Admonition Podcast

As we begin this morning, ah raise your hand if you do not have or at least do not have
with you a copy of the booklet.

We're going over the Back to the Bible booklet, so if you'll raise your hand, ah Jacob or
Walker will bring one of those to you.

as they're making their way around.

We uh have proceeded through the first two of the booklets in the Back to the Bible
series.

We will begin this Sunday with the third one, and we'll conclude that next Sunday morning.

So, uh we're not going to cover the entire thing in this particular lesson, and we will...

as we've done before, discuss some of the things that are in it for the sake of helping
you to understand what you will be doing if you sit down and study with someone these

booklets, as you sit down and help them to understand the Word and the will of God.

But uh as we pause just for a moment, we're going to take a moment right now and hopefully
you all still have your...

the other bookmarks, you have your bookmarks with you.

And we're going to take a moment uh for us to pray for the people who are on those lists.

You know, as we're progressing in our training concerning how to study with people.

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You're reaching the point where you can sit down and study with these people.

You can look for an open opportunities and open doors to be able to study with the
individuals who you have on oh the names that you have on that sheet.

And so I encourage you to be thinking about the people who are on those sheet.

Be looking for life events occurring in their lives.

that you might find the opportunity to be able to uh instill in them and sit down and
study with them the Word of God, that they might know both how to live and how to be

obedient to God.

So we're going take a moment and pray silently on behalf of those who are on each of our
own lists.

One last thing as we begin.

Those who've been here through all of the studies, remember that at the beginning, one of
the first things you will have done, if you didn't have the opportunity to do it at the

beginning of your study with someone, then this would be the opportunity that you would
take to do it.

ah Preferably, I prefer to do it at the very beginning before any of the study has begun.

But if you don't do it then, you need to do it.

at this point right here, before you open the third book, before you start into the third
book, sit down with the questions that are on the back of this.

ah This is the Back to the Bible Survey.

These questions are in the booklet.

These questions can also just be on a piece of paper.

Stick it your Bible.

You're going to regularly think through these questions.

The key to the questions is getting the person to write

them down.

You know, if you had them write them down at the beginning of the first study, have them
give you that piece of paper.

Bring it back out at this point.

Not at this moment in time at the beginning of the study, but during the third study.

Which means you have to keep track of it.

So put it somewhere where you won't lose it.

ah But if you do have them write it down at this point in time, that's fine too.

But what I encourage you to do is go through these questions.

Now, the questions just by way of reminder that are on this survey.

Or, do you know God exists?

You don't have to rehash that before the third one.

If you've gone through two booklets, you've probably got a good idea whether or not they
believe that God exists.

But just going through the questions that are here.

Do you know who the Holy Spirit is?

Do you believe the Holy Spirit is God?

The answers that are on this are yes, no, or unsure.

Do you know who Jesus is?

Do you believe Jesus is God?

Do you believe the entire Bible is God's Word?

Do you believe the Bible contains contradictions, mistakes, and or false statements?

Now, if you filled this out before the first study, they may have said, well, not sure
about that, or they may have said no.

and you may be at this point now and they may have changed their mind entirely because of
reading what's in booklet number one concerning inspiration and revelation.

they may be in a different place on some of these answers than they were when they started
this study with you.

Do you believe God will do everything he has stated in his word?

Now, the last section from this point forward

is the point that I typically make sure we've gone over and we've answered and we've
written down the answers before we start the third study.

First question, are you saved?

You know, every single person I've ever studied with who comes from a denominational
background has said yes to that answer.

They're certain they're saved.

Part of the reason it's important to have this written down is because the person they're
going to argue with during the course of the third book is themselves.

And I don't know about you, but if you've ever observed someone who's tried to convince
themselves to go to the gym, work out on regular basis and get in shape, most of the time

we beat ourselves in our own arguments.

And so if they're going to be arguing with themselves, the only way you're going to be
able to hold them accountable for their answers is if it's written down.

That's why it's so important.

because as they argue with themselves, they'll be looking at the sheet and going.

You know that's not what I said two hours ago, or an hour and a half ago, 45 minutes ago.

I said this.

And now I'm looking at the Scriptures and it says this.

Okay?

So the next thing, if yes, at what point were you saved?

What did you do to become saved and have them give you the details?

What day it was?

Where were they?

How old were they?

What did they do?

And it may go something like this, well, I was 14 years old.

ah It was in Samaritanis C.

I was at the Northwest Baptist Church.

I went down to the front with two other friends of mine.

We kneeled down and we prayed.

May go something like that, maybe something entirely different.

But they're going say, this is what I did.

They'll know what they've thought about it before.

They've considered it before.

They'll give you the answer, and they'll write it down.

How old were you when you were saved?

Have you been baptized?

Yes, no, or unsure.

How old were you when you were baptized?

Now, they may say, well, I was saved when I was 14.

I was baptized when I was 18.

That's a completely normal answer for most people in the denominational world.

well, I prayed and I was saved on July 7th, but the baptismal ceremony was until July
24th.

Circle the word that describes your baptism.

Sprinkling, pouring, immersion.

Someone may say, well, I've never been baptized as an adult, but I know I was baptized
when I was a baby because my mother told me I was.

Okay?

If you've been baptized, were you saved before or after baptism?

And if you were to die tonight, do you know where you would go for eternity?

Yes, no, or unsure?

as you open the third book.

You've gone through revelation, inspiration, and authority.

You've talked about the church, who started it, who it belongs to, what are the aspects of
it that they need to know and they need to understand.

They now know what the body of Christ looks like.

They now know that the Word of God is inspired and is something that they are accountable
to.

And as you open up this book,

You're now not talking about those things, you're talking about them.

But you're not going to approach it in talking about them, per se.

You're going to do the same thing you've done in the last two studies.

You're going to open up the Word of God and just see what it says.

You're going let them read it for themselves.

This does not and should never turn into an accusatory study.

unless it's them accusing themselves.

You go back and look at the gospel record of Christ's life.

the times where you see an extreme uptick in the animosity of the Pharisees and the chief
priests.

is when Jesus causes them through the conversation or the teaching or the parable.

to see themselves as guilty.

So there's a caution there.

Not everyone will accept this the same way.

Not everyone will react the same way.

Some will get angry.

Some will get angry at others because they've always been lied to.

Some will become sad.

Some will grieve.

Some will be very, very stoic all the way up until the point they make a decision.

And some will get part way through, close it, and walk away.

as you realize that what they're facing is the challenge of what they've always believed
with what they're now confronted with is actually in the Word of God.

You must remember Paul's instruction to Timothy.

He says, preach the Word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke,

exhort with all long suffering.

Do not give up on an individual because you study the third study with them and they're
not immediately converted.

one of the individuals that was incredibly kind and beneficial to us in our work, our
first work in North Carolina.

was an older lady who uh she attended the congregation where her husband was a member with
him for seven years.

before she could talk herself out of what she had always believed.

She knew what the Bible taught before she'd been there year.

And it took her six more years to get out of what she had always been taught.

Do know that person was the single most evangelistic person in the entire congregation?

My emphasis here is you give people time.

Don't give up on them because they didn't change their mind in one study.

Remind yourself that the scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, many on the council
denied Jesus, denied Jesus, would not accept Jesus, knew that He was who He claimed to be,

and still

wouldn't obey Jesus, and yet we're told in the book of Acts that after his resurrection
many of them believed.

Sometimes you have to give people time.

Now let's begin with Isaiah chapter 59.

The section of this study starts with your spiritual condition, that's the header.

Then what is sin?

How many of sin?

Those are the areas we're going to, sorry, and the consequences of sin, those are the
areas we're going to discuss this morning.

Isaiah 59 verses 1 and 2,

The visual is helpful.

Man's here, God's here, sin's in the middle.

Sin is what divides man from God.

You know what?

That is not something that most people are astounded by.

Most denominations will teach that.

Most religious groups will say there's something that separates humanity from God and it's
our morality.

It's not a big surprise when that is discussed.

So as you go through, again, read the text, let them fill it in.

First John chapter 3 and verse 4, the question is, what is sin?

If sin is what separates man from God, then what is it?

Paul, sorry, John will write in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4,

John says sin is when we violate the law of God.

When we violate the law of God, we've sinned.

Easy enough to understand.

Now, some might say, well, what's a transgression?

One, the original Greek word carries with it the idea of missing the mark.

as if there was an archer who was shooting at a target and he overshot the target or he
fell short of the target.

That's a good illustration.

People get that.

Hey, this is what you were supposed to do, but you went over it, you went under it, you
missed it.

James chapter 1.

James chapter 1 in verse 14 and 15, But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his
own lust and enticed.

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death.

As they look at that text,

The man is tempted when he is.

drawn away by his own lust.

You know, many in the religious world who have a Calvinism background are far less
concerned about the sins they commit themselves and spend much of their time worrying

about the doctrine of original sin, the sin they believe they inherited from Adam.

If you were to go back and look at the doctrine of Calvinism, you would find that
Calvinists teach that you are born in sin, and you've probably heard people say that.

I know that I was born in sin.

That's going to be a challenge when they look at this and go, sin occurs when I am
allowing myself to do that which God has told me not to do.

Because babies can't do that.

And babies don't do that.

When lust has conceived, it brings forth sin.

Now, there's already a conclusion there that, as you've observed throughout this study, we
don't draw out everything that's in every text.

Sometimes we loop back to these texts.

Build one thing upon another.

James chapter 4.

James chapter 4 verse 17, therefore to him,

that knows to do good and doeth it not to him and his sin, you can emphasize that one is a
sin, James 1, of commission.

You don't have to use that word, but you can say one is a sin because you violated the
law.

Here is a sin because you failed to do what the law commanded you to do.

One is God told you not to do something and you did it.

The other is God told you to do something and you didn't do it.

Both of them are sin.

If one knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.

So the question, have you ever failed to do what you knew was right?

There's not a competent, well-meaning, well-thinking individual who's an adult who could
say no to that question.

Yes, of course, there have been times where I failed to do what was right.

Romans chapter 3.

under the header of how many have sinned.

Romans chapter 3 verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous, no not one.

Now the context in this discussion is righteous in and of themselves because there may be
some confusion.

They may go, wait a minute, well aren't Christians righteous?

What does it mean?

Paul's discussion in this text is righteous separated from God, apart from God, righteous
in and of themselves.

uh Romans chapter 3 verse 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And you ask the question, how many have sinned?

All have.

Does this include you?

you'll find in this text, in this booklet, more than the others the directed questions.

And if you're like me, maybe you're not, but if you're like me, you'll be less comfortable
asking those.

It's really easy to ask a question about the text, but you're going to feel a little weird
internally going, does this include you?

But just ask the question.

Don't overthink it.

Just ask the question.

Does this include you?

They'll answer it.

You answer it.

Romans chapter 6 verse 23.

The consequences of sin.

For the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The wages of sin.

is death.

They understand what wages are.

This microphone is driving me nuts today.

Sorry.

They understand what wages are, and if they don't immediately connect, when you go to
work, you earn wages.

You get paid and you are owed that because you worked for it.

That's what wage is.

God is saying when you sin, you earned.

death.

A lot of people really want to believe that they're owed heaven unless they just somehow
did enough bad in their life to have missed heaven and end up in hell.

That's not what the text says.

The text says the wages of sin is death.

How many sins must one commit to be separated from God eternally?

You know, I've never had anyone miss the answer.

I never had anyone say, you probably have to commit a few thousand.

No, they look at the text and go.

One, because now that you've committed the sin, you've earned the wage.

And if they struggle with that, ask how many hours they have to work at their employer
before they expect to be paid for the hours they work.

You want to just one hour.

Do you expect to be paid for that?

You expect to be paid for the first hour and every hour thereafter?

Yeah.

it's your wage.

1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 9 and 10.

Paul writes to the Corinthians and says,

Nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

You may be tempted to take a moment here and explain what all the depth, the detail of all
these things are and what all they mean.

Don't.

Not because it's not important for them to know it, but if they don't know what it means,
that's probably not the sin that they need to repent of.

But there's a few of them on there I can just about guarantee you they're going to
identify with from some point in their life.

Will the unrighteous inherit the Kingdom of God?

Nobody misses it.

The answer is no.

Matthew chapter 13 verses 40 through 42.

As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of
the world.

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, they shall gather out of his kingdom all
things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of

fire, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." At the end of the world sinners will
be.

punished.

something that I haven't always stated, sometimes they're going to use a word that's not
the direct word right out of the text.

They're going say, well, they're going to be judged, punished, burned.

You put the right word in yours.

If they've got the gist of it, move on.

Don't argue over technicalities as long as they're understanding the text.

Now as you think about where this study has left them,

It's left them seeing sin.

It's left them seeing God's judgment.

Now, if you left them right here,

That'd be a pretty sad place to be, wouldn't it?

But the thing is...

At this point in the study, they're answering all of these questions for the most part,
most people you'll study with, they're answering all these questions thinking it's

somebody else.

because they're saved.

This is about lost people.

This is about people who will be judged by God, not welcomed home.

This is about people who are going to hell, not heaven.

At this moment in the study, they're fine with it.

And I want to emphasize that for this reason.

When you sit down with the Word of God, with a tool like this or any other tool, when you
sit down with the text of Scripture, it is important that you do not sit down to see why

others need to be accountable to God.

while simultaneously not holding yourself accountable to God.

It is not enough to open the Word of God and see what others must do.

You've got to open it up and see what you must do.

If you're here this morning and you're outside the Body of Christ.

You need to realize and we need to remember.

that God will hold each and every one of us accountable for what we do in this life.

that when we reach eternity, we will give an account for the words that we say, Jesus
says, that you'll be judged by every idle word that you speak.

By the things that you think.

Jesus emphasized in Matthew chapter 5, 5, around verse 20, that if a man lusted in his
heart over a woman,

He's just as guilty of committing sin as if he had committed an act of adultery.

If he hated his brother, he's just as guilty of sin as if he had murdered his brother.

We're going to be judged for the words that we speak, for the thoughts that we think, but
we're also going to be judged for the actions we take.

And if we add in James chapter 4, we're to be reminded that we're going to be judged for
the things that we violate and the things we fail to keep.

If you evaluate your life and you think, you know what, I'm not passing that test.

I violated something that I was told not to do.

I failed to do something I was told to do.

I've thought things that I shouldn't have thought.

I've said things I shouldn't have said.

then the text of Scripture very plainly teaches us that the wages of sin is death.

but the gift of God is eternal life.

If that is where you find yourself this morning, no, that's not where God wants you to be,
nor is it where you have to stay.

If you're outside the body of Christ this morning, why not consider changing your position
in life and being obedient to the Word of God?

by hearing the Word and believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, by repenting of
your sins and confessing His name, by being immersed in water for the remission of your

sins, to rise to walk in newness of life, no longer being guilty of those old sins, no
longer living that old life, but being obedient to the Word of God.

If you have need of the invitation of Jesus Christ, why not come forward this morning as
we stand?