Key Life Network

Steve Brown: Is it possible to recognize the depth of my sin? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life.

Matthew: If you think laughter isn't spiritual or that faithfulness to God means conformity to Christian stereotypes, then this program probably isn't for you. But if you're looking for honest biblical answers to hard questions, then welcome to Key Life. Here's our host, author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from Forge Truth.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hi, Pete.

Pete Alwinson: Hey. You're going to confess your sins on this.

Steve Brown: No. We got a question like how can I recognize the depth of my sin? And I just said, I don't want to know. And then and then Pete turned to Jeremy, who's the producer of this program. He's in a little glass booth and said, but I would like to know the depth of your sin. That's Pete Alwinson along with Jeremy Burleson, who's the producer, and we produce this program every Friday. And we love your questions. You can send a question to Key Life Network and that's post office box 5000, Maitland, Florida 32794. In Canada, it's Key Life Canada, post office box 28060, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6J8.

Or you can email your question to steve@keylife.org. Or if you're in a hurry, pick up the phone and dial 1-800-539-5433. That's 1-800-KeyLife and follow the instructions and we'll record your question and perhaps put you and your voice on the air. And all of those places are where you could help us financially if the spirit moves. I promise we'll be honest with any gift you send and we'll squeeze it for the glory of God. So help us if you can. If you can't, we understand. And say a prayer for the ministry. Pete, say a prayer for this program and we'll we'll get on these questions.

Pete Alwinson: All right. Our Father, we come before you right now just for a minute to thank you for your goodness to us this week and ask your blessing in our lives right now. We need you. We've always needed you. You created us in your image and recreated us in Christ to to know you, to worship you, to glorify you, to enjoy you, to help others come to know the living God. And Lord, we pray that this weekend as we come into the the presence of the triune God in worship, that your word would be taught faithfully, that the music would lead us to think deeply about you and to repent and to enjoy the glory of the living God.

So we pray for all of our leaders, our pastors, worship leaders, uh priests, those that are are dedicated, who are dedicated to bringing us into your presence. And now we deal some more with Q&A, questions and answers. We know that only by your spirit can the right answers be given to direct our lives. So we commit our time to you now. In Jesus' strong name we pray. Amen.

Steve Brown: Pete, this first question is an email and a really good question. Um the the person wrote this, is it really possible to recognize the depth of my sin? The older I get, and I'm old, I recognize more and more of my sin, not less. Do those who believe in entire sanctification use the same Bible I do?

Pete Alwinson: I love it. I love it.

Steve Brown: Then you know, I you know, you leave that up to God, don't you?

Pete Alwinson: Mm yeah. Yeah. I I I it it it's really a great question because I think the older I get, um the more I see there are way more layers to my sin than I

Steve Brown: Than you thought. Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: I you know, I believe the doctrine of total depravity that sin affects the way I think, feel and decide, act, my intellect, emotions and will. And yet the layers are it's so total. I'm not as bad as I could be, but the layers of sin are deep.

Steve Brown: Yeah. So true. That's my experience.

Pete Alwinson: Oh man.

Steve Brown: I said to um I spoke at a graduation of a university recently and I

Pete Alwinson: Mm

Steve Brown: and I said, you should listen to me and it's not cuz I'm so good looking and smart cuz I'm old as dirt. And and I only old people know enough truth to tell you and are willing to do it. So listen to what I'm going to tell you. And I what I was saying was kind of what you're just saying. It's really true.

Pete Alwinson: Mm Mm Mm

Steve Brown: we see the depravity there.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah.

Steve Brown: And and I do sometimes, and I've asked God to fix it, to let me see the sanctification occasionally. It would be helpful. And he's done that. I've been able to see where I'm growing and where God is working in my life.

Pete Alwinson: Of course. Mm Mm

Steve Brown: Uh but uh back again, uh I really that's the business of the Holy Spirit.

Pete Alwinson: It really is. So so good for you, brother or or sister, whoever wrote this, um it's a sign the Holy Spirit is at work. It's a sign that humility is finally starting to take root.

Steve Brown: Yeah. That's right.

Pete Alwinson: Uh because when we're young, we tend to think that we got life by the tail.

Steve Brown: I know.

Pete Alwinson: And we're we're ridiculously self-confident when we're younger. And so this is this is really maturity and uh you're coming to the end of yourself.

Steve Brown: Yeah. That's good.

Pete Alwinson: God bless you. What a place to be.

Steve Brown: That's why I like the question so much. That was a good thing.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah. I love it. Uh the script But Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin. And that's true in our work of evangelism. But I think you can extrapolate and there are other places in scripture where it teaches that the Holy Spirit's business is to do that with Christians too.

Steve Brown: Yeah huh. Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: And you don't have to go fishing. I mean, you're going to know.

Steve Brown: That's right. And what but what balances this is is that once grace begins to take real root in your life, you you are not so devastated by your sin because you know Jesus paid for it and you're accepted 100% unconditionally. And so by imbibing grace, you will see your sin more, but you won't despair.

Pete Alwinson: I know. That is so good.

Steve Brown: And you'll And you'll give it to him and you'll say, all right, this has got to go too. 468 of the day. Here it is.

Pete Alwinson: That's so true and it's uh and it's so wise. So don't go fishing. You know, you get Christians who every time locusts attack a crop in a third world country, they're sure they did something wrong. There's so much to make us And in fact, if you knew how truly bad you are,

Steve Brown: Mm

Pete Alwinson: Jack Miller said, cheer up, you're a lot worse than you think you are. And we are. And if God revealed all of that at one time, you you you know, you go jump off a bridge.

Steve Brown: We'd all be suicidal. You're absolutely right.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. Okay. Good answer to that question. It's a good one too. I believe in Jesus. There's another email. And have accepted his gift of of forgiveness uh though one deserved. I know I forgive but what about surrender? How do I make myself surrender all? I am still self-centered in many ways and it causes me to think I'm forgiven, but not going to heaven.

Steve Brown: Isn't that something?

Pete Alwinson: That's a very good question.

Steve Brown: Well put. Thank you for your honesty.

Pete Alwinson: And some of the things we said in the last one are relevant to this one also.

Steve Brown: Mm Yep. It really it really is. I I I love this idea of surrender. And some denominations and some churches focus more on that word of surrendering

Pete Alwinson: Yep.

Steve Brown: than um than I don't think in our denomination that's a that's a a real word that is brought up a lot. It should be.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, maybe we ought to do it more.

Steve Brown: More, I think. But I do think that um what has helped me is to surrender bit by bit. Um I

Pete Alwinson: I I

Steve Brown: Yeah. Yeah.

Pete Alwinson: I I never The heart is deceitful above all else and mine is way up there. And I I think if I can surrender one thing at a time that needs to be surrendered, eventually you get there. We're not going to have 100% total sanctification in this life.

Steve Brown: True.

Pete Alwinson: But what do I need to surrender today? Um and how does grace help me um just surrender it? Um that's kind of more the way I think about it.

Steve Brown: You know, and I think that's sort of a contract. I even articulate that. Um I say to God, look, the trouble with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar. And you know me, but I want you to know that I am placing And I name them.

Pete Alwinson: Mm

Steve Brown: This and this and this on the altar. And I want you to make it a contract before you and conform my heart to this contract. And I think he does. One other thing seems to be appropriate here and that's the idea of repentance. That's what repentance is. It's not change.

Pete Alwinson: Mm Mm

Steve Brown: It is God's method to change us.

Pete Alwinson: Mm

Steve Brown: And so repentance is knowing who you are, knowing what you've done, knowing who God is and agreeing with him about it. And that's a form of surrender and growth. And God takes that seriously.

Pete Alwinson: Mm

Steve Brown: I think there I I think Christians in the sense I just described it don't just repent. They live a life of repentance.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. It's it's every day and

Steve Brown: It's all the time.

Pete Alwinson: And now And so given that, Paul does say, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. So there are some things that we

Steve Brown: Yeah, we just have to Yeah. I agree.

Pete Alwinson: where we take where where we where where uh coming from that position of repentance, then we actually have to change our schedule. And discipline our habits. And we do.

Steve Brown: And we have the power to do that. He provides. Yeah. I agree.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, that's right. He provides the power to do it. Yeah? So that's good. That's how Pete and I became spiritual giants.

Steve Brown: Yeah. That's how you reached total sanctification. Last I think it was last week, you know, so I could tell

Pete Alwinson: Exactly. Yeah, and it kept crawling off the altar. It just wasn't that kind of thing. Uh what does the Bible say about heaven?

Steve Brown: Oh man, a lot.

Pete Alwinson: And we only have 30 seconds. So see what you can do with it.

Steve Brown: I know. I mean, it's eternal. It's it's going to be it's going to be great. It's going to be the new heavens and the new earth. We're not going to be bored. I think we'll get to do some great things as well as worship God and live in proximity to the triune God. That's going to be an interesting way to understand. How will that How will we experience the proximity of God?

Pete Alwinson: Oh yeah. And I think that will be cool. But I think it's going to be more fun than it will be religious, frankly, between me and you.

Steve Brown: Uh The spiritual and the physical will all come together in in the perfect way that it was intended to be in the Garden of Eden.

Pete Alwinson: That's right. And And we Any details you get from us, we don't know. We haven't been there yet either.

Steve Brown: Streets of gold.

Pete Alwinson: So yeah, I'm I'm Of course. And But the Bible is clear. Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, and the mind of man has not conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.

Steve Brown: Yeah. Amen. Amen. The inheritance we have is in Christ.

Pete Alwinson: Oh it is. And the other place you don't want to go. Trust me on that. Guys, we got to go not there, but home. Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.