Chosen By God with R. C. Sproul, “The Divine Initiative” 6

The Divine Initiative and Human Fallenness

In this session, I want to consider further what we call in theology the divine initiative, referring to that first step of salvation that is brought to pass in our lives unilaterally and exclusively by the power of God.

And we see this in this passage in Ephesians 2 that I have made occasional reference to, and I'd like to spend a little bit more time on it now. Let's look, if we may, at chapter 2 of Ephesians, and where Paul says,.

"...and you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the year, of the spirit that is now working, in the sons of disobedience.

And among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.". What we find in this passage are descriptive terms of the radical character of man's fallenness.

We've talked about moral inability. We have avoided the use of the language of Calvinism, which describes man's situation as that of total depravity, a term that has become very, very controversial in Christian circles, and is part of the famous acrostic that Calvinists use to delineate the so-called five points of Calvinism.

TULIP, T-U-L-I-P, T standing for total depravity, U for unconditional election, L for limited atonement, I for irresistible grace, and P for perseverance of the saints. But usually you don't get further than the T before the controversy boils over.

And here's one of those occasions where acrostics, which are little devices that function as aids for our memory, sometimes do more damage than they're worth, because total depravity is a very misleading term.

People confuse total depravity with what we would call utter depravity, that is, that man is as bad as he could possibly be. But I don't know anybody who believes that. No matter how sinful we are, we can always conceive of ourselves as having done worse sins than we have done, and even sin more often than we in fact do.

So there's none of us who is utterly depraved. The term total depravity was coined to mean that sin affects the whole person, that the total essence of our humanity is fallen. That is, our minds are fallen, our wills are fallen, our bodies are fallen.

The whole person is caught up in this fallenness. I prefer to speak of radical corruption. The problem is that turns TULIP into RULIP and ruins the ACROSTIC. But I like the term radical corruption because the meaning of radical, historically, is that it comes from the Latin word radix, which means root.

And the point of radical corruption is that our fallenness is not just a tangential thing or a peripheral thing, an accidental blemish that is merely on the surface of our humanity, but sin is something that goes to the very core of our existence.

It penetrates to the root of the tree. Now, here in this text, Paul is giving some statements that indicate the seriousness of our fallenness, where he says, you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

Elsewhere, he speaks of being under the power of sin, in bondage to sin, children of wrath, children of the devil, that sort of thing. It's not a very pleasant picture of natural fallen man. But again, he says that this was our previous state, that we were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked.

How did we walk? We walked according to the course of this world. We walked the way the world walks, which is not in the way that God would have us to walk. Earlier, Paul had spoken of the fact that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none even who does good. There's none who seeks after God. We are all together unprofitable. We have all gone out of the way. Do you remember that Christians were first called people of the way?

But our natural way is not God's way. We walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. That is, we were being obedient and loyal to whom? To Satan. He's the prince of the power of the air.

And we walked according to the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too, all, formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh, of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as the rest.

That's a very, very grim portrait of man's fallenness. Now, the next word, I believe, is the most important word in the New Testament with respect to this doctrine of God's sovereign grace. I think it's so important that I've harped on this theme so many times that in one class I was teaching, a woman went to the trouble and the bother to embroider a sign that spelled out this word for me.

This word, the gospel's only good news when we understand the bad news. The gospel's only gospel when we first understand the law and our situation under the law. Here we are, dead in sin and trespasses, walking according to the flesh, the lusts of the flesh, and so on, walking like those who are under the spirit of disobedience, children of wrath.

But God, but God, who is rich in mercy, not but we who still had an island of righteousness, finally lifted ourselves up from our bootstraps or inclined ourselves to change our ways, but man, who is powerful morally, said no to this wicked course and quickened himself from the dead.

That's not what the Bible says. It says, but God, who is rich in mercy, has made us alive, quickened us, even when we were dead in our transgressions. Now, when I hear evangelical Christians talk about what happens in conversion, I hear two analogies frequently, illustrations designed to communicate to our minds what really happens.

Maybe you've heard them. The first goes like this, that fallen man is not healthy. He's very, very sick. Indeed, he is sick unto death, and he is in the terminal illness ward of the hospital. There's nothing that man can possibly do to heal himself.

He's almost comatose. Death is certain. Unless a medicine is administered to that man, he will surely die. So God provides the medicine, and the nurse puts the medicine, pours it out on a spoon. God has, well, God Himself pours the medicine on the spoon, and God Himself comes to that man in his parched lips, in his semi-comatose condition as he's lying on his deathbed.

And He puts that spoon right at the lips of the man. But at that moment, the man can either accept the medicine or refuse the medicine. And if he opens his mouth, God will pour the medicine in his mouth, and it will save him.

But if he keeps his lips clenched tightly, then he will not receive the necessary cure. So that analogy shows that man is in very, very serious condition, but he's still alive. What I hear God saying is He comes into the room after the doctor has pronounced that man dead.

What I hear Paul saying here is that God quickens us when we are dead. A better analogy would be that the man has gone under for the third time, and he's at the bottom of the sea. And God dives in the water, and He takes that dead man, that corpse from the bottom of the sea, and brings him out onto the dry land, and He leans over, and He gives him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and He breathes His life into that man, and that man is restored from the dead.

That's what the Bible is saying about the divine initiative, that that first step of quickening from the dead, from the flesh unto spirit, transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, is accomplished by God, not by man.

And of course, after God quickens us, then we choose, then we believe, then we embrace Christ, we repent, we do all of those things, because we're alive now to the things of God. But the first step, the initiative, the being made alive from the dead, is the work of God, and the work of God alone.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The Sovereignty of God and the Duty of Evangelism

All right, well, one of the deepest questions that this raises when we think about this divine initiative, if God is the one who has to rescue that dead man from the bottom of the sea, if God is the one who has to not merely administer medicine, but resurrect a corpse, a corpse, then what in the world is the purpose of evangelism?

Isn't that a question we all think about and raise, that in light of God's sovereignty and in light of the whole concept of predestination, if God has decreed from all eternity that certain people are saved, then certainly those people will be saved, with or without my bearing witness, with or without my preaching the gospel.

Why, then, should we be concerned about evangelism? My favorite story about this took place when I was in seminary, when I was studying in a classroom with Dr. John Gerstner at Pittsburgh Seminary, who's the king of the predestinarians.

And there were about 20 of us in the class, and we were seated in a semicircle. And he said, all right, gentlemen, if it's true that God sovereignly predestines a certain fixed number of people to be saved, and it's by an immutable decree, then why should we be involved in evangelism?

And now he left that question hanging in the air, and he started to call on the students to answer the question. And I'll never forget how relieved I was, because I was at the extreme right of that semicircle, and he started on the left side.

And I thought, oh boy, am I glad I don't have to answer that. So he looks at the first student, and he says, well, Mr. So-and-so, what would you say? And he said, gee, Dr. Gerstner, you know, I don't know.

I've always wondered about that myself. And so he struck out. He goes to the next fellow, and the next fellow says, beats me. He goes to the next, and we're all the way down the line, and they were getting perilously close to me, and there was this sense of expectation mounting in the classroom.

I felt like Socrates in one of Plato's dialogues, where after all these other people, these lesser mortals give answers to these profound questions, and they sound okay until Socrates speaks, and then he blows everybody away.

And I thought, uh-oh, I'm going to be on the hot seat here. Well, sure enough, they went all the way around the room. Nobody could answer Dr. Gerstner's question, and so he came to me, and I'm squirming.

So I tried to answer him, and I said, well, you know, I'm sure this isn't what you're looking for, Dr. Gerstner. I know that there's something far more profound than this that must be the answer to this question.

But one small reason why, you know, we ought to be involved in evangelism is that I said, well, you know, well, Jesus commands us to do evangelism, doesn't He? And Gerstner started to laugh, you know, in his diabolical way.

He said, of course, Mr. Sproul, what could possibly be more of an insignificant reason to do evangelism than that Jesus commands you to, that the Savior of your soul and the Lord God Almighty should honor a command, and you think that that may be possibly one small reason why you should be engaged.

And boy, the more he went on, you know, the smaller I was going in that chair, and I said, whoa, wait a minute. But I never forgot the point. He said, the chief reason why we do evangelism in light of the sovereignty of God is because God is sovereign.

And God has not only sovereignly decreed the end, that is, the goal of the redemption of people, but He also has sovereignly decreed the means toward that end. He has chosen the foolishness of preaching as the means by which He will bring people to salvation, and He has commanded His church to carry out that program of evangelism.

And He said, look, I'll take care of the election, but you do the preaching. You do the witnessing. That is your responsibility. Now, does He need me? No, He doesn't need me. No, He doesn't need me. God doesn't need me to fulfill His plan.

He could do it without me. He has the power to do it without me, but He has chosen to do it with me, and by me, and through me, and with you, and by you, and through you. So we see here that evangelism is first of all a duty, but second of all, and we need to understand this, evangelism is an unspeakable privilege.

Evangelism as a Privilege and Highest Calling

What a privilege to be... I was once reading a book on fundraising. I need to read books like that every now and then. They're dreadfully dull and boring. And this fellow who was writing the book had been the head of the fundraising campaign for Harvard University, and he said there's some fundamental principles you need to understand about fundraising.

And he said the first law is this. You have to be aware of the fact that every human being wants to have a significant part in a significant enterprise. So if you give the people the vision for what you are doing and let them become a part of it, then they will respond because they want to be a part of a significant cause.

And so, of course, the author of the book was saying exploit that, use that, keep that in mind. Well, I think it's true though, isn't it, that we want our lives to count. We don't want to be meaningless ciphers in this world.

We want to participate in significant things. Wouldn't it be something if we could say, well, I could look at my left hand and say, see that ring? That ring indicates that I played for the Super Bowl champions in 1975.

People would look at me and say, really? Isn't that wow, that's significant. I don't have a ring like that. All I do in my life, I don't play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I'm not a member of the President's Cabinet.

All I do is work every day for the King of Kings. That's all I do. What could be more insignificant than that? All I get to do in my work, and I get paid to do this, is to work in the most significant enterprise that God has ever created, and to work for the building of the kingdom of God, for the preaching of the gospel, for the nurturing of the saints, is the highest calling in the universe.

That's why I was rankled one day when some student said to me when after I'd worked in the church for a couple years and then was spending more time teaching in seminary and running around the country doing conferences and all of this, and this student looked at me and with stars in his eyes.

He was awestruck. He got to meet in the flesh somebody that he'd heard speaking in a conference somewhere, and his picture on a book or something like that. And it was like his card catalog came to life, and he was just as thunderstruck, you know.

And he said, geez, what was it like for you when you were just a pastor? I said, what do you mean just a pastor? Do you know why I'm not a pastor? Because I don't have what it takes to be a pastor. It's a whole lot easier to run around from town to town and preach and then run than to stand there with the same people year after year after year and going from the first level to the second level to the third level, nurturing, holding their hands when they die and all of that, and have them be cutting you apart every week, and you have to bear it.

I said, I just couldn't handle that. I have nothing but profound respect and admiration for the pastor, because I believe that's the highest calling that there is in this world. It's a privilege. It's not just a duty, it's a privilege to be able to spend one's life in the service of Christ.

How Preaching and Sending Bring Salvation

Notice what Paul says in chapter 10 of Romans. It says in verse 11, for the Scripture says, whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed. Man, what a statement. When we come to faith and we place our faith, we place our trust, we place our confidence in Christ as our Savior, everyone knows what it means to have placed their trust or confidence in something or someone that let them down.

That's devastating. But whoever places their faith or confidence in Christ will never be disappointed. For there's no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord over all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him.

Verse 13, for whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, we've labored throughout this series the point that no one will call upon the Lord unless the Lord first quickens him. But what does God quicken us for?

But to cry out to Christ, to call upon the Lord. And whoever does that, whoever calls it, you don't know whether you're elect or not elect, but do you want Christ? You call upon Him. Let the question of the mystery of election hang up in the clouds for a minute.

What's the status of your heart right now? If in your heart you want a Savior, if in your heart you want Christ, if you want Him, call upon Him. And if you call upon Him, there's nothing more certain under the sun than that He will hear your call and that He will respond to it and you will be saved.

But then Paul asks this question, how will they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? Before you call upon somebody to redeem you, you have to first have some degree of confidence that the person's able to perform the task.

I'm not going to ask Archie Bunker to save my soul, because I don't think he has the ability to save my soul. I have to first believe that he is able. How will they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?

And how shall they believe in Him of whom they've not heard? This is pretty simple logic here, isn't it? How shall they hear without a preacher? You don't call on a Savior to save you if you don't believe that He is the Savior.

And you can't believe that He is the Savior if you've never even heard about Him. And you're not going to hear about Him unless somebody tells you about Him. Then he goes on to say, and there's no preacher unless somebody sends the preacher.

And you may not be able to be gifted in evangelism, but you're able to contribute to the sending of the evangelist. Just in parentheses, only four percent of Christians, evangelical Christians, in the United States of America, tithe.

And you wonder why the Great Commission has not been taking place, not because it's blocked or thwarted by predestination. It's blocked and thwarted by crass disobedience among the people of God with their money.

Four percent, four out of a hundred professing evangelicals tithe to get the job done. But the point I want you to see here is Paul's quotation from the Old Testament. It says, faith comes from, where it says, how shall they preach unless they are sent?

Just as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things. Strange, strange thing. I've heard people listening to Billy Graham or listening to other great preachers and say what a marvelous voice he has.

More people are worse than that. I mean, I get more letters about my hairdo than I do about my theology. And people will say, well, why are you wearing those glasses? Or why do you wear that tie? Or why do you wear the same pair of pants every day in this series?

I'm striking a nerve here. Okay, people notice those things. But have you ever heard somebody in the congregation look up at the minister and say, my, doesn't he have beautiful feet? Anybody ever talk about Billy Graham's feet?

He's the greatest evangelist of our day, and I've never heard a single person refer to his feet. But in the ancient world, the word gospel first meant good message or good news. And communications of critical events was a very, very serious matter to the ancient person, where the armies would go out into battle and not come back for two years, and the people would wait for two years and not know whether they won or lost.

So any time there was a pivotal battle, if the forces won or if they lost, they would dispatch a messenger, a marathon runner, who would run back to the hometown. And as he would run into the town, then he would announce the outcome of this decisive battle to the people.

And the townspeople would have lookouts posted at high points to scan the horizon to watch for the coming messenger, and they would see the dust start to fly long before they would see a person. And that would get their attention, and they'd stare into the distance and watch the configurations of the dust cloud.

And they would watch, and the first thing they would see would be the way the feet were pumping up and down as they ran up the mountain and down the other side of the mountain. And those who were good at being lookouts could tell before the messenger arrived whether it was good news or bad news, because the man that was running to declare victory would run with his chest out and his arms pumping and a smile on his face and his feet really going.

How many of you are joggers? Do you know what the survival shuffle is? You know, that's when you're going jogging like this, and the feet aren't even getting off the ground, right? And you say, yeah, I'm running.

I'm still running. It's the survival shuffle is what it's called, all right? And I have experienced that more than once. And that's the way guys who came with bad news would approach the city gates, forlorn, discouraged, cast down.

But then you see somebody whose feet were flying, and his socks were on fire from the distance with good news. And the lookout would throw his hat into the air and say, we won! And so the prophet says, how beautiful on the mountain are the feet of Him who brings good tidings, who publishes peace.

I know that it was God who brought me to Christ, but He used a man who told me the gospel. And I will never forget that man. And no matter what that man ever does, I will always love him. Because humanly, he cared enough to be the instrument that God was pleased to use to bring me to Jesus Christ.

How would you like to know that God used your testimony, your act of charity, your bearing of witness to your neighbor as the catalyst for that person's eternal salvation? Why evangelize? Because it's a command, and it's the highest privilege that God can give to us.