December 7, 2017 Show with Greg Nichols on “The Doctrine of Christ: The Plan, Promise & Accomplishment of Salvation”

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Good afternoon, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening

via live streaming.

This is Chris Arntzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Thursday

on this 7th day of December 2017.

And before I introduce my guest today and our

topic, I just wanted to say a few words about the historic significance of

today.

Today, as most of you may know, it is 76 years ago

today, on December 7th, 1941, on a day that will live in

infamy, 2 ,403 Americans who were prepared to do battle to preserve the

freedoms we Americans cherish, perished when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Many more Americans, along with our Allied soldiers already in battle, would also

perish, multitudes of them, in unspeakably gruesome ways for the cause of freedom

after entering into World War II.

Let us pray that God has mercy on all of us in countries who accomplished victory and

ended that war, and yet still witness cherished freedoms stripped away from us one

by one.

I am quite certain that not a single one of those brave soldiers who sacrificed their limbs and

lives had even for a second thought of the notion that they were risking all to

preserve the hellish activity that the left calls behavior bought by liberty.

And that's just my word for today on December 7th, 2017.

Well, today we have returning to the program a dear friend of mine who I love to

interview.

He's one of my favorite guests, and according to those of you listening, apparently he's one of your favorite

guests, too, to listen to on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

His name is Pastor Greg Nichols, and he's one of three pastors at Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in

Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He's the author of What Does the Bible Say About God? The Biblical Doctrine of

God, Truth for Eternity, and the multi -volume series, Lectures in Systematic Theology.

And today he's going to be addressing the doctrine of Christ, the plan, the promise, and the

accomplishment of salvation.

And it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron.

Trip and Zion Radio, Pastor Greg Nichols.

Thank you.

Well, I really appreciate

that.

And before.

We go into the topic, once again, because of the fact that we do have new

listeners that are joining our program, it seems, every single day,

tell our listeners something about Grace Emanuel.

Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

1889 London.

Confession of Faith, a society of sinners saved by grace, a

society of people that loves the gospel of Christ,

wants to see.

And right now, I'm thankful to say that we enjoy peace and unity and a sense of

church family and love.

And God has abundantly blessed our church in many, many ways.

We're especially thankful for a young man, been a pastor now with us for 10 years, and now is taking

preaching responsibilities, named Jeff Johnson, that

you mentioned.

The other is Dave Merrick, and then, of course, myself.

Great.

Well, anybody that is either living in the Grand Rapids,.

Michigan area, or if you are visiting there, or if you have

family and friends who are living there, you can find out more about that church,

Grace Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church, by going to their website, which is

girbc .org, g -i -r -b -c .org, which stands for Grace Emanuel Reformed

Baptist Church.

And hopefully, we'll be repeating that later on during the program.

If anybody would like to join us with a question of your own today, our email address is chrizarnsen at gmail .com, C -H

-R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com.

Please give us at least your first name, your city and state, and your country of residence if you live outside of the USA.

And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter, such as you disagree

with your own pastor on an issue we are speaking about.

Perhaps you're a pastor who disagrees with your own denomination or something like that.

We can understand that you would desire to remain anonymous, but other than that, please give us your first name, city and state, and

country of residence.

Well, I know that this topic that we are discussing today, the doctrine of Christ, the plan,

promise, and accomplishment of salvation, that is a part of your lectures in Systematic Theology, is it

not?

That is correct, it is.

And which volume is this?

This, God willing, is volume three.

Great.

And I know that Solid Ground Christian Books carries everything that you write,

and I'm sure they'll be carrying this as well.

And if anybody wants to look up that information to keep up to date as to when volume three will

actually be in print, that website is solid -ground -books .com, solid

-ground -books .com, solid -ground -books .com.

Pastor Greg, do you want to give an overview of the lectures in Systematic Theology as a whole before we go into this specific

topic?

I think that's probably good to put it in perspective, thank you.

Volume two is the doctrine of man or the original creation.

Volume three, the doctrine of Christ.

Volume four, the doctrine of the church.

And volume five, the doctrine of the Christian life.

Volume six, the

doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

And then volume

seven, the doctrine—I know that's

not the doctrine of Scripture—focusing on

what I call discerning God and the great focal points, God and

salvation.

And with respect to salvation, you have salvation planned, salvation promised, salvation

accomplished, salvation applied, a

typical structure, a three -hour course.

When you start talking about applied and completed,

it winds up with the amount of material.

So I cover it in the doctrine of Christ and accomplished.

The doctrine of salvation explodes

and it develops into the doctrine of the church, the doctrine of the person,

and the doctrine of the Christian life, which would involve the blessings of salvation, regeneration.

You

wind up with

an awful

lot.

What I'm speaking about today is volume three, which, God willing, will be out.

Volume two is sometime

Christmas 2007, should be out.

Calling the Doctrine

of the Church 2018

for the doctrine

of 2019.

That's my plan as I sit here.

Darrell Bock.

That's right.

I know that our mutual friend Rob Ventura had a lot to do with this project, correct?

Robert Ventura.

It is true.

If it had not been for Rob Ventura, this would not have ever have happened.

I would not.

Myself

have

promoted it, and he

has been very much involved in helping with the production of

the various ways and edited it himself.

Darrell Bock.

And it's been a while since I've had Pastor Rob on the program.

I would appreciate it if you could extend to him my greetings and also my

invitation to him to be on the program sometime, God willing, within the next couple of months.

Robert Ventura.

Okay, it's the least I could do.

I laugh when I say that because one of my friends in Grand Rapids told me his interpretation of what that expression, the

least I could do, really means.

He says, he alleges that it means I would do less if I could.

Darrell Bock.

Well, just to give Rob a plug also, if anybody is

visiting or living in the North Providence, Rhode Island area, or if you have friends

and family that live there already, you can look up information for

the church where he serves as pastor, Grace Community Baptist Church in North

Providence, Rhode Island.

And the website is gcbcri .org, gc for Grace

Community, bc for Baptist Church, ri for Rhode Island .org.

Well, this is a vital topic to the Christian faith.

I'm sure that a lot of what we discuss is actually essential to the Christian

faith and essential to the personal faith of each and every individual that

wants to have assurance that they are genuinely one of God's children.

But if you could even start with the title, people might be

scratching their head, especially if they are outside of Reformed theology or outside of those

who are typically more meticulous when it comes to doctrine and theology.

They might be puzzled by that phrase, the doctrine of Christ.

In some people's minds, that's even an oxymoron, because they think that doctrine is what's

dividing the body of Christ, and we would be all better off if there was more focus

on Christ and less on doctrine.

So this may puzzle some, or many, the doctrine of Christ.

If you could explain that.

That you make.

According

to

Ephesian

knowledge,

no longer children of

doctrine, but as slight of men in love.

So it's not sound doctrine that divides

people.

It's false doctrine.

Sound doctrine, in

the very context of that section of Ephesians,

gives diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace.

Then he goes on to describe what are the essential aspects.

What do you need for unity?

Well, first of all, you need grace in your heart.

You can't.

You're not going to have unity if your heart is full of selfishness and carnal anger.

That's going to create...

Then he goes on to say that the next thing that you need for unity is you need to have a

converted group of people, because you can't have unity between the devil's children and

Christ's children.

But then the third thing that he goes to say, 16, is that if

you're going to have unity, you have to have faithful pastoral ministry that is grounding God's people

in the sound doctrines of the Christian faith, and grounding them to the point where all of

God's people, the people sitting in the pews or the chairs, attain to the unity of the faith

and the knowledge of the Son of God.

So the knowledge of Christ, what the Bible says about Christ, about his person,

about dividing God's people, is the.

Very thing that unifies God's people.

Amen.

Well, let's move on to the first thing under this umbrella heading.

Let's move on to the plan of salvation, if you could start by that.

There are even some who militate against using that term, the plan.

They'll say, salvation is a plan.

It's not a plan, it's a person, I'm sorry.

It's Jesus Christ, it's not a plan.

So if you could explain.

What you mean by the plan of salvation.

Well, the Bible very clearly teaches that God

designed, decided,

before the foundation of the world, when

only God

was.

Emphatically.

Yeah, I

think

that

some.

People, when they use that phrase, salvation is a person, not a plan, I think that many of

them are referring to the fact that it is not a series of steps in a plan

that we must accomplish before achieving eternal life, like some non

-reformed religions that would profess to be Christian might say,

that we have our salvation in Christ.

It could be that that was what most people mean by that.

But tell us about what you mean by Christ having a plan.

Well, what I mean,.

Let me just, let me back up.

Okay, I understand what you're saying, that's a very good point, and in that sense I would agree that salvation isn't

a person, not in a group of, not in a, what I

mean by plan is an

eternal plan.

Amen.

God formed before the foundation of the world when only God was.

And similarly, when a solemn promise that God made

before he sent Christ,

he started to promise salvation before he sent Christ to accomplish it, and he set up

a remarkable framework of promises over some 4 ,000 years, and then he sent Christ

in history to accomplish salvation in that framework of solemn promises that

God himself established.

So I'm talking about an eternal plan that God made and God decided when only God was before the

foundation of the world.

I'm talking about a solemn promise that God gave right after the fall and enhanced it in many ways

over some 4 ,000 years before he actually sent Christ to accomplish

his perfect life, atoning death, bodily resurrection from the

grave.

So that's the framework in which I'm.

Thinking when I use that terminology, Chris.

Amen.

And the thing that obviously separates we who are Reformed from

not only the rest of the world's religions but from other branches of

Christendom is that we believe that Christ has

accomplished our way of salvation, or should I say has

accomplished our salvation, our redemption.

And the issue is settled even though we have a life to live here on earth

that involves us being born totally depraved and

living a period of our lives some longer than others before we are regenerate.

And then, of course, we will be continually sanctified where our

regeneration is a one -time event and our justification is a one -time event.

Our sanctification is an ongoing development until we are glorified in heaven.

But our brethren in Christ outside of our circles militate against the

fact that this is something that Christ has already finalized

and perfected.

Before we were born.

The Bible presents a remarkable

distinction 2 ,000 years ago.

It happens to us in our life history when

God, through the gospel, and here's the point,

what God does in our life history when he applies salvation to us through the gospel,

converts us, you said regenerates us, gives us spiritual life, gives us faith, and gives us

repentance.

He justifies us by means of faith.

He sanctifies us by the Holy Spirit that he gives to us.

All that happens in our life history precisely because

Jesus accomplished salvation while he was here on earth 2 ,000 years

ago.

So there's a connection that can never be broken between what Jesus did in

accomplishing salvation for us, and what happens to us, and what God does

to us when he applies salvation to us.

Philippians 129 says, on behalf of

Christ, not only to suffer, not

only to believe, to you it has been

granted to believe in the application of salvation in your life history on

behalf of Christ who accomplished salvation for you 2 ,000 years ago.

And the reason God gives you faith, and the reason God regenerates you, is because

Jesus died for you.

And if Jesus accomplishes it for you, God absolutely applies

it to you.

And if God planned it, then Jesus accomplishes it, and God applies it.

Because he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son, and his plan of

salvation.

And he sent Christ to accomplish it.

And whom he predestined in the application of salvation, then he also called, then he

also justified.

And whoever he calls and justifies in the application of salvation, then he also

glorifies in the.

Completion of salvation.

Amen.

So even though God's elect people have a guarantee that

they will be saved from the moment he elected us,

that does not mean we were always quote -unquote saved.

We lived lives just like those who were made out of the same lump

of clay that we were, who are reprobate, who are rebelling

against God, who want nothing to do with God.

We were living just like they were before God gave

us the gift of regeneration.

So even though we were guaranteed salvation before the foundation of the world, we weren't always saved.

Yes, one of the great mysteries of Scripture, and a passage that puts this in perspective so clearly is

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4.

It talks about, but God, being rich in mercy with his great love with which he loved us even when

we were dead, made us alive.

That's the application of redemption.

He took us from spiritual death to spiritual life.

But what were we before?

The desires of the flesh and of the mind.

We were living in sin, and here's the point.

We were by nature children of wrath, even

as the rest.

We were children of wrath.

We were not justified.

I had died,

but that's

not going to

happen.

That God selected before the foundation of the world, every one of them called

out of darkness to light, will be brought from death to life.

But before they are, we're not justified.

They're children of wrath by nature, even as the rest.

Conversion is not essential to go to heaven.

You're not justified, child of wrath, even as the

rest.

You're not justified before the foundation of the world.

You're justified when you believe by means of faith.

And before you believe, even if you're elect, you're by nature a child of wrath, even as the rest,

and under the wrath of God.

The marvelous thing.

Then he goes on to say, but God, being rich in mercy with his great love with which he loved us

even when we were dead, made us alive together in Christ.

He set his love on us before the foundation of the world.

Christ died for us.

In due season, while we're yet weak, Christ died for the ungodly.

He loved us with an

unconditional love that we didn't earn, and we didn't merit.

What did we do when we were dead and are still the dead?

On the ground of the fact that he loved us because he would love us with his everlasting love, I

draw on you.

And Christ died for us because God loved us.

He sent Christ to die for us, and because God loved us and Christ died for us, he made us alive together with

Christ.

He that did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with

us?

Amen.

So that's a great,

even though we were dead in our sin, and even though if we had died in those sins, we were children of

wrath and would have gone to hell just like anybody else.

It's never going to happen.

He will always not perish.

Then that salvation, not

pray, because, well, it's going to happen, it's going to

happen.

Does that make us fatalists?

Absolutely not.

May it never be, because God uses me.

Amen.

Amen.

I hope that you have at least a small gathering in the room where you are, so it really could be

identical to a church service, with the exception that I'm interrupting you with questions occasionally.

But I love the fact that every time I interview you, there's a sermon there being preached.

I just love it.

Not just me in the room, that's all.

Of course, a few of my old friends.

I'm in my office, so a few of my old friends are here.

And I'm going to read you a question before we go to the break, and then I'll have you

answer it before the break.

As you wish.

And maybe you could tell me right now, because you may not know this specific realm

of theology, because it's, I don't know how well known to most

Christians the 16th century monk Louis Molina is,

but our questioner from Slovenia, Joe, says, Dear brothers

Chris and Greg, grateful greetings from Slovenia.

As it relates to the plan, promise, and accomplishment of salvation, what are the specific biblical and theological errors

of Molinism?

In addition, does

Molinism

based on those errors qualify as heresy, heterodoxy, or within the scope

of orthodoxy?

Thank you so very much for bringing us such a high level of theological edification.

And I know that one of the, today, one of the most popular Christian

apologists who identifies himself as a Molinist is William Lane Craig.

But I find it very confusing, but perhaps if you know anything about this, you can answer his questions when we

return from the break.

If anybody else would like to join us on the air with a question of your own, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Don't go away, God willing, we'll be right back with Greg Nichols right after these messages from our sponsors.

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Well, we are now back with our guest today, Pastor Greg Nichols of Grace Emanuel Reformed

Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He is also the author of the multi -volume series, Lectures in

Systematic Theology.

Today we are discussing the doctrine of Christ, the plan, the promise, and accomplishment

of salvation.

If you'd like to join us on the air, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Chrisarnson at gmail .com.

And before the break, I read you a question from Joe in Slovenia, and he

says, as it relates to the plan, promise, and accomplishment of salvation, what are the

specific biblical and theological errors of Molinism in addition, does Molinism, based on those errors,

qualify as a heresy, heterodoxy, or within the scope of orthodoxy?

Let me

just

say,

God's

knowledge,

God's

omniscience,

evaluates His

plan

with

quite

striking, almost

shock

-complete knowledge of what would have happened if.

And He does that in Matthew Chapter

11.

And He brings up,

and

then He warns

them, and

He says, But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for

Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than

it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom.

And why is that?

Continue in their impenitence on judgment

day than it will be for them.

Well, then He gets into God's knowledge

of

the reprobation of Sodom,

and in

doing

so,

the mighty works have been done in Tyre and Sidon

that were done in you.

They would have done

in Sodom that

were done in you.

Think about that for a while.

Jesus says, if He had gone to Sodom and done His gospel work, it would

still be here.

Jesus?

So He looks back in hindsight, that

is, does He know that?

Think about that.

How could He possibly know that?

But if He did know that with inspired hindsight, then certainly the omniscient

God knew that with infinite

foresight.

Amen.

So He knew, and Christ knew.

Christ had gone to Sodom, Sodom would still be here.

It isn't that He didn't go to Sodom because He foresaw that they wouldn't believe and wouldn't repent.

The truth is, He didn't go there even though He foresaw that they would have repented, at least

because they would have

been spared because there would have been ten

righteous if Jesus did not go there, not

because He repented and wouldn't have believed.

No, that's a condition.

Yes, it's interesting that even the angels...

You understand what I'm saying to you?

Yeah.

So the point is, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.

They couldn't have believed that they hadn't been regenerated.

That's right.

So what Jesus is saying is in the whole plan of God,

and if Christ had been sent there, Christ would

have pleaded with the Father.

There would have been at least ten converts.

Christ never would have been sent there without at least what He would

have done.

And He knew that because He's there, because He's God.

And He knew that they decided to make Sodom an example of reprobation

and not to go there and spare the city.

That's God's sovereign, unconditional decree of election.

Amen, amen.

And it's mysterious.

It's utterly, it's utterly mysterious and mind -boggling.

And Jesus speaks of it in evangelism.

And the reason He speaks of it, if His heart is moved, He sees these people in Capernaum

that have seen miracles, that He says if Sodom had seen these miracles, at least ten people would have repented and the place would

still be here.

And He sees these people and He's saying, you're facing a worse judgment because you're despising the gospel light,

that the great gospel light that we never would have sent to Sodom if we hadn't intended to save.

We send this great gospel light to you and the vast majority of the people of this city.

I'm not saying there weren't ten converts, but the vast majority of the people of Capernaum

warned and used reprobation, that

great gospel light and privilege to get right with God.

Amen.

I mean, that text may often be used with regard to this whole issue of what

would have happened if, and God knows all things possible and all the rest.

I'm not trying to say I can solve that mystery.

I'm just saying that there is Christ used.

Amen.

And it's interesting that the angels that went to Sodom, yep, they had

no gospel or no message

of deliverance for anyone in that city.

Nope.

They just had the testimony of Lot saying, my brethren, what are you doing.

This wicked, righteous Lot, vexed his soul day by day, living

among them.

He reflects on the fact that God knows what would have happened if.

God always knows what would have happened if.

God knows all.

He not only knows, he knows all things possible.

Sovereign.

He decided among all the possible things that will happen, he decided that in his

eternal decree before the foundation of the world, knowing all things possible, his will determined what

all things.

Amen.

And so those that militate against there being a

fixed number of gods elect before the foundation of the world, who even militate against the

concept, the very concepts of reprobation, they would have to

ask themselves in an example like Sodom, why on earth did not the angels evangelize

to the rest of Sodom?

Why didn't, when the fire was raining down upon that city, why didn't any of them that we

have in the biblical record fall to their knees in repentance and cry out for mercy and get saved?

It's because they were reprobate.

So yeah, nobody has the right to salvation.

That's right.

There's none righteous, no, not to God

and blessed be his name.

None of us is.

Amen.

He didn't go to Sodom knowing he had gone.

There would still be.

Right.

And when did that get decided?

That got decided before the foundation of the world.

Amen.

And who decided that?

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

And that's how he knows, because he was there.

Amen.

I mean, it's a remarkable statement and he

decided.

You know, there are those that would even consider themselves

Calvinists of some sort, who also get things mixed up.

Those that are hyper -Calvinists, and I'm speaking specifically amongst, I don't want

to brush because I'm not saying that every primitive Baptist is like this, but many primitive

Baptists would equate, even if they would never say it this way, they equate

election with salvation.

And they do not require, as a litmus test,

repentance and faith to give anyone assurance that they are saved because

they believe that there will be elect of God who never come to faith in Christ on this

earth, who will enter into heaven as Muslims and all

kinds of pagan religious people

because they so far separate the preaching of the gospel and the believing of

the gospel from regeneration and from salvation that they wind up with a very strange form of

Calvinism.

And not all hyper -Calvinists are like that.

You have people in the Netherlands Reform denomination or on the other extreme where they have the

gates of heaven being far tinier than the Bible would

speak of and that we would believe.

They could have a congregation of a thousand people and only five people sometimes will have the Lord's Supper because they're

the only ones that think that they're of the elect.

But this is another danger of blurring when I'm speaking of the primitive Baptists,

not all of them, but the hyper -Calvinist ones among them.

Do they not seem to make synonymous election and

predestination with salvation?

I'm glad that you qualified what you said and said not all of them.

Right.

One of my

most

dearest

don't

just

would have brought it,

I'd say to him.

Well, when you're in heaven, I don't think that issue is even going to matter.

You're right.

It won't, but you know what I mean.

Yes, I do.

We have to go to a break right now.

Actually, this is our elongated break.

Okay, all right.

I'll address it when God willing, when we get back.

Yeah, because Grace Life Radio in Lake City, Florida requires a 12 -minute break between our two -hour segments.

So please be patient with us and please write in your questions and send them to chrisarnsen at gmail

.com during the break.

Don't go away.

God willing, we'll be right back with more of Greg Nichols.

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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko, inviting you to tune into a visit to the pastor's study every Saturday

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If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church.

We are a Reformed Baptist Church, and we hold to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.

We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts.

We strive to reflect Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do

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Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnzen.

Before we return to our discussion with Greg Nichols,

that involves his Lectures in Systematic Theology, a multi -volume series that

is now going into part three, actually in print, and there are more volumes intended

for the years to come.

But we are talking about the doctrine of Christ, the plan, promise, and accomplishment of salvation.

Before we return to that, we have some important announcements to make.

First of all, this Friday, tomorrow, December 8th, from 1130 a .m. to

1 p .m., the CBMC of Central Pennsylvania, and that

stands for Christian Businessmen's Connection, are having a special Christmas luncheon, and

all are welcome to attend at the Comfort Suites in downtown Carlisle.

The keynote speaker is my dear friend Marcus A. McKnight III.

He's an attorney.

He's also a former elder at Grace Baptist Church in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where I am a member, and he is

now a member of the West Shore Evangelical Free Church in Mechanicsburg,

Pennsylvania.

But Marcus is going to be speaking on the theme, Joseph the Quiet Hero of Christmas.

If you would like to register,

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If you mention Iron Trip and Zion Radio, your $20 registration fee will be waived, and you will get in

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So please, if you live near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, I hope to see you tomorrow from 1130 a

.m. to 1 p .m. for the CBMC Christmas luncheon on the theme,

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Call 717 -249 -2353, mention Iron Trip and Zion Radio, and get in for free.

Then, coming up in January from the 17th through the 20th, the G3 Conference returns to

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I intend to be there, God willing.

Manning and Iron Trip and Zion Radio exhibit at his booth.

G3 stands for Grace, Gospel, and Glory, in case you're wondering.

And the theme this January is Knowing God, a Biblical Understanding of Discipleship.

On the 17th, during the day, it will be exclusively a Spanish -speaking edition of the conference.

In the evening, however, there is a debate in English between my friend Dr. James R.

White of Alpha Omega Ministries and a Muslim apologist.

We'll give you more details on exactly who he is and what the theme will be in the

days to come.

And then from the 18th through the 20th is the remainder of the G3 Conference, which is entirely in English.

And the speakers include Stephen Lawson, Vody Baucom, Phil Johnson, Keith Getty, H .B. Charles

Jr., Tim Chalies, Josh Bryce, James White, Tom Askell, Anthony Mathenia, Michael Kruger, David

Miller, Paul Tripp, Todd Friel, Derek Thomas, Martha Peace, and Justin Peters.

If you'd like to register for the G3 Conference, go to g3conference .com, g3conference .com,

and please let them know that you heard about the G3 Conference from Chris Arnzen on Iron Trip and Zion Radio.

Now comes that time of the program that I dislike the most, and that is begging you for money.

As most of you know who have listened to this program going back to 2005, for the

vast majority of this program's existence, I never once made a public appeal for donations.

Years went by and I never did it.

I finally have succumbed to the pressure of my advertisers who have been pleading with me to make

public appeals for donations, and out of respect for them and the hard -earned money that they spend on this program to

keep it afloat, I have acquiesced and have come on the air

to beg you for money every day, and it is because we are facing a very

desperate time financially in our existence.

We are on the precipice of possibly going off the air, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

If you can help us out financially, go to irontripandzionradio .com, click on support, and you'll

see an address where you can mail a check made payable to Iron Trippin' Zion Radio for any amount that you choose to give.

And please keep in mind, as I always try to remind you, never, ever, ever siphon money out of your regular

giving to your local church where you are a member, and if you are not a member of a local Bible -believing church and if

you're not prayerfully seeking one out, then you are living in rebellion against God.

You have to rectify that situation and prayerfully find a biblically

faithful church.

So please never siphon money out of your giving to your local church and never take food off of your family's dinner table if you're struggling to

make ends meet, but if you can financially obey those two commands, then please, if

you are blessed above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands

and you love this show and you don't want us to disappear, please considering donating a check of any size

that you can afford to Iron Trippin' Zion Radio and please give as often as you can.

And if you want to advertise with us, please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com, and

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So send that email to chrisarnson at gmail .com and put advertising in the subject line.

That's also the email address to send in a question for Greg Nichols for our topic today, The Doctrine of

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Give us your first name, city and state, and country of residence if you live outside of the good old USA

and only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

And before the break, Pastor Greg, we were discussing the hyper -Calvinistic

tendencies of many, not all, Primitive Baptists who would blur the distinction

between election, predestination, and actual salvation.

If you could continue your comments on that.

So

if I may, in the Netherlands Reform and

Primitive Baptists—.

Yeah, the Netherlands Reform have an opposite hyper -Calvinism where they think that hardly anyone is going to heaven,

a number far smaller than we who are historically faithful and biblically faithful

Calvinists would believe.

Uh, and they even go as far as to believe that you have to have some kind of special supernatural

experience or something to be confident that you're of the elect.

But anyway.

Yes, and types of hyper -Calvinist thinking

is rather than zero in on one type or the other type.

Great.

Void either Arminianism on one extreme or hyper -Calvinism on the other

to walk the race.

I would like to just, because that's a very important part of the doctrine of

Christ and in the providence of God, Jesus actually addresses that tension.

God's plan.

God knowing all things possible.

God deciding what's actually going to happen because it pleased him, not because he foresaw what this

one would repent.

To address the tension between the sovereignty of God and the free offer of the gospel

and salvation.

So he's still thinking about gospel

light.

Matthew 11, 25.

I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these

things from the wise and understand them to

babes.

Yes, Father,

does not do.

Hid these things, healed them.

Why?

Because it was well -pleasing in your sight.

Without getting bogged

down, basically observing.

Men of renown, the rich, the brokers of power and influence among the

Jews in his generation.

He attributes that hiding these things

because these leaders rejected Christ.

Because his father hid saving knowledge of his son from their own.

Stark contrast, many ordinary people

gave the father

knowledge of Christ to them.

He discriminated.

He didn't do the same thing to everyone alike.

He hid it from some.

Why?

Yes, Father, because it was well -pleasing in your sight.

God

sought

with regard to this, where he says, not

many wise, but God chose the

wise, the

base things, nothing to bring to

nothing, the things that are, that no flesh should glory before.

So God has chosen his people with a distinctive purpose to drain us of

every ounce of pride so that he would receive all the glory for the application of

redemption.

So he hides it from the wise and prudent.

He reveals it to babes.

It's well -pleasing in his sight.

So he would get all the honor and all the praise and all.

That's what Jesus, I

thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that in your sovereignty, you so

order the application of salvation, which means in his sovereignty, he so ordered the planning of

salvation.

Because what he does in history is exactly what he planned in eternity.

I thank you, Father, that you so ordered the application of salvation, that you get all the glory

and people have nothing to brag about.

Amen.

It's absolutely sovereign, the application of salvation.

So look what he says next.

This is the mystery.

This is the tension.

After he extols and blesses God for his absolute sovereignty and his discriminating

actions and applying salvation in such a way that he doesn't do the same thing for and to everybody, and he

does that, so he'll get all the glory and people won't be able to brag and no

one knows the son.

He to whomsoever the son wills to reveal him.

Amen.

Gospel discrimination, God hides it from

some people and reveals it to others.

So he'll get all the glory, brings it

to an indiscriminate, well -meant, sincere.

Amen.

And

I will

give

you God's

word.

Amen.

And Jesus brings them right there, right together.

Now, this involves inexplicable mystery.

It involves mystery that can never be solved by human philosophy,

by human logic, by human wisdom.

I remember, Chris, I struggled at the academy

I could not, I

was Calvinistic, but I couldn't explain how

God could be sincerely offering Christ to totally depraved and totally

unable people who could never respond to that offer positively unless he regenerated them.

It's impossible, they can't do it.

The carnal mind is entity against God, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed

capability to come to Christ.

Amen.

Christ, he has no intention of giving him that

ability.

And I'm struggling with this, and I can't logically see how this could possibly get together.

And this is very, is the root that

drives people to hyper -Calvinism on the one hand, or to Arminianism on the other.

Either to deny the sovereignty of God, or to deny the well -meant offer of salvation to people that are totally depraved

and totally unable, who cannot respond in faith and repentance unless God draws them, unless God

regenerates them.

It's the struggle.

And I'm struggling with that.

I didn't know what to say, so I just kept my mouth shut.

It was that I was in class, and I was studying the doctrine of man, and I'm reading Professor Murray,

and I'm studying the fall, and Professor Murray talks about the three problems that cannot be solved

associated with the fall.

And one of those problems is a seeming contradiction between God's sovereign will, God's decree of will,

and God's revealed will.

And the sovereign will of God says, you will certainly fall.

I will it.

Don't eat from the tree.

I have no pleasure in you eating from the tree.

You're going to die.

I don't want you to do it.

I warn you not to do it.

I have no pleasure in you doing it, and I'm going to punish you if you do it.

And yet God ordained that he does it, and God wills that he does it.

And God decided that he'd do it.

And Professor Murray says there is no way to explain that seeming contradiction.

You just have to live with the fact that the Bible teaches both God's sovereignty over sin and

man's responsibility for sin.

And when I read that and I thought about that, I said, booing, the light went on.

That's the exact same problem I've been struggling with.

It's the, what Murray calls ontological problem, that the seeming contradiction between God's

revealed will and God's sovereign decree, because God's sovereign decree says

you're not going to repent.

You're not going to believe.

I'm going to offer you Christ, and you're not going to come.

And because you reject my sincere, well -meant offer of mercy, you're going to a hotter hell than Sodom.

That's the decree.

And yet the revealed will of God, I want

you to believe.

Why will you die?

I don't want you to sin.

I don't want you to die.

You can't explain it.

There's no way human logic or philosophy can put together the seeming contradiction between

God's revealed will and God's sovereign decree.

And that impossibility is what drives people to hyper -Calvinism,

because we're not going to give up Calvinism.

We're not going to give up God's sovereignty.

So unless we're prepared to humble our minds and submit ourselves to the word of God,

we're going to wind up in some form of hyper -Calvinism.

There is a seeming, not

real, between God's revealed will,

goodness of God, these things have I spoken to you that you

might be saved.

That says, I have known the wicked, but rather that he

turn and live.

Turn ye, turn ye.

Why will you die?

That's God's revealed will.

And yet God's secret decree says, I'm not going to regenerate you.

I'm not going to create faith in you.

I'm not going to give you the regeneration salvation.

I can't explain it, but I'll tell you what, I am not going to give up either the absolute sovereignty of God,

meant free offer of the gospel, because the Bible clearly

can't explain how they fit together.

But once I realized the problem, the same problem of the same

proportions, inexplicable proportions as the ontological problem associated with the fall into

sin, then I had peace.

I know I can't explain it.

Now I have peace.

Now what I have to tell people is, I want to make it so clear why you can't explain it.

So that you understand, hold to everything in

philosophy.

Amen.

And I think we also, which goes right on the heels of what you said, we have to

consider the whole counsel of God.

Whenever we are developing an established

theology in our hearts and minds, we have to always consider the whole counsel of God because both the hyper

-Calvinist and the Arminian seem to only, although they would

never admit this, they seem to only hold to the portions of the Bible

that agree with their presuppositions on doctrine.

Difficult to hold to things that you can't logically come up with

that.

As I told you, and what the Lord used,

the proportions that God is

sovereign over,

doesn't want people to.

I can't explain that.

Mary says nobody can.

And I think he's right.

And I think a problem of the same proportion.

So if we realize what a serious problem we're dealing with, embrace the word of God, not

think and logically defend and

illustrate.

And then we could go to that one other thing after we return from our final break because we have one more break.

Oh, okay, go ahead.

And since you've been speaking about John Murray, let me take this opportunity

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I just thought I'd let you know that so you can more quickly get to your $50 goal so you get that

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This is a different book by Anthony Sovalgio, The Proverbs Driven Life.

We're going to be going to our final break right now.

And if anybody likes to join us with a question, now is your time to do it before we run out of time.

And we do have a couple of you waiting to have your questions asked.

We'll get to as many of you as we can before we run out of time.

Don't go away.

God willing, we'll be right back with Greg Nichols.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said, Give yourself unto reading.

The man who never reads will never be read.

He who never quotes will never be quoted.

He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own.

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books for all ages.

We invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com.

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Hi, I'm Pastor Bill Shishko inviting you to tune into A Visit to the Pastor's Study every Saturday

from 12 noon to 1 p .m. Eastern Time on WLIE Radio,

www .wlie540am .com.

We bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you and we invite you to visit the Pastor's Study by calling in

with your questions.

Our time will be lively, useful, and I assure you, never dull.

Join us this Saturday at 12 noon Eastern Time for a visit to the Pastor's Study because everyone needs

a pastor.

Welcome back.

This is Chris Arnzen.

If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the last 90 minutes in the next half hour to come

has been and will continue to be Greg Nichols, one of three pastors at Grace Emanuel Reform Baptist Church in Grand

Rapids, Michigan.

We are discussing one of the volumes from his lectures in Systematic Theology,

The Doctrine of Christ, The Plan, Promise, and Accomplishment of Salvation.

If you'd like to join us on the air with a question, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com.

Give us your first name, city, and state, and country of residence.

And before the break, you said you had one more thing that you wanted to say in reference to hyper -Calvinism

versus Arminianism, I believe.

What I wanted to say briefly was that

balance and biblical

and walk the race,

on the one hand, to the free, well

-meant, sincere, unfeigned offer of the gospel.

I use

unfeigned

because

a

lot of others

defending

the use of Arminianism

discriminately calls them the gospel.

And one thing I think that it would be important to clarify, before the break at some

point, you used the phrase unconditional reprobation.

And a lot of people who are not Calvinists, in fact, even a Roman

Catholic that debated me, I was interviewed on a British

radio program called Unbelievable.

And what I did not know when I entered into the interview, because I was giving my testimony of how I was saved out

of Roman Catholicism, what I did not know is that I would be debating a Roman Catholic.

And I never debated anyone publicly in a formal way before, although I have, as you may

know, I have arranged many debates, but I was never a participant as an actual debater.

But anyway, the Roman Catholic on this program assumed that

Calvinists believe in equal ultimacy.

He did not use that phrase, but it's obvious that's what he was referring to.

And when you use the phrase unconditional reprobation, I know that you are not intending to mean by that, as many

may wrongly presume, that God has to supernaturally intervene

to make neutral men wicked and therefore undeserving of heaven,

that they otherwise would not have deserved hell if God had not intervened.

We do not believe that part of it.

We do not believe that at all.

As far as the state of man, man already deserves hell.

God does not need to introduce anything to man to make him more worthy of hell.

Am I right?

Pointing that out,

what I

mean

to believe—.

Right, amen.

That's equally not true, and that's what I mean.

Then Jesus points out that that's not true.

It's exactly what he says.

It isn't that God—

exactly the opposite in that text.

That's what I mean.

Now, when God is making a decision of election, who he's going to choose for life, and

reprobation, the

background is that he is viewing the entire lump as one lump of humanity fallen

in Adam and deserving of hell already

because of Adam's sin.

Yeah, you're absolutely right.

I'm not getting into any—.

Are you there?

I think that our guest accidentally disconnected himself.

Well, I'm hanging up on Pastor Greg, and hopefully he's going to call us right back.

And in the meantime, I'm going to give another plug for Solid Ground Christian Books, Solid -Ground

-Books .com.

Solid -Ground -Books .com.

Remember that Solid Ground Christian Books has entered into a slump,

a sales slump, after they relocated from Alabama to Florida.

So please do most, if not all of your Christmas shopping from Solid Ground Christian Books.

Well, I think we have—.

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

Connection.

My phone went off.

My bad.

That was not Chris's issue.

That was my phone.

Well, I don't know if you completed what you were saying, but just to add a bit to what I was referring to, the Roman Catholic,

in his final statements, he—one of the things that he wanted to

horrify the listeners with was my belief in double predestination, and he

wrongly defined that.

And he said, Chris believes, and the wicked doctrine of

double predestination teaches, according to this Roman Catholic, that no matter

what you do, no matter how good you are, no matter how often you repent, no matter how

much you love God, you will go to hell simply because you are not of the elect.

Of course, you and I, Pastor Greg, know that no elect person,

or should I say, no non -elect person, is going to be standing before the judgment as someone who has

repented, who has loved Christ, who has followed him, and is going to be going to hell because he doesn't

have a lottery ticket of the elect.

If he is non -elect, those things are not going to develop in that person's life.

They're not going to love God and follow him.

They're not going to repent and believe upon him.

And there's no such person as that.

No such person.

It's

not

subject to the law.

There is no such person that loves God with a carnal mind.

They all hate God with a carnal mind.

They're enmity against God.

They're not God's friends.

The whole thing is a complete lie.

It's a complete denial of the fall of man,

about the state and moral.

Amen.

Well, one of the things that you are discussing today is the accomplishment of salvation.

And those who are outside of the Reformed faith believe, wrongly,

that if you believe that God has thoroughly and completely and

perfectly accomplished salvation, there is nothing to worry about.

What are you evangelizing people for?

What are you praying about?

What are you praying for?

This should be just a cakewalk, like you're lying on a conveyor belt going into heaven with your hands

folded behind your head.

And let's just deal with it.

We got to deal with here on earth because it's just going to be a no -effort, one -way ticket to

heaven.

And why even bother doing anything?

And obviously, they wrongly think that is the necessary fruit of believing in a

perfectly accomplished salvation.

But that's not the truth.

By the way, you sound a little distant.

Are you farther away from the phone or something?

No.

But now you're perfect.

I needed to...

Well, then there would have been dead air.

But yeah, remember dead air?

We don't need that, do we?

No, we don't.

The

sanctification

of this called you

glory,

the

truth.

Amen.

It

teaches

about

God's

plan

because

through

our

gospel.

Amen.

It means that before the foundation of the world is

exactly what the will of

God.

Look at how God...

And that text in 2 Thessalonians that I just read,

that text clearly...

Amen.

We have a listener, Robert, in Westchester County, New York.

And Robert asks, there has been a lot of talk, especially on the internet lately,

where Calvinists are battling each other as to whether or not our non

-Calvinistic brethren are truly our brethren at all, and whether or not only someone

who believes in what are known as the five points of Calvinism can be saved.

What is your guess, Pastor Greg's opinion on this?

I think by this will all men know that you're my disciple.

Well, then I'm assuming by that answer, you believe that there are many outside of the reformed camp that are

truly Christian.

Now, obviously, you wouldn't take that to an extreme, whereas you would say anybody who says

they love Jesus is our brother and sister.

Obviously, there are lost people that make that profession.

There are hosts of Roman Catholics, and there are hosts of Eastern Orthodox, and there are

hosts of Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, and liberals, and all kinds of people that say

that they love Jesus and follow Jesus.

I say that's a reasonable...

My

answer

to that

list

of

heresies,

God knows what doctrine go to hell, and we don't have

any business adding to them.

Amen.

So I didn't hear the last thing you said, brother.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I said the scripture defines those damning doctrines for us.

Yes.

And you shouldn't add to the list that the scripture creates.

Yes.

Well, every false doctrine or every error, a heresy that's inconsistent would go into heaven.

That's not charitable.

Right.

Amen.

So I'm assuming you believe that if one believes that the triune

God saved them from their sins and from the penalty of their sins, and

that Jesus Christ's death on Calvary was the only payment that

satisfied the Father that enables us to be saved and enter into heaven, and

that Jesus Christ bodily rose from the grave.

Jesus Christ, who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died for sinners, and rose from the grave

bodily, and is ruling and reigning from heaven and will return one day.

That is really what needs to be believed to be a genuine Christian.

Although a person can believe those things and fall into many serious errors, we can't tack

on unconditional election and predestination the way Calvinists read those things as

requirements for the gospel to be faithfully believed.

Am I right?

Well, I'm not sure you've got the whole list.

What would be added to that list of what you would believe to be necessary?

The Bible clearly says, if you deny the doctrine of hell, that's inconsistent.

If you deny the resurrection...

Like the hyper -preterists.

That would be, yes, that's right.

Learn them for sure.

We should study the Bible and know what they are, and we shouldn't add to them.

Now, when you brought up hell, and I agree with you that eternal

conscious torment is hell, but do you actually believe

that that is a requirement for one being a brother in Christ?

For instance, we all know that John Stott at least held to

the fact that it was plausible that the wicked were annihilated, although I don't think he ever came firmly

down on it like it was something he certainly believed.

I think he viewed that as something that was plausible or possible.

Now, would you not view John Stott as a brother in Christ because of that?

I agree with that.

And that is

the Bible identifies it as a heresy.

And again, it may not just say things like that.

I'm not going down the road of adding to that list.

Subtract anything.

Amen.

And we who are reformed, perhaps you don't add,.

You identify them, and you don't go any further.

Right.

It seems that we who are reformed are more prone to add things that are heretical, meaning that not that we believe in

those heretical things, but add to a list of things that are damnable than those things that the Bible would

list.

And those outside of our camp are more prone to remove those things

from the list of damnable heresies.

Unless, of course, we do have many of our fundamentalist brethren who may be anti

-Calvinist, but would be neck and neck with us on trying to add things to the list of damnable teachings.

I think you're right about that.

And I think to add things to that, it's not...

And

I know there are people that might accuse me of

this.

I said, if you'd be in the state of grace, people could say, that's uncharitable.

And of course, as you also said earlier, it's hard to walk that razor thin edge.

I'm falling into error on either side.

And yet, I

think that's...

And I'd like you to have two minutes to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today about the subject before we go off

the air.

Oh, that the only possible way...

How important...

And the doctrine...

Amen.

And the location or the resource where you can get Pastor Greg Nichols'

volumes that are in print already, and those that will be in print

eventually, God willing, as we were calling them, the Lectures in Systematic

Theology.

You can go to solid -ground -books .com, that's Solid Ground Christian Books, solid -ground -books

.com.

And you can also, if you want to visit the Grace

Emanuel Reformed Baptist Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, if you are visiting Grand Rapids, if you live there already, or if you have

loved ones that already live there or are visiting there, go to girbc .org,

G -I for Grace Emanuel, R -B -C for ReformedBaptistChurch .org.

Do you have any other contact information that you care to share, Pastor Greg?

I just want to thank you so much for the privilege of being with you again.

I just can't believe how fast the time goes.

I know.

So much for the privilege of being with you and talking to you and to those...

Amen.

And if you could wait till we go off the air, because I'd like to invite you back on the program again.

Okay.

And don't forget, folks, that if you live near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, tomorrow night... I'm sorry, not tomorrow night, tomorrow

morning at 11 .30, going through 1 p .m., the Christian Businessmen's Connection is

having a Christmas lunch on the theme, Joseph, the Quiet Hero of Christmas, featuring keynote speaker

Marcus A. McKnight III.

And if you would like to register, call 717 -249 -2353,

717 -249 -2353.

Mention Iron Sherp and Zion Radio and your $20 registration fee will be waived.

You will be able to enter that luncheon for free.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at that luncheon.

Tomorrow, we have a fascinating topic, a heretical movement called the New Apostolic

Reformation will be addressed by Holly Privick and Doug Guyvet.

So make sure you tune in tomorrow.

And I look forward to hearing from you and your questions tomorrow.

And I want you all to always remember, for the rest of your lives, that Jesus Christ is a far,

far greater Savior than you are a sinner.

I hope that you all have a safe and blessed Christmas season.

And I hope you find a good, solid Bible -believing church wherever you live, if you are not currently a member of one.

And just send me an email if you need me to help you find one, because I have a list of pastors and churches that are faithful to the scriptures.

All over the world.

God bless you.

And we look forward to hearing from you tomorrow on Iron Sherp and Zion Radio.