh, an inclination, a temptation towards sin, that the flesh has not yet been

00:22:55.460 redeemed. But the sinful flesh is distinct from the sin nature. In theological categories,

00:23:03.860 these should not be conflated as one. The unbeliever has the sinful flesh and the sinful 1.00

00:23:10.300 nature. The believer in this life still has a sinful flesh to make war with, but no longer the 1.00

00:23:17.960 sinful nature, but clearly what the Bible teaches, a new nature. And the new nature is not bent on

00:23:25.560 sin. That's what Paul was speaking to in my inward being. I delight in the law of God. Well, that's

00:23:32.140 what David says, but then Paul arguing, he says, he says that I long to do what is good, but I find

00:23:38.240 this law at work. That when I want to do good, I genuinely desire to do good, not just a moral

00:23:44.080 superficial goodness, but good according to the immutable standard of God with right intents and

00:23:49.580 right motives, with right heart for God's glory and by his grace. And yet even when I want to do

00:23:55.460 that, my flesh is still at war against me. I want to do good, but cannot carry it out. Oh, what a

00:24:02.120 wretched man I am who will save me, who will complete my salvation in the fullness future

00:24:07.540 sense by redeeming not only my soul, but also my flesh, my body. If you're in Christ Jesus,

00:24:16.040 you still have sin residing within the members of your flesh. The three great enemies of the

00:24:22.660 Christian is the world, the devil, and the flesh. You still have to wage spiritual warfare 1.00

00:24:29.220 by the Spirit, walking by the Spirit, that you might not gratify the sinful desires of the flesh.

00:24:35.540 This is a daily war that the Christian must engage in.

00:24:39.240 And even though you've been born again and justified and given a new heart, 0.98

00:24:43.700 there is still a war against the flesh.

00:24:46.980 But you do not, if you are in Christ, possess a sin nature.

00:24:51.340 And so in that sense, in theological terms, you are not totally depraved.

00:24:57.100 No longer.

00:24:59.400 So when Paul is talking about being the chief of sinners,

00:25:02.280 this is not some masochistic beating of his own flesh flogging himself

00:25:12.200 this is not him saying oh low is me i'm as bad as i ever was i haven't changed at all 0.58

00:25:20.500 of course he's changed he was killing christians now he's a preacher it's a substantial change

00:25:29.720 of course he's changed

00:25:32.160 but what he's doing is he's recognizing that although in objective terms

00:25:38.860 he has been sanctified and radically improved by the grace of god

00:25:44.060 in the subjective sense of perception he is more acutely aware of the severity of his past sin

00:25:51.420 and even the present sin which still remains i've used this illustration before i'll use it once

00:25:57.000 more i can't i'm sure there's a better one but i've used it so long at this point if it ain't

00:26:02.100 broke you know don't fix it so imagine that following jesus it could be illustrated by

00:26:09.840 christ in one hand holding a full body mirror and in the other a fire hose and you and i

00:26:19.200 filthy after wallowing in the mud in our sin are now being closer and closer pulled to Christ

00:26:28.300 and it's not even just that we're walking towards him I think the last time I shared with you guys

00:26:32.940 uh this illustration I said maybe and this illustration you know Jesus has a third hand

00:26:37.780 and with that one he's got a lasso and so he's you know fire hose mirror and then pulling us in

00:26:42.920 towards him and as the Christian born again is getting closer and closer to the Lord

00:26:49.840 The fire hose, the water of the word is rinsing him, washing him, being washed in the word. 0.99

00:26:58.720 The filth and the grime is actually, in the objective sense, being removed.

00:27:03.140 You are becoming more Christ-like.

00:27:05.980 You are getting better.

00:27:07.900 You are being conformed day by day into the image of Christ.

00:27:10.840 This is true, undeniably true.

00:27:13.040 but in the very same breath as you get closer to Jesus in the fire hose

00:27:21.160 the pressure increases and is blasting away the grime and the filth to where you're actually

00:27:27.380 becoming more not less but more clean you're also getting closer to the mirror or you're getting a

00:27:34.020 clearer and clearer view of the filth and the mud that still remains and I don't know about you but 0.84

00:27:41.300 that has been my experience in following Jesus year after year after year, that it's actually 0.57

00:27:49.740 at times hard to even believe that I'm being sanctified, and in the objective sense, growing,

00:27:58.300 being conformed into the image of Christ's likeness, because that second half of the story,

00:28:04.100 the other side of the coin, the subjective sense of perception, I'm becoming so much more aware,

00:28:10.140 and not only aware, but grieved and burdened by the sin that still remains.

00:28:17.460 And not only the sin that still remains, but past sins that I know are dead and been buried with

00:28:22.660 Christ and fully forgiven, even the memory of past sins, I'm now aware much more fully of how

00:28:31.660 serious those sins were. In the moment that I committed those sins, I recognized that they

00:28:38.400 were sins. I recognized that I needed forgiveness, but I didn't realize how serious the sin really

00:28:43.140 was. And now later in life, a year later, in some cases, you know, over a decade later, I look back

00:28:50.500 and I'm like, whoa, I knew it was wrong. I knew I needed forgiveness. I confessed that sin to the

00:28:56.320 Lord. I confessed it to saints, to others. I've been assured of Christ's pardon and forgiveness.

00:29:02.660 I've repented and by God's grace been restored

00:29:06.000 that's not the man I am any longer

00:29:07.940 and yet even a past sin

00:29:10.040 grieves me in some ways more today

00:29:12.920 than the day that I committed the sin

00:29:16.120 not because I'm under condemnation

00:29:18.440 not because it isn't forgiven

00:29:20.140 and not because I haven't improved

00:29:21.860 not because I'm still that man

00:29:23.560 but because the softness by God's grace

00:29:27.800 the softness of my heart

00:29:29.660 to be pierced and grieved by sin

00:29:33.000 is much more profound at this point of my life

00:29:37.480 than it was when I was younger.

00:29:41.100 And all that is grieving on the one hand,

00:29:44.920 but on the other,

00:29:47.920 should be a profound and deep encouragement

00:29:50.040 because it is one of the surest fruits

00:29:53.660 of real salvation

00:29:55.960 that you have in fact been born again.

00:29:58.900 But you do, in fact, belong to Jesus, because you no longer merely acknowledge failure and sin, but you're grieved by it.

00:30:10.680 And it is, according to 2 Corinthians, godly grief that leads towards repentance and life.

00:30:20.040 So the Apostle Paul, he begins our text by pointing out not present failures, but past failures.

00:30:26.840 I'm the least of the apostles, the least of the saints.

00:30:29.420 And in this context, I'm the best of the rebels.

00:30:34.280 I'm not just the least of the best, the worst of the best.

00:30:36.840 I'm actually the best of the worst.

00:30:38.260 I'm the chief of sinners.

00:30:40.540 But the sin that he recalls to mind are past sins.

00:30:44.840 That he's a blasphemer.

00:30:46.340 He was a persecutor, an insolent opponent.

00:30:49.860 And yet he uses present tense language,

00:30:52.460 not to say that he's actively committing these same sins today,

00:30:56.640 but to recognize that he is still a sinner saved by grace.

00:31:02.720 If you're in Christ, you are a saint, but you're also a sinner.

00:31:08.280 There is a sense in which we simultaneously hold both of these identities.

00:31:15.920 This is an age-old argument. 0.95

00:31:18.340 All right, are you a sinner? Is the Christian a sinner or a saint? 0.96

00:31:21.220 Well, I know that the Christian is a saint

00:31:23.800 in terms of forensic justice,

00:31:26.780 in terms of justification by grace alone

00:31:29.680 to faith alone and Christ alone,

00:31:31.180 in the courtroom of heaven

00:31:32.800 that you've been declared righteous,

00:31:35.280 not merely innocent, but righteous,

00:31:37.280 clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.

00:31:41.420 So the verdict is saint.

00:31:44.900 But then you can easily beg the question,

00:31:47.500 but do you still sin?

00:31:49.120 and if so how often right well yeah i still sin do you sin every year well yeah every month

00:31:58.960 yeah every week yeah every day yeah i mean if somebody jogs every day they're a jogger

00:32:08.500 right i mean i wouldn't want to admit it you know but you know i jog every day

00:32:16.080 I might be a jogger

00:32:18.680 I don't know how you can sin

00:32:22.560 without fail every day and not be a sinner

00:32:25.200 but the root of your identity

00:32:27.720 is saint

00:32:29.860 a saint who sins

00:32:32.340 who still wrestles with the flesh

00:32:34.220 and the flesh consistently gets the best

00:32:36.140 but here's the irony

00:32:39.520 that I think so many of us miss

00:32:41.200 because of a shallow gospel understanding

00:32:43.920 it is precisely the awareness of our sin

00:32:48.680 both the severity of past sin that is forgiven

00:32:52.120 not condemnation is forgiven

00:32:53.700 but the awareness of the severity of past sin

00:32:56.400 and being in a godly sense grieved by remaining sin

00:33:01.040 that's what propels us further into sanctification

00:33:05.400 that's what drives us to Christ

00:33:10.140 and so here at the end what i want us to focus on is the first use of the law of god we cover this

00:33:17.040 in our liturgy every single lord's day but we have chosen deliberately to put a specific emphasis on

00:33:23.020 the third use of the law precisely because it's the third use of the law of god that has been so

00:33:28.180 neglected in evangelical churches today so a brief synopsis of the three uses of the law of god

00:33:36.560 The first use of the law of God is that the law of God functions as a mirror.

00:33:41.580 It reveals to us the holiness of God, but in seeing God's holiness,

00:33:45.080 by way of consequence, it reveals to us our own sinfulness.

00:33:49.340 How far we fall short from the holiness of God.

00:33:53.160 The second use of God's law is that the law of God functions as a shield,

00:33:58.300 that it restrains wickedness.

00:34:01.120 It works like this in a corporate sense for whole societies and nations,

00:34:05.180 but it also works this way even for the individual.

00:34:08.380 Romans 1, and particularly Romans 2, speak in this regard,

00:34:12.820 that men are created in the image of God,

00:34:15.660 and though fallen, still there is a vestige of the image of God

00:34:21.040 that remains within the image of God.

00:34:23.260 This includes rationale, reason, but also the conscience.

00:34:29.380 And Paul, when arguing in Romans chapter 2,

00:34:31.460 says that for the pagan that has not received even a letter or a word of special revelation,

00:34:37.040 a prophet or the scripture, that even for them, their conscience bears testimony against them. 0.81

00:34:43.440 They know instinctively that murder is wrong, that their conscience condemns them because they are

00:34:51.440 an image bearer, the living God. And so even at an individual level, the law of God and its second

00:34:57.520 use as a shield is it restrains outward manifestations of sin. It's powerless to

00:35:04.880 change the heart inwardly, but it can restrain the sinful heart from manifesting in terms of

00:35:11.620 outward behavior those sins coming to life. There are plenty of people that are not born again,

00:35:18.160 they're unregenerate, completely pagan, and actually in the heart eagerly desire to murder, 0.85

00:35:25.360 but ultimately will not on two accounts one the conscience testifying against them made in the 0.88

00:35:33.480 image of god secondly if they live in a society that has been shaped by god's standards like ours

00:35:41.500 the fear of legal punishment will hold that desire at bay to where if they could murder

00:35:52.940 and knew for a fact that they would get away with it,

00:35:55.060 perhaps they would.

00:35:57.340 But because of the standard and the penalties,

00:36:00.860 they're dissuaded.

00:36:03.180 So that is the law of God,

00:36:04.780 not changing the heart at the inward level,

00:36:06.800 but it is the law of God

00:36:08.360 restraining the outward manifestations of sin,

00:36:12.580 both because of the individual

00:36:13.760 at the level of their conscience,

00:36:15.140 the Imago Dei,

00:36:16.080 and society using the law of God

00:36:19.100 in its legal system to punish those who do evil

00:36:22.900 and reward the righteous.

00:36:26.160 People are not getting worse in our society today.

00:36:29.420 Not in the objective inward sense.

00:36:32.820 The reason that we see more crime

00:36:34.820 is not because people are born in the 2000s

00:36:38.960 with worse hearts than they were in the 1950s.

00:36:42.980 The heart is just as evil as it ever was

00:36:45.420 apart from saving grace in Christ alone.

00:36:47.360 the difference though is that now you can walk in with your friends to a store and rob them blind

00:36:54.540 with no consequences that's the difference it's the erosion of the second use of the law of god

00:37:01.540 it's not the heart getting worse it's the society and its laws being eroded so that the law in its

00:37:10.760 second use as a shield restraining outward manifestations of evil that shield has a lot

00:37:16.180 of holes in it these days. Then the third use of the law of God, which is the one, again, that we

00:37:21.840 emphasize here at Covenant Bible Church, perhaps more than the other two uses combined, because it

00:37:27.920 is so neglected in the evangelical church at large today, the third use of God's law is that it is a

00:37:35.000 guide. First use, mirror. Second, shield. Third, compass. That's perhaps the easiest way that you

00:37:42.660 could remember it. Mirror, shield, and compass. The first use of God's law reveals God's holiness

00:37:48.520 by way of consequence, our sinfulness, the need for Christ. Second use, a shield, not changing the

00:37:54.040 heart inwardly, but outwardly restraining manifestations of evil. Third, the law of God

00:37:59.980 is a compass, a guide, or as David says in the Psalms, it is a light unto my path, a lamp unto

00:38:06.580 my feet that the law of God shows the Christian who has been born again the way in which to live

00:38:14.340 the way in which to go the path that he should take and not the path that he should take in order

00:38:20.600 in order to merit salvation but the path that he should take not to salvation but from salvation

00:38:28.360 having been saved this is now how I should live not in order to earn or merit the love of God

00:38:36.160 but as a response of gratitude for the free grace I've received in Christ alone.

00:38:42.400 That's the third use of the law. 0.96

00:38:44.780 That even for the Christian, the law still has a use. 1.00

00:38:49.540 That the law still sets the standard. 0.99

00:38:52.060 It's still the compass.

00:38:53.360 It's still the guide.

00:38:54.340 It points.

00:38:54.960 It's the North Star showing us the direction.

00:38:58.320 Legalism says, obey God's law and you'll be saved.

00:39:01.940 but the bible says obey god's law because you have been saved

00:39:09.340 evangelicals today say to mention god's law at all is legalism no longer under law but grace

00:39:19.540 let's never preach the law at all amen go home be lawless and that's why we preach the law

00:39:27.840 because that is most sermons today.

00:39:31.860 The law is ridicule.

00:39:35.460 But for this morning,

00:39:37.700 Paul's emphasis is not on the third use of the law of God,

00:39:41.520 the way in which we should walk,

00:39:43.180 having been saved by grace through faith in Christ.

00:39:46.140 And it's not the second use of the law.

00:39:48.480 All these by way of implication can be found,

00:39:50.820 but that's not the emphasis.

00:39:52.420 The second use of the law as a shield

00:39:54.180 restraining both the individual and society as a whole

00:39:57.620 from outward manifestations of evil.

00:40:00.000 No, the emphasis, the headline of our text today

00:40:03.880 is the first use of the law of God.

00:40:06.820 That in looking into the law of God,

00:40:09.160 his perfect holiness and righteousness,

00:40:11.600 Paul now sees with abundant clarity

00:40:14.320 his immense and severe sinfulness.

00:40:19.300 And when we see God's holiness for what it is,

00:40:23.140 and we see by way of contrast our sinfulness

00:40:26.700 for what it truly is,

00:40:28.960 then what we recognize

00:40:30.040 is the infinite chasm

00:40:31.480 that exists between us and God

00:40:34.260 apart from Christ.

00:40:37.100 See, when the law of God

00:40:38.660 is preached rightly,

00:40:40.700 not watered down,

00:40:41.880 not the standard lowered

00:40:43.160 so that you wouldn't feel bad

00:40:44.980 on your way home.

00:40:47.100 No, when the law is preached

00:40:48.620 and it's preached truly and rightly

00:40:51.580 that God is thrice holy,

00:40:54.560 holy, holy, holy,

00:40:55.940 and when the sins not just sins of old but the sins of today are addressed from the scripture

00:41:04.740 from the pulpit not just beating a dead horse right sins are usually preached 50 years after

00:41:14.120 that sin has already been addressed and done have you noticed how peculiar it is

00:41:18.960 that now we want to preach about racism

00:41:21.240 that would have been super helpful

00:41:25.760 like a hundred years ago 1.00

00:41:26.960 but we don't want to preach about feminism 1.00

00:41:33.840 right and by God's grace if we win that battle 0.97

00:41:37.880 you know what there'll be pastors lining up 1.00

00:41:39.900 to preach sermons about how bad feminism is 1.00

00:41:42.740 after it's already been slain 0.95

00:41:44.540 once it's safe

00:41:46.540 and a lot of pastors like to wield the sword

00:41:50.800 at a dragon that's already been killed, right?

00:41:53.380 They go up to its dead, bloated carcass

00:41:55.300 decades after the dragon was actually killed

00:41:58.040 and they pretend and jab it in the stomach, you know,

00:42:01.120 and like, look at me, he's fighting, fighting the enemy.

00:42:04.320 It's a dead enemy, dude.

00:42:06.480 Somebody else killed it.

00:42:08.140 And all the guys who killed it, by the way,

00:42:09.900 you would excommunicate from your churches today.

00:42:14.120 Talking about how much you like Martin Luther, please.

00:42:18.760 Have you read Martin Luther?

00:42:19.920 you would have kicked them out of your church.

00:42:23.100 Oh, you like John Calvin?

00:42:24.540 You would have excommunicated John Calvin.

00:42:32.640 But churches that preach the law of God rightly,

00:42:35.200 not minimizing God's holiness

00:42:36.560 and applying the law of God

00:42:38.320 specifically on the sins of the day.

00:42:42.380 The reason why it matters

00:42:43.800 and the reason why it's good,

00:42:45.000 not only right, but good and loving

00:42:46.740 is because what it does

00:42:48.300 is it paints a picture

00:42:49.640 of the holiness of God accurately

00:42:52.080 and the sinfulness of man accurately

00:42:53.960 to where the chasm in between God and man,

00:42:57.160 it widens rather than shrinking, it grows.

00:43:00.820 And the reason why that's a very loving thing to do

00:43:03.220 is because if the chasm between you and God grows,

00:43:07.080 well, then the cross, which bridges the gap, grows.

00:43:11.980 You have a bigger gospel.

00:43:14.520 You have a bigger savior.

00:43:17.580 And those who have been forgiven,

00:43:19.060 not little, as Jesus said. Those who've been forgiven little, they love little, but those who've

00:43:23.420 been forgiven much, loveth much. Now the reality is for all those who are in Christ Jesus, you have

00:43:30.040 been forgiven of all your sin. And in all our cases, our sin is much. In the objective sense, there's

00:43:36.780 not one Christian who has ever been forgiven little. All have been forgiven much. But again, Jesus is

00:43:43.040 speaking to the perception, the subjective sense. Those who recognize, sure, you've all been forgiven

00:43:51.000 much, but not all of us recognize the full depth of that forgiveness. And the reason why we miss

00:43:57.320 the sheer magnitude of God's grace in the gospel is because we miss how holy God is and how sinful

00:44:05.240 we are. If you miss God's holiness and you miss man's sinfulness, you miss Christ's forgiveness.

00:44:13.040 and the irony is that the forgiveness of christ his assurance of pardon the gospel of free grace

00:44:20.260 is the very wind in our sails that drives us towards obedience to god's law in its third use

00:44:26.800 the person who is following the light to their path and the lamp to their feet that's a person

00:44:32.580 who's radically been changed and impacted by the free grace of jesus and the forgiveness of sins

00:44:40.060 The reason why we always say David was a man after God's own heart

00:44:44.400 despite his sin with Bathsheba. 0.92

00:44:46.420 No.

00:44:48.240 No, David was a man after God's own heart 0.93

00:44:50.100 precisely because of his sin with Bathsheba. 0.92

00:44:53.680 That sin along with a litany of others, 0.87

00:44:55.860 it's not the only one,

00:44:57.740 but it's profound sins like that

00:44:59.520 that made David cling so closely to Christ.

00:45:04.820 It's not that he loved God despite his sin.

00:45:07.780 He loved God for his forgiveness in light of his sin.

00:45:12.840 Like the woman who's using her tears to wash the feet of Jesus and her hair to dry.

00:45:19.700 She does this, why? Because her sins are many.

00:45:22.840 And she knows her sins are many.

00:45:29.940 But there's something there. There's an application there.

00:45:32.840 because that woman, her sins in one sense 0.98

00:45:36.420 were no more many than the sins

00:45:38.860 of the religious rulers of Jesus' day. 0.82

00:45:42.080 In fact, you could argue in some sense,

00:45:44.300 perhaps even less. 1.00

00:45:46.020 At least she didn't have the sin of self-righteousness.

00:45:49.940 These other guys, Jesus even says,

00:45:52.160 you did nothing for me.

00:45:54.060 You've exercised no real hospitality.

00:45:57.280 I came into your house.

00:45:59.580 You gave me nothing.

00:46:00.680 you didn't wash my feet but since she's entered the room she has not ceased to weep and wash my

00:46:07.600 feet with her tears and dry them with her hair her sins are many now jesus is telling them to

00:46:14.920 their face so are yours namely the sin you're committing right now by ignoring the messiah

00:46:20.520 the sin you're committing right now by your arrogance pride and self-righteousness 0.99

00:46:25.040 so there's a very real sense in which these pharisees and sadducees are just as sinful as 0.99

00:46:31.260 a woman perhaps even more but why is she so profoundly broken by her sin and therefore

00:46:37.480 driven in her worship of the savior because she had the sins that were despised of the day

00:46:44.600 she had the sins

00:46:47.780 that all of society agreed on 0.99

00:46:50.660 were sinful

00:46:52.160 I'll just make it really clear

00:46:55.560 I like to apply

00:46:56.620 this is how we get in trouble

00:46:57.580 this one was the equivalent of somebody

00:47:01.800 who got caught on social media

00:47:03.520 saying something that was actually racist

00:47:05.700 but then Jesus enters the scene and says

00:47:10.760 I love racist

00:47:11.980 and I forgive you

00:47:14.080 now that person stands a high likelihood of washing the feet of jesus with immense devotion

00:47:22.920 and gratitude for who he is whereas in the meantime a litany of other professing christians

00:47:30.200 are worshiping women instead of christ never engaging the sin of racism but drinking

00:47:38.480 the sin of feminism

00:47:40.100 by the bucket load, 1.00

00:47:41.920 not driven

00:47:43.820 in a profound sense

00:47:45.340 of humility

00:47:45.900 and contrition of heart,

00:47:47.520 knowing that Christ

00:47:48.580 and his forgiveness alone

00:47:49.720 is the lonely hope

00:47:51.040 that they have.

00:47:52.640 Because even though

00:47:53.660 they are in the objective sense

00:47:55.060 just as sinful,

00:47:56.520 if not perhaps even more,

00:47:58.900 than the repentant racist,

00:48:01.420 their sin is not

00:48:02.240 the sin of the day.

00:48:04.460 Their sin isn't the one

00:48:05.900 that's been deemed a pariah.

00:48:07.780 now paul is acutely aware of his past sin and although each passing day puts his past sin

00:48:20.400 further in his past he becomes as he's sanctified into the image of christ more and more aware of

00:48:27.900 how serious that sin was and more and more acutely aware of sin that may be smaller than

00:48:35.820 blaspheming or persecuting the church, but still, as he becomes more sanctified, even the small

00:48:42.860 sins grieve him more deeply. And the final thing that we see in our text is this, that as Paul is

00:48:50.880 being sanctified, and this is the life of all Christians, indicative of all of us, not just

00:48:55.920 the apostle Paul, as he's growing in Christ's likeness, becoming more sensitive in his heart,

00:49:01.720 more softened, more grieved by his sin, sins of old and sins of the present.

00:49:10.060 It all culminates in our text in verse 17.

00:49:14.440 To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

00:49:22.060 And this isn't just Paul being Paul.

00:49:23.940 Because sometimes, you know what, it's easy to look over these verses.

00:49:26.900 It's like, yeah, that's what Paul does.

00:49:28.020 right he's making a really good logical point from the scripture or he's exegeting some whole

00:49:32.860 testament text and making sense of it and then he has these random verses where he's like god god

00:49:37.320 i love you god i love you you're very immortal you're you know no no you can't skip over that

00:49:42.440 it's not a platitude it's not paul just being um uh you know exercising his public piety for all

00:49:50.900 no paul under the inspiration of the holy spirit cannot help himself that when he writes a

00:49:56.860 theological truth, particularly a gospel truth, that is so profound and so moving, he cannot help

00:50:04.000 but be moved into doxology. See, right theology, particularly right theology, the holiness of God,

00:50:13.220 the sinfulness of man, and the grace of Christ that bridges the gap, it always leads towards

00:50:18.580 right doxology, that is, worship. Those who believe rightly should live rightly and worship

00:50:29.340 rightly. It's not random. It's not a coincidence that churches that have bad theology also tend

00:50:36.480 to have bad doxology. Churches that have bad theology, weak preaching, usually have weak

00:50:43.760 worship the preaching is shallow the worship is sensual

00:50:47.660 but when the preaching is true when the preaching is right and when the preaching doesn't just

00:50:56.500 address the things that we're called to do in obedience but also addresses not just the third

00:51:02.560 use of the law how then shall we live having been saved by grace but also the first use of the law

00:51:08.420 the sin which still remains. You are a sinner in need of the grace of God, the continual

00:51:14.180 ongoing grace of God. When sermons are preached like that, with true biblical theology, it always

00:51:21.720 will fuel right, true biblical doxology. Nothing motivates the heart to praise and thanksgiving

00:51:30.740 like a fresh realization and remembrance of our sin.

00:51:38.440 That we were utterly and completely lost

00:51:41.520 and without hope in the world.

00:51:45.380 That all the things that we see in our society today

00:51:48.520 is terrible as it is and such were some of you

00:51:51.620 apart from Jesus and his changing power. 0.55

00:51:56.720 the difference between you and the pagan is not that you made a wise and calculated decision

00:52:05.860 and it's not the sheer power of the will it is not the doctrine of sola bootstrapia 0.88

00:52:12.580 and the gritting of your teeth it is the grace of god that changes sinners into saints and does

00:52:21.840 so in such a way that the saints do not become proud, but they constantly remember their

00:52:27.240 sinfulness. Not that they might wallow in pity, but that it might cause them to exult in God's grace.

00:52:36.820 Thomas Goodwin, he said it like this. I think it's applicable for all of us, but

00:52:42.600 it certainly applies for me. When I was threatening to become cold in my ministry,

00:52:49.400 and when I felt Sabbath morning coming

00:52:52.080 and my heart not filled with amazement

00:52:54.000 at the grace of God

00:52:55.080 or when I was making ready

00:52:56.460 to dispense the Lord's Supper

00:52:58.200 do you know what I used to do?

00:53:00.640 I used to take a turn up and down

00:53:02.860 among the sins of my past life

00:53:04.840 and I always came down again

00:53:07.400 with a broken and contrite heart

00:53:09.200 ready to preach

00:53:10.700 as I preached in the beginning

00:53:12.620 the forgiveness of sins

00:53:14.000 I do not think I ever went up

00:53:16.320 to the pulpit stair

00:53:17.460 that I did not stop for a moment at the foot of it

00:53:21.180 and take a turn up and down

00:53:23.000 among the sins of my past years.

00:53:26.220 I do not think that I ever planned a sermon,

00:53:29.600 that I did not take a turn around my study table

00:53:32.300 and look back at the sins of my youth

00:53:34.440 and all my life down to the present

00:53:37.400 and many a Sabbath morning

00:53:39.280 when my soul had been cold and dry

00:53:41.680 for the lack of prayer during the week,

00:53:44.680 a turn up and down in my past life

00:53:46.980 before I went into the pulpit always broke my hard heart

00:53:50.600 and made me close with the gospel for my own soul

00:53:54.700 before I began to preach it to others.

00:53:57.840 Let's pray.

00:53:59.240 Father, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:54:03.060 And we thank you that in the objective sense,

00:54:05.280 there is no record of our sins being held against us.

00:54:08.480 For those who are in Christ Jesus,

00:54:10.240 there is now therefore no more condemnation.

00:54:13.760 You do not hold our sins against us.

00:54:16.480 They have been nailed to the cross.

00:54:19.720 But we remember our sins.

00:54:22.820 And it is good that we remind ourselves of these things from which you have saved us.

00:54:29.280 That it might propel our hearts into further and further praise and doxology and worship, but also obedience.

00:54:39.640 Your law reveals our sin.

00:54:41.500 it reveals your holiness and the chasm in between the gospel bridges the gap but then the gospel

00:54:49.500 propels us to go back to your law with newfound vigor seeking to obey grace and law grace and law

00:54:58.020 like two pedals on a bicycle working perfectly in concert with one another help us to love your law

00:55:06.120 to love it as a compass guiding us in the way we should live

00:55:10.340 but never to forget the first use of your law

00:55:12.960 that it doesn't just tell us how to live

00:55:15.420 but it reminds us of how we already have lived

00:55:18.520 and we have failed

00:55:19.840 but that you were merciful

00:55:23.760 and gracious to us

00:55:26.060 and that Christ came to save sinners

00:55:30.120 of whom we are the foremost

00:55:33.500 thank you for this gospel

00:55:35.260 use it to motivate us to live the lives that are worthy of the gospel for your glory

00:55:42.360 and for the good of your people. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

The NXR Podcast - September 24, 2023

SUNDAY SERMON - Christians Are NOT Totally Depraved

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