Wesleyanism (Part 2)

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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Our Father and our God, we thank you for the opportunity, again, to be about the business of studying.

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We are thankful that you have given us your Word as the light unto our feet, the lamp unto our path.

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And you've given us the Word by which we are to judge all things.

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And when we are told in Scripture that we are to be discerning people, like the noble Bereans who searched the Scriptures to see if what they were being taught was true, Lord, we pray that we would be fair whenever we're considering what others believe and what others teach and comparing it to Scripture, and that we would not allow this to lead us into a pridefulness, that we would maintain humility and understand that none of us have perfectly arrived at perfect, absolutely perfect theology, and so to be able to be gracious to those who might disagree, but to maintain the fidelity to the Gospel, for that is the foundation upon which all believers rest their hope.

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And the Apostle Paul tells us, Lord, that there are false Gospels and there are false truths that people proclaim, and we want to be discerning about those.

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So, Lord, help us today to understand what it is you have to teach us as we continue this study.

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Help us to have our eyes and ears attentive in your Holy Spirit as our ultimate teacher.

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And we pray this all in Jesus' name and for his sake.

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Amen.

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Well, this morning we are continuing in on our lesson on Wesleyanism.

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We have begun last week, and if you remember, I said Wesleyanism is the extension or the outgrowth of Arminianism.

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Wesley was responsible for two movements in particular, he was responsible for more, but for two movements in particular that would really trace their line and lineage back to his particular teaching.

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The first one would be the Methodists.

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So we have Methodism was Wesley's, the movement that really was formed out of his teachings, but also you've heard of the movement called the Holiness Movement.

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Holiness churches often identify themselves as Congregational Methodists.

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Methodism is based on the idea that God has prescribed for us holy living and there are methods by which we achieve a lifestyle of holiness.

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And Wesley was very committed to those methodologies that lead to holy living.

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So that's where the term Methodist comes from.

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And we said last week, we referenced in our book that Wesleyan is essentially Arminian, but it has a stronger sense of sin and on the dependence on divine grace.

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Does anybody remember the particular type of grace which is taught in Methodism? It's a P word, Prevenient Grace.

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The idea that even though every man is dead in sin, God has provided a grace which goes before, that's what the word Prevenient means, a grace that precedes anyone coming to Christ, but that He's given all men that grace and we would juxtapose that with Calvinism, which would say that God gives a special grace that causes men to come to Him.

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Wesley would say, no, God doesn't give a grace that causes men to do anything.

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God simply gives men a grace that enables all men to do that thing.

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Where Calvinism would say grace is the cause, Methodism or Wesleyanism would say grace enables, but it doesn't cause.

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The cause is still the will of the human heart.

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So therein lies the distinction between the Arminianism, Calvinism, or particularly Calvinism and Wesleyanism.

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We said last time they see the Bible as divine revelation, as the ultimate standard for faith and practice, and upon that we would say amen.

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However, they also believe that there are four means by which truth comes to us.

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Four means of truth, what is called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

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And I actually did a little more study on this this week, because I wanted to make sure that I was articulating it properly.

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The Wesleyan Quadrilateral, that there are four ways truth comes to us.

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Those four ways are first scripture, after this reason, thirdly tradition, and fourthly experience.

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So it is scripture, then reason, then tradition, then experience.

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Last week we dealt with the subject of reason.

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We said that while reason of course is necessary, because we don't want to be unreasonable, reason is woefully lacking.

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It's insufficient, because...

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Does anybody remember the word I used last week, the noetic effect of the fall? Anybody remember what that means? Yeah, the noetic effect, the effect on our brains, or our ability to reason.

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That has been affected by the fall.

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This is why the Bible says that the natural man cannot understand the things of God.

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Do you think that Adam, before the fall, had a better understanding of the things of God than his posterity after the fall? I would have to say absolutely.

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I mean he walked with God in the cool of the day.

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He had a certain understanding and reasonability that with the fall was tainted and was corrupted, not absolutely destroyed.

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We do have the ability to reason.

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But oftentimes our reason is corrupted, and we call that the noetic effect of the fall.

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Not Noah like Noah in the ark, but noetic as in the mind.

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It could be.

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I think that, yeah, I would say, maybe I would articulate it maybe like this.

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In Christendom, in Christianity, we have a tendency to allow corruption into how we even exercise our faith.

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I remember one particular, I don't remember who the person was, but one particular quote where the person said, even in my prayers I sin.

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Even in my prayers I make error.

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And this is why Romans 8 tells us the Spirit prays in our stead because we don't even have the words to say.

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We still have this failure.

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And it does bring corruption in the church.

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I listened to a sermon this morning.

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Oftentimes on my ride in I will download a message on the topic that I'm preaching on, usually from an obscure, somebody I've never heard of before, just to kind of get an idea, just a difference of opinion maybe as I'm coming in to preach.

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And this morning I'm preaching on baptismal regeneration, which is a big important subject because there are people who believe that unless you're baptized in water, in Jesus' name, for the remission of sins, then you're not saved.

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Which means if you've been baptized in water in the name of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in accordance with your faith, not for the remission of sins, but for testimony of your faith, you're not saved.

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Your baptism is not legitimate because it wasn't done for the right reason.

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And probably the most famous group today that is a part of a church that would teach that is the Duck Dynasty guys.

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They're members of the Church of Christ.

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And so I just pulled up on Sermon Audio, baptismal regeneration, and the first sermon was The Danger of Duck Dynasty.

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And I was like, I've got to hear what this guy has to say.

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Just want something to listen to on a Sunday morning as I'm getting dressed and getting ready for work.

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Getting ready for church, excuse me.

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This is my job, so I hope you don't take it the wrong way.

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No, you know what I'm saying.

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But coming in, getting ready to come in, turn everything on, do everything.

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I just got this playing in my pocket.

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And the guy spent half his sermon not dealing with baptismal regeneration, but dealing with the fact that the Duck Dynasty guys have long hair.

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And it's a shame that a man has long hair.

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I didn't realize that I had downloaded an independent fundamentalist Baptist sermon.

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And it was awesome.

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It was great.

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And by awesome, I mean terrible.

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But it was just funny to hear that as the big issue.

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I mean, he did address the baptismal regeneration at a certain point, but it was the hair.

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Man, these guys have long hair, and they look like ZZ Top.

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And he asked his church, does anybody here know who ZZ Top is? Nobody knew.

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I was like, this really is an idea feature.

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Nobody knows who ZZ Top is.

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It was just hilarious.

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It was awesome.

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But the point of the matter is, even in our faith, often it becomes corrupted with nonsense.

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So this is why last week I tried to make the point that when we look at reason as a foundation for truth, we have to remember that our reason is woefully corrupted.

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Even in our regenerative state, we can't rely on reason.

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Now, in fairness to Wesley, and this is what I wanted to study this week and what I wanted to make sure I bring out to you, because as I've said in the past, I don't want to misrepresent anyone.

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In fairness to Wesley and to those who are his, those who would teach what he taught, they did insist that even though there was a quadrilateral, it wasn't equal, that scripture is preeminent and that scripture is the first authority and it's the measure whereby everything else must be measured.

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So I don't want to misrepresent Wesley any more than I'd want to misrepresent anyone.

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So he did say scripture is first, foremost, primary, and our reason is subject to scripture.

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Okay.

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Here's where I think that the failure has come, and I mentioned this last week.

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The failure has come in that in so many situations, our reason becomes the primary and scripture becomes secondary.

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And I'm not saying that's what Wesley did.

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I'm saying that's what people who, they want the reason to be first.

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For instance, I remember a guy who sat on my couch at my house.

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He was having trouble with things that I was teaching here at the church, so he asked if he could come to my house and sit down and talk.

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Sure, absolutely.

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If you ever got a problem with anything I teach, my couch is open.

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Come sit down and talk to me.

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He came over and talked to me.

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He sat down on my couch.

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We started talking.

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The first thing, one of the very first things he said to me, he said, I don't believe the whole Bible is true.

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And I said, okay.

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I said, first of all, you're in the wrong church.

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I said, I literally could throw a rock, hit 15 churches that believe like you.

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You'd be much happier there.

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I said, you're never going to be happy.

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We have committed, we have covenanted, that the Bible is the word of God, it's the infallible truth of God, and so you're not going to be happy in a church that doesn't believe the Bible, or that does believe the Bible, if you don't.

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So I either think you should repent and trust God's word, or find a place where you're going to be happy, ultimately.

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But that's the thing.

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He was, because he started arguing for things in the Bible.

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Well, my reason tells me this, my reason tells me that, and it wasn't exactly the language he was using, but that was his point.

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Well, you know, I don't necessarily believe in seven days of correction, because reason, you know, science and this and that and other, what are we doing with that? We're allowing reason to supersede what the Scripture says.

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And so, it was funny, because later in that conversation, it really was Calvinism was his issue.

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And he said, he goes, I want to talk to you about Calvinism.

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I said, I can't talk to you about that.

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He said, why? I said, because you told me five minutes ago, you don't believe what the Bible says.

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So if I go showing you that the Bible teaches this, all you've got to say is, I don't believe that.

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And if that's your answer, then we're just going to spin our wheels.

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So I can't talk to you until you submit to the word of God about doctrine.

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Why would I try to prove from reason something that really is in a sense difficult to reason? I wouldn't believe in Calvinism if the Scripture didn't tell me what it was.

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And this is the thing, let me point this out too.

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It's one of the reasons why I believe Reformed teaching, why I believe it.

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Because it is so counter to the natural idea of how things ought to be.

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Somebody first hears about things like predestination, election, first people start to hear about total depravity and atonement being particular.

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That's aggressively opposed to the natural man.

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The natural man cannot receive the things of God, says the Scriptures.

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And so it's...

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It's unreasonable.

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Yeah, to them it's absolutely unreasonable.

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That doesn't make sense.

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I can't accept it.

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And I say, yes, I understand.

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Scripture tells me you won't get it.

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So anyway, kind of went a little further.

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I wanted to move on today from reason.

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But it brings you up to speed to where we were.

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We looked at reason last week.

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We're going to look at the other three.

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Don't know that we're going to get to all of them, but we'll certainly look at...

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Yeah, we'll step forward.

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One real quick question.

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Oh, sure, sure.

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Do you have a verse? A specific verse.

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Is there just a couple or any...

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Well, ones that come to mind would be...

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And here's...

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Naming the chapter and verse is going to be difficult.

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But the ones that come to mind specifically is the natural man cannot receive the things of God I think would be one that I would specifically...

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What does that mean? The natural man and the things of God and what is it that keeps him from receiving them? Sin.

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But how...

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What is...

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How is...

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I think that that verse specifically is referring to receiving them intellectually.

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You know? So I think that there's an intellectual reception that is hindered by our sin.

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So that would be one of the ones that right away...

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And I'll think of...

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If I think of any others...

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Go ahead.

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Absolutely.

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Yes, dear.

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Does this have anything to do with working...

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Well...

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I don't want to say no, but I think particularly...

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Working out our salvation with fear and trembling I think does deal more with our...

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the outward expression of our faith.

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Work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you but to will and to do is good pleasure.

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That's the whole text there.

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And so I think the context and I believe it's in Philippians is particularly the issue of our expressing our faith and working it out.

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We're working out the outward expression of our faith because it's God who's in us both to will and to do that which pleases Him.

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So I think...

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Is our intellectual part of that? But I think also our actually expressing our faith.

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Sort of like what James says as far as working...

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Our faith producing works.

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Right.

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Our salvation is expressed or worked out in what we do.

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If a person is saying I believe and yet they're never expressing their faith through works then ultimately what is it that they believe and where is God working in them? I would go to that passage and it says work out your salvation not work for but to work it out.

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Express your faith.

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How are you expressing it? If God's at work in you to will to do His good pleasure but you're not doing it it says He is at work within you but to will and to do His good pleasure.

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He's in you to will it but you don't do it.

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Why? Where is your salvation if it's not something that's seen? So I think that more so is dealing with our actually expressing of our faith but you know we think of working out as something like in our mind where we're kind of working it out mentally.

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I think Paul had in mind in there at least based on the whole context of the verse I think Paul had more in mind of our expressing of our faith.

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What was the verse I gave you? Okay, thank you.

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Alright, so after reason we have tradition.

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So again the quadrilateral and I actually saw a guy with a shirt with this on it this week again looking around doing some study had a cross at the top with scripture and then the other three things were at the bottom sort of showing subservience to it.

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So the first one was reason the next one was tradition and the last one is experience.

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So let's look now at tradition.

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What does Wesleyanism say about tradition? Well this is from the United Methodist Church.

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It says Wesley wrote that it is generally supposed that traditional evidence is weakened by length of time as it must necessarily pass through so many hands in a continued succession of ages.

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Although other evidence is perhaps stronger he insisted do not undervalue traditional evidence let it have its place and its due honor it is highly serviceable in its kind and its degree.

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Wesley states that those of strong and clear understanding should be aware of its full force for him it supplies a link through 1700 years of history with Jesus and the apostles the witness to justification sanctification is an unbroken chain drawing us into fellowship with those who have finished the race fought the fight and who now reign with God in his glory and might.

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So let me break that down a little bit.

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What he's saying he's saying tradition has been watered down over time and has been corrupted over time but that doesn't mean we can just throw it all away and to that I would say true that's true I would say amen there's that that to simply throw the baby out with the bath water isn't always isn't always an appropriate thing and so he would argue then that what were the traditions that were in the first century what were the traditions how do we see the traditions evolving and how do we see for instance we know Wesley wasn't Roman Catholic and I know Wesley would have argued against several of the false teachings of Rome in particular the mass and the perpetuatory sacrifice of the mass things like that he wouldn't have agreed with that he would have totally denied that so he wasn't saying that all tradition is valid but what he was saying is that there are we need to not simply disregard those who came before us now on this I'm going to have to at least for a second side with Wesley because we have seen the product in the modern church of people who don't know anything about history there was a funny Peanuts cartoon I always reference this cartoon it was Lucy who was writing a report on church history or no who was who was Charlie Brown's sister Sally Sally I looked at Anne I don't know why I looked at Anne I don't know Sally writing a writing a paper and Charlie Brown says what are you writing she says I'm writing on church history and the next line you know it's a little caption a little thought bubble says my pastor was born in 1950 that's church history that's that's when church history started for a lot of people you ask people especially I've been I'm working on my King James Only sermon which is next week the anti opposing those who teach King James Onlyism and I tell you what to listen to the arguments of King James Onlyist it hurts my head not that again not that I have anything against the King James Bible but those who teach that the King James is the only Bible that it must be used or you're not saved because you're not listening to the word of God that's hard to that's hard to wrap my mind around and this movement you know this is 60 years old approximately about the same time as you know when the NIV and those things started coming out that's when the movement really began I didn't really have any reason before that but just to hear these guys make these arguments and they say we have the traditional text we have the traditional this is God's word and they're holding it and yet the Bible that they're holding they say that 1611 King James no it's not the one that they're holding has gone through several editions most of the time they're holding a 1769 Blaney revision it's not the 1611 King James 1769 Blaney revision of the King James and then they probably don't know whether or not they have an Oxford or a Cambridge edition there's two editions of the 1769 Blaney revision and they're not exactly the same so when they say I've got the perfect and inerrant completed word of God and it's the only Bible in English but it might be different than your King James you see they have a tradition that's based on no substance they have a tradition that's based on a narrative that they have produced think of what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about Mary perpetual virginity that she herself was born without sin by the way if you ever hear the term immaculate conception that's not talking about Jesus that's talking about Mary they believe she was conceived and born without sin she lived her whole life without sin that she was impregnated by the Holy Spirit gave birth and yet gave birth without disturbing her virginity that she was a perpetual virgin even after birth and she never was touched by man never had another child that Jesus' brothers or sisters were all half that Joseph either had another wife or he was married before or whatever no she well that's the that essentially there are those who have pushed for her being named co-mediatrix and co-redemptrix with Christ because it is through Mary that one receives the Son it it I tell you it gets it's not but it gets it gets this this is based on holy um not holy H-O-L-Y but W-H-O-L-L-Y holy uh uh produced tradition of men holy yeah okay yeah a whole other kind of holy this is entirely bad and it's full of holes but it's that type of tradition that I know Wesley himself wouldn't have agreed with so what was Wesley talking about when he was talking about tradition Wesley was saying that we do not come into our lives especially into our Christian lives as um as people who are needing to reinvent the wheel we don't we don't come into this situation without a history we don't come into this situation without men who have gone before us and what those men who came before us had to say needs to be considered this is why I think that oftentimes people fall into pits because they're willing to throw out everything that has been said before because they're the first ones to really know the truth for instance again getting back to the church of Christ and what I'm preaching on this morning what was Alexander Campbell's argument Alexander Thomas Campbell what was the argument the gospel has been lost for 1800 years it's been lost we've got it no one else had it when you make a claim like that what is the ultimate thing that you can say nothing else matters except for what I said because it's been lost and here's the thing and I'm not comparing them to Joseph Smith in the sense that they're on the same level but that's exactly what Joseph Smith's argument was the church it's all been corrupted it's all wrong and we're right and so listen to us it's amazing how many guys said that in the 1800s it's funny 1800s just sort of vomited up a lot of really bad expressions of that type of grandeur the gospel's been lost for a long time for 1700 years 1800 years but we've got it here is just considering when you look at comparing what guys like Alexander Campbell Thomas Campbell Joseph Smith compare them to somebody like Martin Luther realize that when Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the wall Martin Luther was not making an attempt to reform the church he was making an attempt to challenge a part of the church that he saw had been corrupted he was not claiming that the church itself was no longer the church he wasn't saying I have all truth and I'm the end all be all of truth he was saying look we have allowed a serpent in the hen house and that serpent is indulgences the 95 theses really aren't about justification by grace through faith they're about the sale of indulgences and the false teachings of selling salvation really that's the purpose of the theses now later there was this movement out of the church into what we would have German Lutheranism Swiss Calvinism these things that started to grow up outside of the church but ultimately these men were all Roman Catholic at one time these men simply saw what was being taught as being false but most of them did not deny that there were saved people that were in this group that they had just been simply misled and none of them would have said no one's been saved for 1600 years no one's been saved for 1500 years we're the first ones to have the truth they argued we're in the line of Augustine we're in the line of St.