Equipping Eve: Who Chose Whom?

Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus? Well, it's true there's no shortage of candy-coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies, but beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed Eve in the garden?

In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women, No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies-only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benziger, a friend of No Compromise Radio, and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

Well, hello, ladies, and welcome to Equipping Eve. I'm your host, Erin Benziger, and this is the show that seeks to equip you ladies with fruits of truth from God's Word so that we can stand strong and firm on that Word in an age of deception.

You know, it's funny, I always say that we learn the truth so that we can stand strong on that firm foundation. And I was thinking of that picture of standing firm on the Word of God, and I was reading a sermon by Charles Spurgeon this morning, actually, and he said something interesting that just struck me based on how I introduce the show here every week, or every other week, I guess, as it currently airs.

And let's see, he says here, if you do not see it to be here in the Bible, he means, you know, see a truth to be here in the Bible, whatever I may say or whatever authorities I may plead, I beseech you, as you love your souls, reject it.

And if from this pulpit you ever hear things contrary to this sacred Word, remember that the Bible must be the first, and God's minister must lie underneath it. We must not stand on the Bible to preach, but we must preach with the Bible above our heads.

After all we have preached, we are well aware that the mountain of truth is higher than our eyes can discern, clouds and darkness are round about its summit, and we cannot discern its topmost pinnacle, yet we will try to preach it as well as we can.

And I thought that was so interesting, not that I am here as a formal minister of the Word of God, but you know, as Christians, we all proclaim the Word of God, and we stand on that foundation of truth, but I think Spurgeon makes such an important point here that the Bible must be above our heads because it is above what we say, and if we say something contrary to Scripture, Scripture trumps us.

It doesn't matter who we are. It doesn't matter if we are Charles Spurgeon. It does not matter if it is your pastor or my pastor or your favorite celebrity pastor. If it is contrary to the Word of God, the Word of God is the thing that reigns true.

And so I just found that really interesting and thought I would share that with you this morning or this afternoon, whenever you're listening to it. I'm taping this in the morning, that's why I said this morning.

Calvinism, Arminianism, and the Question of Who Saves

So, what to talk about today? I thought I would jump in and see how many people I can upset today with the topic that I'm thinking about talking about, and I don't know, we'll see. If I get a word from the Lord while we're in the middle of this conversation, I'll just shut it down and start re-recording.

I came across an article, I don't know, earlier this week, it's an older article, it's from the fall of 2014, October 7th, 2014 actually, it's from the Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary blog, which is called Theologically Driven, and the title of the article is Why You Must Be a Calvinist or an Arminian.

And already, oh, some people are getting nervous, they're getting itchy, hives are breaking out on people because we are possibly embarking on that dreaded conversation, Calvinism versus Arminianism. Oh, but come on, this is a conversation that needs to be had, is it not?

I mean, this is a theological conversation that is constantly happening, it is ongoing through the ages, and it is really important that we understand this, and we don't have to have a perfect understanding, but this is something that is worth your investigation, ladies.

And when I say investigation, I mean investigate the Word of God and what it says, and that's what we're going to do today. We are not going to plumb the depths of the Calvinism versus Arminianism debate, that is for certain.

In fact, I thought we might focus a bit on the U in TULIP, the Unconditional Election, and, you know, I'm not even going to begin to give a comprehensive lesson, teaching overview of Calvinism, of the Doctrines of Grace.

I can't begin to do that as well as many others before me have done. I will link to some teachings on these doctrines, especially the Doctrine of Election, over at the Equipping Eve blog. So if you head to equippingeve .org or .com, you can click on the link at the top of the page there to the blog, and that will take you to the Equipping Eve blog, and there will be resources there that match up with what we talk about here on the show.

And I will link to some teachings, some sermons, some articles on this topic, because men who are far smarter than I and far more eloquent than I have tackled this, and so I'm not here to bring a new perspective, I'm not here to give you a better teaching than is already available out there.

I'm here to share with you some resources that I have found helpful, and really that I just kind of recently stumbled on and thought, you know, those are some good new resources, new ways to look at this particular conversation, and then, of course, we are going to go to the Word of God.

So, get your Bibles ready, and, you know what, let's look at this article first, because this is what kind of sparked my thought to do this show. So this article, as I said, it's at the Theologically Driven blog, it's called Why You Must Be a Calvinist or an Arminian, and it's written by Bill Combs back in October of 2014.

And he writes, the real issue comes down to the question of who saves us. Does God save us, or do we, with some help from God, save ourselves? That's rather stark, so let me expand upon that. What I mean, and what I'm trying to get at, he writes, is who is the ultimate decider in the matter of our salvation?

Is God the one who ultimately decides if I end up in heaven or hell, or am I the one who ultimately decides if I end up in heaven or hell? Quickly, someone will say that both God and I decide. There's truth there, but there can be only one ultimate decider, one person who makes the final determination.

And he's right. He's absolutely right. So who does the saving? Is it God, or is it you? Who gets the pat on the back for saving you? That's ultimately what this debate comes down to. Bill Combs goes on and he writes, the binary choice I am insisting on is nicely captured in the U of the acronym TULIP, where the U stands for unconditional election.

Calvinists of all persuasions believe in unconditional election, Ephesians 1 .4, for he chose us in him before the creation of the world. God's choosing or election of the individual to salvation is not conditioned on anything within the individual himself, thus it is unconditional.

The other, he writes, and the only other possibility is conditional election, which says God's election is conditioned on something within the individual. God has said to elect those to salvation whom he foresees will have faith in Christ.

This is the viewpoint of Arminianism. Continuing with the article, he says, in Calvinism, faith is the result of election. In Arminianism, election is the result of faith. All evangelicals, whether Calvinist or Arminian, believe in salvation by grace.

All agree that we are sinners and because of depravity need God's grace. In the case of the Calvinist, this is efficacious grace. In the case of the Arminian, it is something called prevenient grace. In Arminianism, prevenient grace is given to all people, or at least to all who hear the gospel, and enables them to be saved by cooperating with God's grace.

This is synergism. But then this prevenient grace may be rejected in the Arminian line of thought. And again, he writes, there are only two choices. Either God's grace is efficacious and ultimately overcomes the individual's depravity and brings him to faith in Christ, which is Calvinism, or God's grace is just prevenient.

That is, it's sufficient to overcome depravity, but the individual may reject it. He goes on, he says, both Calvinists and Arminians agree that the sinner chooses Christ. The sinner is not coerced into a decision for Christ.

The major difference between Calvinism and Arminianism is what ultimately and finally causes a depraved sinner to choose Christ. Imagine Joe and Jack, identical twins, attend church together and sit together in the same pew week after week, listening to the gospel being proclaimed.

Maybe their hearing of the gospel goes on for many years, but Joe eventually responds to the message, receives Christ, dies, and goes to heaven. Jack rejects the message, never receives Christ, dies, and goes to hell.

Why does Joe go to heaven and Jack to hell? What is different about these two similar, in many ways identical men who both heard the gospel over many years? Why does Joe say yes and Jack say no? One answer is that God chose Joe.

This would be unconditional election. God gave him grace that was efficacious that caused him to believe he owes his salvation completely to God. This is called monergism. Joe cannot boast in his salvation.

Per 1 Corinthians 1, 28 -29, this is Calvinism, writes Bill Combs. The other and only other possible answer is that God chose Joe because Joe chose God. This would be conditional election. God looked down the corridors of time and saw that Joe would one day believe the gospel, so he elected Joe.

But actually God did not make any independent choice. If Joe chooses God, God must choose Joe, but if Joe rejects God, God cannot choose Joe. God simply ratifies whatever choice Joe makes. Joe has the same grace, which is prevenient, necessary to believe the gospel as his brother Jack.

According to this view, everyone who hears the gospel has the prevenient grace necessary to believe the gospel. But if that is so, how do we explain why Joe accepted the gospel and Jack rejected it? The only answer is that there is something in Joe, something superior in Joe, intelligence, merit, goodness, something that caused him to believe, something that Joe had but Jack lacked.

The difference between Joe and Jack is not due to God. God does exactly the same thing for both Joe and Jack. They had the same opportunity, the same grace, prevenient. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that in some way Joe must be better than Jack.

Joe did not do it all or most of it, but he deserves some credit. This is Arminianism. One may not like the labels Calvinism and Arminianism and can rail against them all day long, but they historically represent the two evangelical options for the salvation of sinners.

Either God is the ultimate decider and he gets all the glory, or the sinner is the ultimate decider and deserves to share in that glory. Can you even imagine? Can you imagine, ladies, taking credit, even a one-thousandth of a percent of credit for your salvation?

Can you even fathom that? Arminianism says that you deserve some of the credit, that you deserve even a small pat on the back for choosing God. Yay you! You chose God. You prayed that prayer. You walked that aisle.

You raised your hand. You decided to let Jesus in your heart. Go you. No, no. May it never be. And you know, it's often, I often hear from people, well, I'm not, I'm not Calvinist, but I'm not an Arminian either.

And that's what this article over at the Theologically Driven blog was trying to say. The point that it was trying to make is that there really are two choices. So you can sit there and say all day long, well, I'm not a Calvinist or an Arminian, but realistically there are two choices and you really ultimately have to take a side.

And it will come down to what does the Word of God say? You know, I have heard the quarters of time argument many, many times before. In fact, long before I was saved, when I was growing up in a professing Christian home and we attended the Presbyterian church, I long believed in this idea.

I had no concept of the conversation, the debate that goes on between Calvinism and Arminianism, but I had heard at one point in time about this God looking down and seeing who would believe. And so then he chose those people and that kind of took care of the words predestination and chose and chosen and elect in the Bible for me.

You know, that's, that's how God predestined, that's how God foreknew. He looked down, he saw I would choose him, walk that aisle, whatever. And that is how I was then one of his chosen ones. So he chose me because I chose him first.

Well, I wasn't saved at the time, so God hadn't chosen me. And realistically, I hadn't chosen God because I couldn't. I had not been regenerated. The Lord God had not yet showered that grace on me and regenerated me by the power of the Holy Spirit, enabling me to repent and place my faith and trust solely in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

But that is how it works. The regeneration must precede our faith because faith and repentance are gifts from God. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, we're all so familiar with that passage, but it so clearly lays it out.

By grace, you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of work, so that no one may boast. No one. But if you take this Arminian position that you chose God, that you had some sort of a peace in this decision, you are now able to boast in your own salvation.

May it never be. I once heard Steve Lawson say about this corridors of time argument. I don't remember which sermon it was in, but if I find it, I'll certainly share it with you ladies. He practically screamed into the microphone, God has never looked down the corridors of time and learned anything.

Can you imagine God sitting in heaven, sitting in eternity past and saying, huh, I wonder if Aaron will choose me someday, and he looks down and he peers and he puts on his glasses and he looks and he looks and he looks, oh, oh wait, wait, there, there she is.

She's repenting. Oh my goodness. She is going to choose me. I choose her. I choose her. No. What a concept. What a concept. What a horrible, terrible concept. The doctrine of election, the doctrine that God has chosen people before the beginning of time for his purposes, for his will and for his glory to be saved.

It's not an easy one to accept. John MacArthur writes, frankly, the only reason to believe in election is because it is found explicitly in God's word. No man and no committee of men originated this doctrine.

And you know, I often think that doctrines like the doctrine of election, and there are others that are so far above our brain capacity. The doctrine of election is one of them that to me, it proves that the Bible is God's word because if mere men wrote this Bible, they would not have put something like the doctrine of election in.

MacArthur writes, it's like the doctrine of eternal punishment in that it conflicts with the dictates of the carnal mind. I mean, men don't like the doctrine of election. So why would men put that in the Bible?

It is repugnant, says MacArthur, to the sentiments of the unregenerate heart and like the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the miraculous birth of our Savior, the truth of election, because it has been revealed by God, must be embraced with simple and unquestioning faith.

If you have a Bible and you believe it, you have no other option but to accept what it teaches. And that's the bottom line. Is the doctrine of election, difficult though it may be, especially when we have unsaved family members and loved ones and friends, is the doctrine of election in the Bible?

What does God's word say? We can find lots of quotes from men on election, but is it in the Bible? And if it's in the Bible, we have to accept it. After all, writes J .C. Ryle, whatever men may please to say, there is no denying that the election of some men and women to salvation is a simple matter of fact, that all professing Christians are not finally saved, but only some, that those who are saved owe their salvation entirely to the free grace of God and the calling of his spirit, that no man can at all explain why some are called unto salvation and others are not called.

These are things which no Christian who looks around him can pretend for a moment to deny. But he writes, after all, is the doctrine of election plainly stated in scripture? This is the whole question which an honest Christian has to do with.

If it is not in the book of God, let it be forever discarded, refused, and rejected by man no matter who propounds it. And that goes back to the quote I gave you at the opening of the show by Spurgeon.

If it's not in the Bible, forget it, ignore it. It doesn't matter who teaches it. But if it is there, says Ryle, let us receive it with reverence, as part of divine revelation, and humbly believe, even where we are not able to completely understand or explain fully.

What then is written in the scriptures? To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. Isaiah 8, 20. Is election in the Bible or is it not?

Does the Bible speak of certain persons as God's elect or not? And Ryle goes on and he lists some verses here. He says, Matthew 14, 22, for the elect's sake the days shall be shortened. Mark 13, 22, if it were possible they should deceive even the elect.

Matthew 14, 31, he shall send his angels, they shall gather together his elect. Luke 18, 7, shall not God avenge his own elect? The Lord Jesus Christ speaks about his elect. Are we then to deny that some are elect?

Turn with me in your Bibles, ladies. Let's look at John 17, the high priestly prayer, where Jesus is praying to his Father. And John 17, let's start with verse 6, because we love context. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world.

They were yours and you gave them to me and they have kept your word. He's talking about the disciples. Now they have come to know that everything you have given me is from you for the words which you gave me I have given to them and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from you and they believe that you sent me.

I ask on their behalf, I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom you have given me for they are yours and all things that are mine and are yours and yours are mine and I have been glorified in them.

God chose them out of the world. John 10, 25, Jesus is speaking and he says, I told you and you do not believe the works that I do in my Father's name. These testify of me, but you do not believe because you are not of my sheep.

Verse 27, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. Verse 29, my Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

I and the Father are one. There is perhaps no greater passage on the doctrine of election than Romans 9. Take your pick out of this chapter, verse 18, so then he has mercy on whom he desires and he hardens whom he desires.

You will say to me then, why does he still find fault for who resists his will? On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, why did you make me like this?

Will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory. Even us, whom he also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles, for his glory.

That's the key, ladies. Even if it's difficult for us to understand, even if we can't comprehend election holy, we believe it, number one, because the Bible says it is true. And we believe it, number two, because the Bible says that this is for God's glory.

Turn back with me to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter one. We're going to start in verse one, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse three, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved, to the praise of the glory of his grace.

That's something that we cannot lose sight of, ladies, is that the doctrine of election demonstrates God's grace. You know, so often the argument is, well, it's not fair. It's not fair that God would choose some and not choose others.

Ladies, the reality is, if we want what's fair, then we all will burn forever in the lake of fire because that is what we deserve, because we were born into sin. We are sinners, born sinful. We live sinful lives.

We cannot save ourselves. We cannot redeem ourselves from that sin. We cannot atone for our own sin before a holy God. MacArthur writes, some are shocked to find that God didn't choose everyone to salvation.

You know, that's just, that's such a common thing, especially maybe in the seeker movement, and it's so common among false converts. It's just, well, everybody, God chose everybody. God saved, enabled everyone to be saved, and you just have to choose.

You just have to accept the gift. You know, God is standing there and he's holding out this beautifully wrapped present, and you have, all you have to do is reach out and take it. But is that what scripture says?

MacArthur goes on, he says, Jesus said, this is the will of him who sent me that all that he has given me, I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. God the Father chose certain individuals to form a body as a gift to Jesus Christ.

Every believer is part of that love gift to Christ, a gift of the Father's love to his Son. To those who say that is unjust, Paul answers, what shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, as there may it never be.

For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, and that's from Romans 9 again. So why does God still find fault in unrepentant sinners when he didn't choose them?

Doesn't this deny human responsibility? Is it fair for God to still hold them accountable? Paul answers such questions with a rebuke, who are you, oh man, who answers back to God? And he goes on in quotes from Romans 9 where we just read, some believe this is terribly cold and calculating, writes MacArthur, but that is only one side of God's sovereign election.

Paul continues in the next chapter by saying, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

How these two sides of God's truth, his sovereignty in choosing us, and our responsibility to confess and believe, reconcile is impossible for us to understand fully, but scripture declares both perspectives of salvation to be true.

It's our duty to acknowledge both and joyfully accept them by faith. John 1, ladies, turn to John 1, 12 to 13. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Your decision didn't save you, your decision didn't start your salvation process, God did. God transformed your heart and enabled you to repent and to believe, and these truths are difficult, and they are why we simply trust that what God has said in his word is true.

Let's look at a few more passages, ladies. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 2, 13 to 14. And Paul writes, Charles Spurgeon writes that this belief of the truth is a mark of election, and he says, Ladies, if you have repented and believed and trusted upon Christ and are relying on him solely for your salvation, you are elect.

Spurgeon goes on, he says, Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I claim, you are elect. Spurgeon goes on and says that in his mind, election is one of the most stripping doctrines in all the world, and I have to agree with him here.

He says that it takes away all trust in the flesh, all reliance upon anything except Christ. How often, he writes, do we wrap ourselves up in our own righteousness and array ourselves with the false pearls and gems of our own works and doings?

We begin to say, now I shall be saved because I have this and that evidence. Instead of that, it is naked faith that saves, that faith and that alone unites to the Lamb, irrespective of works, although it is productive of them.

How often do we lean on some work other than that of our own beloved, and trust in some might other than that which comes from on high? I know nothing, nothing again, that is more humbling for us than this doctrine of election.

Friends, if you want to be humbled, study election, for it will make you humble under the influence of God's Spirit. He who is proud of his election is not elect, and he who is humbled under a sense of it may believe that he is.

He has every reason to believe that he is, for it is one of the most blessed effects of election, that it helps us to humble ourselves before God. Spurgeon makes a really good point there. As we just read in 2 Thessalonians, we are chosen, if we've been saved, we've been chosen from the beginning for salvation through sanctification.

Sanctification is a mark of election. Our pursuit of righteousness, our obedience to the Lord, our desire for obedience to the Lord, our desire for holiness, that is a mark of our salvation. At the same time, we cannot rely on our works.

We cannot say, oh, you know, ever since I've been saved, I've stopped doing this and I've stopped doing that. Good for me. We have to be so careful that we don't confuse the mark of election with the cause of election.

And I think it's a danger that we kind of unwittingly can fall into from time to time, relying on our works. And we can say outwardly that we know our works don't save you, and we do know our works don't save us, but we become proud of our good works.

But remember, ladies, those good works are not yours. They are wrought by the power of the Holy Spirit who now indwells you because he has regenerated and saved you, and he is sanctifying you through his word and through his holy power, sanctifying you, changing your desires, conforming your mind, transforming your heart and your life to look more and more each day like the Lord Jesus Christ, so that one day when we do step into glory, hopefully by God's good grace, it will be a short step because he will have so powerfully sanctified us here on earth.

We will never be perfect until we go to glory, of course. But God is working in you, and he is changing and transforming you, and if you see that change, be so thankful to him. Continue to pursue righteousness.

That sanctification is a mark of your salvation, but do not ever be proud of your sanctification. Do not ever be proud of your works. They are not yours. They are a gift. Your sanctification is a gift.

The trial that you are going through that is sharpening your patience, that is quieting your tongue, that is further conforming your mind to the things of Christ, even those difficult trials are a gift from God, and it is how he is molding you into the image of his Son.

And so be thankful for your good works, for your obedience, your desire for obedience, but do not be proud of it. Boast only in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ whose perfect life we could never live, whose atoning death we could never die, and if it were not for his perfect life and his atoning sacrifice, his perfect acceptable sacrifice, we could never be saved.

It is only in the work of Christ and in the person of Christ that we should boast. And so, yes, if you have been saved by God, you are one of the elect, and you cannot fully understand it, but you know that God has saved you, that he has changed your mind, that he has changed your heart, that he has changed your desires, that he has changed your life, that you are growing more and more to look like his Son each and every day, still light years away from what Christ looked like, but growing every single day, but never, never boasting in those things.

Only boasting in Christ who saved you. And so do you see the problem with the Arminian line of thought, this prevenient grace that is available to everybody? And I must have been special because I chose Jesus.

I asked Jesus into my heart. I'm pretty awesome because I chose to do that. And Sally over there, nah, she didn't. Do you see the problem? You have now given yourself reason to boast in yourself. No. No, no.

No, no. No. Christ alone saves. It is not unfair. It is a demonstration of God's sovereignty and a demonstration of his grace that he saves any. There is no other name under heaven by which man must be saved but Lord Jesus Christ.

How grateful must we be if he has chosen us? Does this mean that we don't evangelize? Does this mean that we don't share the gospel with our unsaved friends, our unsaved family members? No. Do you know who's elect?

I don't. The gospel saves. The word of God saves. And so we must proclaim the gospel. We must proclaim the word of God and let the Holy Spirit do his work. We throw the seeds of truth out there. But we cannot save a person.

And that is one of the most freeing things, ladies, when it comes to sharing the gospel. You can't save anyone. I mean, how depressing is it if you sit there and share the gospel and then the person doesn't want to pray the prayer with you?

You've failed if you have this Arminian view that people can choose on their own. But if you know that it's up to God's sovereign election, God's sovereign choice, all you have to do is be faithful to proclaim the truth.

That makes our job a lot easier. So be faithful to proclaim the truth. Proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. And on that, I will end with a quote from Martin Lloyd-Jones where he talks about Christ. He says, Listen to the Apostle Peter saying unequivocally in one of his first recorded sermons, as I just said, ladies, Acts 4 .12, Now that is a dogmatic assertion, writes Jones.

But there is no more dogmatic book in the world than the New Testament. Ladies, I urge you today, if you have not repented of your sin and trusted in Christ alone for your salvation, I plead with you to do so.

You are a sinner. You cannot save yourself. It doesn't matter how much money you give to the church. It doesn't matter how much money you give to charity, how many poor people you feed. It doesn't matter how many trees you plant.

It doesn't matter how many bottles you recycle. It doesn't matter how good of a person you are. It doesn't matter if you are the nicest person in your office. It doesn't matter if your children are the most well-behaved in school.

You cannot save yourself. You cannot pay back God the debt of sin that you have committed against Him. Every lie that you've ever told, every sinful thought that you've ever had, whether it be lustful or hateful, is a sin against God, a holy God, your creator.

And you can't atone for it. Nothing you do can atone for that sin, can pay back God that debt. Christ lived perfectly, never had a sinful thought, never performed a sinful deed, and yet He died. And He died for sinners, and He atoned for sinners, and He paid their debt on that cross.

And when He rose three days later, it was a declaration that His sacrifice was acceptable to God the Father. And so if we do trust alone in His work, His perfect life, His atoning death, His sacrifice, if we trust in that for salvation, and we know that that is all that will save us, and we repent of our sin, and place our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we will be saved.

So ladies, if you have not done that, I plead with you today to do that. And if you have, ladies, I plead with you today to thank the Lord God again for choosing you. And I urge you to share Christ with others.

We have an amazing Savior, and we serve an amazing Lord. Why would we not share Him with as many people as we can? Alright ladies, I've run out of time, as always. Until next time, get in your Bibles, get on your knees, and get equipped.