A Perfect Balance of Gods Truth

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

The Sovereignty of God and the Responsibility of Man

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm glad, I'm proud, I'm privileged to have my co-host with me today,.

Pastor Steve Kuhl. Thank you very much, and I think based on that introduction, our topic is perfectly appropriate. Oh, I think it must be appropriate.

Because it's always appropriate. It's apropos. Apropos. So today, here's what we want to do, and on No Compromise Radio, our slogan is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order, and what I'd like to do today is to discuss how two truths that seem to be irreconcilable can both still be true, and if you accept those two biblical truths, it shows your maturity.

So Steve, that's my technical way of approaching the show. Give us the layman's version.

Well, it's when you come to two things in the Bible, like God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, and you try to somehow figure it out, make one, put one over the other, or somehow figure out in your mind how those two come together, where they meet.

Good, that's exactly what we want to do,.

And that's the topic for today, God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. How do they fit together? Do they fit together? Will they, in fact, fit together? And so, first of all, let's explain what the sovereignty of God is, then man's responsibility, and then let's talk about how those two complement one another or how they oppose one another.

Well, in God's sovereign plan, he ordains all that comes to pass, meaning there are no surprises for God, that he's in complete control of everything, that nothing happens outside of his, not only his knowledge, but outside of his decree.

Good, I like that. Psalm 103, his sovereignty rules over all. Psalm 115, God is in the heavens and he does whatsoever he pleases. We know and teach that the Bible has spoken clearly. God is sovereign over every atom of the universe.

He is sovereign over sin, Satan, salvation, skin color. How about all those S's? Did you say Satan? He's sovereign over Satan? How can that be? I always loved Luther's quote that he is, he, Satan, is God's hardest working servant because he can only do what God allows and he will always do what God decrees him to do.

And so, God is sovereign. And I think the listeners would have to agree with that, the sovereignty of God and salvation, sovereignty of God over nations. Daniel chapter four, you'd agree with that,.

Wouldn't you, Steve? Yes, I would. He builds them up, he takes them down, he places the kings and he takes them down. We believe that God was sovereign.

Over the election of Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama.

Yeah, and even, you know, the stuff in the Supreme Court in 2000,.

That election there. Yeah, oh, that's true, that's true. So, truth number one, God is sovereign. And we'll refer you to other shows for that, but we teach that God is, that the God of the Bible is sovereign, that he rules.

Even in the word sovereign, it's the word reign, he reigns. You know, I never noticed that before. He rules, he reigns. Sovereign reign.

That's right, he reigns. It's probably because I always pronounce it correctly, that's why I never noticed it.

And so, the second truth that we believe the Bible teaches is that man, and let's use the unbelieving man for a moment, man is responsible to obey God.

Yeah, I mean, when we read commands in the Bible, we don't say, well, that only applies to believers. Repent and believe doesn't apply to believers. You know, we've already repented and we believe. Well, that's exactly right.

And so, what do we do, though, Steve, if men and women have fallen in Adam and they are commanded by God to repent and believe, and God sovereignly chooses not to give them faith or to give them faith, how can man still be responsible?

Well, we turn to Romans 9 and we get the correct answer on that one.

By the way, that's our special caveat, that's our out, and that's what we want to, we're going to give you a little inside secret Gnostic knowledge here. If anybody ever asks you a question and you don't really know the answer, you just say, oh, well, that's clear, that's plain.

It's manifest in Romans 9.

Nine, number nine.

So, the Bible teaches the sovereignty of God and the Bible teaches the responsibility of man. And left to our finite fallen minds, it can really create problems. And I know people who have struggled with this doctrine so much.

It doesn't make them crazy, it doesn't make them insane, it doesn't give them some kind of mental illness, but it does keep them up at night because they're trying to figure out if God's sovereign over who goes to heaven, how can he hold men and women responsible?

And it really causes problems. And so, what we want to do today is we want to talk about how God is sovereign, yet man is responsible. And if you keep both of those truths at bay, at hand in your mind, that means it's a sign of maturity, not immaturity.

As you grow and as you learn, you will say to yourself, I can accept both truths. That's a sign of spiritual maturation,.

Isn't it, Pastor Steve? Well, when you can accept all that the Bible says without fully being able to reconcile things in your mind, yes, I would agree with that.

And it's just like a child who says, I can't understand all the things that my dad says, but I trust him and I take him at his word. It's a sign and a demonstration of childlike faith. Agreed. So today I have an article, and so does Steve, it's called The Perfect Balance of God's Truth.

Type it into your Google search engine, or if you're boycotting Google, Yahoo. The Perfect Balance of God's Truth by Jeff, with an English spelling, J-E-O-F-F Thomas. The Perfect Balance of God's Truth.

And you will find on there five areas where scripture teaches two things that seem to be in conflict with one another. And we're gonna use Jeff Thomas' five things, and we'll make our own comments about those five things and how everything in the Bible starts with five things.

Five. Can we just give it five rules or something?

Five points of Calvinism, is that what you're saying? Five tips from Thomas. How about that? I like that. And so once again, if there's something that you can't reconcile in the Bible, some kind of antinomy, some kind of paradox, some kind of hyperdox, some kind of truth that's taught concurrently with another truth, and you just allow both of them to simmer in your mind, we want to encourage you.

That is a sign of growth, and we want to say, attaboy, girl.

Very well done. Okay, number one, tip number one from Mr. Thomas. Thomas' tip number one. Inability does not rule out responsibility.

I don't know if that's a tip, but it is a truth. Okay, truth.

Maybe we should, Thomas' truth. See, we're just kind of, we're letting things simmer even as we talk today. That's exactly right.

So here's the first truth that will show your maturity. Inability does not rule out responsibility. What does that mean?

Well, it means that man's inability to believe in and of himself on his own does not negate his responsibility to believe.

Okay, good. So when we have theological conundrums, what we do is we go with what we know. So for sure we know that man is unable in and of himself to repent and believe. Can the Ethiopian change his skin?

Are the leopard his spots? Well, we know the answer to that. Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil, Jeremiah 13 .23. We have taught on the show many times that man is unable to repent, believe, trust, follow, and he's unable because he was in Adam and he fell in Adam.

Right, and then on the other hand, he is responsible. Acts 17 .30, God commands all people everywhere to repent. There aren't too many exclusionary clauses in that. All people everywhere.

Yes, when you think about how Jesus gives the two great commands, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love your neighbor as yourself, I think that's for people only in Antarctica.

No, those are for people everywhere, just like Steve was reading in Acts 17, and those are for people who actually are in Adam and who cannot do it. So how do we reconcile these two truths? Are we like Immanuel Kant?

And now Kant says, you know what? If you are responsible, you must be able.

Yeah, well, that would be wrong. Thomas asked the question this way. He says, do not such commands presuppose, in other words, have as their foundation, a modicum of ability? So like with Kant, if you're commanded to do something, you must be able to do it, right?

No. Yes, because we believe in the fall, the federal headship of Adam, and everyone was in Adam, and so they've all fallen in Adam, yet God didn't change his program. Before the fall, Adam had to obey God, and he was responsible to do what God says.

After the fall, Adam was to obey God. God didn't say, well, you can't do it now, so I'll lower my standards. You know, Steve, I read an interesting quote the other day by John Murray, and John Murray basically said, if somehow you are responsible to obey, and therefore you are able to obey, then you must be perfectly good.

And I thought, you know, the more I thought about that, that's right. If you're gonna argue that rationale, well, if you're responsible, then you're able. Then we basically are Pelagians, and we believe in the goodness of man.

Yeah, we have no indication from Scripture that someone would have some ability to believe independently of the mercy and grace and working of God. So if we're gonna ignore that part of Scripture, we might as well say he's completely able.

Yeah, as a matter of fact,.

Actually, I just saw this. Thomas quotes Murray. That's where I got the Murray quote right there. Have to go all the way and predicate the total ability of man. And so if you're completely responsible, therefore you say you must be completely able.

No, we don't believe that at all because the Scripture teaches total depravity, total inability, total corruption of man. And so here's what you do. I have both of my hands out. Do you see my hands right now, Steve?

Yes, I do. It's like a scale. It's like a weight. And so on one hand you have man is unable to believe. On the other hand, man is responsible to it.

It looked to me like you're working a Slinky there. Slinky, a Slinky. How did, what's that song go?

People don't do Slinkys anymore. You have to have Xbox. You have to have some kind of cool games. You can't have, you know, a stick in a box or something. Okay, well, no stick in a box. So today we're talking about balancing the truths of God and accepting two facts of Scripture that seem on occasion or seem philosophically or seem logically to contradict one another.

We know that in the mind of God, they don't. For instance, Abraham Kuyper, when it comes to the responsibility of man and the sovereignty of God, he says it's like a pulley and one rope's on the pulley.

But the pulley's, you know, the actual lever pulley is up in heaven and all you see is two ropes coming down. And if you grab one rope too much, you're gonna fall down. If you grab the other rope too much, you'll fall down.

So you accept both truths. So truth number one, Steve's tip from Thomas, truths. Inability does not rule out responsibility.

Give us the second one, Steve. I don't know how that turned into a tongue twister, but there you have it. Okay, number two. Certainty does not rule out necessity. Now that's a little more complex than the first one.

I like that though, because certainty does not rule out necessity.

Would you care to elucidate?

Yes, here's what we're after. Since God is sovereign and he has given his eternal purpose and decree, actually it's a singular purpose, no flow chart with God, no plan B, no deviation, no accident, no trumping.

Nobody has ever said to God, you know, checkmate, and he has to kind of do something differently. God's decree is certain. Yet, if I say to you, so-and-so, they must be saved because God has chosen them.

Does that rule out the necessity and the necessary evangelism to achieve final salvation? Maybe achieve's not a good word. In other words

To bring about. To bring about, yes. So, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, and the answer would be no, of course, because we know from Romans 10 that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word. It is the word of God being brought to people, the gospel being preached to people that God uses to effectuate their salvation.

And we like to say all the time that God is sovereign over the ends and he's also sovereign over the Means. Means, that's exactly right, so And I know both those families. Yes, one's a better giver than the other.

Here's what we do. We prove both points biblically, and then we accept both, even though it seems like, if we would think like an unbeliever, that these couldn't both be true. Certainty. Every person that God has given to the son to die for will be born again and will make it to heaven.

That is a certain fact. True? True. Now, is it also a certain fact that every person who's ever going to believe, and we're talking about people that have minds, we're not talking about infants, we're not talking about those that have some kind of mental problem, some kind of retardation mentally, or have some physical mental handicap, not physical handicap, mental, that they must hear the gospel?

Is it a necessity to go preach the gospel to all nations?

Yeah, I mean, it's in the Great Commission and there's absolutely no other means by which people get to heaven other than believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so for those who say, well, if God's sovereign over everything and Calvinism is true, then why go evangelize? They forget that just because something is certain that doesn't mean something is not also necessary.

That's right. So theologically, we don't even care if you remember certainty and necessity. We want you to know this. It is certain that all those who have been appointed to eternal life will believe Acts 13, 48, but it is also necessary for the Great Commission.

Luke 24, Matthew 28, the necessity of evangelism. How about this, Pastor Steve? The necessity of prayer. If God's sovereign over everything, certainty, what about the necessity of prayer?

We're commanded to pray, you know, first of all, and it's pretty obvious reading scripture that God uses the prayers of his, well, he acts on the prayers of his people. He wants us to pray to him and he acts on those prayers.

Good, and with Apostle Paul, for instance, he knew that the purpose of God was unchangeable, fixed, was not going to be, there weren't to be any deviations, yet what did Paul do? I still have to preach the gospel.

I still have to go on a missionary journey. I still have to go make sure that I tell people that Jesus is the only way of salvation, and so he believed in certainty and necessity.

And one of the best indications that prayer is a mandatory item, Christ prayed. I mean, from a strictly theological perspective, we would think there's no reason for Jesus to pray. He is God in the flesh.

Why should he pray? But he did that, why? So that we might understand the importance of it for one reason.

So number one, inability does not rule out responsibility. Accept both. Number two, certainty does not rule out necessity. You accept both. Number three, in Jeff Thomas's article, Truth Tips for Steve, 500, for 500.

Number three, Steve.

Limited purpose does not rule out indiscriminate preaching.

All right, now let's analyze this a little bit here on nocompromiseradio .com. And this is the kind of show maybe you have to listen to twice. Steve, the other day I got an email from someone and they told me on a particular show they've listened to it 20 times.

They said it's their favorite No Compromise show.

I would say so, 20 times.

I think it was the one where you were singing.

I was going to say, is it set to music or what?

I think it was you doing a Tom Petty, some kind of We Won't Back Down riff or something like that. Good for me. Although the other day I did listen to Van Morrison sing a song and I know it's one of your favorite songs and whenever I listen to that song, I think of you.

Be Thou My Vision. Oh, you've got to get that. If you were listening to No Compromise Radio today and you have not heard that song, you ought to get it. It's probably only 99 cents.

Yeah, it's on the CD, Hymns to the Silence.

Today is how to accept two truths and must accept two truths. If they're both biblical, accept them even though you can't reconcile them in your finite fallen brain. And I want to encourage you, it's a mature thing to do.

Limited purpose does not rule out indiscriminate preaching. There are a limited number of people going to heaven. God the Father chose a sum. He chose a group. He didn't choose all. Jesus died for that group and the Spirit brings that group to heaven.

Yet, we're supposed to preach the gospel to everyone.

This is one of the most common false charges brought against the doctrines of grace, known as Calvinism, that people who are Calvinists don't want to preach the gospel. And it's quite the opposite because we know because of the certainty of God's salvation in some, some people, that we ought to preach the gospel to all so that the sum will be saved.

Now, if someone hears the gospel, let's just say if we could figure out if there was a non-elect person and an elect person. Neither of them will have believed. The elect person has not believed yet.

The non-elect person, of course, would never believe. And you go to them. Steve, could you go to them and tell them, you are a sinner and if you will lay down your arms and repent and believe that Jesus died on the cross for sinners like you and was raised from the dead victoriously, that you can have your sins forgiven.

Can you say that to both of them? Absolutely, because God commands all men everywhere to repent. I mean, that's pretty, pretty obvious.

Absolutely, because of the character of God and the character of God's holy law. And this is the way I like to think about it. Both of those people, if one, the elect, believes and the non-elect doesn't believe, they both get exactly what they want.

The elect gets forgiveness, reconciliation, right standing before God, the righteousness of Christ, the hope of heaven. He gets what he wants, doesn't he? Yes, he does. And the unbeliever who says, I reject Jesus gets exactly what he wants.

He doesn't want hell, he doesn't, he's not a masochist as John Gershwin would say, but he does not want to bow before Jesus, honor him, kiss the son lest he perish. He doesn't want anything to do with Jesus and his grace and his love, and he gets exactly what he wants.

Right, he rejects him and stays in his sin because he loves his sin and hates Christ.

Yeah, so what we do when we think of limited purpose, and that is like God had a limited purpose when he chose one nation and not every nation, there's a limited purpose, and so we preach the gospel knowing that only God will save those whom he has chosen, yet we preach the gospel to everyone.

Thus it is written, Luke 24, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.

And so both of those are true. We have two more to go. We have four minutes.

Number four. Preservation does not rule out perseverance.

Good, so in other words, Steve, God preserves people to the end, but do they have to endure till the end to be saved? Yes, they do.

How can you have both of those together? Because God is sovereign and man is responsible. God sovereignly preserves, and yet every believer is responsible for their own preservation. We have to live that faith out.

And isn't it interesting? When you read Hebrews 10, for instance, and these other passages, kind of warning passages, God actually preserves his saints through warnings to persevere. Right. So how does God keep his elect safe all the way till the end?

Well, the Spirit of God seals them to the day of redemption, Ephesians 1 and 4. But additionally, he uses, he, God uses, commands to endure to the end as one of his vehicles to make them persevere, I mean, to be preserved till the end.

Well, here's what we don't ever see. We don't see repent, believe, and then live however you want. The Bible never talks like that. It does talk about making our election more sure and working out our salvation and fear and trembling and that kind of wordage, which I just made up.

Yeah, wordage, I like that.

Verbage, wordage, lagashage. So perseverance Is that Greek? Preservation does not rule out perseverance. And so you are preserved if you're a Christian by the power of God through faith unto salvation, 1 Peter 1 .5, and yet to stay secure, you must keep on believing.

And so we tell that to believers, don't we, Steve? You must keep on believing. Doesn't that sound like 1 John? Even though if they have ever believed, they will end up in heaven because of Christ's great work.

Belief has an ongoing impact on the lives of those who believe. We have to move quickly. Number five, love does not rule out law.

Sounds like a Bono song. In the name of love, it does not rule out law.

I don't know if that'll quite work, but I bet we could get Bono to write that song.

All right, we are thinking about truths that seem to contradict one another, yet both are taught clearly in the Bible and how we just need to allow, we just need to lay back and let God. No, sorry, we just need to learn to accept both truths.

And so let's see if both of these are true. Is the Christian supposed to love? Absolutely. Is the Christian under some kind of law?

In fact, Jesus said, you know, by this they will know you're mine, you know, if you have love for one another. And, you know, are we under law or does it rule out the law? Well, Christ did give us commands, didn't he?

Love your Lord, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.

That's law. Absolutely, and think about kids. Do you love your kids? Do you give your kids some kind of rules for their own safety? We believe in the law of Christ as Galatians chapter six calls it, that whatever New Testament law for the church, you're under.

And it doesn't mean you're somehow under it to stay saved in order to be saved, but it's for your own good. And so love and law are both simultaneous truths.

In the New Testament. Yeah, well, and, you know, what do we use the law for even when we're talking to unbelievers is to point out their sinfulness. And, you know, how do we know in our own lives as believers?

How do we know that we're straying from what God would have us do?

And see what happens on each one of these truths, Steve, if you grab a hold of love at the exclusion of law, what happens? You become licentious. If you grab a hold of law at the exclusion of love You become a legalist.

Yeah, and so every one of these, you have to believe both of the truths. That's right. And so Jeff Thomas has done us a good favor by writing this article. And this article is called The Perfect Balance of God's Truth by Jeff Thomas.

And we've been talking about that today. As you read your Bible, the good news is if you read all your Bible, you will see both of these truths taught. God is sovereign, man is responsible, and you'll just accept both of these truths.

Yeah, just thinking about Joseph being sold into slavery. God did that sovereignly, and yet his brothers were responsible for it. A good thing because otherwise.

Israel would have not had enough food for the winter. Preach it. This is Mike Abendroth and Steve Cooley,.

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