Wrong Views On The Sovereignty Of God (part 5)

The Blessing of Gathering and a Prayer for Clarity

Our Father in heaven, it's a blessing to be here this morning to be among brothers and sisters in Christ, those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in him entirely. And we know that this has only happened because of your great power, because of your love with which you loved us even before we existed.

Father, we pray that this morning as we talk about your sovereignty and salvation, that you would just bring these things afresh to our minds, and that for those of us who are sitting here and just kind of confused, unsure, Lord, I pray that you would, by your Holy Spirit, bring clarity this morning.

Many of these things are difficult to understand, but Father, they're contained in your word. We need to wrestle with them and to understand them, and I pray that you'd bless each one here in Jesus' name.

Amen. All right, so we've been going through a true-false quiz on the sovereignty of God in salvation. And, you know, David was at our house last night, and he said, today is the Super Bowl. And by that, he meant because I'm doing Sunday school and I'm preaching.

And I'm like, well, I don't know if I'd say the Super Bowl exactly, probably more like the World Cup. No, no, no. But it is sort of a doubleheader, because we're going to be talking about the sovereignty of God in salvation twice.

It's not going to be a direct repeat, by the way, just in case you were wondering. So we're up to our number 11 on this quiz, and I've been instructed by somebody with a slightly higher authority to move things along.

Where is she? Okay, sorry. So number 11, true or false, it is not the duty of the non-elect to believe in Christ for salvation. Calvinists do not believe in the free offer of the gospel. Now any time there's a true or false question, what do you have to do?

I mean, besides answer true or false. Any true or false question, what do you have to examine as you're reading the question? All parts of it. And if any part of it is false, then the whole thing's false, right?

So it is not the duty of the non-elect to believe in Christ for salvation. Is that true or false? It is not the duty of the non-elect. Who are the non-elect? Unregenerate people and people who will never be regenerated.

Is it their duty to believe in Christ for salvation? Does God say to all men, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved? I'm going to give you guys some coffee. Everybody gets free coffee on me.

Later. Yes, everybody has to believe. So the fact that the non-elect are not going to believe doesn't excuse them. The second part of the question, Calvinists do not believe in the free offer of the gospel.

That part is false. We absolutely believe that the gospel should be spread without prejudice. That is to say that everybody needs to hear about Jesus Christ. Everybody needs to hear the free offer of the gospel.

So it is not the duty of the non-elect to believe in Christ for salvation. Boy, I really worded that clumsily. Thank you. That's the whole point of a true or false question, right? Just to trick the class.

So this is what Waldron says. He says, this is indeed the doctrine of a few hyper-Calvinists. Man I should have put this on the cheat sheet. What is a hyper-Calvinist? Brian, let me give you the microphone because that was very well said.

We should have a microphone in here. That was good, Brian. They believe so firmly in the sovereignty of God that they believe God's going to save everybody no matter what we do. The ones that he's supposed to save or that he's chosen to save so that we don't have any responsibility at all.

Now I would say in examining Brian's statement, I would have to give it a false. Why? Because he says they believe so firmly in the sovereignty of God. What do they really do? If the sovereignty of God is one truth and the responsibility of man is another, they say, well, this doesn't exist.

This is all there is, right? In other words, they hear the Great Commission and they go, yeah, yeah, yeah. But ultimately it's not a matter of our urgency, our need to go preach the gospel. It's ultimately just like, well, we're just going to let go and let God.

That's kind of hyper Calvinism. They wouldn't put it that way. But 1689, our confession of faith says this, moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, right? We're all in Adam.

We've been talking about that so that we are, we're born with a sin nature. We have this proclivity towards sin. It pleased the Lord to make a covenant of grace, wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, listen, requiring of them faith in him, in Christ, that they may be saved.

Can as a Dort say something similar? And of course I want to confuse things, but I won't just yet. Number 12, true or false. God does not desire the salvation of the non-elect, but has only hatred for them.

That's false. Does not desire, you know, what does he say in the old Testament that he gets no joy or pleasure out of the death of the wicked, right? It's not like God rejoices over that or that he's happy about it.

Waldron says there are again some high Calvinists that teach that even though God commands the non-elect to come to Christ, he really has no desire that they come. Listen to the canons of Dort. Again, the canons of Dort written after Arminius has passed, some of his teaching is refuted by the Arminius saying, well, let's review a little bit.

Arminius not being a full Pelagian, but a semi-Pelagian, Pelagius taught what? That the fall of Adam had no effect on everybody else. You know, to quote Mormonism, we believe that every person is responsible for their own sin and not for Adam's transgression.

That's like a perfect statement of Pelagianism. Adam fell, shame on Adam. That doesn't have anything to do with us. The Bible, on the other hand, says, yes, when Adam fell, when Adam sinned, what? That he dragged us all in with him.

We call that doctrine federal headship, that he was the representative of everyone, not just Adam and Eve, but of everyone. And that's plain in Romans chapter five. And we've talked about that quite a bit.

Canons of Dort say this, for God has most earnestly and truly declared in his word what is acceptable to him, namely that those who are called should come unto him. He also seriously promises rest of soul and eternal life to all who come and believe.

Common Grace, Special Grace, and God’s Desire for Sinners to Repent

Number 13, true or false, there is no such thing as common grace. What's the difference between common grace and special grace? I mean, we talk about general revelation and special revelation, general revelation being we can look about it all of creation.

We can see that there's a creator, that there's a God, that there's order, that everything is upheld by the power of God. And then we see special revelation having to do with the Bible, having to do with the specific revelation of God from him to us, right?

So when we talk about common grace or special grace, what is common grace? Or let's put it this way. What's special or specific grace? Yeah, right. Okay, so special grace would visit somebody in time and I mean, it, by grace, God chose us in eternity past, right before the world began.

And then in time, we get saved and God carries us all the way through the end. That's special grace, specific grace, saving grace. Common grace is, okay, okay, that's part of it, right? That we all exist because as sinners by nature and by choice, God would be just in instantly punishing us the minute we do sin, so we have that grace.

But when I think more, more specifically, talking about general grace or common grace, we think about things like the beauty of the earth or homes or families or, you know, the ability to make money, to enjoy life generally, I mean, you know, food and all these kind of things.

Common grace, things that everyone gets, right? Brian? Yeah, but I'm just kind of expanding on it. So, you know, he said we have the right to be and all these kind of things. So I'm just kind of expanding on that a little bit.

So, yeah, I don't think Liam was wrong. I'm just sort of expanding on his answer a little bit. The 1689 says this, it speaks of the faith and common grace of temporary believers, which I thought, that's kind of an interesting thought.

What's a temporary believer? Well, somebody who is not actually a believer would be a temporary believer, but they get common grace in the sense that we've talked about. They have, you know, they have the pleasures of life.

Yeah, how about these when we're talking about common grace and we're talking about God's desire to see people saved, Ezekiel 33, 11, say to them, as I live, declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.

Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why will you then die, O house of Israel? So this is the picture of God's common grace, that he doesn't take pleasure or joy in the death of the wicked in their judgment, in other words.

Definite Atonement and Why Christ’s Death Was Intentional

Okay. Number 14, only Calvinists, only Calvinists limit the value of the atonement. What do we mean when we say limiting the value of the atonement? Jesus died for sinners. What does that mean? Yes, Brian.

If we talk about what did Jesus actually accomplish on the cross? And I think to do that, one way to do it is to look back and go, why, for what purpose did Jesus go to the cross? Did he go to make salvation possible for all men?

Did he go to actually secure salvation for all men? Or did he go to pay the price for the sins of the elect, which is what Brian said? Which one is correct? If he, let's put it this way. If Jesus paid the price for every sin of every person who ever lived, then there's a logical question that has to be asked.

Why does anybody go to hell? What was the other one? Well, because somebody had to pay the price for sin, right? I think that would be logical. But the question then is, if Jesus went to the cross and he paid the price for every sin that anybody would ever commit, then why would anybody go to hell?

And what's the answer to that? And here's what the Arminian would say, Taylor. Okay. Somebody says, I'm not going to accept Jesus' life and death and resurrection on my behalf. I refuse that. And therefore, I thwart the will of God, right?

If God from, I mean, did the father send the son, according to Matthew 1 .21? Did he send the son to save every person from their sin? Why did he send Jesus Christ to earth? To save his people from their sin, right?

Even, you know, I mean, I just really struggle with the kind of, if he paid the price for everyone, there are a number of problems with that. But Jesus, before Judas Iscariot died, what did he say? He said it would be better for him to have never been born.

Why? Because all Jews had to do was say, well, I believe in Jesus and, you know, get out of jail free card. He understood, Jesus knew that Judas was not among the elect. That's why he said that, that he wasn't one of the ones that Jesus came to die for.

Let me put it another way, and this is the crass way I've used on many occasions. I just like it. Judgment day, everybody appearing before the judgment bar. We all line up, huge line, billions and billions of people, billions and billions served.

And here's, thank you, thank you for that. And here's the picture. They come up to the counter, and I'm sorry for this, but, you know, the father's behind the counter. And he, you know, he has a list of everybody's sins.

In other words, their bill, what they must pay, which is eternity in hell. Here's this whole list of sins. Here comes Steve up to the counter, and I'm like, and Jesus says, I'll pay for his sins. I've got this bill.

And in the way the unlimited atonement folks have it, if I'm one of the non-elect, I stand before the father, and I say that, you know, I have nothing to offer except for Jesus Christ. And Jesus says, I'll pay for his sins.

And the father says, okay, because he was chosen before the foundation of the world. For the non-elect, you know, they come up to the bar, well, I was a good person. You know, and Jesus says, well, I'll pay for his sins.

And the father then says, he looks, and he goes, Jesus, your money is no good here. And I listen, I mean, it's crass, I admit that. But if you think about it, that's ultimately what those who propose a universal atonement say.

They say that Jesus paid for everybody's sins, but it's based on my decision, on the person's decision, whether to receive that or not. And then the father says, well, I'm going to listen to Steve. I'm going to listen to the person.

I'm going to listen to, you know, whatever they say. And the answer is no. Jesus came here with a purpose. His purpose is not thwarted before the foundation of the world. I mean, we could read through Ephesians 1.

We've done this on many occasions, Ephesians 1, 3 to 14. We can go to other places. And the point is that before the world began, before time existed, God chose some people. Jesus agreed to come save them.

And the spirit agreed to seal them, to set them apart, to regenerate them. So, questions about the extent of the atonement? Yes, I see that hand, Stephen. Okay, good. So, one side says the atonement only has power, well, or it has power to save all those that it's intended to save.

And the other side says, well, it could save everybody. And here's the problem with the could saved. And we'll get to the number here in a second. The problem with the could saved is, again, it depends on dead in their sins and trespasses, children of Satan to ultimately say, I would like to be saved.

I would like to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I would like to have my sins forgiven. Where would they get that power? And it's only when they're caused to be born again by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit would not cause somebody to be born again and then not save them.

And as far as the numbers of people, you know, did God have a specific group of people that he chose before the foundational world? And the answer is yes. So, there's ultimately our statement from the Canons of Dordogne.

The death of the Son of God is the only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin. And it is of infinite worth. In other words, could it save everybody? Yes, it could. And value abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world.

The Free Offer of the Gospel and the Meaning of Whosoever

However, that was not its design. The question is, for whom was it paid? And for whom was atonement made? And the answer is the elect. Number 16. True or false, limited atonement contradicts the free and well-meant offer of the gospel.

In other words, can we go to people who may not be elect and offer them the gospel knowing that the value of the atonement is limited to the elect? So, if somebody is not one of the elect and we preach the gospel to them, they can't be saved anyway.

So, why are we wasting our time? Corey, we have no idea whether anybody is elect or not. We don't know. Right? The Bible doesn't give us... You know, it would be nice like if there was a yearbook in there.

You know, a list of the elect, you know. I mean, did you know you can go to your town, you can get a list of every voter in town? So, wouldn't it be nice if they had, you know, you go to the town office, here's a list of all the elect in your town.

Awesome! You know, let's just... It would make things so easy. Except, here's the problem with that. What would the issue be with even having a list of the elect? I think there are two issues. Okay, that's a possibility.

They're going to heaven anyway, so why bother talking to them, Liam? Well, I mean, if somebody's not one of the elect, could they then not, you know, just feel the freedom to be a complete libertine? Yeah, Bill.

Thank you. They still have to hear the gospel, right? Well, and you know, true or false, do the non-elect, do we have an obligation to the non-elect to preach the gospel to them? And the answer is yes, right?

Jesus didn't say, you know, go to the ends of the elect. He said, go to the ends of the earth, right? Yeah, Corey. We also don't know the timing. Exactly. Yeah, we have no idea. You know, even we were having a discussion at the dinner table last night, not just Janet and I, because we normally don't eat dinner together.

Sorry. It's true. But we were having a discussion at the dinner table last night about this very thing and about how we don't know. We have no way of knowing. If, you know, we preach the gospel to somebody this afternoon and 40 years from now, as they lay there dying, as they're gasping for breath or whatever, God brings their mind that very thing where they rejected it today.

And 40 years from now, they're like, oh, I remember when Corey came to me and he said those things to me. And what was it he said? Oh, yeah, that Jesus died for my sins and that he rose on the third day and he lived a perfect life and all those kind of things.

And then they believe, can the Holy Spirit do that? And the answer is yes. So we don't know the timing at all. We do not know. OK, we, you know, Spurgeon once said that, you know, if only we could pull up the shirts of people and check their back and see if there was, you know, an E on there or that kind of thing.

He said that would be very helpful. And he was right about that. Let's see. Number 17, true or false? Limited atonement. In other words, what, you know, somebody said here the other day that they didn't even know what Calvinism was.

And I'm not going to go through all that. But let me just say this about limited atonement. Limited atonement is kind of a misleading word or limited, I guess atonement is not misleading. Limited is a little bit misleading.

We've already said that Arminians limited as well. Right. In terms of will it actually accomplish what God wanted it to? They certainly limit that. But why do I say limit is limited is sort of a misleading term.

Yeah, it's always a good thing. So I think that's true. I mean, there's what is the term that Sproul preferred? Not limited atonement, but particular redemption. Definite redemption. Yeah. Two dip, total depravity, unconditional election, definite atonement.

Then, right, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints. But definite redemption, because it tells us something. Limited just means, you know, that there's a sense in which it doesn't, it seems to make it somewhat powerless.

Definite redemption means it accomplishes specifically what it was intended to accomplish. So I like that better. Or particular redemption, because it redeems a people. Number 17, true or false, limited atonement means that whosoever may not come.

Right. Where's that word whosoever come from? I'm sorry. John 3, 16. And I mean, anytime you're in any kind of theological debate, I mean, there are even memes about this now, right? Because if you want to say, well, you know what?

God has his chosen people and he redeems them and everything else. Then what do they do? It's like a judo throw. John 3, 16. Checkmate. You know, I mean, it's like you're down. You're done. John 3, 16.

Whosoever. As I tried to point out a few weeks ago, are there problems with the whosoever? You know, is that the trump card, Brian? Okay. You need another qualifier. Believes, Bill. Okay. There's another whosoever.

But let's stay in John 3 for a moment. We'll get to that. Is it true that whosoever believes or whosoever calls in the name of the Lord will be saved? Yes, because the Bible says so. Here's the question going, or the issue going back to John 3.

We act as if it's a matter of volition, sheer volition, that we have free will. We know that we don't. But here's the other problem. In that context, in John 3, Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. Jesus is actually, it's interesting because Jesus is the one who says, who utters John 3, 16.

We don't normally think about that. You know, the words of Jesus. John chapter 3, he's talking to Nicodemus, this teacher of the Jews. And he says to him, what? Nicodemus comes to him and says, you know, basically, what's your authority?

By what authority? But he's nice about it. He's not like the other Pharisees. And Jesus says to him. He says, you must be born again. So this is all prefaced. All this John 3, 16 is prefaced on. You must be born again.

You must be born of the spirit. Something must happen to you before you can believe. He doesn't say, Nicodemus, pray this prayer. Nicodemus, believe, believe these truths. He says, something must be done to you.

You must be transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit. And Romans 10 is also true. But I mean, I can, and we will go through most of Romans this morning, believe it or not. Romans 10, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

It's true, but it also, you know, has a bunch that goes before it, including you have to hear the gospel from somebody. But it's also prefaced by what Romans 3, Romans 1. I mean, all these other passages that tell us that in and of ourselves, we are.

Dead, we don't do the right things. No one believes. We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What happens upon salvation is our will, our desires is that they are transformed. And that's the key.

So when somebody calls upon the name of the Lord, they shall be saved. Well, how is it that they call upon the name of the Lord? It's because God has already transformed them. God has already changed them.

Other thoughts before we move on? OK, Liam, right. So, I mean, if I were summarizing it, what Liam just said, I would put it this way. A text without a context is a pretext. Proof texting is what cults do, right?

I mean, they'll take a verse out of it. You know, the next thing you know, you're baptizing people for the dead. You're doing all kinds of things. Why? Well, because there's a verse that says, do this.

So that's what we do. So we don't want to do that. We want to understand things not only in a specific context, but also in a general context as well. You know, so I don't have time to go to hermeneutics in great measure.

So we won't. Other thoughts? All right, moving on. Number 18, irresistible grace. Number 18, irresistible grace means that God saves men against their will. I just said that's false. Exactly not. Irresistible grace means that God makes people willing.

He makes them willing. Psalm 110 3, your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power. The 1689 says this, those whom God hath predestinated unto life. That's what we're talking about. Chosen before the foundation of the world.

He is pleased in his appointed and accepted time. Corrie was talking about. Effectually to call by his word, by the written word. Right. They hear the gospel and spirit by his spirit out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ, enlightening their mind spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, taking away their heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh, renewing their wills and by his almighty power, determining them.

To that which is good and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ, yet so as they come most freely being made willing by his grace. So let me restate 18 and then we'll sort of back up a little bit. You know, here's the picture that some Armenians, in other words, those who don't believe in the sovereignty of God and salvation.

This is the caricature by which they say, well, you mean to say that God drags me kicking and screaming to faith? Is that true? No. I'm sorry. Can he? Yes. No, no. I mean, you know, here's if we just think about it like this.

If we go to, you know, say. Saul. Saul of Tarsus persecuted the church, murderer of Christians, ran around jailing them, you know, on his way to go continue his persecution of the church. Jesus appears to him.

Did Jesus force Saul to believe in him? I don't think so. What he does is take a will, a mindset that actually hates God. Hates his church, hates his Christ, hates the very idea of salvation by grace, because to Saul of Tarsus, salvation was by works.

And he then convicts Saul of his sinfulness and transforms him so that Saul, who later becomes Paul, of course, doesn't go, I don't want to be saved, but OK, drag me. When we recognize, and it's true for all of us, right?

When we recognize who Jesus is, what he's done for us, are we reluctant at all to belief? Are we reluctant at all to, you know, as it were, kneel at the foot of the cross? The answer is no. I mean, I can only speak for myself, but I just remember being overwhelmed at the idea that Jesus Christ would love me and die for me.

Bill, I mean, that's exactly right. What happens is, you know, we undergo, as it were, spiritual surgery, right? A heart transplant, a mind transplant. God so transforms our hearts and our wills, and not that we are perfect by any imagination, but we've stopped thinking that we were good enough, that we were righteous enough, that God was going to accept us as we are.

We understand that God is never going to accept us for us, contrary to what the world says. You know what? You're good enough. You're smart enough. You're nice enough. God loves you just the way you are.

I think it's, well, I know it's Sinclair Ferguson who says, you know, that's just false, this idea that Jesus loves you just as you are. Well, if he did, then what would he do? He'd just leave you there, right?

What happens instead is he begins the work of reshaping you, refashioning you, renewing your mind, transforming you into the image of Jesus Christ. Irresistible grace does not mean that God saves men against their will.

What he does is change their wills. Number 19, true or false? Yes. Well, I think that's good that they cannot help worshiping Christ and loving him when they see him for who he is. It's, you know, it's a bit like, you know, despising some kind of art or something and then having, you know, studying it and understanding its value.

And, you know, what happened? You had a change of mind about the whole thing. And so then you like it. But by the way, I'm never going to like modern art. But let me, every, yeah, every false view of salvation, every single one or every, you know, tweet or erroneous, I don't want to just say false view.

But if you don't believe in irresistible grace, in other words, if you believe that, you know, somehow you are in control of things, your ultimate problem is you don't believe in total depravity, right?

What you were saying. You don't believe in your utter sinfulness and your helplessness. You know, I mean, we can go to Romans 5 while we were yet helpless. Christ died for us, right? It's not like we were struggling, having a bad day, a couple of bad weeks, helpless, dead nurses and trespasses, children of Satan.

We could go on and on. Number 19, irresistible grace, true or false? Irresistible grace means that men never resist the Holy Spirit. No. Yeah, it's false. Um, yeah. Yeah, unbelievers are always resisting.

Acts 7 .51, you men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts, because they were circumcised physically, and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit, you are doing just as your fathers did. Um, is that the last question?

Lovely. Okay. Well, good. We did make amazing progress. Yes, Bill. Do the elect resist the Holy Spirit? What do you think? I mean, do saved people resist the Holy Spirit? I see a yes and a no. You have the floor, Bill.

Not, not ultimately, but... Okay, but even after you're saved and you believe and everything else, do you ever resist the Holy Spirit? And the answer is, Mary Ellen? Every time we sin, and I mean, you know, just like my McDonald's counter thing is blasphemous.

Let me give you another one. When I sin, when I sin, I say that I do what? I send the Holy Spirit on vacation, right? I'm just like, be gone. I don't want to listen to you. I don't, I don't need your help right now.

You know, and the Holy Spirit, then later on we'll go, well, the survey said, but that's, you know, sometimes we do that. Um, I don't want to get too far on this, but, uh, I, I, I do want to mention, cause I, I took the time to print all this out and I hate to just not mention it.

I've talked about a number of, you know, historical truths, historical heresies, but the one I haven't really talked about the most, Heretic, who's really kind of, if we look at modern evangelicalism today, the man who stirred up more trouble than anybody else at least in the modern church would be a man by the name of, what's that?

Well, no, I, no, but his, his great, great spiritual grandfather would be the man. Finney, Charles Finney. And it's just amazing. There's an article by Phil Johnson. I was reading, um, I've read before, but I just, I printed out some of it.

And I mean, just listen to some of this. Finney denied that the righteousness of Christ is the sole ground of our justification. Teaching has said that sinners must reform, reform their own hearts in order to be acceptable to God.

He called the amputation of Christ's righteousness to us a theological fiction. He said that neither merit nor guilt can righteously be imputed from one person to another. Well, what does that mean? If you can't have guilt imputed to you, then you don't have, you don't have depravity.

You don't have original sin. And if you can't have righteousness imputed to you, then what? Christ, well, Christ could die for you as an example. He could die for some other reasons, but he didn't ultimately, and he could say that he died for your sins, but ultimately you, the righteousness you need to get to heaven has to come from where?

From you. So, so you wind up, you know, with additional rules of life to be good enough to get into heaven. And this is the kind of thing Pastor Mike rails about all the time, right? It's these additional laws that really aren't found in the Bible, but make sense to the pastor, the preacher or whatever.

So he puts them on you. Yeah. Johnson says under Finney's system, Christ could not have actually borne anyone else's sin or suffered sin's full penalty in their place. I mean, this is just, it's so antithetical to everything that the Bible teaches.

And why do I say that essentially so much of Finney is in the church today? Well, like, listen to this. Finney insisted that depravity is a purely voluntary condition. I would put it this way. You're a good person.

Right? Wickedness does not reside in you. You can have your best day today. You can have your best life now. Even this, I like this. Finney was not ashamed to take the credit for his own conversion. I mean, just that it's this kind of shameless man-centered.

And that's the point I wanted to make before we close. Man-centered theology, where you can go week after week after week and get affirmed in how good you are. And the problem with that, of course, is that it's false and it leads people to hell.

Finney was so man-centered that he did things like, I've mentioned before the anxious bench, where he would have people sit. And the purpose was that the preach would just look at those people on that bench and just preach at them until they were so shaken by their own sinfulness that they would come forward and, you know, confess Jesus Christ as Lord.

But these kind of man-centered approaches ultimately lead to Christianity being a little more than self-help or like a sales pitch, these kind of things. Everything that we see in the church today, goes back to sort of these heretical views of Finney, appealing to people's goodness.

So anyway, other thoughts, comments, questions before we close? Yeah, Corey, that's excellent. Because if you're not reminding people that they're saved by grace alone, that there are wretches, but God brought them to spiritual life.

I mean, I'm even reminded that Schuller changed the words to amazing grace, you know, how sweet the sound, that saved. He took out wretch, changed it to, you know, well, or a peach or whatever. I don't know what he changed it to, but, you know, something awful, you know, and probably not even saved a wretch like me.

It was probably like, loved a person like me, you know. Yeah, it's so bad because in appealing to the goodness that people don't have, it's really appealing to their wickedness and affirming them in that and telling them that, you know, that they don't ultimately need to repent and come to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anyway, we need to close. Father, I thank you for your word and what it says. I thank you that your sovereignty in salvation leaps off every page of the Bible, how you are good and kind and gracious in choosing to save some, that we are sinful, that we in and of ourselves would never choose you ever.

But you and your goodness by your Holy Spirit cause us to be born again. You give us a new heart, a new mind, new desires, new affections, that we turn as it were from idols, even including ourselves and worship the living God.