Today, on Renewing Your Mind... Well, we want to step back into our study. This will be our second study on radical theology, to take your Bibles and turn with me to John 5, verse 25. And we were talking about the spiritual condition of an unconverted person being in spiritual death. And probably of all the texts that we'll be looking at in this session, this one most graphically communicates the inability of the sinner, one, to contribute anything to his salvation, but two, even his inability to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because what can a dead man do? And the answer to that is nothing. Let me read the verse again. I want you to see it in your Bible as well. John 5, 25, Truly, truly I say to you... and I remind you, Jesus is the speaker here, the great expositor of truth, the great teacher come from God.
An hour is coming and now is. So it's not looking to the resurrection at the end of the age, now is. When the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. Well, who is dead?
Who would be hearing the voice of the Son of God and who would hear and live? Well, the answer now is those who are spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. Paul talks about this in Ephesians 2, in verse 1, that we were all formerly dead in trespasses and sins. Man is to say there was no spiritual life within us. We had a mere, hollow, empty existence. Now towards the things of this world, we had some degree of life. We could respond to physical things around us, but responding to the Lord, we had no life within us at all.
That's how devastating was our state. We were a spiritual corpse. I mean, you could go up to a corpse and take a needle even and put the needle into the leg of the corpse.
There's no response. You can shine a flashlight into the eyes of a corpse. I mean, there's no ability to see. You could sing or play a symphony for a corpse, but a corpse cannot hear, can it? Well, that's the state of one without Christ, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins.
Let's flush that out a little bit. Mind, emotion, and will. All aspects of man, spiritual death. The mind is dead and cannot understand and cannot see the truth. The heart is dead. The affections of the heart, the passions towards God are also spiritually dead, and there cannot be a love for God or a response to the things of God. A desire does not exist in a dead heart towards spiritual things. And the same is true with the will. Now, that's a very controversial point with many people, especially here in America where there is liberty for all and freedom of choice and to be told that I don't have freedom of will. What about these universal offers of the gospel? Well, again, all have permission to believe, but not all have the ability to believe because all are dead in trespasses and sins. We need to be mindful of this even in our witnessing with other people. We are asking them to do what they have no capacity to do. You remember when Ezekiel was called by God in Ezekiel 36 to preach to the valley of dead men's bones?
Well, that makes no sense. To go preach to dead men's bones? Yet I do that every Sunday. And you do that with in-laws and out-laws and various neighbors and friends who don't know Christ. And we are to witness to them.
We are to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet we are preaching to dead men's bones. And you recall in Ezekiel 37 how God commanded the winds of heaven to blow and there was a resurrection and then the hip bone was connected to the thigh bone and we know how to sing that spiritual song.
And only then was it mobilized as an army. Glorious picture of the spiritual resurrection that must take place in the sinner's heart before the sinner can be enabled by God to believe. And so we must understand the state of spiritual death in which the Lord has found us. A couple of other verses, Ephesians 2 5, you were dead in your trespasses. Colossians 2 13, you were dead in your transgressions. And these cross references really support that the Bible speaks with one voice on this. That what Jesus said in John chapter 5 is what Paul said in Colossians 2 and Ephesians 2. There's one body of divinity.
There's one standard of doctrinal truth taught in the entire Bible. This also causes us to see what a miracle salvation is for anyone to believe because we were dead in trespasses and sins. But let's plow a little deeper into John's gospel and I want to give you the sixth heading as we work our way through this, not only spiritual death, but spiritual inability. In John chapter 6 verse 44, this is a knockout punch. What Jesus has to say here is this is unbelievable, except it must be believable that He said this. John 6 verse 44, Jesus taught that it is absolutely impossible for spiritually dead sinners to exercise saving faith.
Notice what John 6 44 says. No one. Let me just stop right there. There's no wiggle room in that statement. There are no exceptions to this.
There's not another category of people over here in another line who maybe have a higher IQ or had more exposure to spiritual things. No one. You just hear President Bush say, read my lips.
No one. Can. You see the next word?
It doesn't say may, it says can. All have permission in the universal offer of the gospel to believe, but none can. No one can come to me.
The next three words. To come to Christ is to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a synonymous way of expressing saving faith. When Jesus says no one can come to me, He is saying no one can believe in me. No one can put their trust in me. No one can commit their life to me.
No one can follow after me. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him. What this is saying is there is moral inability in the center towards the things of God.
Now, on a natural level, we have ability to wear a blue shirt or a white shirt to brush our teeth, not brush our teeth, mow the yard, not mow the yard. That's on a horizontal plateau. But on a vertical basis between my heart and God and Christ and the gospel towards the things of the Lord, there is spiritual inability. And if this were not enough, Jesus repeats it in verse 65. John 6 verse 65, rather than just stating it and never coming back to it, He comes back around and brings it back up again for sake of emphasis to drive the point home. So notice John 6 verse 65. For this reason I have said to you, he's very emphatic about this, when he says, I'm saying this to you, that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father.
It is entirely, completely, unequivocally, absolutely impossible for anyone to come to Christ in and of themselves. That needs to really sink in. And as I said, this is very controversial, right? Look at the next verse. I want you to see how controversial it was for the Lord Jesus. I mean, this rocked the boat when Jesus taught this. And I was taught in seminary that if people aren't a little ruffled with this, you weren't clear enough. Because when you actually teach this with the edge that this has, it will always provoke the flesh. It will always be somewhat offensive or be a stumbling block to those who have much self-confidence and feel that they can do whatever is required of them by God without the Holy Spirit. And by the way, John 15, 5, apart from me, you can do nothing. Now that's a zero with the edges trimmed off, alright?
That's not a whole lot. Notice verse 66, John 6, verse 66, the result of Jesus saying, no one can come to me. Verse 66, as a result of this. As a result of what?
As a result of what He just said. Many of His disciples, now these disciples, many of them were what we would call counterfeit disciples. They were just a part of the crowd. They were just, they had hopped on the bandwagon. Jesus had just fed the 5,000. Hey, that's kind of easy to be a part of a movement like that. Things are happening here.
I want to be here. And then Jesus began to bring this very definitive doctrinal teaching, and it shook things up. It always shakes things up. Notice as a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore. Earlier in verse 60, they said, this is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it? This is strong doctrine. Now let me tell you, this is not hard to understand. It's just hard to swallow.
It's very easy to understand. We need the illumination of the Holy Spirit to press it to our hearts, the depth of this, but no one, no one on planet earth in any century at any time on any continent, whenever the gospel is made known, no one can come to Christ except the Father draw that person. Now we're going to talk about irresistible grace and the irresistible call later in this series, but we're laying the foundation here of the desperate situation in which the sinner finds himself, and this will magnify the grace of God when we see what is necessary for someone to believe upon Christ.
But let's continue to press on. We have many more verses to look at. So come to John chapter 8, John chapter 8 verse 34.
I want to give you a seventh heading. Not only spiritual inability, I hope you're jotting these down, not only spiritual death and spiritual inability, but spiritual bondage. This is what Jesus talks about here. In John chapter 8 and verse 34, Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you. Now again, I want to comment on this. Jesus is underscoring the importance of what he's about to say.
Everything that Jesus said is inerrant, infallible, and inspired as it is found in Scripture. But some things rise to the surface of greater importance than other things. Some things are more pivotal. Some things are more strategic.
This is one of those. Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone, again, that's a global universal statement, everyone who commits sin, that's in the present tense. It's talking about a lifestyle of sin, is the slave of sin. A slave is bound to obey his master. A slave is not free to obey another man's master. There is a binding relationship between master and slave. And as long as a slave is bound to his master, it is obligatory that he will obey his master. Other masters may call out to him, but there is no relationship. There is no obligation to obey. In fact, in this metaphor, we would say there is an inability to obey any other master. He will always respond to his own master.
And who is his master? Sin. I can assure you, sin is not saying you need to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
You need to give your life to God. No, sin has a death grip upon every sinner, metaphorically in this verse, and keeps the sinner in a state of spiritual bondage. It is as though he is chained to sin with a ball and chain, and as a prisoner with the iron band around his heart and around his mind and around his will, he cannot come to Christ because he is bound by his sin, and he must obey his master who is sin. Ah, but if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. And we will talk about that later in this series, but what a miracle it is for anyone to have those ties severed to our old master who is sin, but there must be that separation before there can be a coming to Christ. Let's continue here in John chapter 8.
I want to give you an eighth heading, and we just spoke of spiritual slavery, also spiritual bondage, which is really almost part and parcel of the same, but in John 8 verse 44, Jesus announced that all unsaved people suffer from an even greater bondage. They are enslaved to Satan. There are only two spiritual families in the entire world, and that's a sobering truth. There's the spiritual family of God, and there is the spiritual family of Satan, and we were all born into this world in the wrong family. That's why we need to be born again. That's why Jesus said, do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again, because you were born in this family, and this family is on a path headed for destruction.
We were born with Satan as our spiritual father, and the lust of him we would do. To be born again transfers us from that family to another family. We didn't start out in God's family, and then we're born again and just recycled in the same family. No, we were born on the wrong side of town.
We were born on the wrong side of the tracks. We were born in darkness and enslavement to Satan. Now look at John 8 verse 44. You, that's very emphatic, you are of your father, the devil. That kind of preaching will get you nailed to a cross.
You are of your father, the devil. He's talking about the spiritual family. These are the most religious people in the history of mankind to whom Jesus is speaking. If other pagans had walked up and heard this, they would find this almost hard to believe.
Jesus is saying this to the Pharisees, to the scribes, those who were born within the religious system of Israel, those who had grown up hearing the law of God and going to the temple and being involved in all the ritualistic requirements under the Mosaic law. These people had religion up to their earlobes. Jesus said to them, you are of your father, the devil. Religion never saved anyone. Religion is a curse apart from being regenerated by the Spirit of God.
It was a religious crowd that crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said to them, you are of your father, the devil. And then He says, and you want to do the desires of your father.
It's in your heart, these lusts, these desires. He says, he was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth and at the end he is a liar and the father of all lies. Listen, the whole rest of Scripture, this isn't just about the Pharisees, it's not just about the scribes, it's about every person born of woman. That covers the field outside of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4, 4, Paul says, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving. Ephesians 2 verse 3 says that we were all under the tyranny of the prince of this world and the God of this age. 2 Timothy 2 verse 26 says, we were held captive by the devil to do his will. There's the bondage of the will to the devil. Listen, you can sing 48 verses of Just as I am. No one is being saved until God intervenes.
Let me give you one more and then we'll wrap this up. Still in John 8, I want you to see verse 43 and verse 47, spiritual deafness. Spiritual deafness, and then I'll tie this all together. Look at verse 43. Jesus said, why do you not understand what I am saying?
It's a good question, is it not? Why do you not understand what I'm saying? Look at the answer. It is because you cannot hear my word. They could hear the audible voice, but they could not hear the spiritual voice. Listen, I can bring this message right now to your ears, but I can go no further. It is the Holy Spirit who must take it from your ears to your heart.
I must stay at the front door. I cannot proceed past your ears. That's why Jesus said, who has ears to hear, let him hear. Jesus is saying that the unsaved man cannot hear what God is saying. You can hear audibly, but you cannot hear with understanding. To hear and not to respond is not to hear at all. When a child disobeys what the parent is saying, often the parent will say, you're not listening. You're not hearing what I'm saying. Oh, they heard.
There was just a deliberate choice to refuse. Look at verse 47. Jesus is equally clear. He who is of God, that means he who is born of God, he who is in the other family, hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them because you are not of God. Everyone who is not of God does not hear the word of God. Oh, they hear as far as, that was John 3.16, but it never sinks in. It never is heard with understanding and with a sense of urgency that I must respond.
So let me pull all this together rather quickly. What is the spiritual state of every unregenerate, unconverted person? They are plagued with spiritual ignorance, spiritual blindness, spiritual hatred, spiritual defiance, spiritual death, spiritual inability, spiritual slavery, spiritual bondage, and spiritual deafness.
Listen, out of nothing, nothing comes. And until God speaks into the darkness of such a heart and enables a response, there will never be a response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Should we not be grateful for the fact that you and I are believers in the Lord right now? Do you see what a miracle it is that we are saved, that we are clothed and in our right minds?
Because this was true of every one of us, and it would only be arrogance and pride to deny this fact. In fact, it would be blatant against the Scripture if we did not truly understand the depth of our depravity. Well in the next session, we're going to talk about how the Lord has broken into our lives with sovereign saving grace to raise the dead to believe.
And we will look at the doctrine of sovereign election. I look forward to seeing you in the next session. God bless you. Despite the deadness of our souls, God is the one who called us, drew us, regenerated us, and brought us into a saving relationship with Himself. Salvation is truly of the Lord. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind and a message from Ligonier teaching fellow, Dr. Stephen Lawson.
I'm Lee Webb, and I'm glad you could be with us today. We are featuring Dr. Lawson's series, The Doctrines of Grace in John. In this series, he explains the five main biblical doctrines that reveal God's plan of salvation. To help you in your own study of the doctrines of grace, we'd like to send you Dr. Lawson's complete series. There are 12 messages on two DVDs, and you can request them with your donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries.
You can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343, or if you prefer, you can go online to renewingyourmind.org. Why do we believe that this is such an important study? In our most recent State of Theology survey, one of the statements we asked people to respond to was this one. Even the smallest sin deserves eternal damnation. More than half of those who profess to be evangelical Christians, 54%, disagreed with that statement. Man's radical depravity is an essential element of Christian doctrine, and we need to understand it.
So we do hope you'll contact us to request this series. Tomorrow, Dr. Lawson will address the doctrine of sovereign election, and here's a preview. Before any sinner ever came to Christ, God had already given those to the Son.
And the reason God had given them to the Son is because God had already chosen them by Himself and for Himself. I hope you'll join us Wednesday for Renewing Your Mind. I hope you'll join us Wednesday for Renewing Your Mind. I hope you'll join us Wednesday for Renewing Your Mind.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-03-14 11:16:24 / 2023-03-14 11:24:47 / 8